Short Film vs. Feature Length Film

 After watching both the short film and the movie 9 I’ve decided to compare both of them. I really enjoyed watching both. They both told a similar story and kept everything simple but effective. The plot was really good for both short film and movie. What I really liked about the short film that the full movie didn’t have was the beast. The short film is totally based on the fight between the main character and the beast. I really enjoyed watching both of them fight and was hoping to see more during the movie. There is some fighting against the beast in the beginning of the movie but it is quickly defeated and never spoken of after. The machine was a great villain but I think that the beast suited the plot better for both the short and the movie. What I really liked about the feature length that the short didn’t have was the character voices. During the short none of the characters speak and it was really hard to understand the background of the story. In the full length almost all characters speak and it makes it way easier to tell a story. I get that during the short there is not much time to tell a whole story. I believe that if they added voice to at least one of the characters they could tell a story briefly making it easier to understand the plot. Both have some flashbacks specially the full length movie. The flashbacks are a really good addition because it tells the story of the plot in a very simple but effective way. After seeing both flashbacks in the short and the full length movie I was finally able to understand the story and how it all started. Understanding the plot made a big difference in my opinion. I made the movie and the short a lot more interesting and fun to watch. I really enjoyed watching both forms of media. Although both storylines were the same they both have a lot of differences that makes them unique. 

Research 9, the feature film.

 After a very successful short, the movie 9 was released in 2009. The movie tells the story of puppets that try to survive in a post apocalyptic world. No humans exist in this world after a big war was fought between humans and machines. The movie picks up on the story that was told on the short film. The main character first fights the monster that they call the beast. It is the same monster that we see in the short film. In the beginning of the movie they defeat the beast but end up awakening something worst that turns out to be the main villain of the story. The movie has a lot of characters, each characters has their own number and voice. All characters play a really important role into the development of the story with 9 being the main character. The whole movie is animated and the animation is very well done. A lot of detail is added into each of the characters and it is very easy to tell because of the clean animation. There are also a lot of flashbacks during the movie to tell the background story of the plot. How the war started, how the characters were created, and how the villain was created. All the stories are well told and it is very easy to understand them. Knowing the background story of the plot makes the movie a lot more interesting to watch. The main character 9 develops really fast throughout the movie. At first he was scared of everything and at the end he becomes their leader and helps to defeat the machine. The character 1 also develops a lot during the movie. He goes from always trying to hide and not fight anyone to sacrificing himself for the greater good. I really enjoyed watching this movie. Knowing the story made it very interesting to me, and seeing how everything developed from the short was very cool to see. 

Research 9, the short

 The short film 9 by Shane Acker was released in 2005 being 11 minutes long. I really like this short because there was so much to see and pay attention while watching. The short tells the story of some kind of puppet or toy that is alive and has to survive in this world full of destruction. There is not much background story to this short. It is very straight to the point and it has a lot of action. None of the characters talk, except for the beast that makes a lot of noise. The main character 9, inspired by his friend’s death goes from being scared all the time to taking action against the beast and defeating it. During the short the way that they show a little bit of the background story of the characters is when 9 has a flashback and remembers his adventures with 5. The whole movie is an animation and it is full of special effects. Since this short was released in 2005 the animations are not that good. The lack of tools for the animation kinda of holds on into the possible way that the short could’ve have went. It is still a pretty good material taking it in conclusion that it was made before 2005. Since this is a short film it makes sense that it is very straight to the point. There is almost no background to the story but I get that the producers couldn’t waste time telling a story. I wish that they did tell a story because the plot itself doesn’t make much sense while you watch it and when you are done. I also think that if they added voice to the two characters they could explain the story briefly wasting less time in the process. Even with some flaws the short still pretty good. I really enjoyed watching it, and at the end I wished it was longer. Many people felt that way because a couple of years later they released a full movie on 9 and his story. 

Genre Choice for Film

 Me and my partner ended up choosing the genre Coming of Age. This genre matches perfectly with our pitch and we really enjoyed researching it. Our movie will be about a teenager that is having problems at home and at school. This is a perfect Coming of Age movie because it matched everything we researched on. This genre wasn’t the one we were looking for in the beginning but after all the research it was the one that we were the most excited about. Out of the two other genres we researched Coming of Age is special to us because usually what happens in the movie is happening to us right now. When directing our movie will be very interesting because we know how adolescents feel about school and how stressful it can be. As a director I can add many things to the movie and details that have happened to me in my life. Me and my parter have watched so many Coming of age movies specially the ones listed in our previous blog. I am really excited to start working on this. We can’t wait to share the final project with you guys. 

Genre Research-(Romance)

 The Genre romance is a very popular genre in movies and it attracts a lot of people with different ages. The romance genre uses many different types of CAMS, the most used are Long shots, Two shots, Medium Shots and Establishing shots. They are used to really give the viewer the idea that what they are watching is a love story. Sound plays a really important part on films with the romance genre. Sounds like Voice overs, diegetic sounds, non diegetic sounds and ambient sounds are used a lot during a romance movie. An example of that is when a narrator does a voice over to tell a love story or talk about the two characters that are in love. CLAMPS is probably one of the most important parts of the genre. Props like rings, flowers, clothes always show in romance movies. They are so important to really show what the movie is about. Lighting also plays a big part on the movie because it is very important to have a romantic lighting at a dinner or on a date, and that’s what the directors do when shooting a scene in a romantic movie. Cross cutting is used a lot in romantic movies. It usually works by cutting from two people that like each other and how they feel about something that happed in a scene. Straight cuts are used as well to keep the moving going. Examples of romantic films are Dear John, The  notebook, The fault in our stars. I really enjoy this genre because of the storylines are always great. The settings are always nice and the cities that they are usually shot are beautiful. 

Genre Research-(Coming of Age)

 In a Coming of Age film there is a common theme when it coms to camera angles and shots. One the most commonly used shots is the close-up. They use this because it shows the viewers the characters emotions and/or shows how the character is changing. Along with the close-up, usually combined with it, an eye level camera angle is usually used. These are used many times during these coming of Age films, this is for one main reason. They are repeated so that as the movie progresses, you can see how the character's emotions and reactions change. Another shot used is the two-shot. These shots are mainly used to demonstrate intimacy, like when your main character is talking to their crush. To accompany many of these two-shots the director also uses tracking shots so they can film the two walking around places like their school. Speaking of location, a large percentage of Coming of Age films occur in a school, or have to do with a school. Going back to the close-up shots, an edit that usually comes right after the close-up is an eye-line match. As I said before the close-up can be used to show someone's reaction to something, so you must be shown what they are reacting to. Two examples of films in the coming of age genre would be the movie It, and the film Little Miss Sunshine. Coming of age films are actually some of my favorite movies, like Little Miss Sunshine. In these movies you get to connect emotionally to the characters more than other genres. You also get to see them change as the perceive more aspects of the world. I also feel like I can relate to them much more as they fit my age range. There are also some things that I dislike about them, one of which is the clichés. However, these are only really found in lower quality films. Another dislike of mine is the common themes, this is relatively acceptable as the genre has some pretty narrow restrictions.

Genre Research- (Epic)

 In an Epic movie there tends to be a lot of aerial shots, this is so they can show the audience the extent of a journey. An example of this would be in a lot of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings shot where they show the entire group walking up a mountain. They also use long shots that show the extent of nature of the beauty of their environment. Additionally, in an epic film they use tracking shots to show a conversation through some terrain. In a film there tends to be 5 types of movement: The camera moves in relation with an object , The camera moves in relation to people, People move in relation to the camera, People move in relation with each other and other objects in a frame, Framing elements move in relation to themselves or each other But when it comes to epic movies you will see a lot of tracking shots to carry the conversation. Common sounds in an Epic Genre are Diegetic Sound, Ambient Sound and Symphonic music scores. Epic films can really be put into two categories, mythic/fantasy epics and war epics. In a mythical/fantasy epic you would be heavily relying on nature, using costumes that represent the time period or the storyline. The same goes for epic, but the costumes would be more of a rusty, torn look. You would also see maybe broken trees or devastated areas. Usually an epic movie tends to use natural lighting since they are filmed in nature. However, movies nowadays are filmed inside with green screens, so they have to create their own. There is softer lighting. What I really enjoy from the Epic Genre are the battle scenes and the music. The story is also great most of the time. 

Genres I would like to research

  So, now that we have finished the movie pitch, Xavi and I will begin researching different genres. There are multiple reasons for this process. First, and probably the most obvious reason, is so we can correctly align ourselves with a specific genre. This will slightly shift our overall script, this will help us stick to one area and not go on unnecessary tangents during the film. Second, by identifying our movie with a specific genre will allow us to research common themes in the, sound, lighting, mis-en-scene, editing, and more. This helps sharpen our skills, especially in specific areas related to the genre we select. The first genre we we will be researching is, romance. We decided to select it because it does play a medium sized role in our film. During the film you will be able to see some shift due to the introduction of romance. It can also assist in many scenes, by this I mean the production of these scenes. Like when we research this genre we will be able to see certain aspects of lighting and angles. Even if we don't end up selecting this as our main genre we can still take parts of it. For our second genre to research we selected the coming of age geneere13. I am leaning towards this as the genre we should select for our movie. Xavi and I feel that this best fits our movie. When researching we can improve the production and we can also edit the script so that it fits the genre and common themes better. Finally, for our last genre to research we decided on epic. We knew that this wouldn't be our final selection for the genre, but we did have a major reason, the camera. When shooting a epic you tend to have a lot of long and birds-eye-view-shots, which is one thing we really wanted to incorporate into our movie. Those are the three genres we will be researching.