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.