Maria Murphey: James you are 10 minutes late from your wake up time. I already have your bowl of milk on the counter, just go eat your cereal.
[James pours his cereal and all the cereal completely misses and falls on the table and floor]
[James leaves his house and walks to his bus stop. He arrives and checks the time and he is 20 minutes late to his stop. A car drives by and accidentally splashes James with puddle water.]
James Murphey to his mom on the phone: Can you drop me off to school today... Yes, I missed the bus again...
{Afterschool in an alleyway}
[James is waiting for his friend Kofi]
[Kofi walks into the alley]
Kofi King: Ayo my man Jimmy wassup.
James: Nothing much man
Kofi: So you got it man? Or you gonna keep me waiting?
[James slides King a bag of weed]
Kofi says into his shirt: Ayo I got it
[A DEA agent starts to chase after James]
Kofi: Sorry man! I got caught sellin’ at the police station, they gonna drop charges if I helped them out!
{James makes it out of the alley way onto the sidewalk}
Homeless Man (Blocking James way and stopping him from running): Hey you got spare change?
[The DEA Agent catches up to James]
DEA Agent: Finally caught you in the act again huh?
Page 1: James Murphey, the main character, wakes up, gets yelled at by his mom to go to school, and spills all his cereal on the floor in a rush. He rushes out the house, forgets his keys then goes back to get them, and goes to the bus stop. He checks his pockets to make sure the drugs are still there and he gets splashed by puddle water. He realizes that he missed the bus so he calls his mom to pick him up. The next scene on this page is him in an alleyway afterschool waiting for his friend Kofi.
Page 2: Kofi and James meet, and James gives Kofi drugs. It turns out that Kofi was working with the police, and a DEA agent finds them and runs after James.
Page 3: As James is running away from the DEA agent, he runs into a homeless man which blocks his way and allows the DEA agent to catch up to him. The DEA agent handcuffs James and James is furious at Kofi and sad that he got caught.
For our title designs, we plan to use different fonts, depending on the category of the subtitle. To actually find our fonts, we will use an online website. The website that we are using is www.dafont.com. Each title will be on a separate clip. For the Name of Studio and Name of Production Company we will use the font called “Prequel”. For the Actors Names, we will use “Roboto”. We will have three titles pop up for each name. For the film title, we want to use a bold, big font that will really make the name stand out. We will use the font “Awakenning”. For the Music By and Edited By titles, we will use the font “Headlines”. For Produced By, we will also use the font “Headlines”. For the next three titles, we will use the same font. For Story By, Written By, and Directed By, we will use the font “Sansation”. We plan to use different transitions to show the titles. One transition will be the title will appear like it is on a sidewalk, then a foot will step on it and it will look like the title stuck to the bottom of their shoe. The other transition we plan to use is a door will open and a title will appear there. Then, the camera will move slightly to the left and the title will slide out with it. Another way to show the title is when the main character gets out of bed, he will pull the covers off him and get out the bed, and where his body was, a title will appear. We also plan to use the fade transition for some of the titles. Once we actually start editing, we may find new techniques and ways to incorporate the titles into the film.
Location: The locations for this project are a house, a sidewalk, a school.
Participants: The participants of this project are Rashawn Granderson, Constantine Feickert and Hadar Kotzer.
Health: We have a first aid kit and over-the-counter medicine. Rashawn’s mother has experience in the medical field, so if anything happens we will be prepared.
Schedule: The dates that we are planning to film are March 6th, March 13th, and March 20th. That would give us 3 blogs for filming and we would do editing and other things throughout those time periods.
Backup Plan: If it were to rain, we could use an umbrella, or film in the house. If one of the participants cannot come, we will film what we can without them, or edit the clips we already have.
I was researching online for websites that can show me ideas for the title designs. The opening scene that we are filming will include many texts of the opening credits. So, it is important to make sure they look nice. The first website I found was called “Art of the Title." The first thing it showed me was a picture of a few of the Emmy Nominations of 2021 for Main Title Designs. The website also has drop-down-lists of different options to choose from. It provides two lists, the first for types of Title Sequences, and the second for Designers and Studios. The list section for Title Sequences provides pictures of different title sequences. The list section for the Designers and Studios provides a biography of each designer and shows their works. The website also provides articles on big topics related to title designs, i.e. the article “2021 Emmy Nominations for Main Title Design."
I wanted to find other websites to get more ideas. As I was searching, I found another interesting website. This website is called “Watch the Titles!”. The website has similar elements to the last website. It provides a list of title sequences, designers, and studios, all as separate options to click on. When you hover over the title sequences section with your mouse, differing from the other website, a list of different types of title sequences pop up, such as for TV Shows, Movies, Event Titles, etc. I noticed that one of the options is for Student Projects. The Designers and Studios options are two separate tags, and in order to get an overview you must actually click on the tag you’d like to see. Just like the other website, each designer has a biography and some of their works. The studio section doesn’t provide a description, just an example of their works.
1. How many titles are displayed during the opening sequences to the film? Which ones?
There are 11 titles displayed throughout the opening sequence. The ones included are the Name of Studio(Netflix), Actors Names(Sandra Bullock, Trevante Rhodes, Jacki Weaver, Rosa Salazar), Film Title(Bird Box),Edited by(Ben Lester), Produced by(Dylan Clark, Chris Morgan, Clayton Townsend), and Directed by(Susanne Bier).
2. What connotations do the images carry? (how do they make you feel) The images make me feel intimidated. The text is in a white, big bold font, so I’m forced to look at it. I feel suspense as I see them.
3. How is genre reinforced through symbolic and technical codes from the outset? (Can you tell what genre the film is)? It is a little difficult to tell what genre the film is because it also includes elements of horror. But the element of suspense and that stomach-turning feeling you get while watching a thriller is there.
4. What conventions are used to ensure the film appeals to its target audience?
There was a dark film applied, making everything look eerie, that helped show the vibe of the movie. Everything seemed empty and the feeling of suspense was definitely there. The sudden bold text on the screen helped the feeling of nervousness and “what’s going on here?”.
1. How many titles are displayed during the opening sequences to the film? Which ones?
5 titles are displayed during the opening sequence. The production companies (The Exchange, Ingenious Media, and SSS Entertainment), the distribution company (Saban Films), and the films title "The Vanished".
2. What connotations do the images carry? (How do they make you feel)
The opening title makes the viewer feel anxious. The bland colors, dark lighting, and long buildup in the opening scene has viewers on the edge of their seat.
3. How is genre reinforced through symbolic and technical codes from the outset? (Can you tell what genre the film is)
The use of dark colors and lighting, and the audio used during the opening sequence help provide more info on the genre of the film. A very common trend in the thriller genre is the use of dark lighting and music with a long buildup to it.
4. What conventions are used to ensure the film appeals to its target audience?
The black and white color scheme of the titles in the opening sequence is a very common convention in the thriller genre. The other convention is the music that creates a tense and almost stressful atmosphere.
Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom uses a wide variety of different camera angles. The most common camera angles used are: high angle, low angle, wide & establishing shots, bird's eye shot, and close-up shots.
Common Miss-En-Scene
Settings are Island Nublar and a Mansion
Props are mainly high tech devices as shown in the lab in the mansion, and fake blood.
Acting is one of the most important parts of the film. An example is during the scene where Maisie Lockwood is hiding in her bedroom from the Indoraptor. The actor for Maisie does an incredible job of showing the fear during the intense situation in the scene.
Makeup is used a lot in the movie in order to show injuries from the dinosaurs.
The lighting is very dark in order to create more tense situations.
Costume is normal everyday clothes. Clothes are usually ripped.
Common Editing
Jurassic World makes use of quick editing techniques in order to make each chase go by fast. Examples of this are action match, cross cutting, and cutaways.
Common Sound
The movie makes use of incidental music and ambient sounds during intense scenes in order to make them more suspenseful and impactful. Jurassic World also uses it's own score created for the movie.
Elements of the Genre
The thriller genre is all about creating suspenseful situations that leave the viewers on the edge of their seats. Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom is a great example of this genre. The intense chase scenes combined with the silent scenes showing the main characters hiding from the Indoraptor creates moments that are sure to terrify audiences and keep them wanting more from the series.
Elements I Like
I would like to use all of the camera angles minus the bird's eye shots.
The sound, acting, and props are also elements I would like to use.
The use of ambient sound and lack of sound can create intense moments that leave viewers on the edge of their seats. It would be a good idea to implement these into the film as well.
Unappealing Elements
I would like to avoid using makeup and fake blood.
Bird's eye views are also aren't an option due to the lack of equipment in order to create the shots.
I also want to avoid creating a score and incidental music due to the long amount of time and effort that goes into creating them. There is not enough time in the project in order to create incidental music and a score for the film.
Common camera shots and angles include close-ups, medium shots, and medium-long shots.
Common costumes, lighting, acting, make-up, props, and setting:
Things that are noticeable regarding clothes are that the clothes are usually ripped, have holes in them, and are seen as worn(in an excessive way).
The actors are seen with makeup that makes the actors look sweaty, make their eyes look more sunken, and in some scenes, pale(to portray fear).
The acting in the movie is usually of fear, and the actors spoke in scared voices, demanding tones(while trying to reach safety), and the actors are mostly shown to be stressed.
Lighting is usually dim, to show the shadows on the actors face.
The common setting is outside, since the characters are always on the run, as well as various buildings such as homes and grocery stores.
Common props include blindfolds, flashlights, fake blood, fires.
Common sound:
Common sound that is included in the movie includes eerie music, voices during conversations/screaming, wind, and electricity crackling.
Common editing:
Common editing techniques include action match, cross cutting, and cutaways.
Elements of the Genre in the movie:
The genre of thriller is meant to produce feelings of suspense and interest in the movie, making people eager to watch more. There is usually action included in movies within the Thriller genre. Bird Box definitely includes scenes where high feelings of suspense are present throughout the whole movie. It also does include action when characters get violent because of the sickness that it spread throughout the movie.
Elements I like:
The elements I find appealing are the eerie music, the detailed sound effects, the medium-long shots, the fearful, realistic acting, and action match scenes.
Unappealing elements:
The elements I find unappealing are the fake blood props, close-ups, and the ragged clothes.
Common Shots/Angles used are Close Ups, Establishment Shots, Medium-Long/Long Shots, Over The Shoulder Shots, High Angles and Low Angles.
Common Costumes, Lighting, Acting, Make-Up, Props and Setting
Every participant are wearing shaggy and ugly tracksuits while the people cooking and running the program are where suits and chef clothing.
During the day, it is somewhat bright due to a small whole in the wall that shoots out sunlight and during the night, the lighting changes and turns red. On lower levels, the lighting becomes more dark and eerie.
The person running the program (assumingly) is extremely strict and the workers act like solders in the military, showing barely any emotion. The participants are either somewhat sociopathic, insane or miserable.
There is a platform that delivers food down on each floor and shoots back up a extreme speeds to be resupplied at night. Every participant are also allowed to bring at least one thing with them when participating.
There is the Kitchen where all the people work, the higher, middle and lower levels and the Lowest Level.
Common Sounds
The sounds of arguing, crying and fighting can be heard on way lower levels.
Common Editing
With the help of the camera angles as well, they show the main characters fall into insanity by repeating phrases and events that caused the main character trouble over and over again in the background. They use blur to show he is disconnecting, they filter the main character's voice out and the voices in his head aren't showing the voices are taking over his well being
Elements of the Genre
The Platform provides a handful of surprises and twist that can make it considered a thriller. From unexpected actions that the characters make to the drastic change the main character goes through during his time in the platforms to even the underwhelming mysteries of the platform and the type of people participating, it will leave people wanting and begging for more.
Elements I Like
I like the mysterious part of The Platform. There are so many mysteries that are left to be solved and why some things happened in the first place, which makes me enjoy the film even more.
Elements I Don't Like
As much as I love the unexpected actions of some characters, some are either a bit to much to "I never want to see that ever again."
My group and I decided to do the genre of "Thriller". We like the idea of suspense created by this genre. We think that it would create an incentive to want to watch more of the movie. Certain elements of this genre also are more appealing towards us. Elements like Close-ups will be good for parts of the opening where we can see the main character smuggling drugs. Elements like tracking shots will be good for scenes of suspense when we are following the character and seeing what he does. Focus/Blur will be a useful element to portray POV scenes of the character under an influence. This Focus effect will go hand-in-hand with a POV shot.
Also, my group and I like the genre of thriller better than comedy and action. Thriller movies provide a feeling of intensity and we enjoy that. We plan to use this feeling of intensity to create a cliffhanger. This cliffhanger, along with the feeling of suspense will urge people to want to watch more. Also, thrillers can also include elements of comical and action movies. This includes funny moments and fights with explosions.
Since our storyline is about a boy who seems to be following Murphy's Law, that will already create a thriller environment. Having drugs be a part of the storyline will create suspense, also an element in a thriller film. We plan on having funny scenes included, going hand-in-hand with Murphy's Law. This is to make the short film enjoyable. Thriller films are also very popular, showing us that people like that. Since we are aiming to create suspense, funniness, and a cliffhanger, we are sure that people would want to keep watching the film.
Common camera angles include: extreme long shots, long shots, medium shots, extreme close ups, tracking shots, high angles, and panning shots
Common Mise-en-scenes include: battle clothing/armor, ripped clothes, blotchy/runny makeup, bruised makeup, lighting is usually bright from fires and to show fighting better, acting is usually fierce and brave, props often are weapons, such as swords, guns, bombs, etc., and the setting is usually a battlefield or city
Common editing: zoom, cross cutting, cutaways, and action match
Common sound: diegetic sound, ambient sound, sound motif, and score
Example films: Avengers Endgame, Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi, Terminator: Dark Fate, Free Guy
Elements that I like and would use: Sound effects like diegetic sound and sound motif, as well as well-done makeup that fits the scene, I like high angle shots and tracking shots, and cross-cutting
Unappealing elements: I don’t like extreme close ups and cutaways, as it draws attention away from the action
1. This pitch is the beginning of the story of a teenage boy where things always go wrong for him i.e. Murphy's Law. The opening credits will be scenes of his everyday life of bad luck, like forgetting his house keys when he thought he put it in his bag, even though he still always forgets them. The main storyline, which goes hand and hand with his constant bad luck, is about this boy who has drug-filled life and keeps almost getting caught, either selling or buying. The end of this short film will be a cliffhanger, like a policeman catching him or him accidentally selling to an undercover cop. Other features will be (unrelated to drugs) daily life things going wrong for him. We decided to do this idea because we have easy access to over the counter medications and grass as props for our film, as well as my group and I have seen plenty of films that provide good inspiration regarding this idea.
2. This pitch is the beginning of a kidnapping story. Our idea is that a girl is shopping with her boyfriend and a creepy guy is following her throughout the film. The film is intended to create a feeling of suspense and make the viewer wonder if the creepy guy will end up reaching the girl. At the end of the film, the creepy guy somehow manages to get the boyfriend away and takes the girl and kidnaps her. We are able to do this idea because we have easy access to shopping centers and we have the ability to find a private place, like the back of a building, to "kidnap" her.
My group and I decided to do the first pitch idea because it is more unique than the common kidnapping story. We also feel as though there could be more in depth details and juicy scenes in this storyline, compared to the known "creepy guy follows and kidnaps girl" story.
We have our new and final task, create an opening sequence to our own movie that we come up with. Alex and Jorge already formed their group so they were already out of the picture when it came to looking for people. With a task like this I have decided to work with the same people I work with on the music video with.
My close friend Constantine, extremely laid back person, willing to do anything that'll help get us the grade. He is an really reliable person and is willing to jump in when its time to get serious. He isn't really skilled in many things, quoted from him, but I can see potential in him as stated he is always able to get really serious on command. He is a good team player and will always try to find a way to make things fair for everyone. Honestly, me and him relate to one another a lot which is probably why we became close friends.
After some thinking, I decided to bring Hadar back to our group. At first, I though she was already in a group and so Constantine and I already had things planned out but then we learned Hadar wasn't in any group at all so she came and asked to reform our previous group. I spent the weekend thinking if this would work and I came to the agreement that it will. I also don't want her to work alone because I will definitely feel bad if I told her no and I would feel like a hypocrite since the same stuff used to happen to me. Hadar really like taking the leader role a lot, which could be really challenging for the group at times but at the end we find how to work things out. She seems to be able to think of ideas on the spot which is pretty useful when it comes to figuring things out last minute. She is also a eager learner as she wants me to teach her how to edit videos and is really persistent about it.
With Constantine's reliability and handiness and Hadar's moral and creative confidence, this we could probably get this project in the bag. The only issue is that, we might end up doing something that is just easy for convenience but it really won't feel accomplished so I at least want to do something that is challenging but too challenging for none of us to do.
My group and I are fully capable of completing this final task no matter what. We overcame the commercial project with ease and confidence and we overcame the music video with out of the box thinking and strategy. I feel we will be able to work as a team greatly with no issues standing in our way.
I want to mention that my year in media studies so far was an great experience. I learned so many new terms and new ways to edit my videos during my time. I've been editing for years now and I just learned what a split screen is and I was amazed by it. I really enjoyed my time in the class and I'm kind of sad that this will be my final introduction blog.
My name is Rashawn J Granderson, I am 16 years old (turning 17 on April) and I am in the 11th grade doing the AICE Media Studies course at Fort Lauderdale High School. I love to edit videos as that was one of my main goals of accomplishing since I was little kid and I've grown so much from what I've been doing before. I started out making short edits of my favorite anime with music over them called Anime Music Videos (AMVs) to making short films for this class and ideas for me and my friends to do.
The previous two projects made me realize somethings about how I work with things and how to run production. Criticisms are always necessary when it comes to wanting to improve at anything, its just how I handle it, that was why I asked for everyone I showed my work to their true and fully honest feelings about it and there were some positives and negatives that came by from it.
I have Sony HD Handycam HDR-CX240 fully ready to be used for this final project since I want this to be my most professional looking final I can make it be. This camera can record up to 60fps and has a 54 times clear image zoom. I've used it to record my time at Washington DC during my 8th grade year and it took some extremely clean images.
I want this final to be something that I put all my effort and heart into instead of a quick and easy grade. I want to feel complete and whole with the work I put in as I feel like this could be something that could awaken more creative genius.
In general, I am in love with this class and the work that I get to do for it. Not everyday you get to be in a class where you can make films with your friends. The best parts come from the post-production as that is where the magic is put in and where all the best effects are put in. I am really excited for this final and hoping to see how challenging it is. I hope this will an amazing and by far my greatest experience in this class. I am also hoping that the final result will be mind blowing out of this world.
If someone would ask me how hard it was to work on this project, I would be talking for hours about this might've been my most advanced project yet. I like to edit videos as a past time and I will usually spend about a good 2-3 hours editing and making final changes. But this project is the motherload of all the projects I have ever done and might be the most fun I had in a while.
To start, color correction and color grading, the most useful and amazing thing to ever exist. The ability to fix the colors of the clip to what you recorded instead of the original desaturated version of the recording. To frank, mine and Constantine's phones were able to record without desaturation, but we didn't have the summer colors we wanted. So I hoped onto my editing software and started the coloring process. Being fully honest, I did not know what to do. I knew what plug-ins were necessary for the job but I didn't know how to begin, so I decided to watch a few tutorials on YouTube came across some interesting tutorials on there.
One useful one comes from one of my favorite cinematography YouTube channels "Cinecom", who are extremely skilled and very helpful for beginners.
Secondly, we kept on getting off task and it was hilarious. In one of the scenes where the camera is focusing on the phone, we can see Constantine laughing up a storm on the phones reflection, which we found extremely funny. In order for us to get scenes where we all were laughing, I just made random jokes and started saying random stuff to see if they would laugh out of confusion, which worked.
Thirdly, managing everything technology based. Since I am the most tech-savvy person in the group, I had to manage majority of the filming, editing, shots and clips, etc. I basically knew how to do everything and what is needed to get it done. Sadly though, deep down and even if I said that this might've been the most fun project I've done in a while, it still didn't feel accomplished. I honestly wanted to do something that was going to test my limits of what I know and can do but we ended up doing that was simple and easy for a quick grade. I was able to get the color correcting done and I am accomplished of that feat, I still feel a bit empty inside when I comes to confidence of my ability of video editing as a whole. Again, I am not saying I didn't have fun or it wasn't worth my time, as mentioned before, I just feel like this was like this is what some millionaire country might do for a quick cash grab. It's not my groupmates fault, but there is something about the whole project that didn't sit well with me when I finished, which left me disappointed.
To end it off on a good note, I still love what my group and I made and it was fun doing it and it really has inspire me to do more things like this at home with my family and friends. I did learn some new things during this project and I hope I learn more in the next and final project.
