Title Research:(A Fistful Of Dollars,1964)

-How many titles are displayed during the opening sequence of the film?
Throughout the entire opening sequence I counted about 37 names and companies. The opening was in Spanish, so it was hard to count it correctly.

-What images are prioritized in the opening sequence?
There was a heavy use of about three of the same snippets. These were: a silhouette of a man riding a horse in red and black, and a gunslinger drawing out his weapon in a standoff, this was also in a silhouette of black and white.

-What connotations do the images carry?
When the movie starts the music, the tumble weed drawing and the man on a horse give off the spaghetti western and action movie right away.

-How is genre reinforced through symbolic and technical codes from the outset?
 Along with the sounds and actions described in the last question, when the gunslingers drew their revolvers there were gunshots made, insinuating a standoff has just occurred.

-How does the film establish an enigma from the outset
Before any pictures are shown, the soft whistle, very common in western action movies, begins. This is a dead giveaway of the genre and the enigma of the movie.

-What strategies are used to ensure the film appeals to its target audience?
It wants to show the audience that they got what they wanted to see, a western movie. Not only that, but in the beginning they put Clint Eastwood’s name in big letters on the screen.

-How has tech been used effectively?
All these components come together to show you what the movie will be like. There will be gunslingers, tumbleweeds, face off, and killing. It paints a picture for everyone watching.

Title Research:(Sky Fighters,2005)

1.How many titles are displayed during the opening sequences to the film?
2.What images are prioritized in the opening sequence?
3.What connotations do the images carry?
4.How is genre reinforced through symbolic and technical codes from the outset?
5.How does the film establish an enigma from the outset?
6.What strategies are used to ensure the film appeals to its target audience?
7.How has technology been used effectively? You want to consider camera angles, transitions, and editing techniques.


As a group we chose to first research the opening sequence of the movie, Sky Fighters. My group got this title sequence off of Watchthetitles.com. We did this because one of the websites we researched didn’t contain any epic movies. So we decided to choose a movie very close. In this case, the movie Sky Fighters is an action and adventure movie. When we watched the opening minutes we counted about 22 titles in all, give it take a few. Right off the bat you find that this movie is about planes and jets. The images in the title sequence hold a quite shallow and literal meaning, nothing that can really be through different layers. Except for maybe that this is either a movie about building jets, recognized jets, or a heist including the high jacking of a jet/plane. In the beginning of the movie you can tell that it is an action and an adventure movie. This is because you have multiple different types of jets and airplanes banking and doing cool tricks as a show. In the outset the enigma is established right away with somewhat eerie music and then it transitions to some type of scan, probably military or hacker. After that it goes to army members standing around a war helicopter. The audience in this film are looking for some action and adrenaline rush, this is why they show all the plane doing crazy tricks and being quite loud. This satisfies the viewer because it is very Top Gun. The tech in the movie; however, sets it apart because it freezes the jet in motion and breaks it apart with holograms and examines the parts.

Title Research:(300,2006)

1.How many titles are displayed during the opening sequences to the film? 

There are 4 titles displayed in the opening of this movie. 

2.What images are prioritized in the opening sequence? 

The images that were prioritized seemed to have a focus on fighting. The weather was also important because it reflected a dark mood. Also the imagine of the skulls predict death which takes a big part in this movie

3.What connotations do the images carry? 

The dark sky and clouds creates the idea that something sinister will play a part. The skulls foreshadow death in general.

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

The use of colors like red and black show that the film will be leading towards more violence than action.

5.How does the film establish an enigma from the outset?

The viewer wonders to what the title is referring. Is it just a number? Does it have to do with a death toll? The viewers also wonder what significance the dripping blood in the title has.

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

The level of gore attracts an older audience like teens and adults. 

7.How has technology been used effectively? You want to consider camera angles, transitions, and editing techniques.

The font of the title makes it look like it was spelled with rocks, leading the audience to wonder the importance of setting in the movie. Editing and transitions were used when introducing the title of the film. Every time lightning flashed the color of the title would change or completely disappear. Also, the sound adds a sense of suspense and darkness to the title sequence. 

Title Research:(Star Wars,1977)

1.How many titles are displayed during the opening sequences to the film? 

2 titles are displayed during the opening of this film.

2.What images are prioritized in the opening sequence? 

The stars in the background are a prominent image because they are a staple of the Star Wars saga.

3.What connotations do the images carry? 

They chose stars as the background imagine because the movie is about space travel. 

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

The Epic Genre is reinforced through the use of color and fonts. The colors shown, Green, Blue, Yellow, are typically used in Epic movies because they show fantasy and heroism.

5.How does the film establish an enigma from the outset?

The outset of the movie causes the viewers to question what brought on the creation of the story. The viewers also have no idea who the main characters are or their purposes, they only know what is going on at the movie’s time period. 

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

The title of the film attracts young audiences like teenagers and young adults through the use of “wars”. This puts into the viewer’s mind that the movie will have some sort of action aspect. For all Star Wars movies there is always a small anecdote at the beginning detailing what the film is about. This appeals to audiences by forcing them to read usually leading to them becoming more interested in the film.

7.How has technology been used effectively? You want to consider camera angles, transitions, and editing techniques.

The title sequence has many editing aspects and techniques. You can see this when the anecdote is being played and it looks like the words are coming off the screen and going further away. Transitions are used when going between titles. For example switching from the production studio, to the anecdote, 

to the name of the film the viewer can notice a fade/ dissolve effect from one word to the next.

Title Research: (Watch The Titles Website)

On this site there are a lot of different selections of films. Some of the categories are the following: feature films, tv shows, event titles, student projects, and more. It also included something that I didn’t expect it to, a section for video games and interviews. I didn’t really expect there to be video games included in a website that shows you title sequence. As expected; though, there were only two games that were options on the site. Along with those categories they also had a few student projects on the website. The main thing that I had to research was the opening titles for different movies. These could range from drama to comedy. As luck would have it there was such a large amount of movies there was probably every genre in there. So I decided that since the movie we are doing is an epic, it would be good to select an epic. I learned that they have, from the movies I looked at (most), they had no epic films! I could not find one movie that was an epic. So I decided to research to the closest genres to an epic, adventure and war. Luckily, there were a lot more of those movies. I also realized that the majority of the movies on this website were horror and comedies.

Title research: (Art of TheTitle Website)

In this blog I will be talking about the website Art Of The Title. I found this website by doing some research about Title Cards on my own. I wanted to make sure my group and I were on the right track and doing everything correctly when the time of recording and editing our video came. When I opened the website I was really impressed with the quantity of different types of movies were there and all of them had different types of genres. I watched 3 different examples of titles and took some notes on it. I made sure I wrote down all the important things my title card should have. I also wrote down all the things that stood out to me like transitions and font sizes for example. After that, I went ahead and looked for movies with the Epic Genre. I found 3 different movie titles there and watched all of them. I made sure I payed really close attention to every detail in the video. The website is really easy to use and to find the movie and type of genre you are looking for. The website has many options of movies and genres so it is certain that you will find what you are looking for. Using this website I learned some things that I will definitely use on my final project. I learned that most titles don’t last very long, but are not like the end of the movie credits. You should be able to read everyone’s names that are in the movie or do something for the movie. I also learned that the directors name should never come first. The directors name always shows up at the end of the movie in the credits. I also noted that most titles for the Epic genre are usually designed to relate to the movie. The names should not cover the whole screen and the viewer should be able to read the names and watch the movie at the same time. This website helped me a lot because before I found it I didn’t know any characteristics of an Epic Genre movie title and what they are supposed to have. I will definitely use this website to make more research before I start working on my movies title.

Genre Research: (Saving Private Ryan)

For the next movie I watched Saving Private Ryan. This is a movie set during World War Two, where Private Ryan, Matt Damon, is lost during a battle. So a small group of men are sent out to look for him. They are led by Captain Miller, Tom Hanks. In saving private Ryan they have several different types of camera angles. Some of the best angles; however; were at the end of the movie. When Captain Miller is sitting on the ground shooting his pistol at the tank it is a medium close-up. Then once the tank blows from the airplane bomb it flash-pans to show the plane fly bye. Throughout the entire movie there is one main costume, an army camo, worn by every soldier. Since most of the scenes are outside they use natural looking light in the movie. The acting bye the main squadron we see is outstanding, they introduce us to the characters and we see their growth and for some of them, their deaths. In Saving Private Ryan the main props are guns, grenades, food, and at the end oil and socks.

Genre Research: (300 Rise of an Empire)

The movie 300 is an Epic Genre movie that talks about war in the past, more focused in the city of Rome. The movie contains a lot of establishing shots since the city of Rome is so huge and the scenes take place in many different places like the coliseum for example. A wide shot is used in the movie to show us a little more of the coliseum. High and Low angles are also used in this movie. An example of a high angle is when a person is talking to the other on top of a roof and you watch the scene from the person of the roofs perspective. Long shots and medium shots are used a lot during the battle scenes to show the armor of the warriors. Medium close up is also used when one of the warriors screams in pain after getting stabbed. Close ups are also used in this movie to help the viewers to understand more about the emotions that the characters are feeling. Two shots and Three shots are used usually to show warriors getting ready for a fight or in the case of a two shot actually fighting against each other. Aerial shots were also used. An example of it was when we saw the coliseum by the eyes of a bird flying through. Over the shoulder shots were used a lot when characters are having dialogues. Zoom was used to show the reaction of a warrior after winning a fight. Diegetic sounds were used mainly when the characters were walking through sand or woods. Non diegetic sound was used mainly during fights to add sound to the swords and the noise they make and the crowd as well since we can see many people there but they are not real. Dialogues were usually used before the sword fights and after them. They were used a lot of time throughout the movie. Score was used many times after fights to announce the winner of them. Shot reverse Shot was used during some of the fight scenes where many fights were taking place at the same time. Jump cuts were used many times when there were dialogues to show both of the characters reactions and expressions to what was being said by the other. Reaction shots were also used sometimes, usually to show the reactions of the fighters that won the fights or to show the reaction of the crowd that was watching. The movies costumes are on point. The detail on the armor of the warriors is amazing. Make up is also used to show wounds and it’s very well done. The props are one of the best things in this movie. The swords are amazingly designed and the shields are perfect. The Location of where the movie takes place varies. The lighting of the movie is really good too. It changes depending on what is happening or where something is happening. I really like how this movie uses the Epic Genre to talk about war in the past and how it used to be back then.

Genre Research: (Apocalypse Now)

The Movie Apocalypse now was a movie released in 1979. It is an Epic Genre movie and it is also telling the story of some kind of war. This movie is perfect for our research because our main idea for this project is to make the begging of a war movie. There are a lot of establishing shots in this movie. Since there are many battles and all in different places, the movie does a good job showing the viewers where they are taking place. There are some high and low angles in this movie. An example of a low angle is when one of the soldiers drops his weapon on the ground and we can see him get executed but from the guns perspective. There are a lot of long shots in this movie, they show the soldiers fighting in the war or just getting ready for it. There is some close ups in the movie as well. In one scene we get a close up of the actor’s face, helping us to see his emotion. There are many Two and Three shots in this movie. One of them show the soldiers getting lined up for inspection and another showing them getting ready for a battle that was about to take place. I was able to see one aerial shot in this movie. In that shot we are seeing from a helicopter and we can see a boat filled with soldiers going through the river. Over the shoulders shots also happen a lot in this movies mostly during characters dialogues. A camera movement that we can see a lot is a Pan. It happens usually when the soldiers are lined up and the viewer is able to see all of them. Sounds play a big role in this movie. Diegetic sound is used many times usually when we can hear the footsteps and the helicopter and boat sounds since they were real and not special effects. Non diegetic sound happened many times, especially during the action scenes she bullets were being fired. Most of those shots weren’t real so adding the sound made the effect look more realistic. There is a lot of dialogue in this movie. They usually don’t happen in the action scenes but always before them when the general gives the soldiers instructions. Editing is used really well during this movie. A shot reverse shot was used during the fighting scenes going from one side to the other many times. Action match is also used a lot during this movie. Jump cuts are used many times during this movie. They used them specifically during the battle scenes when they want to show each soldier’s perspective of the war. Reaction shots were used as well to show the reaction of the general after the first battle was fought. There were many different locations used during this movie. Each battle takes place in a different setting. Costumes also play a big part in this movie. There are many different costumes and the details on them are on point and that is what makes the movie so great. Props also play a big role since there are a lot of guns involved in this movie. I really like how they make the effects realistic for a 1979 movie.

Genre Research: (Lord of the Rings)

For this blog I chose to watch the movie Lord of the Rings. I have watched that movie before a long time ago, so I had to rewatch it again to remember the details. Lord of the rings uses many different types of Camera Angles, Movement and shots. Dragons are part of this movie and to film them, even though they are not real an aerial shot is used. This technique is  used throughout the movie since some of the action scenes at the end of the movie have dragons. Over the shoulder shot is also used many times in the movie when characters are having dialogues between each other. Since Lord of the rings is an epic film, a lot of mysterious places. That’s where the establishing shots come from, it is used a lot to show the difference places where the scenes take place. Long shots were also used sometimes during the movie. When they were showing the weapons that the movie characters were using, the long shot technique was used because to show the weapon they had to show the characters holding them because they were too big. Close ups were also used to express characters live reactions to the actions taking place. Camera Movements played a big part in this movie. Pan was used a lot in the movie to give the person watching a better image of what is taking place in a certain scene. Zoom sometimes in this movie to focus in certain things like jewelry or weapons. A tracking shot was used once throughout this movie when they had to follow a person going into a house, it helped the viewers to have a stronger understanding about the situation. Lighting played a big part in this movie. Depending on where the scene was taking place a different set of lighting was there. Costumes and makeups are probably what makes this movie so great. The amount of detail in the costumes of the actors is unreal and the perfection of the makeup is also there. There are many monsters and goblins in the movie and not all of them are special effects some are humans with makeup on and they look very realistic. There are many Props used throughout this movie but the ones that are most shown are the swords and other types of weapons. Sounds are also something that this movie has lots of. Many types of sounds are used, and Diegetic sound is one of them. When some characters are walking through the woods, the noise that they make when they step on dry leaves is natural from the scene. Non diegetic sound is also used a lot during the movie, but one of the most noticeable examples is when the dragon growls, the sound of the growl is added to the scene making it more realistic. Score! is also used at the end of the movie before the credits come up. In editing what really caught my attention was the the use of the flashback. That helped me to understand better the background of one of the characters. There was also a lot of jump cuts throughout this movie, specially during the action scenes. As an epic movie, Lord of Rings does not disappoint. It has that magic and mysterious touch in it that makes it a great Epic Genre movie.

Genre Research: Finalizing the Genre

The three genres that we chose to research were, epic, drama, and horror. In an epic movie it most likely will be outside or have to do with war. Fantasy also falls under an epic film, like Lord of the Rings. We also researched the drama genre, this one is probably the most commonly used genre for most movies. Finally, we studied the horror genre. In this genre you usually heavily rely on the lighting and the score of the film, without those it isn’t a horror movie. Out of those three we decided to choose the epic genre, as it perfectly fits our film. However, it still is a drama in some sorts.

Genre Research: Additional Genres

Our second genre is drama. In the drama genre there are some camera angles that are used a lot. One of these shots is the close-up, this can show the emotion in their face after something bad might happen. An example of a camera movement is a tracking shot, this will be used when two people are walking and talking together. Since the genre of drama is so wide range, so is its costumes, they can range from old raggedy clothing to futuristic solid colored clothing. Just like the clothing there is also a wide variety in the lighting department, as they can be fully fined outside or they could be completely filmed in on house. For actors it is a little different. For a drama movie they will usually cast a more compelling actor instead of just a comedian. For makeup; however, it will almost always be basic makeup so that you can’t see any face blemishes like a pimple or scratch. The same thing goes for editing, it is all dependent on the movie, it is most likely that they will use a flashback somewhere in the movie. Some examples of dramas are Moonlight and Dunkirk. The elements of the films that I like are the plot lines in many dramas you can see the growth and fall of a conflict, or you can see a really big twist. Some elements that I don’t like are the amount of movies that are drama movies, the lack of diversity (in genre) of the movies today.
Our third and final genre we selected horror. A common camera angle in a horror movie is the close-up and the extreme close-up. These are used to really display the absolute terror that the characters are in. In a horror movie it is also very common to use a tracking shot. It’s most used when the subject is running away from the beast or killer. Like in the drama genre there can be a very wide variety of costumes. Most of the time; however, the protagonists are usually in regular casual outfits. In a horror movie the lighting is one of the most important aspects of the entire movie. The little sliver of light shining on the face of the scared teen can represent the little chance they have of surviving. Most horror movie are almost always in the dark of the night. For props in a horror movie there tends to be two main running props. This would be the murder weapon and a mask covering the killer’s face. For editing there is usually one main edit, and that is the jump cut. These cuts are used very quickly to show you the different places that are being affected or the suspense building as it cuts between the subject and the door. The things I like about horror movies is the edge-of-the-seat feeling you get when watching. With that; however, comes the bad, which is the fact that these movies get overly gory, which gets annoying.

Genre Research: Epic

During our research we found that the majority of the the epic films fall under two categories. The first can fall under fantasy, such as Lord of the Rings. These movies spend a lot of their time outside in nature. The other category is war. Almost all war movies fall in the genre of epic. Some examples include  the brand new 1917 and the classic Apocalypse Now. These movies also spend a lot of their time in nature. The war movies also are historical movies.

Narrowing the Field

We have now narrowed the pitches to two. For our first pitch we have kept the documentary. It would start off with a random person we find on the street. We would get them to begin to tell us their life story. We would start it off with maybe the best story in his life. We would then have video of us finding him and getting to begin talking about his life story. Next we have decided to keep our second pitch, in which we have a man/boy sitting doing some sort of activity. Suddenly, the phone rings and he picks up and it is the army. It turns out he has been drafted to WWIII and he has to break the news to his parents. For a long time he has an inner struggle and is conflicted if he should even say. At the end he is sitting his parents down and begins talking to them. Finally, we have decided to eliminate our third idea to have a hit man mission. We would have a man roll in in a class I car, he would step out and get a grappling hook and rope. The man would throw it to the second story of a parking garage and he would leave it. He then goes and kills his target, put is caught in the action. He spends the time running away from a few agents. He jumps off the parking garage and uses the rope to catch him.
Pitch 1:
Like I said before the first pitch we narrowed down to was the real documentary. We believe that this pitch is outstanding, as it tests what really is going to grab your attention. Most people might do a horror or suspense movie, but we kind of wants to grab the viewer emotionally rather than scraing onto the edge of their seat. We are trying to do this by portray this person as not a random but somebody you can get to know. A lot of documentaries do the same thing at the end. They make you see the world in a different perspective in any way possible. This will be the same concept because it will demonstrate the overly used moral, “ Don’t judge a book by its cover.”
Pitch 2:
As previously stated, the second pitch we are considering is the one about the WWIII call. We feel that this will not be as ‘ out of the box’ as the first but it can still can be used in the same way. This clip will make you relate to him, you see him and pictures of his family. You will see the conflict stirring inside of him as he tries to figure out how to tell his parents.

After a lot of talking we have decided to go with the second pitch. We believe that the first pitch is very good, but what it has in originality it lacks in applicability. In reality we are not a large company that can persuade somebody into opening theirselves up to a few high schoolers. So for that reason we have chosen pitch 2, which still isn’t that bad of a plan B.

Starting Final Task

Hi, my name is Mario, I am 16 years old and I attend Fort Lauderdale High School. I was born in Brazil and lived there until 2016 when my dad who is a soccer player got a job offer to play here in the United States. Ever since I moved here I have made many friends and that is one of the main reasons my parents decided to stay after my dads career was over. In this final task I am working with one of my good friends Xavier. We have worked together previously in our music video and commercial. We had some trouble finding our group but it finally worked out. Our last two projects came out really good so I am pretty sure that this one will be great too. It will be harder to do a good job this time since we only have 2 people in our group but I believe that we are capable of completing this task with success. We are really excited about our new task. We already came up with our ideas and are ready to film as soon as we can. 

I have learned many things throughout this year taking AICE Media Studies. With the help of my teachers I learned many new filming techniques that I could put in practice when working on my projects. These techniques were not only used when doing projects for the class, they were also used on my everyday life when taking pictures for example. I learned how to edit, film, storyboard and many other things. This class helped me realize that I might want to do something movie related when I have to work or choose a college course about filming. One of the most useful things I’ve learned is editing. Editing is really important when it comes to a music video or a movie. A video that is well edited has a lot o potential to be great because it draws people’s attention. A movie can be really well filmed but mistakes will always happen and that’s when editing comes in. I use editing so much during my life and I’m glad u could learn how to improve it in this class.

Pitch is an idea where a film is encapsulated in 25 words or less. Usually with one sentence. My group and I came up with 3 pitches in total. They are all really good and we don’t know which we will use yet. The pitches are: 

1)  A WWIII draft call is made to a boy, he then has the inner struggle of telling his parents and he funnily he tells his parents.

2) A spy rolls in, he read a text, it cuts to him killing a target, he is then chased by several people and narrowly escapes.

3) We take a documentary on a random person, he tells us about his life and struggles. We play soft sad music behind it.