Short Film vs. Feature Length Film

    

      Hello! I’ve now watched both the short film and full length feature film of 9 by Shane Acker and am thoroughly impressed by both of them. I believe that the idea that Acker had was brilliantly executed in such a short amount of time from the animation to the plot and the character’s development. It was the perfect outline for what became the full feature film. Due to the feature film obviously being much longer in duration it allowed for many more characters to be introduced and allowed the audience to see their different personalities. Also allowing for viewers to find characters to connect with and want to support. While watching the full length film more background info as to what has happened to their world is told so that it is less confusing. In the short the audience gets the basis of the main character having to take on and slay this evil creature but in the full length film we see him along with his team take on The Beast together and follow along with them in their journey. Through this film lessons are learned and realizations are made about community that wasn’t incorporated into the short which was nice. The animation in the feature film was fantastic and with the cgi effects and all made for an extremely exciting experience. Although I love both the short and full feature film, I think I favor the full length more. I say this because with all the extra time provided in the full length movie, I as a viewer, get so much more detail and story line to follow along. I loved seeing all of the characters and their relationships. Not just that, but also the journey they take together. I also really enjoyed the message in the movie about the significance of sticking together in a community and how one person can really make a difference in a big way when taking leadership. I think it was quite inspirational. The film 9 by Shane Acker turned out amazing ad it's crazy to think it started off by just a short film like my group and I will do. 

Research 9, the feature film

     

   

Hello ! After taking a look at the brilliant short film 9 by Shane Acker I decided to go and watch the full film that was made from the short. I thoroughly impressed by the 7 minute short film so I expected nothing from this movie. After watching this action packed adventure not one bit of me was disappointed. The movie is set post apocalypse, as the world had fallen to pieces from a war between man and machine. Afterwards there was a mission made with hopes of restoring the legacy of civilization. There was a small group of gadgets and inventions that gave a small spark of life and they continued to live. A hand stitched doll with the number 9 on its back comes to life in this scary world. But he soon finds out he isn’t alone and there are others close by just like him. They all look quite similar but are still easy to tell apart. The main character #9 shows his leadership qualities that help him and his own to survive and possibly maybe thrive in their world. This story follows him, a war veteran that had been the group’s leader for quite some time, an inventor, a pair of twins, an engineer, an erratic artists, a warrior, and a not so smart enforcer for the war veteran. Together they must out wit and fight against these strong evil machines, specifically The Beast. To do so they all must use their individual strengths way beyond their boundaries. #9 takes leadership role and gathers them all up together and through out the film realizes the power of community. He comes to learn how one person can be the change in the world. I feel as though this movie was targeted at around my age group and above. I got a very wholesome and exciting impression from this film. The visuals in this film were fantastically detailed and made for a very intriguing film that really entrances the audience. Its exciting to think that something that started off as a small idea and a short film could turn into something this big. 

Research 9, the short

   

Hello! Today I took a look at the short film entitled 9 by Shane Acker. What it is that became a full length animation movie started off by a simple 7 minute short film. This short starts off with the main character, 9, fixing up some swinging contraption that later ends up being the one thing that saves him in the end. Then it transitions to show the antagonist evil creature enters in the junkyard where 9 and the other main character 5 are in. The two of them are passing by various old objects inspecting them and seeing how they can fix them which is what they did with a light bulb. This is where the Evil creature first spots them and 5 and 9 catch onto to the fact they have some eyes on them. 5 gestures for 9 to go hide as he is very frightened and as he runs away 5 picks up a weapon gearing up to go against this evil creature. Unfortunately he wasn’t prepared enough and the creature takes him from the back. The evil creature takes some sort of gadget from 5 that I believe has something to do with his life source, 9 has one just like it as well. The evil creature then kills 5 while 9 watches. The rest of the short film is 5 running from the evil creature as it is now after him. He seems to be very smart as he props up a fake of him to distract the creature. The film follows them in their through the junk yard and towards the end 5 decides to lead him on this very thin wobbly ledge when he gets the idea to go on the swinging contraption from earlier and use it to get  the evil creature to fall over the edge finally be ridding himself of him. I was very proud of 5 for this. His friend 9 sacrificed himself for him and while I was deeply sadden by his death in the beginning I believe that  5 made it worth while in the end by defeating the evil creature. I also felt a sense of peace at the very end when the gadget illuminates and it shows the ghosts of 5 and you could see him and 9 have more final moment and a goodbye. 9 definitely had some great character development, he went from the one who hides and watches the fight to being the fighter. The special effects incorporated were quite incredible as well. The robot like creatures and gadgets give it a sort of fun futuristic feel that was very enjoyable. I think the director did an excellent job executing this short film. 

Horror it is!

 

Hello. After conducting research on action, thriller, and horror genres, my group and I decided on the horror genre. We believe that our ideas more accurately represent the common elements of the horror genre. Also, we find the horror genre to be a very diverse and big genre with many sub-genres within it that will allow us to be more creative. We knew from the get go that we didn’t want to work in the action genre. We thought that it would be hard for us to be able to come up with a original plot and that the practical effects would be difficult to create. After removing action from our list, we were stuck with horror and thriller. At first my group and I really weren’t sure if we should do horror or thriller. We went through our research together and shared thoughts and ideas for our we want in our movie. Overall, the ideas of gore and death that we came up with leaned more towards the horror genre. We believe that this would be a good genre to choose because we already had previous experience working within this genre. Last year when we were in AS level Media Studies, our final project was the opening to a horror movie. We worked really well during this project and we had a lot of fun creating and sharing ideas for it. Also the pitch that we came up with works better with a horror genre rather than thriller. Our pitch was gonna be based on a supernatural element which commonly seen in horror. My group and I love horror movies and we get a lot of inspiration from horror movies. For example, last year, when creating our final project, my group and I took inspiration from famous slasher films such as “I Know What You Did Last Summer” and “Scream”. Since we created a slasher film last year, we wanted to try something new this year. This year we want to take a more supernatural approach to horror. I’m very excited try something within the supernatural realm of horror because it will allow us to much more creative and unique. Experimenting with these sub genres in horror will allow us to become more flexible while still working with a genre we love. We are all very excited to start working on this project!

Thriller movie research

 

The thriller genre like many others have common camera angles, movements, and shots, common lighting, Mis en scene, editing and sound. We thought that this fit our theme of our new movie really well. For the Mis en scene there are many different aspects that go into it. Like the lighting in a thriller the lighting tends to create shadows to create tension within the audience. Another aspect that goes into this thriller is the props the props for thrillers tend to be spaced close together to create a claustrophobic affect to portray the entrapment in the characters mind. The setting tends to be in dark places such as alleys or haunted houses. The makeup also takes a huge roll in thrillers. Usually in thrillers there makeup tends to be slim to none to make the character seem more relatable for the audience. The clothing in thrillers tend to be normal clothing. Like casual wear thrillers use these type of clothes to create realism within a film so it makes the audience believe that it could happen to them. The most common camera angles seen in this genre are high angles/ bird eye view. These shots are used to give the effect that whatever is being looked down on appears powerless and vulnerable. Another one they commonly use are low angles. They use this to show how powerful of intimidating the villain is. For thrillers some common shots the use are the close up shot.They do this to show the characters reaction. Another one they use are over the shoulder shots. They use this to build up tension and suspense between the characters.The lighting for most thrillers are dark to create a eerie affect. The common sounds for thrillers are non diegetic sound. This is usually the sound they hear when something bad is going to happen. The editing for most thrillers are flash backs, cutaways, shot reverse shot, and action match

Horror movie research

 

The horror genre like many others have common camera angles, movements and shots, common lighting, mis en scene, editing and sound. The most common camera angles seen in this genre are high angles to show superiority, dutch angle to give the feeling of tension and to show that somethings wrong, and low angles to show inferiority. Some common camera shots and movements are long shots, close up, zooms, point of view shots, tracking and pan shots, over the shoulder, wide shot, establishing shot just to name a few. For lighting, some common scenes are introduced with dark lighting to emphasize the feeling that something is going to happen, usually something that's not good. As the movie progresses there are usually some scenes that are more brightly lit to break up the feeling of suspense and horror. Which are then followed by the darkened scenes which radiate the feeling of horror. Horror genre film also have common sounds such as non diegetic sound, usually the eerie sounds that the viewers hear when somethings about to happen. Also diegetic sound,dialogue, ambient sounds, incidental sounds and internal diegetic. Common Mis en scene can be shown through the abbreviation C.L.A.M.P.S. C for costumes has a very big spectrum. Usually the costumes can consist of normal clothing normally seen in movies like Annabelle and Scary stories. Along with normal clothing some more obscure costumes can be used for the antagonist of the movie like in movies like the Scream trilogy. L for lighting is usually connected to the tone of the movie usually it’s dark lighting to make the feeling of horror. A for actors  can be anyone, any gender, ethnicity, nationality. M for makeup can be anything. In some movies like  Scary stories  they use effects makeup or normal every day makeup. P for props can be anything from a knife to a stick. S the setting can be anywhere any location. Common editing techniques used in this genre are flashbacks, cut always, fade in/out, shot reverse shot, action match, jump cut etc. Horror is a very big genre in film and a lot of the films have very similar elements. The elements in a horror film are designed to frighten and panic, cause dread and alarm, and to invoke our hidden worst fears, often in a terrifying, shocking finale. While captivating and entertaining us at the same time in a cathartic experience. Horror films effectively center on the dark side of life the forbidden, and strange and alarming events. They deal with our most primal nature and it’s fears:our nightmares, our vulnerability, our alienation, our revulsion, our terror of the unknown, our fear of death and dismemberment, or loss of identity. Horror films are often combined with science fiction when the menace or monster is related to a corruption of technology, or when earth is threatened by aliens. A couple examples of horror films that show these elements are: It (2017),  The ring (2002), The Blair Witch Project (1999), The Wolf Man (2010), and Insidious (2010). Within these elements I really like the jump scares they add into these horror films, I also like the monsters they create. However I don’t like it when different horror films have the same story line I think that it’s annoying.

Action movie research

 

Action just like any other genre has common lightnings, camera angles, mis en scenes, editing, and sound. In action films lots of accent lighting is used to enhance certain scenes and the mood intended for that particular scene. Some common situations for the lighting in the beginning of the movie is low lightning with shadowing. Then as the movie picks up to more action packed shots the lightning becomes brighter in cases of victory or back to gloomy in times of loss. Common camera angles in action movies include high angles to show superiority or low angles to show inferiority. Tilts, aerial shots, over the shoulder shot, establishing, and medium close ups are also common. Action genre films also have tend to have common sounds such as ambient background sounds like explosions or lots of digetic and non-digetic sounds. Sounds from vehicles is present in a lot of action movies and of course dialogue. Common Mis En Scene can be shown through the abbreviation C.L.A.M.P.S. C for costumes has a very wide spectrum that could go from gowns and tuxes in a film like James Bond to superhero costumes in the Avengers. L for lightening is usually correlated with tone so it could be bright or low. A for actors is people from all genders, ethnics, and nationality. Makeup usually isn't too dramatic and a lot of times used to show cuts or a rugged look. P for props in action films could be cars, weapons, or practically anything retaining to the plot. Setting is also very vague, they could be shot anywhere but the location is usually established very quickly and states when it changes. Common editing techniques used in the genre Action consist of jump shots, flashbacks, etc.

   Action is a very big genre in film. Many of the films in this genre have very similar elements. The elements for an action film include high impacts, continuous high energy, lots of physical stunts and activity, and many times there are extended chase scenes, fights, escapes, and races. Action films also have a lot of non-stop motion and great rhythm and pacing in order to keep the audience entertained. Action films also have great potential to cross-over into other genres of film such as: Science fiction, thriller, crime, and westerns. Many times in action films there is usually some type of love interest between the protagonist and another character. Another character element in action films is that the hero seems to always have some dark and depressing backstory. Action films will always have the main protagonist struggling against some kind of life-threatening situation such as facing an evil super villain, trapped in a deadly scenario, or in a dangerous chase but in the end, the hero always wins. A couple examples of action films that display many of these elements are: John Wick (2014), Spectre (2015), Mission Impossible-Fallout (2018), and Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014). Within these elements I really like the overly dramatic fight scenes as well as the prolonged chase sequences. I find these elements to be very entertaining and fun to watch. However, I don’t really like some of the character and plot elements of actions films like the love interest or the dark backstory. I find these elements to be very cliché and overdone.

Genres I would like to research

    Hello! Today my group and I in class had a discussion about researching genres for our upcoming movie. We began to brain storm about the different options we had and discussed which ones we thought would best fit our pitch. Due to the fact that it's about teenagers mysteriously disappearing in a creepy house on Halloween night, the first and most obvious genre that came to our mind was horror. I would like to further my knowledge of the genre and research it because it is one of my personal favorites. Additionally, I think the elements that go along with it really creates a memorizing movie that can really catch the attention of audience and have them on the edge of their seat. The next genre our group thought of was thriller. I think this genre is super intriguing and it really involves the audience as well. As a third option, we thought of action. Action incorporates lots of elements that would be fun for the creators to make and for the viewers to watch. My group and I already a pretty well rounded background knowledge on the genre horror. Last year while prepping to film our movie title sequence we spent a lot of time together in and out of the classroom doing research about this genre. We have a pretty good understanding of things like lightening and other misenscene involved. However, it never hurts to do more. So that's exactly what we'll do. As a group, we are going to conduct further research on the genre horror along with thriller and actions. Afterwards we can go over and discuss what we learned to see which genre it is that will be best fitted for the movie that we want to make. I'm super excited to begin this process and this journey of creating this short film. We want to make our movie look professional as possible, and the only way to do that is to make sure we know what we're doing. So, the research begins!