This power point is pictures of our storyboard ant what we’ll be doing

powerpoint-3 (1)

In this Power Point, it goes over the location, schedule, health concerns, who is participating, sounds, and titles. My group and I planned out our scheduling weeks in advance so that there would be less chances of something not going according to plan. As for participants, some group members have already reached out to close friends or family to see if they would like to help by being in our film. To plan out sounds we decided to map out where out our non-diegetic sound will be so that we know where to place it. Lastly titles and health concerns, wherever we film at the locations our parents will be near by to make sure we’re okay and we chose titles that fit the movie description.

Planning Part 2 (1)

This is the Power Point that has the scripts for my group and I’s final project

Scripts AMS

For this assignment, we had to go onto two websites that have movie titles and choose which ones that fall into our specific genre. The first movie that I watched which was on the Watch the Title website was The Poker Club. Although this title was an animated one, it still managed to fit the common conventions that are used to display thriller and suspense movies. In this opening title, the non-diegetic sounds were very prominent. The music had a suspenseful low tone to it that usually signifies that something isn’t right or there is a dark theme behind the movie. Whole watching the animation, I also noticed that the colors that were used were very dark, saturated colors. There were no vibrant colors it was mainly like a rusty red, black, or white. There were also shadows that were being casted in the animation which also conveyed the dimness of the color scheme. The last thing that I noticed is near the end of the animation, there were blood splatters that dripped onto the poker card along with a gun in the middle of the poker table which added to the fact that this wasn’t your average Poker Club and that the title was hinting towards murderous themes.

The next movie that I watched was on the website Art of the title and the title that I watched was Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Dial M for Murder’. Even though this film was a thriller movie, it didn’t really fit the common conventions for a thriller at all. The music for the opening sequence was not suspenseful at all nor did it leave me feeling as if something wrong was going to happen in the near future. Ironically the music wasn’t exactly upbeat but it most certainly wasn’t eerie. In the beginning it did begin to sound a little scary-ish but then it turned into more peaceful orchestra music that was more calming than alarming. The lighting however was kind of dim which is something that thrillers specialize in because most of them are shot in dim or dark lighting. Other than those too things, nothing else was shown. I believe that since this title is older than most horror or thriller movies, the conventions weren’t as well known or prominent in the title sequence. This movie was made in 1954 so there were no special effects that could be done to convey the fact that it is a thriller film. The font for the film on the other hand was more of a creepy kind of font which could also convey the thriller twist. In older thriller/suspense movies, they would use creepy fonts that would lead the watcher to believe that it was a thriller even if that isn’t really a popular convention in thriller movies today.

The third title that I watched was also on the website art of the title and it was called Zodiac which was directed by David Fincher. This movie shared a lot more things in common in regards of conventions than the previous movie Dial M for murder. In the very beginning of the opening an establishing shot of San Francisco was shown which is a convention that I have noticed in most thriller movies. The movie is also very fast paced so it feels as if you are moving with the actors throughout their normal morning routine. I don’t believe the fast paced opening is a convention but it was something that I noticed while watching the title. The also used an over the shoulder shot and a point of view shot which is also a convention that usually corresponds with thriller movies. When a point of view shot is used in a thriller it makes the movie more suspenseful because it makes you feel as if you’re the one it is going to happen to along with the overwhelming sense of you don’t know what is going to happen next. In the opening, usually in a thriller when the director wants you to focus on something later they do a close up of the object that they are watching which is what happened in this opening as well. However, something that didn’t really fit the convention of a thriller was the non-diegetic sound. The music or the opening was very upbeat and fast paced which wasn’t really on the suspenseful side nor did it make me feel nervous for the actors. The lighting also didn’t really fit the convention of a thriller because it was shot in a brightly lit area that had a lot of natural sunlight because it was filmed outdoors, which also took away the eerie affect that lighting usually has.

The final movie title that I watched was on the website watch the title and I watched the title Se7en which was also by David Fincher. The opening of this movie was actually quite frightening. The conventions for thrillers or suspense movies were spot on for this opening. For the music, it was definitely more on the eerie creepy side along with the font which looks like it was written wobbly or by someone as if they were deranged, The opening used a lot of high angle shots and extreme close ups to capture the movements of the hands that were being filmed. The extreme close ups of the subjects hands that have bandages, and peeling skin that are doing off tasks also add to the creepy effect that the film is giving off. The lighting for the film is very dim and the colors aren’t vibrant at all. The colors are all ill, muted colors that makes the scenery look as if it hasn’t been touched in years. There are a lot of white, off white, black, and beige colors that make themselves prominent in the film. Lastly there were a lot of shadows that were being casted over the disturbing or creepy images that were being displayed in the film which showed that the lighting for it wasn’t really that great. This film opening in particular used a lot of the main conventions that thriller movies are recognized for and it really sends chills down your spine just by watching the opening.

 

This is my PowerPoint that talks about the movies that I was influenced by and want to model our group project after

 

 

Presentation 2

For this assignment we were to watch the openings of three different films and take down notes about the camera angles they used, the lighting, etc. . For my movie studies project I chose Hush, Bird Box, and You Get Me. These are all thriller movies so my group mates and I took in depth notes of the openings and wrote about the things they had in common or the things they did differently. After taking these notes it made me notice that most suspense movies follow a certain guideline in order to make them suspenseful. Some producers show the suspense almost immediately after the film starts while others like to build up suspense to make it greater or worthwhile. Anyways, down below is my power point, enjoy 🙂

Movie Studies PPT

For this assignment, my group and I were to go around and have people of different age groups and genders fill out questionnaires about what their favorite genre of film is. While doing this we were to also use our data to make an analysis about why the results came out the way they did and why they make sense. The requirements were to make sure that the people that we asked did not take Aice Media studies so that the results could be more reliable. The results would be better if people you didn’t know filled it out because then it would be pure outside influence. Anyway my Power Point will be posted below.

https://avmediastudies.files.wordpress.com/2019/02/aice-media-1.pptx

For this blog, the assignment was to watch three movies and digress the similar conventions and stereotypes that I stated in the conventions blog #1. Once again the genre that was chosen was suspense/thriller. The three movies that I chose to watch were Hush, Bird box, and You get me. For Hush, it did indeed follow the common stereotype of having a female protagonist who was in distress. She was deaf and she lived alone in her house but was greeted by a male in a creepy mask who tried breaking into her house. At first the lighting in the movie was bright, until the antagonist was introduced. After that the movie was filmed in the dark with little to no lighting and during the night. She fought hard to keep him out so he didn’t kill her. The diegetic sound was her screaming frantically every time he attempted to get in whereas the non-diegetic sound was the suspenseful music that they played whenever the antagonist thought of a new way to get in. The next movie that I watched was Bird Box. This movie didn’t quite follow the stereotypes that I set up in the previous blog. The was a female protagonist, however she did not need some strong hero to help her, she did well on her own. There was also no physical antagonist it was more of a weakness where if you looked at it you would try and commit self harm. Although it could take over people and try and persuade her to take off her blindfold or try and kill her. There was still no specific ‘look’ that the antagonist took so it could be identified. The diegetic sounds of the movies were the dialogue and sounds of horror every time someone was corrupted. Non diegetic sounds would include the sound that the ‘antagonist’ made whenever it was made present or the sounds of explosions and other sound effects that were used. As for the lighting, it varied. There wasn’t just only darkness, it switched between day and night. There were some scenes that were filmed in a dimly lit area but I can’t say they all occurred at night or in the dark. Lastly the final movie I watched was You Get Me. In this film the roles were reversed, the guy was the protagonist and the girl was the antagonist which doesn’t fit the common stereotype for this particular genre either. The antagonist doesn’t necessarily wear masks or ruined clothes so that also doesn’t fit the common stereotype. The lighting often varied as well but the darker scenes were filmed in reddish, dim lighting. As for the diegetic and non-diegetic sounds, the diegetic sounds would include the music that they were dancing to at the club or the dialogue. The non diegetic sounds would be the eerie music that was played during creepy scenes. The things that I would like to add to the conventions is that it’s very common for the murderer’s or antagonist’s weapon to be a knife, it’s not really common to find an antagonist to have a gun or easier weapons to kill with. Two things I would like to subtract from my list of conventions is that the protagonist is not always saved by a big strong hero nor do they necessarily have messy clothes.

The category that our idea falls into is more of a suspense/thriller genre. For today’s blog, we’ve been asked to brainstorm the conventions that would be expected to appear in that specific genre of movie. For the first example of stereotypes in thrillers or suspense movies is that there’s a vulnerable woman involved that is usually the protagonist. Another common stereotype for thrillers is that there’s always a psycho that does the murders making it more suspenseful. Lastly a common stereotype that is seen in these genres is a strong male protagonist that comes in and saves the day. Next as for costume ideas, an example could be bloody clothes from all the victims. Another costume could be clothes that are shredded which shows that the clothes have been warn for decades. Lastly a costume could be of a murderer clown or a mad scientist if the thriller was more about psycho murderers. A lighting technique that directors might try and use during this kind of film would be dim lighting to add eeriness or creepiness to the film. And example of non diegetic sound would be suspenseful music being played every time something bad was going to happen like whenever the antagonist makes an appearance or is about to make on. An finally an example of diegetic would be the screaming of the victims before they’re murdered. That’s the end of this blog. 🙂