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!

Pitch blog

 My group and I’s pitch for our short film: 

A person receives threats in the mail and must figure out who is leaving them

Group blog

The decision has been made! I am working with 2 people this year, Leonardo H. and Brooke L. 

They will be my groupmates for A level media. This decision had to be examined really closely because working in a group setting can be either amazing or detrimental. Thankfully I'm very close to these two people so I'm already familiar on the ways they work. I am so excited to be working with them because we are all very creative.Creative people always work very well together. I know that we will come up with good ideas for our short film. I also know that we all have very good different skills in media which will benefit the group in the end. I trust my groupmates which makes the project and the class even better because I know we will get everything done!

Furthermore, I am not working with the same people I worked with in AS level because one of them is no longer in media. The other one is still in media but we are working with other people this time. 

I have good relationships with previous group members from AS level, but I'm excited to work with new people from A level. I'm super excited to be taking this class. My Groupmates all have different specialties in media. Leonardo (who we call Leo) is good at editing. Brooke is good at acting. I believe I'm pretty good at ideas and script.  excited to see all of our specialties combine to make a good product.

Thanks!

Intro Blog

 Hello!  Long time no see!!

I am so happy to be in Aice media studies once again, for A Level! So as you know the globe has been affected by a virus called Covid-19. The media industry has been very impacted by Covid.  Everyone is somewhat struggling to sort this new way of life because its all something we are so unfamiliar with.  Masks are now a priority and they will always be a priority when filming unless safe to remove. In result of this virus the way we live and do our daily activities has completely changed.  We are not in school as of right now because the area I live in still has high numbers in this virus.  Even though we are not doing IN school learning we are still learning from the safety and comfort IN our own homes. 

But anyways... I'm extremely excited to be continuing this class. AS level media was so much fun and I'm hoping this year will be too. I know that we have to create a 5 min short film and I'm so excited to see what my group and I will create. I loved the way of learning and the group-oriented work for this class. When working in Aice media, it doesn't even feel like real work because it's so much fun to do. I also am excited to be finishing my Aice diploma this year and I'm happy that this class will help me achieve this diploma.When I received my results for the scoring of AS level I was shocked. I couldn't believe I scored an A! I'm super proud and I hope that this year I can continue to work and strive for another A. 

Thank you for reading and for coming along this journey!