Title Research: Se7en

-How many titles are displayed during the opening sequences of the film?

There are 27 titles displayed in the opening sequence to the film.

-What images are prioritized in the opening sequence?

Images are all crime related, they are prioritized to be crime documents, and things that look suspicious. There are flashing images back and forth to show the images are being done in quick succession.

-What connotations do the images carry?

The images have a negative connotation, like the person is rushing through the documents. They make you feel some suspense and haste in the actions of the title sequence.

-How is genre reinforced through symbolic and technical codes from the outset?

The thriller genre is reinforced by leaving a suspenseful impact, as it shows quick writing, crossing out of documents, and flashing names giving a 70's vibe. It is made to look old, with brown and black images giving it a grim feel. The actions in the title look like they are doing an something which has a consequence.

-How does film establish an enigma from the outset?

By only giving us flashing images of writing, tearing out papers, and crossing out names and faces we can understand that something mysterious is going on. It shows the seriousness of the situation and importance, with the quick scenes and the shaky camera work. It makes the viewer interested in what the movie will be like.

-What strategies are used to ensure the film appeals to its target audience?

Strategies that work on the viewer, are things like mystery. You can see that there is something the person is trying to hide, and the rushed scenes tell is this is important. This appeals to people who are interested in something that will keep them on the edge of their seat, like a thriller.

-How has technology been used effectively?

Technology has been used to give extreme close ups of documents and hand writing. Almost all angles are close ups, there are no wide shots or slow pans. All the pans and transitions are extremely quick, they don't want you to be able to think about what you are seeing. The editing techniques also fit in very well with the theme. They give shaky transitions, and flashing names to give off an "abandoned" or "secretive" vibe. They make it seem like you are right with the main character in the action and make you feel some of the rush. The editing and transitions show a little bit of a story also, by showing the process of the person creating the documents in the title sequence, it lets the viewer stay engaged.

Title Research: Split

-In this tile sequence, there are 26 titles featured in the time of 1:37.

-There are no images emphasized, however the title set includes eight short video clips.

-These images contain the connotation of a group of girls being kidnapped and potentially sexually      assaulted.  

-This genre of thriller is reinforced by the short flashes in the title scenes. This reinforces the genre        because it leaves us with questions in our head and sets up the movie.
-This movie sets up enigma by using jumpy, flashy, and time skipping scenes. This leaves us                  confused, exactly as we should be.
- This film uses bold high contrast titles and transitions is a echo way and when combined with the         jumpy video clips creates tension that you can feel, and this is what appeals to the target audience.
-The creators of the movie properly used the technology that they had at their disposal perfectly to        create a tense mood as well as a hook that captures the viewers interest. To do this they also include    low and high angles as well as a yellow hew to the shots to add suspense.

Title Research: Manhunt

- There were 7 titles total, with some of the titles listing multiple names.
-Aside from the titles, there are pictures of members of terrorist group Al-Qaeda, this is setting up the story of the movie, which will be hunting these terrorists.
-The images are shown like they are on a board, there is writing next to them. This gives the connotation that they are wanted, and being hunted down. It also makes a sense of urgency and suspense.
-The genre is reinforced through the fonts the writing is in, the titles are in bold red font. There is also intense music playing in the background,, which creates suspense. Finally the pictures and the way they are organized make it feel suspenseful as well.
-The film creates enigma by not disclosing what will happen to the people in the pictures, or necessarily what they did to be hunted.
-The creators of the movie targeted the intended audience by making the opening scene very dramatic and suspenseful. The audience I think they're targeting is men, who were affected by the events of 9/11. They might want to learn more about the group, and how they were ended by the US. They do a good job of targeting this audience by showing members of the group who may be unknown to the common viewer.
- Technology was used effectively during to construct this whole opening sequence. The whole board was done on a computer, and the titles were added during editing.

Titles Research: Get Out

Here is the research I collected on Get Outs opening titles.
-How many titles are displayed during the opening sequences to the film?
Get Out contained 31 titles each showcasing a person and their job
-How images are prioritized
The images focus mainly on the story showing all the main characters living out their lives but it also contains certain subliminal messages like the main characters girlfriend looking at black donuts hinting at the plot twist
-What connotation do the images carry
The images shown show us the main characters living normal lives in which it then cuts to images of a forest and a POV of a car driving by it this creates an eerie effect taking us from normal to something abnormal not even related to what were seeing it also creates suspense since we don't know why this is happening in the first place.
 -How is the genre reinforced
The genre is reinforced by first off giving spoilers in our first scenes through symbolic actions such as the main characters girlfriend looking at chocolate donuts hinting at the plot twist of the girlfriend looking for black people who suits her and her family's needs. Also by having a kidnapping in the first scene that then cuts to people living out their normal lives which makes you question whats going on and makes you feel uneasy.
-How does the opening create enigma
The movie creates enigma by providing us with eerie images and events that occur on the begging making us question what exactly is going on. First it shows a kidnapping then a forest and then people living normal lives without any context what so ever.
-What Strategies are used to make sure the movie is appealing to the audience
They make the viewer question whats going on making them to want to watch more and more to discover how all these puzzling events come together it makes them ask questions and try to connect the dots together.
-How was technology used effectively
The camera angles make it so the kidnapping is mysterious and the POV of the forest makes the movie seem mysterious and eerie but at the same time they keep editing simple and to the point as if to throw off all the mysterious and bad things going on.

Titles Research: Art of the Title

One of the most important things about making a movie is ensuring that you get credit for your work. This is what titles are used for, giving credit where credit is due. This is a crucial step in any movie, and as a result they are in almost all movies. Art of the title is a site in which most box-office movie credit scenes are logged. Wikipedia describes it as "an online publication dedicated to title sequence design, spanning the film, television, conference, and video game industries. The publication is both an educational and historical resource and a contemporary publication, focusing on the creative process behind the design of title sequences." While this site can be used for more than just titles of movies, that is all we are planning to use it for. From this site, I learned which titles are crucial, director and editor being two examples. I also learned that each one needs to be shown at its own time and not in a group. Furthermore, I learned that the different colors and fonts are just as crucial as the background when setting up the mood of the movie. for our genre of thriller i learned that you should have a bright color for your fonts and then slowly have it fade into a dark background. By ding this you can create a jumpy mood for your watchers which can be a great hook. Through the research of this sight my group and I have learned a lot about titles. ow we must take what we learned and make a great movie..

Titles Research:Watch the Titles

My Group had the task of researching titles from varies movies in order to learn more about titles in movies.We used Watchthetitles.com in order to conduct our research since it is a cite that gives us everything we need movies to watch and titles to study. We decided it would be best to research thrillers and understand how they used their titles. Through our research we were able to learn many things. For example by watching the Heist movie we learned how to properly use titles to show story or to emphasize whats happening. We also learned how we should properly use the titles we should have them slide in and out showing different names every time but we must make each title different in its own way. I also learned which colors are mainly used for thrillers colors that are dark or if a bright beginning colors that are light but fade away darkening the color. Through our research we learned a lot of things about titles we learned how to use them where to place them and what they should look like. Now we will take what we learned and use it to better our final exam.

Picture of website

Genre Research Brightburn

My Group the Researched Brightur

Before I list them off, I must say I disliked the movie so I may have a little bias. 

Common Camera angles, movement, and shots:

-Many long shots in the movie, you can see all of these shots in the posters for the movie also. 

-A lot tilted close-ups of the protagonist's face. I guess they did this to show his expression, but they didn't need to tilt it so much.
-I didn't see any memorable shots. They were all pretty standard. 

-There were a few dolly shots used.


Mis En Scene:
-The lighting was really dark or really cloudy when they first started showing him do evil things. Before that, it was all bright light.
-No costumes other than the brightburn "superhero costume that was handmade." It was a good mix of creepy and realistic.
-Areas recorded in were the small town, houses, the school, an empty road, and a farm.
- There were many props but the most memorable was a lawnmower, the papers with his symbol, and bats.
- The movie is not really focused on a time of day.


Editing:
- In all the fight scenes there are shaky cams to help the viewer feel the pressure.
-Eye-line matches between characters and objects are pretty prominent
- There are some fades in and out of scenes.
- Lots of jump cuts everywhere.


Sound:
-Heavy use of no sound. It actually was really awkward during the scenes where brightburn was focusing on his target. They had no ambient noise and just the person yelling before they died.
- During the day, the ambient is pretty good, it was realistic enough, but I think the tones of some actors were off for their role.


Elements of the movie:
-The main plot of the movie is a boy is adopted after being found in a spaceship. Later on, when he's about 13 a powerful darkness manifests within him, and many people become scared of him. Once Brandon begins to act on his urge to use his power, he starts harming friends, family, and classmates.
-The main conflict is between the protagonist and his victims. I would say the main thing they try to do is show interesting ways people die.
-The movie tries to create a creepy tone, but many of the scenes where someone is getting attacked it feels unpolished. I think It was trying to keep the audience on the edge of their seat though..


Elements I liked:
-A lot of interesting ways people are killed.
-Really good acting on the part of the main character was able to keep me entertained.
-It was more of a "fun time" thriller than a serious one which is pretty hard to do. I thought that was the most impressive part.


Elements I disliked:
- Many plotholes that were not easy to overlook in the movie.
- Not enough of a soundtrack for me. The soundtrack and effects were almost nonexistent.
-The direction made these quick scenes take a while when most of the audience probably wanted to see horror right away.

Gere Research Equalizer

My Group also Researched a thriller movie called the Equalizer

Common Camera angles, movement, and shots:

-Many medium close up shots, and in almost every shot there were two people or three people. 

-A lot of track shots of the equalizer doing his thing. During the fight scenes there were especially many birds eye angles.
-I didn't see more than 1 or 2 establishing shots, I would have preferred to see more.


Mis En Scene:
-The lighting was really dark and I could not see a few scenes.
-Honestly it was just casual 80s attire with the most costumes being suits.
-Areas recorded in were the city, a gambling room, a restaurant, a smaller restaurant, a warehouse, and a dock for boats.
- There were too many props to actually record all but the most prominent were different types of weapons. Also many drinks and foods were eaten.
- The equalizer has like one colorful scene. The rest are all taken at night or have tons of shadows.


Editing:
- In all the fight scenes they use a ton of quick pans.
-Eye-line matches between characters and objects are pretty prominent
- There are some fades in and out of scenes.
- Some zooming in at areas.


Sound:
-Heavy use of ambient sound, usually doors opening, background chatter and busy streets.
- During fights there is music and gun shots, screams, and the footsteps are extremly loud for some reason.


Elements of the movie:
-The main plot of the movie is a depressed man believes he has put his mysterious past behind him and starts a new and quiet life. But at a waffle shop he meets a young girl being forced to work for Russian gangsters and can't stand idly by.
-The main conflict is between the equalizer and the gangsters. He goes out of his way to make sure none of them can live until he dies.
-The movie tries to create this intense tone throughout the entire movie which it does well. However I feel like I could not relax during any scene.


Elements I liked:
-A lot of interesting ways the Russian gangsters are dealt with.
-Good at building emotional relationship and makes you care for the girl that needs to be saved.
-Makes you appreciate the directors work on the interesting ways he deals with villains.


Elements I disliked:
-Literally last 40 minutes was just completely dark scenes and it was annoying to look at.
- Some of the scenes were useless, providing nothing to the movie.
-The director made the gangsters so weak, they never ever scratched the equalizer. 

Gere Research Spectral

My group also researched Spectral

Common Camera angles, movement, and shots:

-Extreme use of eye-line match shots and over the shoulder shots
-Establishing shot, wide shot, and  shot reverse shots
-A lot of low angles and pans that follow the main charter in the scene
-regular use of close ups, especially in intense or emotional scenes


Mis En Scene:
-Very grey lighting with small amounts of high contrast
-realistic looking costumes (military uniforms) and fake blood/ death marks
-European city, research labs, warehouses, helicopters, etc settings, very realistic
-A lot of cars, guns and other realistic props
-Not very colorful, very dark as well, very little natural light, until action slow down.


Editing:
-A lot of jump cuts
-Eye-line matches for the main charter are common
-Slow motion during explosions or crucial action
-occasionally uses graphic matches

Sound:
-Heavy use of background music to build the mood
-Good use of ambient sound (plasma blasts, gun shots, screams)


Elements of the movie:
-The movie follows a head engineer who is sent to a warzone to help fix the “bug with his tech”. when he arrives, he discovers the specters are real and they start killing people. The city is overrun but the ghosts can be found when exposed to specific low frequency light. Using a new form of plasma weapons, they trace the specters back to the source and discover that they are a weapon created by the government. They disrupt the neural transmissions and destroy the facility. Happy ending.                                                                                                                                                       -The main conflict is between the man protagonist and fellow team members as they battle to survive and free the city.                                                                                                                                         -The movie tries and succeeds in making everything very action packed and suspenseful.

Elements I liked:
-A lot of very intense and engaging conflicts
-Good at building emotional relationships with some characters
-Happy ending                                                                                                                  

 -when moments are confusing the movie explains in a dialog between characters

Elements I disliked:
-Some of the turns are a bit ridiculous
-Some of the plot twists were over the top
-Lighting too was dark at times

Gere Research Heist

My group decided to research heist here's what we found
Common Camera angles, movement, and shots:
-Establishing shot, crane shot that tilts down and out
-A lot of track shots and pans that follow the main charter in the scene
-Heavy use of close ups, especially in intense or emotional scenes


Mis En Scene:
-Very dark lighting
-realistic looking costumes and make up
-City. casino, warehouse, bus, hospital, etc settings, very realistic
-A lot of cars, guns and other realistic props
-Not very colorful, very dark as well, very little natural light, until action slow down.


Editing:
-A lot of jump cuts
-Eye-line matches for the main charter are common
-Slow motion during flashbacks
-occasionally uses fades
-Some graphic matches

Sound:
-Heavy use of background music to build the mood
-Good use of ambient sound (sirens, gun shots, screams)


Elements of the movie:
-The movie follows a desperate father whose daughter has cancer, and cannot afford for her surgery. He is brought an opportunity to rob the casino he works for. The heist eventually goes bad and they are forced onto a bus to make an escape. This causes a massive police chase as they try to solve their predicament.
-The main conflict is between the man protagonist and his morals, as he tries to trick those who want to ruin his journey to save his child.
-The movie tries and succeeds in making everything very action packed and suspenseful.


Elements I liked:
-A lot of very intense and engaging conflicts
-Good at building emotional relationships with some characters
-Unexpected ending


Elements I disliked:
-Some of the turns are a a bit ridiculous
- Some of the scenes were over the top
-Lighting too was dark at times

Finalizing our Gnere

My group and I researched Dramas,Thrillers, and epics. We decided to pick a thriller since it correlates with our movie idea more. Since were making a movie about someones life changing I figured it would either be a thriller or a drama. We decided on thriller since our movie will follow a boy whose life changes for the worse their won't be much fighting or arguing but more or so personal problems. Since it only involves our own character theirs not much drama to be had instead it keeps the viewers un easy about what could possibly happen to him. This is why we decided that our Final Exam would be a thriller.

Genre Research Two More Genres

My group researched two genres Epic and Thriller
Drama Research

Common Lighting: One common progression of light in epics is from dark and brooding at the beginning to happy and bright near the end. Another being the dimming of lights as the movie progresses

Common Camera Angles: Wide shots, Establishing shots ,and Bird eye views.

Common Movement: Zooms into wide shots are commonly used, and lots of tracking shots during fights.

Mis en Scene: Location: Somewhere historic or far in the past. Costume: lavish and elaborate costumes. Set Design: Usually high budget and quality.

Color Design: Tends to have a tinted or sunkissed look

Elements of Genre: Large Scale historical movies that use a lot costumes and mix in drama.

Common Sound: Tend to be extremely dramatic in order to emphasize intense scenes using loud booming sounds or fast paced music. When there is a scene where its suppose to be happy the music lightens up. And in scenes showing villains they use low pitch sounds.

Examples of Epics: Gladiator, Star Wars,  Lord of the Rings, Spartacus.

Now here is our research that we collected on Thrillers.

Common Lighting: Usually have darkness in scenes that are emotional and near the end show the sun shining bright or have some form of bright light to show how everything is good now. Most scenes don't have a lot of brightness.

Common Camera Angles: They use wide shots to show the area, if there are fight scenes they use a multitude of shots like birds eye view,medium shots, and two person shots depending on whats happening.

Common Movements: They use track shots during fights and zoom ins to show the importance of certain objects.

Mis En Scene: Costumes: tattered clothing, or dull looking clothes they don't usually use anything to special. Actors: they use people who can really create emotion in people. Makeup: they use fake tears or blood to show physical pain or emotion. Props: They use breakable props in order to not hurt anyone. Setting: Usually dark and changes ending up being light near the end.

Elements of Genre: Tend to have a lot of emotional plot points and try their hardest to evoke emotion by using things like children or characters you can relate to.

Common Sounds: Use songs that create emotion in people with things like violins or pianos. In fight scenes use up beat fight music. And they sometimes use eerie sounds to create a sense of uneasiness.

Examples of Thrillers: Glass, Crawl, The Silence of The Lambs, US

One common progression of light in epics is from dark at the start of the movie, to bright at the end. (Ex. the Hobbit )
One common progression of light in epics is from dark at the start of the movie, to bright at the end. (Ex. the Hobbit )

Genre Research PowerPoint

These are the slides from a PowerPoint my team and I did early in the year. We had to do research on the genre, Drama.We looked at many elements of the genre. We also looked into a lot of different movies in the genre. Finally we looked at common camera angles, movement, and editing. Drama is a very interesting genre that includes a lot of realistic traits. They usually involve a story line pertaining to love and romance. However, I don't know if the classification of genre would be good for our film. We want more action than is usually included in a drama.

Final Pitch

We narrowed the three pitches to two, as requested. We decided to stick with the first and the second idea from the previous blog. I am of course referencing my comic hero obsessed kid, my personal creation, and the bank robbery gone wrong. We picked these two because these were the only ones that we could agree upon. Additionally, the third idea of having only one person in the world or town would be unobtainable. That and uninteresting. I mean really, who wants to watch a movie about nothing. Someone who slowly dies of starvation is not entertaining. Also trying to get the silence that would be associated with trying to shoot two minutes' worth of film without any human "movie bombing". Overall, that was just not an option.

However, the idea about the kid who is obsessed with a comic book hero is an idea that would be easy to accomplish. All you would have to do is simply get a set of comic books, an action figure, and maybe a mask. Overall the kind of thing that someone, four kids, could easily get their hands on. And for cheap. This is probably our best idea for our project, but just my opinion. Alternatively, the other option would be to try to stage a personal home robbery. That and fake shooting someone, hard to do with practical effects and not CGI. But we probably could accomplish something and fake money could be used as bait fo the robbers. In addition, we could also make a short montage of them getting ready.

Overall, we decided to go with the superhero superfan idea. Just to recap this story will be about a kid who is obsessed with a real-life superhero to the point where after his parents die in a similar fashion he starts to go insane. I am hoping that for this story one cool twist would be for the kid to have a split personality that planned the death of the parents. It would kind of be like in fight club but in a much cooler way. We could start out with a wake-up montage but with tons of hidden relics. This would end in a mirror shot with the kid walking by happy [innosent], but a replica smiling maniacally. from here things slowly start to go wrong until the assassination attempt. this should be both a fun project and a fin idea. I am looking forward to all of the excitement that we will go through. Now to just come up with a name...

Start of Final Exam

    With School coming to end I think this would be a great time to talk about myself and other teammates. My name is Timothy and I love this class its so much fun getting to work with such wonderful people with the assistance of two great teachers. I loved to play games and always enjoyed a good time which became a problem in the long run but I still resisted my urges in order to complete my work. My teammates on the other hand were a bit stricter they tried their hardest to get all the work done but they to enjoyed a bit of rest and relaxation. Kyle was a great editor and director. Jake was an incredible actor and was a jack of all trades helping with editing, story boarding, and filming. Carter was always there to give support and ideas. And I was the main planner I planned dates, places, and did the storyboard for our videos. I am truly sad that this class has to come to an end I had fun hanging out with all of them.
    But not only did this class help me come together with some great people its taught me many things. I've learned a variety of definitions and terms to use in the long run while also learning how to use a great amount of technology. This class made me a better editor teaching all the camera angles and types of edits I make. I normally stay behind the camera but this class has showed me that I much more enjoyed planning. Overall this class has turned me into an amazing planner I now properly make backup plans for everything we do while also thinking of the possible downfalls that ideas have. I also learned how to properly work a camera though I usually plan this information was great to know. Tri pods, Cameras, Editing software's I've learned how to use them all even though I'm a simple planner. Without this class I wouldn't have improved so much as a student and as a person.
     Now the first thing we had to do was decide on a pitch. A pitch describes an idea where a film is summarized in 25 words or less. Our group thought about it and we decided on three of them. Our first a Bank Heist a man named Chase McBride who was a former con artist who has now changed his ways has been tasked with robbing a bank but is conflicted whether or not its the right choice he gets his crew together and they target a bank. Next a reverse kidnapping it follows a guy who was an infamous kidnapper but also was mentally deranged it shows how he is slowly pulled back to reality becoming a better person due to the people that he meets. Our last idea is about a child who idolizes a famous comic hero he strives so hard to become him that he goes to the extreme to make these things happen.