Short film vs. Feature length film

The qualities the short film had that the feature length did not were, The short film had no dialogue. I believe that no dialogue it’s such a strong aspect in a film because it makes audiences really focus on what the characters are doing or what their viewing. It also creates such an eerie feeling which I think it really complements this film. The feature length accomplished many more things then the short because obviously the feature length is longer so there’s more room for more. One thing it accomplished was audiences met many more characters, this was the key point because it helps the plot in the short. We also got to learn more about the creator Of the dolls and the backstory. The backstory is always fun to find out at the end because it makes the audience feel like everything is put together now. The feature-length also showed audiences more about character number nine. His character really develops throughout the whole film so it’s nice watching it none. Another thing the feature-length accomplished was audiences found out what happened and why there are no humans, this was something that the short film did not even mention or show at all.

I personally enjoyed both films however, I enjoyed the feature-length film the most because I feel like I got to learn way more about each character. I love how the feature film starts out with nine first waking up this is one of the Best parts of the film for me. Another reason I like the feature film is because, although the short film had no dialogue I really like films with dialogue especially this one because at parts it was confusing and the characters helped divert the confusion. This film showed the backstory of why all humans were gone. It also shows how the professor died and that he feels as if he is the sole reason for the apocalypse. I also enjoyed the feature film because I feel as if there are certain aspects in the film that are hidden. And example could be that the professors soul is actually within the dolls. Why did the directors and creators do this? These are all parts of the film I really enjoyed because i’m thinking further than just the surface layer of it’s just a film. One thing I did not like about the short film was, the ending of the short film gave away the ending for the feature film. This upset me because I didn’t want certain characters to die (lol). I really enjoyed this film and I recommend that everyone should watch it, thanks!

Research 9, the feature film

My my personal impressions of the film nine 9 are, this film is very odd in my personal opinion. It’s interesting to see how the creators of this movie decided to make all the main characters dolls that were made out of someone’s soul. It also looks like The dolls are made out of a potato bag material which is also a little odd. Even though the film is odd, the plot of it is actually really good. I really enjoy starting a movie and not knowing what to expect. I love how when number 9 woke up he didn’t even know what was going on, just like the audience of the film. I love how every detail was thought out. Like the fingers of the characters and the fact they have numbers on them. Plus the idea of robots overtaking the humans. I also loved how the creators of this movie thought of a post apocalyptic world only with these ragdoll‘s left. 

Character development was truly seen throughout the whole movie because characters like Number 1 truly develops throughout the film. In the beginning he is such a mean old man and towards the end he is still on old mean man but now there’s a story behind him and more known. Another example of character development is within each doll/character each one of them has different traits. This leads me to believe that this is why number nine becomes like the “hero” of the film because he was the last one made. The special effects of this movie are crazy. For a film that was made in 2009 I believe that it’s special effects look advanced for its time. The way that the characters/dolls “potato bag” (lol) Skin looks, is insanely realistic. One scene that really spooked me was when Number one placed the emblem inside of the machine and number twos Soul literally got ripped out of him. This spooked me out because number two literally shriveled up, and the special effects were really spot on within this scene. The directional style of this film is honestly spectacular because for someone to have created all of these Insane ideas but actually put them together for a film is amazing. Hats off to the directors and creators for making an amazing film.

Research 9, the short

My impressions of the short film are, I am for one super surprise that there is no dialogue within the film. However the use of diegetic and non-diegetic sounds are very much apparent. Also I personally believe that the short film as well is very odd. It’s all in the way of the concepts and ideas. The plot Starts off with A flashback of number nine and five looking for objects and then an animal takes number five away. Number nine gets away however the green objects they had together and found together was what caused the flashback. I love the plot of the short film however I find that it’s a little repetitive because 75% of it is number nine getting away from the monster. This is not a bad thing though because it really shows how difficult and how hard it is for nine to get away from him. There’s not a lot of character development you can get from the short film other than, the monster being a bad guy and number nine being fearful of him. However about five minutes into the film it’s shown that number nine isn’t as fearful as I thought because he jumps on the back of the monster to get the emblem back. 

The special effects that are shown within the short film are the use of amazing animations and how Amazing they made these concepts come together. Another scene that really brought the animation out was win the monster suck the soul out of number five as well. Another scene that also brought out the animation of the film was at the very end when the dolls we’re ghosts and we’re walking around and then disappeared. The use of very low colors to bring out eere feelings is also an amazing thing to do. The directional style of the short film is very good however I personally believe I would’ve done things differently. I love how they had the use of no dialogue it really made you focus on The animations of the film and what was going on. I also loved how they brought in two main characters right in the beginning this shows you the bond between them. However I did not like that it showed other characters that were not shown in the beginning dead in the end.I felt as if this could’ve been saved for if this movie actually had became a longer film. But all in all I really am so amazed by the director because he made so many crazy concepts like a post-apocalyptic world with dolls in it come completely together under seven minutes.

Genre Choice for Film

         After doing research on a couple of genres my group and I have finally made a decision. The genre we have chosen is thriller! We feel that out of thriller, horror, and action that thriller best suits our pitch. Our pitch is “A person receives threats in the mail and must figure out who is leaving them.” Once we researched the three genres we decided that action didn’t really suit it. Action movies involve a lot of fight scenes and loud sounds which we don’t think fits our plot. It also seems like it wouldn’t be properly developed in 5 minutes. Now my group and I thought very hard on deciding between horror and thriller. Both genres can be applied to our films and our vastly similar. The key difference with horror and thriller are that horror’s are meant to be scary and invoke fear in you. They’re both suspenseful but thrillers put you more on the edge of wonder what’ll happen next. 

        With our ultimate realization that horrors have too much of a focus on fear and can dwell for a little while it left us with thriller. Thriller is perfect for the genre seeing that it builds up a lot of suspense. Thriller allows us to build up our plot and finish it in a satisfying way all in 5 minutes. The CAMS and editing are relatively easy processes for us and they’ll be easy to capture and execute. Using thriller allows us to keep our pitch and not have to really tweak it. Our pitch fits the outline of a thriller. Thrillers create a sense of urgency and that, in our minds, can be implemented well with our plot. We have many ideas on how we can implement the sounds of a thriller and the props into our short film. Before going into this we assumed thriller would be the choice but it’s nice to have confirmation after doing research. Overall thriller seems like a match made in heaven and we can’t wait for the next step in this journey!

Genre Research Action

• Common CAMS: zoom, pan, POV, tilt, tracking shots, reverse shots, high angles, tilted shots, 

• Common Sound:  ominous music, gun sounds, running sounds, high-pitched music, punching sounds, and objects breaking sounds. 

• Common Mis-En-Scene (CLAMPS): 

Costume- common costumes vary; it could be suits/dresses, superhero costumes, alien costumes and many more.

Lighting- Natural lighting, dim lighting, key lighting, backlight, and soft lights. 

Actors- They can be anyone. Usually have stunt doubles as well. 

Makeup- common makeup in action movies depends, it can be natural, or a fully masked and painted face. 

Props- common props include guns, knives, chairs/tables, blood, bullets, glass, cars, sunglasses, and many more. 

Setting- The settings are usually in busy cities that end up becoming where houses or private homes. However each film is different. 

• Common Editing: Jump cuts, cutting on movement and "action", slo-mo's, action matches, flashbacks, and graphic matches. 

• Example Films: Some action films are, Extraction, 007, Baby driver, Bad boys, Angel has fallen, and avengers.

• Elements I like: The elements I enjoy are, I  really enjoy the plots of the films. Usually the actors are fighting for someone or something. I also enjoy the element of wondering who will when a fight or what's going to happen next. 

• Elements not appealing: Sometimes I feel like action movies can get repetitive and that the plot can sometimes be a bit boring in the middle. 

Genre Research Horror

  • Common CAMS: reverse-shots, close-ups, tracking shots, pans, zoom, wide shot, low angle, hand-held, over the shoulder, cantered, and birds-eye 

• Common Sound: no sound, silence, abrupt noises, echos, footsteps, sound of breath, can all be diegetic or non-diegetic 

• Common Mis-En-Scene (CLAMPS):  

• Costume - casual clothing for protagonista typically, antagonists usually wear masks or dark clothing                                        

• Lighting - low lighting, usually at night in the dark, shadows and shapes to create fear                                        

• Actors - normally required to act fearful or eerie                                                        

• Makeup - bruises, cuts, made to look as if the victim is tortured or in pain, makeup applied to look grimmer                                          

• Props - props are normally weapons such as knives, axes, guns. Other props maybe rocking chairs and creaking doors                                      

• Setting - Typically somewhere isolated, perhaps an abandoned house, the environment is normally abandoned and dark

• Common Editing: cutaways, jump cuts and fade outs

• Example Films: Us, Insidious, The Conjuring, Annabelle, The Nun

• Elements I like: I like the fear and suspense it creates. I enjoy the anticipation it builds up for eerie moments

• Elements not appealing: I feel like they may drag on for too long and are all really similar. The silence and eerie sounds can be disturbing at times 

Genre Research Thriller

 My group and I had to choose three genres to research that we thought our short film would fit into. Some things that we had to research for our genres are common CAMS, common Mis-En-Scene, and common editing. The first research is on the thriller genre. 

• Common CAMS: tracking shots, pans, reverse shots, high angles, over the shoulder shots, point of view shots, tilted shots, and zoom. 

• Common Sound: eerie sounds, sometimes complete silence, footsteps, animal sounds, and even sometimes extraterrestrial sounds. 

• Common Mis-En-Scene (CLAMPS): 

Costume- common costumes in thrillers include masks, ripped clothing, hoodies and jackets, casual clothing that can sometimes be dark or black, and creature-like clothing.

Lighting- common lighting in thrillers are usually dark/low. The lighting is very important because it displays shadows that create tension and suspense in thrillers.

Actors- the actors in thrillers can be anyone. 

Makeup- common makeup in thrillers is usually dark, sometimes scary, and can consist of cuts, bruises, dirt smudges, and can even be smeared as if the actor was crying. 

Props- common props include fake blood, notes/ letters, brief cases, money, phones, and even broken things like glass. Weapons are also common props such as guns, chainsaws, and knives, which add tension to the film.

Setting- the setting in thrillers are usually in spooky places, allies, abounded and haunted locations, and isolated places. Thrillers are also sometimes taken place at night which add onto the suspense. 

• Common Editing: these include jump cuts, flashbacks, action matches, graphic matches, and sometimes slo-mo’s.

• Example Films: A Quiet Place, The Silencing, Ma, Escape Room, and The Invisible Man

• Elements I like: I really enjoy the rush of adrenaline that I get when watching thrillers. As well as being on the edge of my seat waiting to see what will happen next. 

• Elements not appealing: I don’t really like the anxiety and terror that some thrillers make me feel. 

Genres I would Like to research

 Since our pitch is "A person receives threats in the mail and must figure out who is leaving them" I thought these 3 genres are most appropriate; Thriller, horror, and action. 

The first genre we will research is thriller. Thriller could be our genre because since our short film is 5 minutes, creating a thriller is a very efficient way of composing a great movie in a short period of time. My groupmates and I can further execute making a thriller by, while in the editing process we can use non-diegetic sounds to emit suspenseful music. The suspenseful music could play in the background of the main scenes to make audiences truly feel the thriller aspect of the film. We could also film low angles of the mailbox and vertical pans showing empty dark streets. We could further push the thriller genre by never showing the antagonist of the film. The film could end without ever showing the antagonist (That is just an idea though). 

We will research horror more because, horror could also fit our genre. This is because my groupmates and I can implement very little lighting to give the audience a feeling of nervousness and "what's going to happen". Horror could be our genre because we can have whoever is putting notes into the mailbox actually come for the protagonist of the story. Their are many ways we can write our short film to make it into a horror genre. Another reason I want to further research the horror genre is to find out what angles I can use to make the film feel more like a horror. I believe if I used tilts it would make the film feel more like it. 

The last genre we will research is, action. Action could be an option for our short film because, we can make the antagonist and the protagonist try to find each other. That could result in the film becoming an action if there's lots of running away and fighting scenes. We need to research what type of lighting goes with an action movie. We also need to research which angles and sound go with an action. We are looking forward to choosing our genre very soon!