Possible Genre Choices

During our initial discussion about selecting the genre there were a few that kept floating around in the conversation, horror and comedy. These two genres are very different from each other in several ways.

Horror:

Horror films typically include a mysterious, dark, and unsettling antagonist, and an innocent, weaker, protagonist. Often times the stereotype is a teenage white blond haired girl is the protagonist, while a mysterious strong man or creature is trying to hunt her. The soundscape plays an integral role in setting the tone for the scenes throughout the movie. Tense, spooky music that is playing in the background is a common attribute of horror films. The colors of the majority of horror movies include dark, monotone colors to add to the mysterious, spooky aesthetic. These elements blend together to make the audience feel attached to the movie and evokes strong emotions of fear, terror, and horror among them.

Comedy:

Comedic movies usually have more than one star in the film. Whether this be a co-star or a group of characters leading in the film, they use the multiple characters to create more funny moments for the audience. The plot in these movies can range in a variety of things, but a common theme is that the main characters are tasked with a mission or something to do, and along the way they run into many obstacles or have funny moments that delay them. Comedies often consist of bright uplifting colors, with upbeat light music to blend in with the actions of the characters. Comedies are often mixed in with other genres as well. Numerous movies are romantic comedies, action comedies, or sometimes even a horror comedy. Comedies are an extremely versatile genre that can be used in different ways to achieve a goal or desire when producing and directing a film.

Start of Portfolio Project

The majority of the future blogs will be in relation to the portfolio project that we are starting to work on. This project is asking us to create a 2 minute film opening. These future blogs will serve as documentation of the process that my group and I went through to complete this project.

My groups' initial plans are to put our minds together and brainstorm a bunch of ideas for what we would shoot and how we would do it. Once we decide on the outline of this opening we will begin planning and organizing the work so that we break the massive workload up into several, manageable, chunks. We believe that these methods will ensure a smoother process in completing the project and submitting quality work.

Music Marketing project blog #2

The video below shows a behind the scenes look at the creation and work put into this project throughout the many stages. 

Music Marketing Blog #2

Music Marketing project post #1

We have been assigned over the span of a few weeks of creating a brand and persona for a new music artist coming onto the scene. The genre and song was chosen by the teacher. For my group's genre we got country music. 

For our researching we decided to research the marketing and brands of artists across the whole spectrum from world-renowned artists such as Dolly Parton, to upcoming stars such as Jackson Dean. Along with the artists themselves, we also researched the label that they are signed with and information on them. Using this newfound information we were ready to create our own country star. 

For the planning of the project we decided to pace ourselves. Knowing each other, if we didn't have a set schedule we would most likely end up rushing it in the last few days and miss out on creating higher quality pieces. This schedule outlined our deadlines for when we would like to have certain elements of the project completed along with the date that we planned on filming the music video that would work for us. 

For some of the parts of the project we set one person or two as a "manager" of that certain part of the project. For the storyboard that we would be referencing for our music video, we had one of our group members be the head of that assignment and as he would take comments and suggestions from the others, the story board was a main focus of his. We figured out our strengths and weaknesses and decided to plan accordingly so we could effectively create the best product we could, at an efficient pace.

Genre Research Activity

Genre

The genre I have chosen to research was War.

Genre Conventions-Content

Many movies that fit the genre of war are usually created with a very similar plot line, characters, and locations. Often if the movie is set in the World War 2 era, for example, then the main character may be a young kid from a rural area in America. As soon as he is old enough he would enlist and go fight with other kids on snowy harsh conditions in the trenches in countries such as France, Germany, Poland, or any of the pacific islands.

Genre Conventions-Production Techniques

In war movies the producers are tasked with conveying a scene that correctly emulates a war scene so that it feels real to the viewer. There are several ways that they could do this. Some things that the do to help convey the battle to the viewer is by having many explosives that kick up dirt or other things. Whether these explosions are special effects or are real, these loud noises and grand visuals can accurately emulate a war scene. The producers can also use the sound of gunfire to convince the viewers that they are almost in the war itself. This genre of film can be expressed with close up shots to show the characters raw emotions on the battlefield, and with extreme long shots to show the destruction war brings to landscapes and cities.

Institutional Conventions

Films in the war genre usually are marketed to the community in similar ways. In the trailers and teasers they show a fast-paced, action-packed minute or two, but also have some slower more calm, somber clips within it as well. Most war movies originally come out in the theaters first to allow for the viewers to experience the movie in a more serene way where they aren't going to be distracted by anything else.

Film Sample 1

All Quiet On The Western Front: This film is an extremely captivating war movie which depicts what a young kid went through during World War 1. This movies uses several of the visual effects previously stated and has a similar plot line as most other War films do.

Film Sample 2

Jarhead: This film is one of the all time classics when it comes to war movies. Even though the main character never actually shoots his weapon in combat, the producers were able to use other elements to immerse the audience in feeling the same way as the main character and the toll the war has taken on him.

Other Films

Other films include: 

American Sniper

Hacksaw Ridge

1917

Full Metal Jacket

Representation

 Stranger Things 

I decided to write my analysis about the television show Stranger Things. Stranger Things is a very popular Netflix tv series that is set in the 1980s and the main characters are these kids/teenagers and they are faced with fighting these monsters and supernatural creatures.  

Throughout the show the directors use lights and the flickering of these lights to alert the viewer of what may happen and give them a clue since whenever there is lights flickering something that has to do with the monsters or the parallel world from the show is about to happen. This use of representation is used vigorously within the couple of seasons the show has been out. 

 

^example of the flickering lights. 

Another use of representation in this show is whenever the character Eleven would use her powers she would get a nose bleed. This depicts to the viewers how whenever she uses her powers it hurts her a little, but even though it hurts she knows she must do it for the good of the group. 

 

^Eleven’s nose bleed 

Another use of representation in the show is how the directors created Joyce Byers. Joyce is Will’s mom in the show. In the first season Will goes missing and Joyce makes sure to do everything in her power to find him, and get him back. This depiction of a single mother represents the love they have for their child and how they would go to the ends of the earth to make sure that they are safe and ok. 

 

^Joyce Byers 

Sound Project

 We recently have been learning about soundscapes and how they can influence an audience during a film. We learned about how Foley sounds can be used to help create these soundscapes in tandem with digital sounds.

For the sound project we were tasked with partnering up and creating a soundscape for a short 1-2 minute film. This creation wasn't allowed to have any video. This allows for the sounds to be the only way for the audience to understand what is going on. We were allowed to use a maximum of 7 words in this film. We also had to use Foley sounds to create at least 4 of the sounds we would use for the production. The rest could be digital sounds.

We approached this project by first creating a word document to plan out what sounds we would use and in what order to properly tell the story. We decided on having the film be about someone taking a test in school. Once we figured that out we were able to create an order of where each sound should go. We also labeled which sounds we wanted to use for the Foley sounds. 

Our organized brainstorming sheet made the editing and creating process seamless as we had a clear and thought out plan for how we would assemble all of these songs.

The Foley sounds: PaulTaylorFoleyP1.MOV

The Soundscape video: Final Soundscape