The genre we picked is...

          Horror and Thriller were the final contenders to choose between from. The genre that my group and I finally agreed on was Thriller. The reason behind it was because we enjoyed the pitch about a kidnapping movie, and these types of movies are mainly under this genre. Most of our favorite movies are thrillers and contain a lot of action, so we were excited to continue our research upon them. We also had to acknowledge that it would be pretty hard to record the opening scenes for a horror movie, without knowing what a good pitch would be. With a thriller, you can begin the movie with anything, such as background information, or present the characters directly. Like previously mentioned, the group will be researching more about this genre, and how some movies lead up to their climaxes and entertain audiences.

Additional Genre Research: Horror and Thriller

Horror

Thriller

          Common camera movements and angles used in this movie genre are pans, zooms, tilts, tracking shots, and every angle possible. If the situation is intense, the angle will be at eye-level and will zoom in on the character's reaction. High angles are also used to catch everything that is happening, and to make the subject look inferior to whatever it is looking upon. Canted angles can sometimes be incorporated to confuse viewers. Common shots that are used in these films are closeups, extreme closeups and long shots, and handheld shots. Sometimes, handheld shots while running away from something causes more anticipation with scenes, that way the audience is more entertained. Whoever is watching would not know if they can get away, or get to where the character is going in time, since there is so much camera movement.

          Lighting that is commonly found in thriller movies is low because the darker it looks, it evokes a more sinister feeling. There is also the use of natural lighting, before and after movies, probably even throughout. The sound that is heard in thrillers would be diegetic, where characters hear whatever is in their surroundings, there is obviously dialogue and incidental sound. Incidental sound involves the feeling that a scene gives off, and the music to match with it. An example would be the killer looking for its victim and he is getting closer, so the music gets louder and scarier. 

          Costumes for thrillers all depend on the type of movie it is. When there is a plot of a killer or abductor, they will be dressed in something suspicious, especially to cover their faces, like a mask. Thrillers are usually situations that could happen in real life, where people would actually be nervous if it happened. Regular clothing would be worn, but if the actors get harmed in any way, their makeup and clothes will definitely show it. For example, getting hit in the face will lead to a bleeding lip or nose, or getting thrown out of a car causes your clothes to be torn up and dirty. Actors have to play their act fully, like being anxious and scared, but still fight for their life when they have been kidnapped. Locations could range from a small city to a large known state, like California, New York, or Florida. However, they sometimes take place partly in exotic settings such as foreign cities, deserts (snow too), and at sea.  

          Some elements that come from thrillers are when the movies create a suspenseful feeling to the audience, giving the anticipation of what is going to happen next. This usually happens when the plot is surrounding the idea of the character being placed in a dangerous situation or a trap that is impossible to escape. Audiences want to be entertained, kept on edge, surprised. Thriller movies fit these criteria exactly. It gives them a reason to continue watching the movie and to see what happens in the end. Although, elements that do not appeal could be how a movie can be too predictable. Examples of these predictable endings are when a person is being chased and are caught and killed, or have to escape. Alternatively, thriller movies can have very unexpected endings. These endings leave the audience in a shock or surprise that leaves an imprint on them, even after the movie has ended.

Dance Genre Research

Finalizing Our Ideas

          When my group and I were coming up with pitches it was really tough. We had to think about the circumstances and limiting factors that would not allow us to film certain things. For example, the location has to be correct once we start filming. If there was an idea of having a horror film in the middle of the woods, it would be easy for us to meet at a park. However, establishing the plot as to why the characters would be in the woods was what we found difficult. We did not finalize certain pitches until we all agreed on the ideas and the sentences were written officially. While brainstorming, writing down the sentences made it easier to visualize what we could film. One of the three pitches involved using a pool as the setting for most of the scenes. However, the context of the movie did not really sit well with one of the members. It reminded them of another cheesy movie they have watched and preferred to do an idea that was a thriller or romance. Our first pitch is about a teenage girl who is ready for her night out with friends, and she decides to hitch a ride with a complete stranger who offered. The second pitch involved the idea of a love story between a boy and a girl and his only interest was to get good grades from working with her.

           I believe that the first pitch would be good for the assignment because we have already discussed how some scenes will be recorded. The final clip would be the victim being taken away by the stranger. This way, it would leave the audience wondering what will happen next. New shots will be incorporated into the film, for example, close-ups and a pov shot, possibly. Editing would also be much easier, for example, cross-cutting will be involved because it will display the characters getting ready for their day. The young girl will be doing what a regular teenager does before she goes out, while the stalker will be getting his items ready for his new victim. The viewers will have an idea of what is going to occur for the rest of the movie, after realizing the mistake the girl made when she got into a car with someone who she does not even know. The film will be edited to evoke tension in between scenes and have the audience want to watch the rest of the movie.

           The second pitch does not really work with this assignment because we cannot film on our school campus. Also, the beginning needs to establish who the characters are and where the film will remotely take place. The conventions with this type of genre explain the background of the main character, and how he/she meets their love interests at school. The love interests can also be presented as the sweet jock or the intelligent class president. It would be difficult to do this without the setting at school and not having more friends to make the person seem popular. The topic of love can also be a little awkward because my group and I are just sophomores, and do not really find interest in recording scenes that will not have cringe-worthy energy.

           The thriller seems like the pitch that we have chosen for the journey of creating the final task. We all agree with the idea of having similar shots and being able to build a plot from the opening scene in a movie. We look forward to working together on a new topic and seeing how much we can accomplish in the next few months.

Start of the Final Task

          Greetings again! My name is Rafael and I am a sophomore in Fort Lauderdale High School. I am enrolled into the Cambridge AICE program to help ensure my "Bright Future." After high school, I wish to attend a prestigious college (University of Florida) and the AICE program will help me do just that. And even more in the future, I want to major in Microbiology and eventually work in a hospital as a Microbiologist. My strong suits in academics are Math and Science. Some of my weak points, however, are English and Social Studies. By taking this course, I wish to broaden my strengths and learn about film and the film making process. Also, I just find films entertaining. I want to know how my favorite films are made and what it takes to do such a task. How does someone start when put to the task of making a film?

          I have already learned many things in the first semester of this course. I learned about a wide variety of camera angles and how they are used. I learned about a wide range of cuts and what each one means to the audience. I learned about different types of sounds and why they are put in. This is just a tidbit of what knowledge I gained in the past 5 months. But one of the main things I learned to do is edit. This is also what I am most excited to do for the Final Task. The final task is the beginning minutes of a movie and my group members pretty much have their roles. Emily will be the camerawoman, Mariapaula and Darwin will be the main actors, and I will be the main editor (with a little bit of acting). I can't wait to work my editing magic on the film.

          The start of any good film are good ideas. Pitches are sentences used to describe a film in 25 words or less. Here are some pitches that my group and I came up with:

First pitch: Group of friends hanging out by the pool and two of the friends has swapped bodies after recovering the phone that has been dropped.

Second pitch: The life of a stalker who wishes he was normal, except his mental disability makes it hard for him not to fall in love with anyone and kidnaps them.Third pitch: A teen love story between a boy and a girl where there is believed they have mutual feelings, but the boy is really just using her for her smarts.

Below are some pictures of my group and I brainstorming these pitches:

Editing the Music Video

          Just like the last project, I was mainly in charge of editing. Emily and Angelo don't have the level of knowledge that I have when it comes to editing. That is not a bad thing though. Emily is great at using the camera. Also, Angelo can get an Oscar with his acting. I'm ok with my main job being editing. Plus I have lots of fun editing. The first thing I did was dump all of the footage from my phone onto the laptop. Then I put the raw footage into the editing software. Since it was a music video, we didn't need any of the background sounds. So what I did was highlight all of my footage and ungrouped it all. By doing so, I could separate the audio tracks from the visual footage. I then deleted all of the audio tracks. After that, I downloaded the audio of our song off of YouTube. I had to download it in order to insert it into the editing software. I then cut down the song to a minute and ten seconds. We are not using the whole song for our music video so we do not need the rest. Afterward, I cut down each scene to fit with the lyrics they represent. Some scenes were too long so I had to trim them down. Other scenes were too short so I had to slow down the footage. This proved to be the most time-consuming part. Every time I would edit a single scene, it would desync all the scenes after it. I'm sure there was a more efficient way to handle that, but what's done is done. I also added a cool little transition for the bridge connecting two scenes. It made the end of the fire scene fade out while I made the start of the sun scene fade in. Then I overlapped the two scenes together to make a cool effect. The fading happens at the lyric, "We can burn brighter, than the sun!" I think the effect fits very well with the lyrics. I also added a fall-off effect to the song's ending. I made the volume at the end of the music video gradually get lower. I made it this way because it would be awkward for the song to just abruptly cut-off. 

Filming the Music Video Second Attempt

         On Tuesday 11/25, I went out to film for my music video again. Like I explained in my last blog, my first attempt at filming went... poorly. One of our members was a no show. We didn't film everything that we needed. And all of the footage that we did shoot was deemed useless because of its android quality. Thankfully, Tuesday went by much better. At the end of school that day, we meet up at a designated location. We then all carpooled in Mariapaula's dad's car and went to her house. Just like the first time we filmed, we got there a little early. We were able to record one shot of the sunset, but that was pretty much it. We had to wait for the sun to come down to begin recording. So while we waited, we decided to help Mariapaula with one of her shots for her music video. When the sun was pretty much down we reshot the bathroom scene. I was the one who recorded it since Emily couldn't get the framing of the shot down. It took like twenty takes because Mariapaula couldn't drop the cup in her hand convincingly. I found it to be hilarious but she was getting pretty annoyed. When the sun was finally all the way down, we filmed the rest of our shots. We made many changes to the music video from the first time we filmed. Since we had Angelo with us that day we had more freedom. Also, we decided to make Angelo the main character of the music video. I became the guy with sunglasses. It makes sense why we made that decision. I'm more of the type to be behind the cameras instead of in front. Also, Angelo is way better at acting than me. I'm more attracted to editing than acting anyways. To get back on topic, we had many two shots and over the shoulder shots. Our music video has lots of "dialogue" of the characters talking. We plan on doing shot/reverse shots for most of the conversations. Also, the first shot of the music video is a tracking shot of Angelo walking into the "bar." Overall, my group and I had a much better time filming on Tuesday than Saturday.