Creative Critical Reflection

I hate to be sappy, but it feels awful to leave you hanging after all these posts after 8 weeks. Seems just yesterday I was blogging on what to do with 

My final post?? Seems sentimental :,)

But, I have to go. That being said, I won’t leave you hanging..

So enjoy my CCR!!! 

Both videos are available on YouTube !!!

Film Opening

 The Moment We’ve all been waiting for…

That’s right!!!! The final product!!! This has been such an honor to be able to work on this project with my partner for the last 8 weeks, I’m so proud of the ups and downs we’ve had over that time so being able to FINALLY share this with you all is so amazing!

That being said, I hope you enjoy American Nightmare !

Final Edits

 

You guessed it! Crunch Time!!

We’ve been trying to finish up the project finally and making the final adjustments to what we had already.

Adding sound was pretty difficult, it was so hard to find the right sound, since we used royalty free music.

Sorry this post is short, got to make a few videos soon… 

But stay tuned for the premiere of American Nightmare…

Scheduling

 

Due to spring break, it messed up part of our editing schedule. I was still able to put in the clips, as mentioned in my previous post, but more work must be done. I want to try to finish it next week, probably by at least Thursday, as the CCR still needs to be completed. 

This is a shorter post, but it will clear up why our pace has slowed. Spring break, end of quarter, all of that got in the way of actually finishing it up. But with communication on both ends, we plan to finish it soon. 

I am still playing around on the software, Adobe Premiere Pro, testing out filters and effects. I am weary to put it on the actual project, so I used a few clips from the footage and put that into a separate project. 

Leaving the two-week window for editing in our original schedule really helped. By getting our filming done early, we could compensate for any lost time due to the break. This really helped our project, as we can still be on track even though we went through the difficulties of our schedule conflicts.

Editing!!

 This week my partner and I got to editing. With her leaving on Tuesday, we had to crunch time. I had already uploaded the footage to a google drive and sorted out what we liked and didn’t like.

We still kept the extra footage, just in case we needed it for later. But the footage we liked? Put in a separate drive. This made it easier to download when we had to upload to Abode Premiere Pro. I cleared up some room on my PC so space would not be an issue for downloading the Adobe software that our school is allowing us to use! 

If I didn’t have Adobe, we would have edited on something simple like CapCut. 

Anyways, we put the footage in, which sadly was all out of order. We kept checking our storyboard to see the sequences we filmed and made. We did not bother cutting down anything just yet, just sorting out everything once again.

This is where we currently what we have:

Little Update

 Saturday, March 18, 2023

So haven’t posted in a bit, huh? 

This week has been… a lot to say the least. I had a really bad start to the week and it only continued with failing a test. I could not find the energy to post anything this week, being upset over my failures and helping my grandparents moved in. It meant less time for starting the editing process. We went away for the weekend away, which also left less time to work on the project.

This week, yes actually this week, we will start. It’s our spring break, so we know we have time to work on it. We are planning on Monday, but it might have to be a few days of editing regardless. We will have to talk about it later, but it will come together.

Spring Break Soon…

 March 12, 2023

With spring break soon, we will have to work around our schedule. Luckily with the time we allocated for this, we will remain on track.

This Tuesday, we will begin editing.

We will be using Adobe Premiere Pro. We are still in the works of where to edit it, in terms of whose house, but that is a minor issue. The task of editing is something that will probably be among the most difficult. I have experience only with CapCut, but using Adobe Premiere Pro I know I have more control over the final look of the film at my fingertips rather than what basic CapCut offers (there is now “CapCut Pro” which I do not want to pay a subscription for if I do not enjoy it).

Editing this week is vital because of spring break next week. I won’t be home for the weekend, and I’m not sure how busy my partner will be over our break, It will be easier to finish (or get a head start) on editing as there is not much time left until the project is due (plus final exams coming up too).

The reason the production post is not out yet is simply due to how long I want it to be. I had to split it into parts (Part One being the equipment). I want to go until depth with the process rather than brief details. I apologize for how long it is taken for this post.

 This past week had been very busy for me, as just this Wednesday I turned 17, so completing these posts have been difficult. I hope to have a more constant posting schedule, rather than just random times in the day.

But… I can only learn from this. So cheers to a new week and the eventual break from school helping me get through the school days !!! 

Getting our Equipment

 Equipment

March 10, 2023

Before we started production, I knew I did not just want to film on my phone. Sometimes the phone can be grainy, and I wanted more of a professional look to my film. 

In our group meetings two weeks ago, I learned about this place called BECON TV, which allows students from the county to borrow film equipment from them. I messaged them on Instagram and was able to book certain dates to use their equipment! I picked out a camera, a microphone and a tripod. I did not take into account lighting until much later.

So last Friday, March 3, I asked my Dad if he could drive me to their location. I could have driven on my own, but I figured the equipment would be too heavy to carry alone. So we headed down to their studio! As we got there, we were greeted and taken back to get the equipment. 

The camera we got was very nice (I was a little scared to use it at first to not break it since it was super expensive). It was an XC-10 Camera by Canon. I was given a lesson on how to use it, as well as how to adjust certain features to get the kind of shot I wanted. While I could have used auto and not cared, it was so interesting to hear how the depth-of-field could be adjusted for the likeness of my film. 

I was given a shotgun microphone as well, since we did not have dialogue in our film. That was a VP83F Shotgun mic. We needed it for the sound elements, such as footsteps and cellphone sounds (ex. getting a text). It plugged right into the camera, so I did borrow a headset. The one I had at home is wireless, so it would not exactly work.

Finally, I was suggested to borrow a bicolor light. It had a brightness setting, as well as how warm or cool the lighting should be. We used the cool lighting in the dorm room, as it is relatively dark compared to the other locations we filmed in. 

This the equipment we received:

While using a phone to film could have been easier and less time consuming, the quality of our footage looks much more high quality and to the standard we want it in! Next week (March 13-16) we start editing! So in the meantime, we'll be reviewing which scenes we want to keep and which ones to use as backup. We have already set up a google drive so we could share it.

CCR Lesson Review !

 CCR Lesson

March 9, 2023

Last week in class, we covered the CCR.

My teacher broke down each question. The first details genre, and how it used or challenges conventions. I have already completed research for it in a previous post. The second question on distribution also uses that same research, though introducing how my production will be distributed to its target audience. 

The third and fourth are more difficult.

The third question asks how did your skills develop. That question alone will take a while. I came in knowing little to none about filming and the production process, so there will be a lot of discuss. Finally, the fourth question asks about technologies. Again, I will have listed the equipment I used in a future post (keep an eye out!), so it will be easy to discuss.

 

These are just some of the notes I made in class about how to address each question!

Luckily with filming this past weekend (sneak peak at a post this week), my partner and I will be able to complete the CCR pretty early on, cause editing may not take too long.

We are still planning a date for editing. I may not able to this week since I am incredibly busy with birthdays (mine and my mom's!) as well as my grandparents moving down here. So... lots of stress this week!!! But I know we will be able to get it done soon, just maybe after this week ends.

We watched a few examples of the CCR in class, and I even went home and watched a few myself. There were a few simple ones, like one being a parody of Vogue's 72 questions, and another just being a simple presentation. There were some stand-outs though, as one of them was even in a plane! It felt more memorable than the other ones, which made me think of cool locations I can do.

I already have a plan for some of my questions. For the questions concerning genre and distribution, I think I want to complete it in Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World. The reason I'm planning this so far in advance, before we even finished filming right now, is because of Spring Break. I want a unique location, and Disney World is the most different I can get with my locations. 

For the question concerning genre, The Tower of Terror may be a perfect backdrop for discussing the conventions of horror, since it is based off Twilight Zone. While it is not entirely similar, The Tower of Terror being much more paranormal than a slasher, it still is apart of the wide-range of horror.

Ex. The Tower of Terror in Walt Disney World

With distribution, there is so many places to choose from! Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood Boulevard, Echo Lake? So many choices! But... Hollywood Boulevard may be my best choice. Now replaced by Mickey's Runaway Railway, I want to film in front of the Chinese Theatre. I want to incorporate humor, but I still have to complete my script.

Ex. Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway in Walt Disney World

The other two questions may have to be done at home, especially with the images I will need to include. The first two, the genre and distribution, may only need a few pictures, hence why I would like that background. This will not be needed to be done for another week or two, but it is something to think about.

Making a Mask

 Mask Design

As our filming date comes closer, it means less time to finish our costume designs! Thankfully, this is the only item that needs to be made (I had a prop weapon at home from an old Halloween costume).

On Monday, I ordered a paper full-face mask as well as some paint. When it arrived that Tuesday, I was just staring at it, my mind blank as to what to add. There was so many things to add, but what would fit our aesthetic?

I had such an array of paint colors so the sky was the limit. 

I immediately looked at black. I used the plate to put the paint on, in case I wanted to mix colors. My original plan was to paint it black when add a design over it. However, when I was painting the base coat of black, I loved the streaks of paint. It looked frayed at the sides and looked really cool. I kept the features under the thick coat of black but kept the ends messy. With the hood for the costume, I felt like it would look really cool and threatening.

As soon as I was done, I excitedly sent it to my partner for their opinion. She really liked it! I was debating making another version, just in case something were to happen, but I decided against it due to time constraints. Last night, I had a lot to study for, so I had only a small interval of time to really finish this. Plus with family in town moving in? Not a lot of free time.

This Friday, March 3, I have to pick up the equipment at BECON TV. As much as I say this, it is so weird that filming is tomorrow. It was only two weeks ago when we were clueless for an idea and now we're filming! 

I'm so excited to create this film opening. With the final part of the costume done, I feel more confident in how this will turn out!

Storyboarding

Storyboarding

While in class, we decided to finish our storyboard! With our fixed plot after discussing with our teacher, it was time to finally plan the shots.

I drew the panels, so apologies if the art is not the best!  

Depending on the shot, we added action lines to show how we want our actor to move (which Olivia volunteered to star!). By adding arrows by the head, we knew which way the action would face, adding more consistency to our final project.

Each page is intended to be a minute each. We planned with the first page, the one with the killer chasing her down, that there will be a lot of insert shots of the hall and the actual chase scene happening. There will be quick cuts to show the desperation to escape. We did not include every frame we wanted in this sequence, but it will mostly include over-the-shoulder and tracking shots.

When we meet on Friday (SAT day is on this Wednesday), we will review the storyboard to make sure it is the sequence we want it. It’s so exciting to see the story coming together! 

Once we get the equipment from BECON TV and get our costumes/props, it’s time to turn this storyboard into a reality!

First Individual Meetings!

 In our individual meetings, Olivia and I met with our teacher to discuss our film. 

We realized there were a few inconsistencies with developing the male love interest of the film, as we want the killer to be the girlfriend of him. This is our main conflict of the film and would need to work in order to fully understand our opening.

We decided to change it from waking up from the call from the mother, as she will already be established with the broken picture frame, but maybe the call being from him as well as the lock screen. A knock on the door will be at the very end of the piece. For his name, we decided on Luke. We thought the name sounded nice. I personally liked it since it reminded me of Star Wars. The name was needed for the contact info for the phone calls, so to achieve this we'll just change our names on our phones to the name of the character depending on the phone we use. 

The phone call will also help with establishing mystery, as one suspect has already been introduced. It will be the audience's first guess, which is the effect we want to achieve. There will be three characters in our opening, but we will only need two actors. Olivia volunteered to be our main character while her friend could play the killer. The knock at the door will be implied to be Luke but his face will not directly be shown. 

A mood board would help develop him a bit. We wanted a preppy-jock vibe for him, giving the essence of our location of Miami. By making him an athlete for the school, it would make him have a higher status in the school, adding to why his girlfriend would go after our protagonist. We also decided on the name Luke Taylor, as we found a jersey that had the last name Taylor for our mood board and we really liked it. 

Our Schedule

 Day by Day

My partner and I knew we had to make a schedule this week. We had already set aside different dates we could not film, like spring break for example. But after learning the other schedules from our peers, we decided on our own schedule!

February 27-March 3: Gather mise-en-scene elements, props, and work on storyboard

March 4-March 6: Film our project at UM

March 7-March 17: Get feedback from peers, edit and finalize our project

March 18-April 3: Complete CCR

April 3: Have everything done, submit our project!!!!!

This schedule really put everything into perspective. It now feels less overwhelming, but it also shows how close the end of the year is. I'm so excited to complete my film opening with my partner! Our idea seemed almost far-fetched but with our planning we realized it is possible with no budget. I may try to contact BECON about film equipment next week to see if we can use anything from there to help the quality of our film. 

Filming March 4th through the 6th is really helpful as well. That week is really busy for me as my grandparents are moving down to Florida and it's me and my mom's birthdays! Then the week after is spring break. 

First Group Meeting!

Sharing Our Thoughts

Today was our first group meeting. We were randomly assigned groups then went to different parts of the classroom to discuss our plans and ideas.

I will say, I was a bit nervous to share my idea, so having to share our blog posts made it a lot easier to discuss. I was worried about not being able to fully express what Olivia and I came up with, so sharing my previous posts really helped. We got off to a quiet start, as most groups go, but as we kept talking, we felt more comfortable fully sharing.

One person in our group told us about something called BECON. It is a way to use media equipment that is available for students. I made sure to check out the website so when filming rolls around, we have a great resource to get cameras, and lighting and sound equipment. This will make our film look more professional, as iPhone quality may not do our idea justice. 

I took inspiration from their schedules, by taking two-weeks for filming and two-weeks for editing. It leaves enough time just in case something goes wrong to fix it. While filming may only take a day or two, it is still good to set aside that time. Even if we finish filming before those two weeks, there will in-turn be more time for editing, putting us ahead of schedule.

This is a picture of our group meeting, we shared our blog websites and read and discussed them. I got some really great feedback, especially since we still need to develop our storyboard. I got a better idea of mise-en-scene because of the color palette I blogged about. I was told that having a set color palette may help in the editing project as we can color-correct as red will be our main color. It will make the shots more interesting having this specific color, instead of just the dull lighting of a university dorm.

We met for around 30-minutes, but being put on the Secure Protocol (also known as a "Code Yellow"), our group was allowed to stay together for a bit longer. Even though I am annoyed as this is the second time this week we have been in lockdown and secure, I know it will be safely handled by security.

During this time, we worked on our blog posts and discussed further into certain shots we wanted to create and how. Being stuck in the classroom let us fully tell our ideas instead of just what we had laid out, like actors. Most of our projects involved older characters, between the 18-25 range. However, this is a bit difficult as we are all high schoolers. I did not have this problem, as I am asking people in this age range already to star in the film, but it may be for others. Even if they looked the part, their acting may not be the best. That is the only worry I am having. Sadly, I do not know anyone in drama or theatre who has acting experience, so it is a slight disadvantage, but I will try the best I can to get the emotions needed for the film opening.

 

Developing Our Hero

Who is Who?

Developing our characters.

After looking at a few generators online, we found one that gave a lot of options. The website "Behind the Name" gave a lot of customization options to work with, from name origin to name origin. 

We rolled the generator a few times to land on names we liked. There were a lot of random names that were ridiculous, such as the last name "Pickle" came up a few times. But ultimately, we agreed on a name, Carine Sylvain. 

We agreed for the character to be from Germany who moved to the United States to attend university. Her decision to move that far from home was due to her complicated relationship with her mother, which caused her to want to distance herself from her family. By studying in Florida, she has a physical barrier between her and her mother.

From the mistreatment she faced at home, she developed anxiety which takes a toll on her relationships. Even though she is separated from her problems, she still faces social isolation. While having a roommate, she is not close with them. I want to include this in the opening to reveal how this will effect her later on, especially when being tracked down by a killer.

 Her mental health is a large part of our overall project, as our antagonist is a reflection of her insecurities, hunting her down and becoming a constant fear. 

Our backstory for her most likely won't be shown in the whole opening, but it will help us become more familiar with who she is, which will help with our character design. 

As for her outfit and aesthetic, we took a look at Pinterest. There are hundreds of ideas and mood boards that can be used for our character. I personally think darker colors could be used for her at the beginning of the film, mostly the opening, to represent how overwhelmed she feels with her mental health. If the film were to progress, her clothing would get lighter to represent how she is persevering through her anxiety and mental illness. 

We realized how some of the ideas on Pinterest were way too warm for our location. Not only would it not fit with the setting for our film, but it could cause a hazard for our actor wearing something that hot. A cropped white shirt would provide contrast to the solid black jeans. It will display the internal conflict she faces. We want her and the killer to have predominantly dark clothing in order to show their connection. If other characters were to be shown, they'd wear lighter and colorful pieces of clothing, separating themselves from the conflict of Carine and the killer.

As for our killer, I suggested a masked character. As mentioned in my research post, masks are very common in slashers. We want to use this in order to have a mystery for our character to solve. We originally considered the killer to be male presenting, that typical slashers are. A majority of well-known horror characters are male. However, we thought a female character would be very interesting.

 

Our female killer was created because we thought the crazy boyfriend character would not be as intriguing and possibly to obvious to the viewer, as this trope is seen a lot in slashers. For example, in Scream (1996) and in the rebooted Scream (2022), the boyfriend of the protagonist is the one of the main killers. We did not want to fall into this trope by instead using the idea. We want to display how women can display that aggressiveness and evil, as it is not typically shown in slasher films. 

The killer is the girlfriend of a male friend that Carine has, showing her insecurity. It is that jealousy that drives her to go after her and others. We have not decided on a costume design for her, however I want to design a mask idea on Adobe Fresco or Ibis Paint to draw out a few ideas. 

The costume while in disguise may be rather simple, possibly a solid black hoodie and black jeans to blend in with the darkness. The hoodie will conceal the rest of the character's head, leaving the audience without clues for any identifying factors. 

Our Film Aesthetic

Color Palette 

 Our film is hoping to have a dark color palette. Dark lighting is typically seen in horror, especially with dark tones and red hues.

For example, this is a color scheme from IT (2017). There is both black and red colors used in this shot. Red signifies danger, and often blood in horror. By using red as the main color of the shot, it contrasts the innocent white color of the costuming. It is a contrast to reveal the intentions of the character. 

Red is guaranteed in horror. However, there are other colors that can have the same effect that red has to display danger.

This shot from Saw is using green, which often symbolizes nature and the earth. However, with the person in the center of the shot twists this meaning. The green makes this seem more disease-ridden and disgusting. The green twists your stomach rather than calm you down. Horror can still be effective without red tones.

While knowing this, we still want to use red as our main color scheme. It will be a better match for our film.

Introducing Horror

 What Makes a Good Horror Opening?

As horror is my decided genre for my opening, I decided to look at some film openings of the horror genre, ranging from the subgenre of monster and slasher movies, to psychological and supernatural horror films.

Scream (1996) dir. Wes Craven

The opening to Wes Craven's Scream is among one of the most famous film openings of all time. This opening begins with Drew Barrymore's character, Casey, answering the phone while home alone. An unfamiliar voice is on the other end of the line, of which is the voice acting is provided by Roger L. Jackson.  This generated one of the most famous lines in horror, "What's your favorite scary movie?"

The scene takes a twist when Casey threatens to hang up, but the other voice gets upset over this. She hangs up and the voice gets verbally aggressive, threatening to kill her. The scene intensifies, then leading Casey to see the body of her boyfriend outside. In order to save him, she must answer questions based on horror films, althoughs he gets one wrong pertaining to the villain of the original Friday the 13th. As the boyfriend is killed off, she realizes she is next. She runs out of the house, only to be chased down by the killer. 

This opening scene reveals almost everything about the rest of the film. The killer is a horror fan, which sets up the commentary on slashers that the film is trying to tell. It is a slasher about slashers. The self-awareness just in the opening. Drew Barrymore's character would have been read as the "perky, innocent blonde as Scream's main character and been primed to relate to her." It acklowedges the tropes set by other horror films and twists them. She was presented as a typical "final girl" character but was killed at only the beginning of the movie. It sets up the idea of how the film will break the cliches of the genre before we even see them on screen.

In addition, the use of a mask character, which is common in the slasher genre, adds an element of mystery already to the piece. The costuming of ghostface, the alias of the killers in the movie, is used to obscure their body. The black robe they wear obscures their body, leaving a harder time for the audience to discover who the main killer(s) are. The mask also aligns itself with other masked horror icons, such as Michael Myers, Leatherface and Jason.

Ex. Art depicting several iconic horror masks.

Nope (2022) dir. Jordan Peele

Nope is a blend of the sci-fi and horror genre. It takes the typical conventions of horror, like its sound elemnts, and combines them with the aspects of aliens in sci-fi. However, its opening does not align itself with aliens at all.

The scene depicted is increadibly graphic, so if you are made uncomfortable by this, I suggest skip to after the scene summary and video.

The film opens with the production company logos for the film but with cheesy dialogue and a sitcom laugh track in the background. The only name we are given through the exchanges of  birthday gift giving is "Gordy." We are not shown the character yet, but they do not speak. The audience claps as the final production logo is shown, but the screen goes black accompanied by a hitting noise. The screen stays on this black screen and this fight continues, hearing pleas for help, the audience left unable to do anything to make it stop.

A bible quote appears on screen, of which the quote is from Nahum 3:6. The quote is about how a path of exploitation only leads towards death and destruction. This is a main theme of the movie about how you cannot make a spectacle out of danger, yet it is confusing when no chracters have been shown. This can only be assumed to be connected to the sitcom-type show being played in the background.

The first shot in the film is the perspective of a child on the show. We are shown a sitcom set that has been destroyed and a chimpanzee in the foreground. The site is covered in blood, especially on the costume of the animal. The animal calms down as a show is upright on the ground with no explanation. The shot closes with the chimpanzee looking directly at the camera, before the film cuts to black one more time.

This opening sets up the themes shown later in the film, the danger of a spectacle. The audience can infer this monkey has been trained to be in this live-studio production but snapped. This show is making a profit off of a creature and taking advatange of him, enforcing how you cannot tame a wild animal. However, it only fits in to one of the character's story and development. Jupe, played by Steven Yeun, sees the alien creature, later named Jean Jacket, and wants to use it for one of his shows. His background with Gordy shows his ignorance for not learning the dangers of wanting to make a profit from a wild animal.

The sound design really sticks out, once the first attack happens, the audience is gone. There is no laugh track, applauds or screams, just the people on set. It adds a sense of loneliness and danger as it is feared that no one will come save them from this animal. Sound is the main element of this opening, as there is not much movement in the visual elements, so the audience relies on it to piece together what is happening in the film.

Re-Animator (1985) dir. Stuart Gordon

The opening scene of Re-Animator, like Scream, shows every aspect of the film in just a few minutes.

We see a Swiss university in the establishing shot, shown by the university sign displaying the city "Zurich." The bottom of the sign can be interpreted that this location is one for medical purposes. This is solidified by the costuming of some of the people in the halls, as one woman is wearing a white coat that is synonymous with doctors. This womans leads a man and several police officers to a door, briefly displaying a name tag on the door for the name of one of the doctors, but the name being called does not correlate with the one on the door. There is screaming as well, adding mystery to what is happening in the sceme.

As the screaming starts spiraling into the sound of glass breaking, this causes the officers to spark into action. Herbert West, prtrayed by Jeffrey Combs, is restrained away from the screaming man on the floor. The man, named Dr. Gruber, on the floor stands up, his eyes exploding with blood before collapsing once more. West is accused of murder for this gorey scene before delivering the name "I gave him life" as it cuts to the opening credits.

The audience is left to question what West meant with that line, especially after seeing Gruber die on-screen. However the makeup and special effects done on Gruber add some strange aspects as his skin had a greyish-purple tone to it, almost mimicking that of a corpse. 

The sounds from before they entered the room also speculate that this is something that West may have caused. This is cleared up later in the film with the introduction of his reagent, but there are slight hints of it in the dialogue in the opening, with West stating the "dosage" was too large, a slight explanation for what exactly happened to Gruber. It is a conscious choice to not directly reveal what caused the death, but to listen to the dialogue for what may ahve happened.

What Did I Learn?

Watching these openings really helped me understand the important of dialogue. Out of the three film openings I watched, both Scream and Re-Animator had phrases that connected to the main theme of the film. The opening is meant to give a glimpse into what is to come, so using dialogue is especially important. These are also naturally said, which does not talk down to its audience into what exactly is happening. Looking into more horror scripts may help with typical conventions used in popular films so I know what I have to write make my opening effective.

Costume design is also very important. Each one of these films openings had distinctive looks to each character that represented who they were without much development. Gordy from the film Nope is the best example out of the three. He is a monkey dressed in a yellow sweater. Yellow is often associated with happiness, but can also represent danger. By dressing Gordy in human clothes, it represents how he was tried to be tamed for the purpose of being a spectacle, exactly what the film's message was.

Each element of an opening is important. By analyzing these, it gave me a better look into the ideas I want to create in my opening, especially when having no budget.

I will most likely watch some more openings over the weekend, possibly more independent films since that is the style I want to replicate the most.

Getting on Track

 In order for our projects to be successful, my partner and I made a thought organizer. This is for sharing our ideas to expand upon the other. Currently, we are discussing possible locations and timing for our films. I have a location in mind, however I have not reached out to know possible dates where it will be good to film. It is just permission from my sister, since she will most likely be the star of my film opening, so I need to know good times for her.

Sound is also very important for our projects. I proposed to look at some royalty-free music now, just in case we do not find any we like we can reach out to a musician to ask permission to use their music. It will be easier than asking later on, and it will save a lot of stress as well.

The thought organizer was very helpful to get our ideas out. In my head, they seemed complicated and difficult, but the document is extremely useful. This doc will be further expanded upon either this week or the week after when we find our plots for our openings. But for right now, it is a great startig point.

In-depth into Horror

 What is Horror?

In a blog post from October, I made a post about horror comedies. It is a genre I am a big fan of, but I think horror on its own is even better. As horror is the genre I want to use for my portfolio project, I need to know how and why horror works, how it's so captivating. 

The typical audience of horror is 15-24, of which mostly consists of males. However, there is a split amongst the genre. Horror can be categorized into either action or paranormal. An action horror film is seen to be catered mostly towards men, while paranormal horror is "evenly distributed between genders." 

Horror films that focus on action tend to be slashers, such as John Carpenter's Halloween or Wes Craven's Scream. They cater to the male gaze, having a female hero defeat the killer. They were first called "Final Girls" in Carol J. Clover's novel, Men, Women and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. Since the golden age of slashers in the 1970s and 1980s, the final girl has evolved into a more feminist role, often less sexualized as well. 

A great example of an action horror movie is The Purge (2013). The film is an alternative version of the United States, where one day a year all crime is legal. It is not a typical slasher, but still uses symbols that would be seen in those types of films. Slasher horrors often have masked characters, that this film uses. It is an easy way for the audience to identify the villain by just their costume. 

Ex. Masked characters standing outside the protagonist's home in The Purge (2013).

Paranormal horror has taken on many forms lately. These films can be religious, such as The Exorcist or The Nun. These types of horror use this universal idea of religion and turns it into something terrifying. 

One of the most famous uses of paranormal horror is The Blair Witch Project. This found footage horror film changed the genre forever. Many of modern paranormal films use social media and the internet as a common space for the movie's scares to take place, like the 2019 horror film Countdown which created an app to connect with the film. The Blair Witch Project, however, came out at a time when the internet was new. People believed most of what they saw online, which contributed to people perceiving the film as real. The virality of the film had to lead the filmmakers to come out and say the film was not real. Though it may not be possible to create the same virality again that this movie caused, it changed how film is perceived over social media.

Experimental horror is a fairly new aspect of horror, of which tends to be more paranormal. It can often be seen on YouTube, as many small creators can use the site to share their horror videos online while having a small budget. YouTube creator BiteSizedNightmare used this platform to share his video titled "Heck" that was a predecessor to his full-length film Skinamarink.

Ex. The short film that was the premise of Skinamarink

 Skinamarink is a newer film that takes the idea of the paranormal and mixes it with the childhood fear of the dark. Even when the shots show dark empty hallways, the graininess of the scene plays tricks on our eyes that makes it seem like there is a creature there, so, when there actually is, the audience is not sure. The camera placement reinforces this, making it look to be from the perspective of a child. It solidifies how clueless we are in the situation, and even how helpless the victims of this situation are.

Ex. A common child's toy is menacing in the darkness.

Gruvi. (2016, May 3). Know Thy Audience: Marketing the Horror Film It Follows. Canada Media Fund. https://cmf-fmc.ca/now-next/articles/know-thy-audience-marketing-the-horror-film-it-follows/#:~:text=Typical%20horror%20targeting,year%20olds%20and%20mostly%20male.

Rubin. R. (2018, October 25). Diverse Audiences are Driving the Horror Box Office Boom. Variety. https://variety.com/2018/film/box-office/horror-movies-study-1202994407/

Rose. R. (2019, April 8). How The Blair Witch Project Changed Horror For Ever. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/apr/08/how-the-blair-witch-project-changed-horror-for-ever

BiteSized Nightmares. (n.d). Home [YouTube Channel]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/@BitesizedNightmares

Undecided

 It feels so weird that it’s time to already start planning my final project! I have so many ideas that I need to plan out now.

I am undecided on a genre. Horror seems like a good choice. For the filming location I have in mind for that type of film, it already has that eeriness that would benefit that type of visual. However, a type of satire does not seem that bad either, possibly even combining the two to make a horror comedy, much like the genre posting I completed at the beginning of the school year.

A comedy is also interesting, with satire being an aspect of it, but I don’t feel it will translate well. Comedy is dependent heavily on actors and scripts. I’m partially worried that the people who will star in my film opening may not get the delivery just right, making the scene awkward instead of charming. 

But back to horror… there is something so interesting that someone can use their creativity to make a living nightmare. There has been some low-budget horror films recently that have really worked, such as “Skinimarink.” It takes the analog-horror sub-genre into a greater level, not using scary images but using childhood fears, in this case the dark. 

I will have to figure out genre this week anyway, so I may write down and describe a few story ideas I had in a future post. I may run it down with one of my group members as well!

I had originally planned to work alone, thinking it may be easier, but someone had come up and asked me if they wanted to group up with me. I said yes, realizing how beneficial it would be. I knew it would be easier to ask for help, especially with the editing process, as I am only familiar with more simple apps like CapCut. 

This project is one that I have been excited for this whole year, and extremely nervous for. It feels great to actually start it, as I can finally make something of my own, instead of trying to appeal to a group. I had an issue like that with the film pitch project where I felt too nervous to express my ideas, thinking it would confuse the other group members. But since then, it is clear of the growth I’ve achieved with being more confident in my work.