Wrapping up the short film

Hi, blog! This is the last blog of December! In this blog, I will be looking back on my journey of the short film and reflecting on what we did. This process wasn't easy. But it was fun. It was a lot of work but we managed to get it done. Since last year I've grown as a filmmaker in many ways and I'm happy about that. My partner and I were able to create a short 5-minute film to our liking! Reflecting on everything, there was a lot of hard parts. The planning phase and the editing was the hardest for me. The planning was hard because we had no idea what we wanted to do. I'm glad we were able to settle and be able to make a great short film. The editing phase was hard for me because of the constant technical problems. Being worried about whether your computer was going to run into problems was very stressful. However, I'm glad it only happened once because we were able to get it fixed and finish our film. The hard parts of creating the short film did make it very stressful but the easy parts also made it fun. The easy and fun part of the film creation was the filming itself. Directing and being an actor was fun and I'm glad we were able to bring our idea to life. Looking back I'm happy with what my partner and I created. In my opinion, I think the short film is good and I'm glad we made it. 

Finishing up the editing

 Hi, blog! In this blog, I will be talking about how my partner and I finished up editing our short film. This didn't take too long but it was eventful. After the trouble we went through last time we tried to edit we had to get it done now. First, we had to recover everything we lost the day before. We imported all of the files again and started editing. While doing that I noticed that we were missing a scene. This scene was the beginning of me in the closet. My partner and I just decided to leave it out and work around it and that ended up working for us. A problem that we ran into while editing was the time. Our film was severely over the limit. 2minutes and 30 seconds to be exact. We had about 7:30 worth of film and we needed it to be at 5 minutes. As a result, we had to cut all of the shots we didn't need. After that, our video software stopped working. My partner and I didn't know what to do because we wanted to see each other's screen but we met a compromise. We ended up using Facetime for iPhone. After that, we were able to finish editing. We ended up making the video around the time limit.

Errors we ran through while editing

 Hey, blog! In this blog, I will be talking about the problems my partner and I ran through while editing. Everything was going well for about 25 minutes. I was cutting all the shots, moving them to the timeline, and editing the movie. Then everything went bad from there. My computer started glitching and there was nothing I could do about it. While I was editing pixels started to randomly pop up on my screen. It got to the point where I couldn't see the video I was editing and I just had to wait. Then even more things started happening. My wifi went out. So that meant that my call with my partner dropped and I couldn't talk to him over discord. I had to go on my phone and facetime him to tell him what happened. So after that, I tried to troubleshoot the wifi problem on my computer and even more went worse. My computer froze. That meant we lost everything and we had everything gone. I tried to restart my computer but it wouldn't work. I ended up getting very upset and I had to take a break. My partner and I decided to just wait until the next day to start editing again and to let the computer have some time. We lost a lot of time, but we ended up getting some of the work back. 

Editing on Christmas day

 Merry Christmas blog! In this blog, I will be talking about the editing my partner and I did on Christmas eve/day. We didn't do a lot but it was enough to get some work done. We needed to get work done though because of the time limitations on us. The first thing we did was get on a discord call and start sharing our screen. Then we started to work. This process took a while. We decided to revert some of the file's composition. The reason why we did this because we could run into trouble while editing the film. We had to revert all of the files to a lower quality so it could be compatible with the editing software. The only reason why we knew about this is because of the trouble we ran into during our last CCR of freshman year. After that, we had to delete all of the files that weren't good. As a result of all the retakes we took while filming, we had to delete a lot. We didn't know what shots were retaken or not, so we had to go through each video to see which ones were good. This made my partner and I frustrated but we eventually calmed down. During this, my partner and I were doing more planning to see how we were going to construct our film. We talked about how we were going to put it into a film. We decided to start editing on the last couple of days of December. After this discussion, all of the videos finished converting, and we decided to import all of the shots into the editing software. This did take a long time, but it was enough time to be able to finish early and spend time with our families.

Planning for editing

 Hi, blog! In this blog, I will be talking about the planning me and my partner did for editing our short film. This was a long process because of the circumstances we are in currently. As a result of the upcoming holiday, My partner and I had to stay home and wait for the season to be over. We couldn't do that because of the upcoming deadline to submit the short film. I was originally supposed to go over to my partner's house and just edit on a single computer. But because of the holiday, we had to improvise quickly. After some brainstorming, my partner and I decided to use video chat software to talk to each other. It allowed us to share screens and see each other's faces at the same time. This program is called discord, and it ran very smoothly. The program also allowed us to edit together at the same time so that was a bonus too. The editing software my partner and I decided to use was called Hitfilm Express. Its a free software but it allowed us to do everything without a watermark or paywall. I've been familiar with this program for a while so this helped planning easier. So after getting everything installed, we decided to get everything on the computer. To do that I had to transfer everything from my phone to the computer. So I downloaded all the clips to google drive so I could access them on my computer. After that, I went to the website on my computer and downloaded them all. When I finished my partner and I decided to stop for the day and edit the following day. We are confident we can finish in a couple of days.

My final day filming

 Hey, blog! In this blog, I will explain the final part of the filming process. This took place on Sunday, and it took us about 3 hours to finish everything. That day was a better filming day for us. The weather was clear, no traffic, and the place where we needed to film was empty. The first thing we did was film the dialogue we started filming on Friday. This took a while because I kept forgetting my lines but eventually we got it done. The next thing we did was the box thing. In this scene, I open the treasure box and inspect all of its contents. We also had to redo it a couple of times because there was bad background noise. After that, we started to film the outdoor scenes. The first outdoor shot we filmed was me leaving the house. My partner has a tortoise that kept getting in the way but we just improvised and made me jump over it in the shot. The next shot we filmed was of me riding a bike to a nearby tree and reading a clue. This shot took a couple tries because it was windy and I did forget some lines. After that, we walked to the nearby lake and filmed the lake scene. This shot also took a couple of tries because of the wind, but we eventually got through it. After that, we went back to the house and retook the shots we needed to. We finally finished after three days of filming, and we were very happy. 

The reason why we couldn't film on the second day

 Hey, blog! In this blog, I will be explaining why my partner and I couldn't film the weekend after the first filming date. After school on Friday, I was able to bike to my partner's house after school and try to get all the work done that day but we ran into a big problem. That problem was rain. Most of the shots left required us to film outside, and we wouldn't be able to film while it was raining. We decided to wait for a while, but we realized the rain wouldn't stop any soon. My partner and I decided to just figure out a new date to film. After discussing for about an hour, we realized we needed to film soon. The date me and my partner decided on was the Sunday of that week. My partner had plans already on Saturday so we figured Sunday would be the next best thing. After that, my partner and I remembered there were a couple shots we could've done inside. The first shot we decided to do was a shot of me walking down the stairs. After that, we got a shot of me walking down the hallway to the kitchen. The lighting was fairly dim, but we managed to fix it with a small ring light. After that, we filmed some parts of the dialogue in the kitchen. After we finished there still was some time left so my partner and I just planned what we would film on Sunday. We marked all of the shots left on the storyboard and screenplay and I left after that. There were some shots that we forgot about but we just decided we can finish that on Sunday. Even though not filming everything that day was annoying, it still allowed us to get some work done.

My first day filming

 Hi, blog! For the next 8 days, I will blog about my filming, editing, and everything else. In this blog, I will be talking about my first day of filming! Before the filming days, we were able to plan and set up everything the week before December. The filming days were split over 3 days, and on the first day, we only had about a couple hours to film before sundown. I just got out of school, and I realized that we could fit some filming in so I biked to my partner's house. I live around 15-minutes away, so I managed to get there quickly. Since we only had around 3 hours to film before sundown, my partner and I decided to plan the next filming dates. The later filming dates were decided to be moved to somewhere in mid-term week because we would have more time after school. So for filming, originally we were going to film in chronological order, but we ran into a slight problem. My partner's dad had work to do later on in the day so we decided to do all the shots with him first. Filming all of the shots with his dad basically allowed us to get most of our movie done because he was in so many scenes. The first part that we filmed was the part when the main protagonist was first talking to his dad in the room. Then we were able to film all of the parts where Wallace (the main character) was talking to his dad downstairs without having Wallace talk. We decided to film the shot like that becuase we felt like it would be a cool idea to switch to each other's POV during their conversation. After that, we went back upstairs to film the part where Wallace finds about his mother's most treasured shoes. After that, we finished all of the scenes with my partner's dad and decided to film the ending scene after that. By the time we finished, the sun barely started to set. I think the first day of filming went well. It allowed us to get a lot done in a short time and it put me and my partner in a good position to finish the movie before winter break.

Preparation for filming

 Hey, blog! Today I will explain what I did during Thanksgiving break. My partner and I decided that we will film next Saturday. We needed to prepare more for the film, and that's what we did this week. I went to Roscoe's house during the weekend, and we started to prepare. The first thing we did was get the props. We got some old paper from a book and ripped them out for the box. After that, we got the sticky notes and placed them along with the paper. The next thing we got was the box. We didn't know exactly what type of box we wanted so we went searching. We ended up deciding between two different options. The first option was a beat-up, broken box in my partner's garage. It would fit the description of what we needed but anything that would be put in it would break the box. The second option was to beat up one of my partner's vintage shoe box. We decided to pick this option because it would be more convenient for us and it will be able to fit everything in it. The next thing we did was find the shoes. We ended up finding some beat-up shoes in my partner's closet and we diced to use them. The last thing we did was see if the bike was ready to ride on and it was. We rode to all of the locations in case anything would detour our filming process and everything was fine. After that, we went back home and now we are ready to start filming.

The lake we are going to film at^

Second day of our marketing campaign

 Hi, blog! Today I will be explaining what I did on the second day of building my website. This time the process went a little smoother. The first thing I did was hop onto a zoom call with Roscoe and I shared my screen. We discussed how we wanted to shape the website to our own liking. After a couple minutes, I was ready to complete the website. The first thing I did was create all of the tabs. The first tab I created was the homepage. This is the first thing people see so I made sure it popped out and drew attention. The second tab I created was the synopsis. This is where the page visitor could find out what our movie was truly about. Then I put when our film is going to come out and the reviews. This allows the reader to find out when they can watch our film and what other watchers feel about it. The next thing I did was creating a tab for our Social media accounts. I put the icons for Youtube, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook and with a click of a button, it will take you to the respective page. The next thing I did was create a tab for what film festival our movie could premiere at. I put the Fort Lauderdale Film Festival because it's the closest to the School. The next tab I created was the cast/crew. This contained Roscoe, his father, and I. So far, I am satisfied with the website but I think there could be a little bit more personality on it.

The first day of the Marketing campaign journey

 Hi, blog! Today I will be explaining the first day of my marketing journey. This process took me about 2 days and it was very time-consuming. To start off, the first thing I did was talk with my partner about how we would split the workload. We decided we would split the workload 50/50. Even though my partner had te higher workload last project, we decided for this project it would be better to split it. The weight would be too much on me and I most likely would not be able to finish everything.
I would do the website and he would create all of the social media accounts. At first, I thought the website would take a very small amount of time, but I was wrong. I've created websites before, for personal or school use, so I figured that this would be fairly easy. The reason why I had trouble creating this website was that this was the first time I used the Wix website creator. Since this was the first time I used this website creator, I didn't know where anything was or how to control it. To make matters even worse, my computer was very slow. Everything I clicked was delayed by a couple of seconds and then would take multiple seconds on end to load. This continued for about an hour until I decided to switch computers. As soon as I switched computers everything started to run smoother. For the rest of the day, I started to shape the website in Roscoes and I's image. At first, we didn't know what theme we wanted to use, but we ended up choosing a dark theme. The reason why we decided to use this theme is that it gives a calm but, mystery type feel.  After deciding the theme we agreed on fixing the rest of the website the next day.

Storyboard for short film

 Hey, blog! Today I will be telling you the process I went through to make the storyboard. The way we started was by going over the screenplay. Since everything is done over the web we had a zoom call reading over it and we decided how we were going to do the storyboard. Since I'm not as good at drawing as Roscoe, we decided to split the storyboard. Roscoe had 8 pages to do while I had 3. The reason why I only did 3 besides my drawing skills, was that I did the previous blog. When the work was assigned, Roscoe and I originally decided that I would do the planning blog and he would do the storyboard. We thought that it would be an equal load but the planning blog was fairly short so I decided to help Roscoe with the large workload. Even though I had a little bit of the load, it was very tedious to do. Since my printer broke last year, I never had the chance to get a new one. That affected me a lot on this project. What I ended up doing was drawing each storyboard on a piece of blank paper. I used a sharpie and drew everything like it was on the template. After that, I first got a pen and drew all the pictures. After that, I wrote all of the captions in. It took about 30 minutes to complete each page. When I finished I sent all of the pictures to Roscoe. When he got them he uploaded them all to his computer, made a google slide, and sent it to me. Overall this project was tedious to do but we got it done and that's what counts.

Planning for short film

In this blog, I will explain all the plans for our short film!

Schedule: For the scheduling, we are unsure at the moment but we are planning to do it on Saturday the 21st.

Location: The location where the short film will be filmed is in South Lake and Roscoe's house.

Participants: The participants will be Roscoe, His Dad, and I.

Health and Safety: Health and safety is a big thing during these times. Before each filming date, each person will get a COVID-19 test to be safe. When filming, in case anything bad happens Roscoe's dad will be there to supervise.

Props: The props will be a beat-up shoebox, A polaroid photo, beat up running shoes, a bike, sticky notes, and a buddha statue.

Costumes: The costumes used will be day to day clothes.

Short Film vs. Feature Length Film

Hi, blog, I will be comparing the two films 9 in this blog. One is a short film, and the other is a feature film. To start off I will be listing the qualities that the short film has and the feature film doesn't. One thing that the short film has that the main film doesn't is good pacing. Everything moves smoothly and the film is completed in 7 minutes. Another thing the short film has different from the feature film is the plot. The short film has no real plot and is just the cat beast chasing 5 and 9. Now ill be listing the things the feature film has but the short film doesn't. The main thing that the feature film has is dialogue. All of the different ragdolls have voice actors and significant dialogue. In the short film, nobody speaks. Also like I said before, the movie has a full-on plot. There are also more characters and villains. There are about 6 robot villans and 9 protagonist ragdolls. I personally liked the short film more than the movie. I didn't like the writing or the pacing in the movie, and everything was just executed better in the short film. Another thing that I preferred more in the short film was the use of no dialogue. I felt that the film was just fine without the ragdolls talking because you could understand their expressions. I also thought I was also cooler because it made me think and wonder why they weren't able to talk. They both were alright films in their own aspects but the short film was just better.

Research 9, the feature film

Hi, blog, I just watched another version of the short film 9! My impressions of this movie are not so well compared to the short film, however. This movie was directed by Shane Acker. But it was not produced nor written by him. The film was produced by Jim Lemley, Tim Burton, Timur Bekmambetov, and Dana Ginsburg. The film was written by Pamela Pettler. To start off, I think this movie was well-produced, just not well written. To give context there are 10 main characters: 9 ragdolls and one human that created them. He created them to stop a war against robots that run off human souls (he also created them) and to save the human race. Each ragdoll has one part of his soul. The movie starts with one ragdoll (9) waking up and meeting another (5), but he gets captured and starts a whole journey. Along the way, he meets the rest of the ragdolls and ends up defeating the mega robot. I think the plot is good, but like I said before it's the writing that throws it off. The characters often don't make sense in my opinion and are easily persuaded. There's barely any emotion, and when there is, it doesn't seem right. There's some character development, but the pacing is way too fast to realize it. The things I liked about the movie were the fight scenes and the lighting. The fight scenes were choreographed really well and were directed perfectly. You can see everything progress in a smooth motion and clearly. Besides those reasons, I didn't really like the movie, but I didn't hate it at all.

Research 9, the short

 Recently I just watched a short film called 9. It was mostly made by Shane Acker. Shane Acker is a director and producer who mostly makes short films. For this movie, he was the writer, producer, and director. This was an assignment provided by UCLA for a workshop. My impressions of this short film are pretty good. There wasn't exactly a plot but everything was straightforward enough to understand. Even though the short film was only 7 minutes long, I felt connected to the characters. Even though they never said a word, you could tell they had feelings. I also liked the idea of the characters not talking. They expressed more because of that. Another thing I liked was the characters themselves. Since there were only three characters, not much work was needed to express things. I liked how the monster took away 5 because it added to the suspense and it showed how much 9 was scared. The ragdoll was a cool concept but I felt like everything needed more backstory.  Another thing I liked about the short film was the pacing. It started off a little slow but it got straight to the point about a couple minutes in. One thing I didn't like was the lighting. I get how it was supposed to take place in a dystopian setting but not everything had to be so dark. Other than that, I really liked the short film.

Genre Choice for Film

 To conclude our search for our movie genre, my partner and I finally made our decision. We have decided to pick the mystery genre. The reason why we chose mystery out of the other two is that it fits our movie the best. Since our film is about finding treasure, at first we were thinking about doing an adventure film. We originally wanted to chose it, but, we didn't want our movie to be generic, like most adventure films. The reason why we didn't pick a thriller was that it just didn't fit our pitch that well. We didn't want an action-heavy movie or a gloomy tone, and there was no way to complete the film without those aspects. With all that said, the mystery genre is the best fit for our film. Some reasons why the mystery genre is the best fit includes the aspects, the pacing, and the suspense. To fit our pitch, we need those features to make our film the best it can be. The aspects of a mystery genre for our movie we want is the way of solving conflict, the stakes, the atmosphere, and the red-herrings. Those aspects allow us to shape our film and fits the theme of finding clues to solve a mystery. The reason why we like the pacing of mystery movies is that it allows us to build suspense. The quick pacing gives the conflict less time to be solved, builds tension, and keeps the flow of mystery throughout the film. The reason why we like the suspense of mystery films is because it holds the whole movie together. Suspense holds the movie together in hand with the pacing and the tension leaving the watcher on its seat. For example, a film that does all of that is Enola Holmes. It connects to all those aspects perfectly and shows that it works. Our group doesn't need to change our pitch because it fits just right with the genre.  We are happy with what we chose and we believe that this genre allows our movie to be the best it can.

Genre research- Mystery

The aspects of the mystery genre include:

  • Common cams:

- Shot/reverse shots, mid-shots, close-ups, wide shots, close shots, extreme close-ups, high-angles, low-angles, pan shots, tilt shots.

  • Common Sound:

-Non-digetic sound, diegetic sound, dialogue, and ambient sounds.

  • Common Mis-En-Scene

-Clothing specifically varies to match the era/location in which the film was set in. Usually has dark lighting, has makeup that varies to match the era/location in which the film was set in, props depending on the movie(letters, clues, etc.), Setting depends on the movie.

  • Common editing 

-Mostly cuts and fades to show the passage of time.

  • Example of films 

- Zootopia, Enola Holmes, Knives Out 

  • Elements of the genre I like

- The pacing, the suspense, and that most mystery movies leave me satisfied with a good ending.

  • Elements of the genre I don't like

- Corny conflicts or plots. 

Example of a mystery movie: 

Genre research- Thriller

The aspects of the Thriller genre includes:

  • Common cams:

- Bird's eye view, dutch angles, Low angle, Close-ups, shot reverse shot, Extreme close up, zooms, and tracking shots

  • Common Sound:

-Diegetic, and sometimes intense background music

  • Common Mis-En-Scene

-Basic costumes, just normal civilian clothes, dark lighting, any shape or sized actor, popular, or unknown, basic makeup, props can range from a pencil to something like a gun, settings can be anything nonfictional and fictional

  • Common editing 

- Fast and slow-paced editing, using a lot of quick cuts and drawn out scenes

  • Example of films 

- Fight club and A quiet place 

  • Elements of the genre

- I love the excitement, thrills, and terror that the films bring, it is very engaging 

  • Elements of the genre I don't like

- Sometimes the suspense is too long of a wait, and it doesn't follow up with a compatible amount of thrill.

Example of a thriller: 

Genre research- Adventure

The aspects of adventure movies include:

  • Common cams:

- Long shot, Mid shot, close-ups, point of view shots, over the shoulder shots, mid-angles, low-angles, high-angles, birds-eye view, pans, and tracking shots.

  • Common Sound:

- Diegetic sound, non-diegetic sound, dialogue, and ambient sounds.

  • Common Mis-En-Scene

- Varies in costumes, (usually jungle wear), usually bright lighting, regular makeup just to brighten faces, props vary depending on the movies (boulders, artifacts, etc.), setting varies on the location (usually in a jungle, temple, city, or space)

  • Common editing 

- Cuts, dissolve and fades.

  • Example of films 

- The Goonies, Jumanji

  • Elements of the genre

- Action, excitement, Grand journeys, Courageous  Protagonist, Evil adversaries

  • Elements of the genre I don't like

- Sometimes are riddled with trophies and overdone ideas, also many films revolve around a miguffan.

 • Elements of the genre I do like

- Very fun and interesting quests, Feels like you're on the adventure with the characters. An overall solid genre.

Example of an adventure film: 

Genres I Would Like to Research.

To continue on with our project, we needed to add on to our idea. we need to find the genre for our project. We brainstormed some ideas about the project and found three genres that could fit with our pitch. The first Idea genre that we thought of is the genre of Mystery. The genre of mystery is about the solving of a death or a crime by a detective of some sort. However, our pitch does not deal with murder or a well-known detective. It but will be based on the core idea of solving a mystery with clues that the protagonist has to follow. The protagonist will act and mock the stereotypical actions of popular fiction detectives like sherlock holmes. This is probably my second favorite genre for the project. I had this genre in my mind when we were creating the pitch. The Second genre that we brainstormed is the Thriller. The thriller genre consists of using the themes of suspense, excitement, emancipation, and anxiety. Even though the pitch we created didn't have the idea of it being a thriller in mind, it does have the themes of it. It could be easily turned into a thriller if we just use darker ideas, and have a different tone. The last idea that we thought of is the Adventure genre. The adventure genre consists of a journey or a quest that the protagonist has to travel through, where he learns lessons on the way, leading to his end goal. This genre fits even more with the pitch than the original genre we thought of. We would probably make the short film reminiscent of "The Goonies". Having an exciting riddle in the film. This is my favorite genre of film, and I wanted to make a film using this genre last year, but at the time, I didn't have a good idea. These are 3 really good ideas, but we need to pick one.

Pitch for short film

 Before a kid goes to exchange school his dad gives him a list of clues leading to treasure about his deceased mother.

How and why I chose my group

 Hello, blog! It's been one whole year since I've started media studies. Its been a long, but fun journey, and this year I've decided to take the A level class of media studies. Taking on this class will be a little more challenging than the previous year's version but I'm sure with the help of my partner and the guidance of my teachers ill be fine. For my group, I've decided to partner with one person. The person I've decided to partner with is Roscoe. The reason why I've decided to partner with him is because we partnered last year in the AS level and we already know each other. Since our other two partners decided to not take the A level portion of Media Studies we've decided to only have two people. We are already comfortable with each other already and we don't want to go through the process of finding new people for our group. We think we will do just fine managing the workload. The way we'll manage the workload is by splitting the work in half. Roscoe and I envision the same thing and we want the best quality possible for our final project. We have the same ideas and we trust in each other's effort. I will be working on all the technical aspects like filming, editing, and website design. Roscoe will be focusing on all of the design aspects such as storyboarding, ideas, and creative designs. The reason why I chose the technological aspects is because of my love for technology. I love filming and using the internet and it makes me happy. The reason why Roscoe will be focusing on the design aspects because he is extremely creative and he has great envisions for things. I am really happy I have a good partner for this project and I believe we will do great in media studies this year.

Audience and Institution Practice Essay

Assess the importance of marketing in the media area you have studied.

 

            Marketing in the film industry is very important. It is used to promote and promote awareness for upcoming films that are going to be released. However, many question whether marketing is truly essential for films to grow and gain money.

               To start, without marketing, most films would not have the traction it has today. Marketing is important because it can grow the audience of the film, and it can help the movie do better in the box office. For example, Spider-man Homecoming made $880,166,350 in the box office. This would not happen without marketing. The marketing techniques Sony Pictures used to promote this film was using synergy, cross-media promotions, and merchandising. They used synergy by partnering with cinnamon toast crunch to promote their film while people eat the cereal. This important to the film company because many people buying this type of cereal would see this branding and it might have pulled more viewers which would result in more money. They used cross-media promotion by making a music soundtrack and releasing it the same day as the movie. This brought in viewers to the film by using music from the artist Michael Giacchino. Some of his fans might have liked the music and could’ve checked out the movie. The merchandising helped the most. The marketing team used toys to promote the movie by getting into a younger audience for the film. The marketing team also partnered with Sony’s gaming market to produce a game for the PS4. This created a buzz for the movie and increased profit for the film.

               Another example of films that use marketing techniques to help build profits is Furious 7 and Jurassic World. They are both distributed by Universal Studios and released in 2015. Together they made $3,185,448,308 in the box office. Marketing did play a big role in this. They both had trailers and posters informing audiences of the release and both used many other different marketing skills. They used video games to broaden the audience and that brought in many other viewers. However, they didn’t use all of the same marketing skills. Because Jurassic World wanted to have a broad audience, they merchandised toys and figurines to attract younger viewers. Furious 7, on the other hand, used shirts and accessories to gain traction. Both films also used cross-promotion to promote the film, but Jurassic World branded on food while Furious 7 partnered with a phone company. As you can see these efforts to market both films paid off greatly maximizing profits for Universal Pictures.

               The last example is Lego Movie 2: The second part. The sequel did not make as much money as its predecessor. It only made around $100,000,000 in the box office which was around 270,000,000 less than its predecessor. The marketing may have something to do with that. The marketing consisted of the basic things that every other movie does including its predecessor. It used merchandising and cross-media promotion. They only released Lego sets and a video game which resulted in the movie not standing out.  People were not motivated to watch the film because they thought it might be the same thing as the first movie. They also partnered with a few companies to promote the film, but it still did not perform like the prequel. The lack of marketing resulted in a huge setback for the film’s release.

               To conclude, marketing is essential in the film industry. I have watched all of the movies except the Lego Movie 2. The marketing was an influence on me because I watched most of those movies because of the trailers and the promotions and the Lego Movie 2 did not stand out to me as the others did. Most films do well because of the promotion and traction it gains and it would not be like that without marketing.

Game of Thrones Extract Essay

The Game of Thrones extract constructs meaning through camera shots, angles, movement, editing, sound, and mise-en-scène in many ways. The different types of CAMS, editing, sounds, and mise-en-scene makes this extract stand out. While conducting this, the director developed an amazing theme. The theme that I felt was conveyed through this extract was the struggle to keep loyalty, while getting your superiors to agree with you at the same time.

The first scene is short, but it still builds on the theme of the extract. At the beginning of the first scene, there is an aerial shot showing a ship moving on the sea, with ambient sound in the background of seagulls and birds chirping. The people on the ship are wearing old fashioned clothes showing that this takes place long ago. This adds to the theme by showing the conditions that they’re in and shows the watcher what the people on the ship must go through to get to their destination. The lighting is gloomy but it’s bright enough to show the surroundings. Then, there is a jump cut to two men staring off into the distance to where they're headed. This helps construct the theme by showing the people getting ready to face what’s to come, building suspense. The score adds even more suspense. Then the camera zooms out to show the conditions they’re in and then transitions into an establishing shot of where they’re going. The establishing shot shows a large city, where the men are headed. When showing the city in an aerial shot the lighting quickly brightens. This builds on the theme of the extract in many ways. At the beginning the gloomy feel builds suspense and the quick transition to the bright lighting and the city heightens that suspense to show there is something to come.

Right when the second scene starts, the score cuts away. The two men are now in a room waiting for people to come. In a two-shot transitioning to a wide shot shows the two men start to talk about how far they came only to be waiting for hours in. This gives a background on what’s happening and adds to the theme at the same time. This builds suspense because they are angry. After all, this meeting was important to them. They came this long way to make a negotiation with their superiors and they haven’t shown up yet. The lighting is somewhat dark, but you can see the men pacing and talking. This creates a gloomy feel adding to the suspense and theme. The doors in the room open loudly and three men dressed elegantly walkout. They seem like they have authority over the men, telling them to sit down after they do on three giant chairs. The setting and the dialogue adds to the theme showing that this meeting is important. The two men sit down, but they’re hesitant because they were upset, they had to wait. This builds to the theme because it shows the struggle to build loyalty. The meeting starts and the dialogue between the men is hostile because they’re angry. This further adds to the theme. As the dialogue continues, we find out that one of the two men is related to the king and they’re trying to come to an agreement with the superiors. The CAMS change consistently showing different angles of this meeting. At one point the angle is a low-wide angle behind the two men showing the power difference. Another thing to note the man in the middle of the three superior men is talking calmly but condescending while the two men are starting to get angry. That furthers the buildup of the theme. While the two men are trying to negotiate the superiors decide that they don’t want to work with the two men. The two men get up and one of them starts to talk back to the superior trying to negotiate one more and build loyalty and trust. While this is happening there is a shot/reverse shot showing the conversation as it gets faster. This builds suspense by the rate they’re talking at. This also adds to the theme as the last struggle to build loyalty and getting the superiors to listen. In the end, the man talking to the superior is getting points in and the superior tries to stop the conversation, but it does not work. The man points at his partner saying they need to pick him and demanding change. The camera cuts back to the man surprised. This shapes the theme, furthering the struggle to build loyalty while trying to make superiors listen to them.

I feel like I am right on this theme because everything adds up together. The CAMS, sound, mise-en-scene, and editing combine to shape my theme perfectly.

Game of thrones Extract Worksheet

Final blogs: The final CCR

 Hello, blog. This is the final project for media studies. In this CCR I will explain how I completed my movie. This project took the most amount of effort and work. I made a news broadcast like a skit for my CCR. I used cuts, inserted clips from my movie and even added in a news intro.  It took me about 3 hours to write the script and the entire day to edit. I filmed using my iPhone 8 plus and edited it on my computer. I ran into some problems around the way but I'm very happy with how it turned out. The CCR falls into the time limit, so I was very proud of that too. This journey was been very fun and I am happy I learned everything I could this year.

Final Blogs: The movie

      This is my final project, the movie. This is the project that took the most time and effort to work on. For this project, Zeke and I decided to team up with our old group again because we wanted to perfect this movie. We made the first two minutes of a thriller movie. The reason why we chose this was that we wanted to make an interesting and suspense-filled film. We all liked the concept of making a thriller so we agreed on it. The plot we decided to do was this: The main character finds themselves involved in some dangerous business and goes on trying to escape their captures and keep themselves from life in a cell". It worked perfectly with our genre and we were able to create the perfect movie.
      By the end of this project, I can say I have improved all of my skills. At the beginning of the year, I was new to everything and I barely knew how to use a camera. Now I can make use of the environment, film in tight spaces, and even edit on different editing software. This journey has been exciting and I'm glad I had the opportunity to take this class.

Final blogs: Looking back at my music video

This is the music video. It is portraying the song "Hey There Delilah". This was the second project we had to do this year and my skills were getting better. The music video is about two lovers in a long-distance relationship. The reason why we chose this song is because of the many opportunities we had with it. There was many places we could've filmed it but, since the song took place in New York we decided to film at Young Circle. It looked similar to Central Park, so we had to take the opportunity to film there.
The thing I did the most this project was filming. The reason why I did more filming is that I changed groups. My last group ended up splitting and Zeke and I decided to partner with Peter. He was really good at editing so I decided to film. We also ended up not using the school camera because it was dead but I was lucky enough to have enough charge on my phone to film. It was smooth and reliable and I was able to get the shots done perfectly. I couldn't focus on my editing skills that much in this project but it all-around turned out great.

Final blog: Looking back at the commericial

Looking back at my commercial, a lot has changed since then. At the beginning of the year, I barely knew anything. I didn't know how to film using a camera, I didn't know how to set a tripod up, and I didn't even know how what a mis-en scene was. All of that was fairly new to me and this project helped prepare me for more that was to come in the future of this class. We came up with the idea for Nike because of our liking of shoes. For this project, I did mostly the editing and the filming. I didn't know how to do it that well but I ended up getting better as time passed on.
        When making this commercial I also teamed up with a great group of people. Paige, Roscoe, Zeke, and I all thought we would make a perfect team. With time we were eventually right with that assumption, but in this project, we weren't. I felt like for this project we had the most divided group. We'd argue over little things and we had trouble getting work done, however, we did submit everything on time and we got over all the drama eventually.
   

Coronavirus blog: The future of our project

Hello Blog, today I’m going to be talking about how I couldn’t finish filming today. As I said in my last blog it is way harder to get things done with a pandemic currently going on. Also, I am going to touch a little more on this pandemic in this blog. This pandemic that’s currently going on is called COVID-19. It closed schools around the nation including ours until April 15th. It’s a virus that mainly attacks the respiratory system and it originated from animals. It affects the elderly and people with underlying health conditions currently. It started in China at the beginning of 2020. Now it’s all over the globe. That is a huge problem for our Media studies group because we want to stay safe during these hard times. So we’ve decided currently to just work on the rest of our project at home.

    The way we came to this decision was through group FaceTime. We figured this was the safest and most effective way of communicating so we used it. Originally we were going to reshoot one more time, but we just think it was best for all of us to not. What we are going to instead, uses group FaceTime to finish editing our film. Paige is going to share her screen and we are going to give helping tips. We’re also going to download the music and other stuff she needs and send it to her. We are also happy we ended up switching to iMovie for editing. The reason why we’re glad we switched is that if we didn’t all of our edited software would be stuck at school. However, it’s still hard for us to finish our project regardless but, we will get it done.

Re-Filming blog: Coronavirus

     Hello blog, today I’m going to talk about how re-filming went. To start off, a lot has happened since my last blog. Since the beginning of this year, there has been a virus going around that affected many, and recently it hit the USA. With the scare happening close to us in Broward county, all the schools in our county had to close. Now we had to figure out how we could film quickly, in case we needed to stay home. So yesterday, we all decided that we should re-film. We got all of our stuff ready and we went to Paige's house to film. When I got there, we had to wait a little while for Zeke to come because he was providing the truck and there was traffic. After he arrived, we were fully set to film.

    The first thing we did was re-shooting the shots we needed with Zeke’s dads' car. The reason we did those shots first was that Zeke's dad needed to use his car for work and we didn’t want him to be late. The first shot we did was; Roscoe and I walking behind Zeke with the car in the background. We redid that shot twice because, the first time because I tripped on a rock but we got it perfect the second time. After that, we realized something large. The alleyway street was recently paved. This meant that we would have to redo every shot in the alley because of the pavement. We decided that we would reshoot the rest of those shots another day later this week because of our strict time frame. When Zeke's dad left, we had a couple more shots to do. We redid the shot where Zeke gets a phone call from his mom and changed it to him getting a text. The reason why we did this was that it flowed better in our movie, and it added another good shot. After that shot we finished re-filming we could do, and we decided that we will reshoot the tying up scene on the day when we do the alley shots. 

Editing blog: Ups and Downs

 Hello, In this blog I am going to tell you what I did today and on Tuesday. A lot happened that short period. To start, I'm going to talk about Tuesday. Tuesday was a rough day for editing because a lot was going wrong. When we first got into class, we were assigned to just work on our film so we did. However, when we started editing, iMovie started glitching. One of our group members was assigned to finish the titles, and while he was doing that the whole screen went black. We were trying to troubleshoot the program but nothing would work. Then we resorted to quitting out of the program. But, we were worried that we will lose everything yet, we took the chance. Luckily it worked; temporarily. Once the problem arose again, we just decided to restart the computer and it worked for the rest of the class.
   Today, we finally finished the titles. Since the last class, we weren't able to get much work done, we managed to do it all this class. So at the beginning of class, Paige and Roscoe decided they wanted to fix up the fonts and arrange the titles properly. Paige put it all in the same font and color, while Roscoe arranged them. After they finished Zeke and I were tasked to fix the sound. Our group last class also decided that they wanted to change some of the sounds today. So I went on youtube, found a good NCS, and downloaded it. After that, Zeke imported it into photoshop, and we were done for the day.
 

Editing Blog: Finishing up the sound

In this blog, I'm going to tell you what happened in the last class. Right when we got to class, we were able to work on whatever we needed to for our final task. So in class, we continued editing our project. Two classes ago, we moved everything from our phone to our computer. The reason that we did this was because of how much quicker and easier it is to edit on the Mac version of iMovie. We got a lot done that period but not everything. So we decided we should finish the titles and sound. The first thing we did was download the sounds. Two classes ago, I got 3 No Copyright sounds that fit into our movie. But we ended up needing more sounds. So Roscoe and I went on YouTube and we found 3 more sounds that fit into our movie. After that, I went and downloaded all the mp3's of the sounds and I imported them into iMovie. Now I had to place all the sounds in the correct order. So first, I had to mute all the scenes that did not need sound. About half of the scenes did not need sound. Then I had to place the sounds in the correct order. I placed the natural city background noise in the beginning scenes, I put the first suspenseful music when Zeke starts running, I put the second suspenseful music when Paiges first scene happens, I put the happy music when Zeke puts in his headphones, I put the third suspenseful sound when the car starts following Zeke and I put all the dialogue where it needed to be. After that, we were done with the sound process. The whole group liked most of it, we had to change one sound that did not fit the whole theme of the movie. Besides that, the sound editing process went well. When I finished Zeke did all the titles in the correct order and we finished for the day.

Peer review blog: Why we couldn't peer review

    Hello blog, today I'm going to tell you why my group didn't do the peer review. In the last blog, I explained that on March 3rd, we had an important assignment to do. That was the peer review. Yet, we had no one to peer review and no one was here to peer review us. That was a huge problem for our group because the peer review is worth a lot of points in the grade book. At first, our group was freaking out because we could get 0's for not doing a peer review. But our hope was later restored when we noticed that we had someone to peer review, it just wasn't written on the sheet. Meanwhile, the person that had to peer review us wasn't here so we couldn't give anything to them. Later on in the period, the girl's name got written on the sheet and we now had the chance to get the assignment done. But when we asked her for her project, she wasn't finished and she wasn't able to give anything for the peer review.
   After that, we went back to our seats and we started talking about what we should do. At first, we were going to email our teacher and ask her what to do, but then we remembered she said if we couldn't do a peer review, blog about why you couldn't. In the end, we calmed down and we decided to touch upon our project for the rest of the period. We ended up doing a lot of work. At first, we used iMovie on our phones to edit because Pinnacle Studios wasn't working but that ended up being ineffective too. So we decided to scrap the whole edited version and we re-did the editing on iMovie for macOS. This gave us the ability to do many things, for example, it allowed us to add different types music to our movie without paying for it, it allowed us to use different fonts and colors for our titles, and it had a vast selection of editing tools that we weren't able to access on our phones. The process of editing everything again was short. I did the titles, Zeke did the music, Paige arranged everything and Roscoe did the transitions. We still have a little more to do, but we will finish in no time. 

Editing blog: Putting everything together

    In this blog, I am going to tell you how I started editing my final AICE Media Studies project. Since the end of the year is creeping up on us the stakes of passing this class are getting higher. Yesterday the 26th, we started editing our final project: Seized. Since we got everything filmed last week we were completely set to edit our film. However, we had to finish editing sooner than we expected. At first, we thought we had about two-three more weeks to complete our project, but we actually have about a week left to. The reason why we have such little time to complete our project is because of an assignment that we have due next week; the Peer review. The Peer Review is other groups grading and giving feedback on another group's project. To be able to review and get reviewed we need to turn something in. Without turning something in for someone to peer review, we could have our grade drop greatly. With that being said, we needed to get a lot done with editing yesterday.
     When we started editing we had to do a lot. I had to pick all the scenes with Paige to put in the film and Zeke and Roscoe had to arrange them in order. This was time-consuming because we had over 50 different shots in total and we had to skim through each one to see what was right. In the middle of this, we had a problem, at first, we thought we had too little shots because the filming process was very short. However, in the end, we had too many shots. We had about 3 minutes, which was over time we should've had. We ended up cutting a lot of scenes to get in our time frame. After that Paige and I helped Roscoe and Zeke arrange the scenes and we finally finished editing. Although we finished everything, we didn't think that our project currently matches our potential, so this upcoming weekend we plan to reshoot some shots to finish this film perfectly. 

Filming blog: Starting to Film

           In this blog, I am going to tell you how my first day of filming went. We filmed on Saturday the 22nd. Like I said in the last blog, we filmed at Paige's house. Right when I got to Paige's we started filming. The first thing we did was filming Zeke walking to the end of the street. At first I was the person who held the storyboard and told everyone what to do. But later on, I was the person who was filming. I acted as the "director" of the movie because I was helping everyone to film the movie. Time to time while filming the walking scenes we had to re-shoot some scenes because some times we messed up. After we finished up the walking scenes, It was my turn to be in the scenes.
           When I finished filming the last scene without me in it, we went and got Zeke's dad who was waiting with the truck. The first scene we filmed with the truck was with his dad driving behind the wheel and I had to film his arms on the steering wheel. Then we did some tracking shots, handheld shots, and pans. After that we had to film the kidnapping scene. I gave Paige the camera, we got the bat and Roscoe and I got in the car. We had to redo the kidnapping scene only once, which was really good for us because we had more time to film the interrogation scene. All I did was fake hit Zeke with the prop bat and threw him in back of the truck. After that we were done filming with the truck and we did the interrogation scene. At first, the room we were in was very bright and we needed a dark room, so we hung up curtains over the window and that problem was solved. However we re shot this scene many times. Me and Roscoe did not know how to tie a rope so we kept on having to redo the scene because we kept messing up. Eventually we tied Zeke up and we finished filming the interrogation scene and we finished for the day.

Filming blog: Why we didn't film

   In this blog, I am going to explain why I wasn't able to film. In the past week, I was in Boston, Massachusets with one of my media studies partners, Zeke. I was there because I had a very important debate tournament. The debate tournament was at Havard University and it was on a universal basic income. I stayed in Boston from 2/13 - 2/18 so there was no way I could film that weekend. I did have the storyboard blog due on the 13th, and I ended up finishing it when I was in the hotel. It was pretty much a rough draft of how our film will end up when we finishing filming and editing. It included all the camera angles, titles, and scenes. When I got back, our group decided that we will start filming this weekend.
    The reason why our group is going to start filming now is that we have so much more to do. We also want to finish filming early so we can perfect our film. It's also best for me too because I know the most about editing so filming early can allow me to have more time to improve the quality of our movie. Another thing that I think will help his movie become perfect is the parents. They have many resources that will help with lighting and they will be providing us with the vehicles. Without them, we wouldn't be able to even make this movie. I am very thankful for them. We will also still be filming at Paige's because we all feel like its the safest thing for us. I also like filming there because her house is close to mine and that's very convenient for me and my parents. I also feel like the filming process will be easy because we have all the equipment we need. We got a tripod, a camera, and multiple people who are willing to help film for us.

 Me and Zeke in Boston

Planning blog: Storyboard

Moving forward to this step in our experience of making a film, it was time for us as a group to come together and really visualize the entirety of it and everything that will be included. This story board that we've made has come together with all of us putting in work. We all had the same vision at the beginning when deciding on this topic, but now that we needed to think of the extremes and every detail put into it, it was much harder for us to agree. After many disagreements, we finally made a story board that we can all agree is perfect and high grade work. In this story board, we've drawn the exact layout of the film and how it's going to go down in terms of looks. The descriptions under each picture tell us the more extreme details including whats going on in the scene, camera angles, camera movements, and what titles will go where. The drawing and descriptions were not perfect, but they're more than enough to give us a sort of guideline when we actually start to film. We plan to follow the storyboard exactly as written but if it doesn't turn out that way, we will make a few adjustments. Being that this is only the blueprint of the film, it's okay for us to stray away a little if we have to or if we have a better idea. We are now just a few days away from picking up a camera and starting our first scenes to this project.

Planning blog: Titles design

Today, our group finished working on how the titles will be. We decided again to use google slides to create our presentation. It has benefited us in many ways because of its various capabilities. We decided on our titles by watching many titles on artofthetitle.com and seeing how they work. This helped a lot because it gave us a rough draft of how ours is supposed to look. While working on how the titles would look we came across a problem. The problem was whether we should just randomly put the titles on the screen or let them fade on when something happens. Paige and Roscoe thought the random idea was better because it would be easier to do, but Zeke and I thought that the other way was more visually appealing and fit the genre more. Eventually, we decided on putting the titles on the screen as something happens because it would fit the thriller theme we were looking for more. Besides that, we feel like the titles will come out great and we are glad we came to an agreement.

Planning blog: Location, Participants, Health and Schedule

Today, our group completed our schedule and decided on our locations, participants and health and safety plan. We used a google slides presentation because we believe it is the best way to put all of these important things together. Google slides are a good way to put together many different elements of our film and to add photos. We decided on our locations based on proximity and environment. There was an issue amongst our group about where to film. The issue arose because the group was divided as to whether a more populated area was better or worse. In the end, our group came to the conclusion that a less populated area was better and if necessary we will get extras. We had no disagreements about the participants because we have enough with just us and can use any more volunteers that wish to participate. Our safety and health plan was also easy to create because we all agree that safety is our top priority. Overall we have completed our schedule and decided on other important details to make our film the best possible.

Planning Blog: Shooting Script

Today we finally got to write our shooting script, which is one of the most important parts of the planning stage.  We finally got to flesh out our ideas for our movie and really figure out what's going to happen in each scene.  Even though we were excited on the idea side, it was hard to fit every single idea in and what direction should we take some scenes in. We all had some different takes on what the story should be and how it was presented. Some of us wanted an interrogation scene, which is at the end of the shooting script to be at the beginning, while others didn't want that at all. As a group we decided on our final shooting script, not as one of our group members' ideas, we decided to make a compromise between all of us. We think that all of the ideas that we implemented work smoothly and that balance each other out. The plot that we created, is very interesting to all of us and is pretty good. We have a lot of intriguing details that we would like to add to this shooting script but were on a time limit. All in all, we all think that we made a good shooting script.

Planning blog: Sound Scripts

In this blog, we'll be going over what we will actually say as actors in this film. There won't be a lot of dialogue because the only time the main character reacts with people is when he is hit upside his head and thrown into the back of the car. There will be however some dialogue between the antagonists of the film before they plan to execute their task of taking the boy. We plan on having these kidnappers communicate through phone calls to their colleagues before the next scene takes place. Also in the vehicle, we are using there will be some short speaking here and there. In this blog, we will be including the short google slide show of what exactly will be said. In each slide, we have a new time someone speaks either the main character or the kidnappers. The speech will be short and not have much elaboration at all. It will also be specified whether the conversation is in person or through a cell phone. When we start to film, we plan on following this script to the exact so the last-minute changes aren't something we need to necessarily worry about. If forever reason we are forced to make a slight change to the dialogue, we will do so. This dialogue should be one of the last pieces towards starting the filming of this clip.

Title Research: Split

This title sequence came from artofthetitle.com and it is from the movie Split released by universal studios

1. How many titles are shown during the opening sequence:

There are 23 titles shown during the opening sequences. All of the slides show one title beside one slide that shows two titles.

2.What images are Prioritized during the opening sequence:

In the title sequences, clips of the main protagonist asleep are mostly shown. Also, small glimpses of the basement are shown too.

3.What connotations do the images carry:

The multiple titles in the sequences jitters around a little to show the movie's uneasy feeling.

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

The genre is reinforced through symbolic and technical codes from the outset by how the characters are displayed by the short scenes we get to see. In the scenes with the main protagonist and villain being just a little blurry for the protagonist and completely blurred for the villain, giving a disturbing and foreboding feeling which generally starts of most thrillers.

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

The film establishes an enigma from the outset by basically having of its shots is very puzzling.

for first time viewers, you don't know who these characters and why are they in this area being carried and being put on a bed. Everything feels like something's wrong but you don't know what.

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

 The main strategy that the film used to ensure it appealed to its target audience is to show what type of genre it is. With the unsettling feeling some of the shots gave, a viewer can easily tell that this movie is not meant for a child audience and should probably be taken seriously. With all of the conventions, it follows a viewer can easily tell that its a thriller movie, and if it fits their taste of movie genre.

7.How has technology been used effectively?

In this title sequence, technology has been used effectively. All of the jump cuts that were edited together were perfect, with just the right amount of time. The camera angles were also fantastic with showing enough to know what's kind of happening but not showing some stuff to keep you still questioning. To continue with, and probably the best part, the editing was super cool and deep because behind the slides during the transitions you can see the same slide from before 24 times symbolizing the 24 personalities of the main villain.

Title Research: Venom

The first title sequence that my group and I decided to research is Venom. It can be found on the website artofthetitles.com.

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

Twenty-three titles were shown in the title sequence of Venom. Each title includes at least one name; some titles have multiple names, like the producers.

2. What images are prioritized in the opening sequence?

In the opening sequence, there is a shot of a city street to start off the movie. The rest of the title sequence is just of inkblots that move and look like there is a monster in them.

3.What connotations do the images carry?

The images carry a scary theme and a sense of confusion. This makes you think the movie is going to be very interesting to watch and keep you on the edge of your seat.

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

All of the titles and images after the first city shot is in black and white with a few parts that are red. This creates a thriller like atmosphere. The score is similar to many other thriller movie scores so you know the movie is going to be a thriller as well.

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

The film gives very little information in the beginning, it only gives you a sense of what the movie will be like, in this case, sci-fi. However, the title sequence does not tell you anything about the plot of the movie.

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

The target audience likes sci-fi things and constant action, they do not want to be bored. This title sequence is perfect for them. All of the moving parts keep your attention and the monster-like figures in the background bring in a sci-fi aspect.

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

The technology was not only used effectively in this title sequence but it was used exclusively. The title sequence was entirely computer-generated so camera angles were not a huge factor. Different editing techniques along with transitions brought together the sequence. The use of the same transitions for each title made the sequence flow well and everything looked in place. The use of editing to make inkblots move and monsters appear in them was the focal point of the title sequence.

Title Research: Godzilla (2014)

This title sequence is from the movie Godzilla. It can be found on artofthetitles.com

1.  How many titles are displayed during the opening sequences to the film?
Thirty titles were shown in the opening title sequence. Some titles had multiple names but most had one name.
2. What images are prioritized in the opening sequence? 
 Many images are prioritized in the opening sequence. Ancient newspapers for the names/titles, many different ancient photos of animals, and many old fashioned videos that look from back in the day.
3. What connotations do the images carry?
The images create a sense of mystery. Since Godzillas a pretty old story, these images also give a sense of suspense and gives a small backstory in ways.
4. How is genre reinforced through symbolic and technical codes from outset?
The titles in this sequence are brought slow and introduced through newspaper lines which bring the feel of suspense, and in turn, bring shows the theme of a thriller.
5. How does the film establish an enigma from the outset?
The film establishes an enigma because of the pictures in the back of ancient animals. It brings mystery because you don't know what these animals signify or mean. Everything seems very ominous.
6. What strategies are used to ensure the film appeals to its target audience?
The strategies used are the slow pacing and pictures in the background. Like before, the titles bring suspense, and suspense draws in audiences to a good thriller movie. This keeps the viewer from being bored and being engaged even at the beginning of the movie.
7. How has technology been used effectively?
In this title sequence, the technology has been used well. The many jump cuts between background pictures and video clips are used extremely effectively. However, there was no camera angles or shots used because the title sequence was computer-generated. But besides that, the background music was ominous but loud at the same time which was perfect for build-up. The titles were also shown effectively with the newspaper idea which required good editing.

Title Research: xXx State of the Union

The next title sequence my group and I decided to research is State Of The Union. It can be found on the website watchthetitles.com

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

In this title sequence, I counted a total of 20 titles that included the name of the movie, and anyone who contributed to the making of the movie. Some titles were played out longer than others because they were either more important or more significant. Either way, everyone was included in the title sequence.

2.What images are prioritized in the opening sequence?

Most of the images in this opening sequence were animated objects that relate to the movies overall theme and feel. Objects like barbed wire and bullets were displayed being that the movie is an action/thriller. There was one scene that was pulled straight out of the movie which was the very opening scene when Ice Cube was seen walking into prison escorted by two guards.

3.What connotation do the images carry?

The images give a feeling of action and at the same time suspense. The dangerous weapons and sharp items come together to give us the idea that this film is going to involve a lot of action and thrill. They are well put together to give the viewers the emotions to match the film.

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

The titles in this sequence are all introduced very rapidly and it really pops with ominous colors. The background in turn also helps to give this thrill like emotion because it is dark with touches of red and chrome with pictures of dangerous items or remote atmospheres. The build of the score can be found constructed the same in a lot of other thriller movies so we as the audience can tell it will be a thriller as well.

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

The first scene of this sequence shows a man in handcuffs being escorted by police officers in what looks like a secure facility while at the same time giving a devious looking face. With this said, the audience is all sharing the same thoughts of why the man is in this trouble and what is he planning on doing with this look on his face. The sequence then jumps straight into showing the titles leaving us with only ideas and theories.

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

Someone who plans on watching the movie probably already knows the genre and what they've gotten themselves into before watching it. Being that the title sequence is one of the first parts of the movie that the viewers will see, it has to compliment the emotions that are trying to be given off in the movie. A slow-moving vibrant color title sequence is not what the audience will be expecting out of a thriller movie. This title sequence compliments the movie well with its fast-paced music, dark colors, and popping names throughout.

7.How has technology been used effectively?
Most of the clips in this title sequence were computer made so camera angles and shots did not play a huge factor. The one scene from the movie that we did see was a medium close up shot of the men in the prison that turned to an over the shoulder shot. Transitions did play a huge factor in the making of this sequence as they were all different but were relative to the theme of the movie. They were very swift and quick to get our heart pumping. The editing involved included lots of moving pictures and titles as well. Overall, it was a simply made title sequence but effective one.