Genre Research: Chosen Genre

My group and I spent some time thinking about which genre would best fit the pitch that we chose. We decided that having our film be about crime would be better than having a dramatic or comical aspect. Using comedy as the genre wouldn't show the audience the seriousness of what is occurring in the first two minutes of our film. Using drama as the genre may have resulted in a typical kidnapping movie that has been seen quite often. By focusing on crime, we would ensure that the audience isn't confused and understands the main point of the movie by only watching a small clip. Additionally, crime provides a higher level of suspense and tension compared to the other genres. These two factors are important as they maintain the audience's interest in the movie and grab their attention. Given these characteristics of the crime genre, we came to the conclusion of heavily incorporating it into our movie.

Genre Research: Drama and Comedy

Genre Research: Crime PowerPoint

In the PowerPoint,I talked about all aspects of crime and movies that incorporate this genre. I talked about lighting and how crime movies usually use black and white lighting or low-key lighting, which creates a chiaroscuro effect. I said that panning shots are used to go from one scene to another. Usual props most commonly used are guns and knives to increase the tension in the film. Crime movies often have elements of harm to others which increases the tension and suspense in certain scenes. I mentioned some examples such as The Godfather and Scarface. Sounds used are mostly non-diegetic and incidental music to build suspense or the conflict. The elements that I favor are the worry and fear instilled in the audience that increases interest. I also favor the suspense and action that occurs throughout the entirety of the movie which makes it worthwhile to watch. An element that I dislike is that sometimes the plot builds up very slowly and it takes a long time for the conflict to be introduced.

Crime is Popular Among My Group

When my group and I discussed our pitches to each other, we were thankful that we all had somewhat similar ideas that related to crime. This was important as it removed one more aspect that we would have to talk over to come to a conclusion. Our teacher had given the class a tip to look at our ideas and build up on them as if we were planing on filming the entire movie. She said that this would assist using gaining clarity and having an understanding of what should be included in the film. As we brainstormed and talked about what we could incorporate into each idea, we began to see how some pitches stood out from others when considering different issues, such as the realistic approach, setting, and lighting. With this in mind, we were able to narrow down our pitches to two instead of three. These two ideas were mine and Aitan's pitches.
Katherine's pitch was to show a restrained girl who wakes up and has flashbacks to her kidnapping as she realizes that she's trapped and has to escape without being caught. For this pitch, our group was able to develop the story and what would occur in the first two first minutes of the movie. This is beneficial as it would allow us to move faster through making the storyboard and deciding on camera angles and movements. Another strength of this pitch is that we would already have one of its ideal locations set. Katherine's room can be used to show the scenes of the trapped girl. We figured that this room would be convenient as the shutters could be closed and give a stronger allusion of a confinement. Additionally, in this space, the hallway that leads to the main room is very dark when the sun is down but enough sun seeps in to have good lighting while we film. The garage would also be available to us to film any scenes from when the girl was originally captured. This pitch however, also has disadvantages such as the lighting for any scenes filmed outside. We would have to calculate when would be the best time to film in order to get a semi-dark sky and the time gap between this option and a very dark sky would be pretty small.
Aitan's pitch was to show an important woman to the United States government who gets kidnapped and has to find a way to escape. The idea behind this pitch was very strong and my group would have a lot of information that we would be able to include into the film. My group and I contributed to adding a lot of details into this pitch and small features that we could add. This helped get a thought of how the final outcome would actually look like. Such details include a background at the beginning or end of the two minutes that would suggest that the woman was considered important to the government such as a call from a government official or documents that she may carry. Another good thing of this pitch would be the heavy amount of tension and suspense built leading up the woman getting kidnapped. Like the other pitch, this idea also has some obstacles. For one, we believe that the actual execution of certain scenes may be a little difficult. If we stick to this pitch, we would have to include a scene where a woman is getting kidnapped and this scene would have to be filmed clearly and can not be confusing for the audience. Similar to the lighting concern in the previous pitch, we would have to be strategic regarding the time we should film and how much time we believe it would take us.
After taking a long time considering both pitches and how they would be carried out, we all finally came to a conclusion. We decided that the pitch that we would use for this project would be Katherine's because of its convenience and practicality regarding the filming process. However, since we liked Aitan's idea as well, we will be incorporating some of his thoughts from the old pitch into the chosen pitch.

Start of Final Task

Hey guys! My name is Katherine and I am 16 years old. I am a tenth grader and a part of the class of 2022. I consider myself a hard-working student and always try to make school my priority. I am a part of the track and cross country team at my school. I have been running since I was 11 years old and I haven't quit because of the incredible feeling of accomplishment that I feel every time I run. When I'm not at practice, I tend distract myself by reading dystopian novels or getting ahead on any school work. I also volunteer whenever I'm available to remind myself of what's important and to help out my community either by working at a food bank, a church, or at a library. I've been considering college a lot lately and I wanted to ensure that I was a worthy candidate. With this in mind, I have recently applied to two jobs and started exploring the different scholarships available to me. Aice Media Studies was one of my choices for an interesting and challenging coarse that I wanted to take this year. I have been fortunate to be able to work with two of my friends who which I work great with, Amy and Aitan.
During the first couple of weeks of taking this class, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to grasp to knowledge associated with the material. However, after a while, I finally started to understand and relate what I was learning to the real-world. By doing this, I realized just how detailed each film is and the effort and thought put behind each one. In this class, I have learned the different types of camera angles and camera movements and the purpose for their use. I also learned about the importance of costumes, lighting, actors, makeup, props, and setting to deliver the message of a film properly. By being in this class, I've paid attention to sounds and their functions, how some deliver an increase of tension while others belong particularly to one character. The part of this course that has interested me the most however, has been the editing incorporated with the making of a film. I have learned so many things regarding editing a film such as creating a split screen, changing the dimensions of the video, and cutting the takes to fit the sound that goes along. I'm most excited to deliver on my editing skills for the upcoming project. I like to challenge myself with new ideas and tasks in order to continue learning new things.
For the video that we were assigned to make for Aice, my team members and I each came up with a pitch each. A pitch is a summarized version of an idea for a film in 25 words or less. My pitch idea was to show a restrained girl who wakes up and has flashbacks to her kidnapping as she realizes that she's trapped and has to escape without being caught. Amy's pitch idea was to show a psychotic girl who falls in love with a serial killer. Aitan's pitch idea was to show an important woman to the United States government who gets kidnapped and has to find a way to escape.

Stubborn Splitscreen During Editing

   We began to edit our music video last class and I have to say, we have definitely been working efficiently. Before we started editing, we all discussed what everyone's jobs were going to be so that we would have everything planned out and we wouldn't have to stress. I was given the job of arranging all of the clips. During this job, I would have to cut clips to an appropriate length and ensure that they were all in the order shown on our storyboard. I would also have to create a split screen. I was the one in charge of making the split screen since I was the only one who had attempted one before this project and I had an idea of what I was supposed to do.

   While the entire time that I was editing, I had my storyboard beside me so that I could use it for reference. Once the clips were imported, I was in charge of selecting which takes would best fit in the video. I determined this by looking at the majority of the clips and seeing if the acting was good and if the scene was done correctly. After selecting all of the clips that I was going to use, I then began to cut them. All the scenes required cutting since my group and I had given specific time measurements to each clips and when they would occur during the song. I began cutting by removing excess seconds where the actor would start a couple seconds after the camera started filming and where the camera would continue to film a couple seconds after the actor finished the scene. I cut the scenes by placing the red line exactly where I want the take to be split and then selecting the razorblade-like figure. This separates the take into two segments, the desireable one and the irrevelant one. Afterwards, I would simply right-click the one that I didn't need and click delete. Once the excess fragments were removed, I began to cut the scenes for each to last approximately six seconds as our storyboard projected. I tryed my best doing this however, because I had already clipped off excess time, some scenes were shorter than six seconds and some were longer. There were also six scenes that I had to make three seconds in order to match it to the storyboard. To remove the occasional blooper, I selected the three dots on the left side of the editing box which would lay out every single scene that was available. This assisted me because some scenes were too short to be visible on the AV track.

   The split screen would be the most difficult part since there were many factors that I had to adjust. This split screen consists of two segments that play at the same time, different than how I made my last split screen. I first had to open effects editer for both scenes by right-clicking the take. This would take me to a new tab where I was able to adjust the size, position, rotation, and transperancy of both clips. The dimensions of both clips were relatively the same except for the horizontal position. This function changes where the take is shown on the screen and I had to alter the values for one take to appear on the right and the other on the left. Afterwards, I added an AV track to place the second part of the scene by right-clicking on AV track 1 and selecting the option that allowed me to add a track below. I then, placed the second half of the split screen above the first part. Finally, I had to adjust the length of both scenes to make sure that they would play at the same time. I first tried to choose the duration time but that did not work so instead, I tried to crop the takes by selecting the razorblade but there was still a small issue occuring where the second scene would remain on the scene for a small amount of time into the next scene. I will continue to work on fixing this problem during my next class.

Finally Finished FIlming

   Since our camera had died on the first day that my group was supposed to film, we had to choose a day that would work for all of us to film the remaing scenes. We got together on December 2nd after ruling out the week days of Thanksgiving as Aitan was going to be out of town. We met up at Amy's house at 2pm but there were already complications present. First, when I arrived, I was informed that the new camera we had gotten before Thanksgiving break had no battery left. Additionally, when Aitan started to ask me about the SD card, I realized that I had left it in my backpack at my house. After waiting thirty minutes, the camera still had no battery but thankfully, my mom brought the SD card that we had to use. We did not want to schedule another filming day to record the takes so we decided that instead, we would film each scene with the camera being charged the entire time.
   The first scene that we filmed was where Aitan would hand Amy a pair of heels and then she would approve of them. I was in charge of filming that scene since my other group members would both be in the scene. I had an idea of how I wanted to to film the scene but it wasn't until around my third try that I finally captured all of the heels and the two-shot with the actors. The next scene would show Amy applying lipstick and an eye line match with a clock. I had come up with the idea to attempt a graphic match where the clock would first be in Amy's room and then mine. How I would try to execute this however, would be pretty tricky. As a group, we determined that the best place to set the clock would be near a brown surface in each room. This way, the transition would be cleaner and more smooth. I had to apply chapstick once Amy's scene was filmed but I had to start off the takes by looking at the clock as Aitan was recording. In the next scene, Amy would be dancing while Aitan recorded. Before they began filming, I adjusted the lights and the amount of lighting that was coming into the room. I also set Amy in front of a white curtain so that she wouldn't be seen with an "amateur" or childish room. The next scene would show me dancing with LED lights and singing to the song. In both this scene and the previous, I came up with the idea that instead of simply dancing, Amy and I should lipsync to the actual lyrics that would correspond with our scene. I pulled up the youtube video of the song and had to start the song a little before Aitan would start filming. When it was my turn to dance and sing, Amy and I switched roles. My scene was very easy since I was allowed to simply be happy and laugh as it was included in the part I had to play.
   We were soon to be concluding our gathering as we only had a couple of scenes left to film. We still had to film the scene where I opened a drawer and pulled out a pair of fuzzy socks to wear. This scene was simple and was recorded fast. Additionally, we filmed two separate scenes that would act as a split screen with Amy on one side and me on another. We both had to dance to the famous lyrics "mix it all together" and move our hands in a circular motion. The last two scenes were each filmed with a total of four takes where Amy would be seen going to sleep and then I would be seen going to sleep in a different bed. Our last takes would be the scene where Aitan arrived at Amy's house as her assistant. This scene had to be filmed outside and the outlet that would be needed to charge the camera was too far for us to connect the camera and film the scene properly, so we had to acquire an extension cord from the garage. I was in charge of filming this scene and it took a few takes since I wanted to ensure that we would have a good scene available for editing.