Audience and Institution Practice Essay

Question: In relation to the media area you have studied, discuss the ways audience consumption has changed over time.

Media Area: Film

Everybody watches movies in their own way. Some people watch it the old fashioned way through movie theaters. I like to watch movies at home. Due to new technologies, there are so many popular, different, and new ways to consume films. The three ways that most people have watched films over time are through movie theaters, DVDs, and digital services.

Watching films at movie theaters has been around since 1905. While it is very old it has stayed around for a long time. This is mostly due to the fact that going to the movies is the only way to see the movie right when it comes out. I believe that if streaming services got movies as fast as movie theaters did then everybody would just watch the movie at home. In the 1940s the percentage of the US that went to the movie theater on a weekly basis is approximately 80%. The percentage of people who watch movies in the theater in 2018 is 13%. We can see here that through about a 70 year period the percentage of people who attend movie theaters dropped about 67%. This is due to the technological advances made in film consumption. Since there are newer, better, and easier ways to watch movies people go to the theaters less and less. We can see this again by an even more recent statistic. In 2002 approximately 1.5 billion tickets were sold in the US and Canada. Compared to in 2019 where only 1.2 billion tickets were sold in the US and Canada. With an ever-increasing population, you would expect that number to go up, but it doesn’t due to better alternatives to movie theaters. What should be taken from all of this information is that because of new technologies more and more people are straying away from movie theaters.

The first ways of home movies were made available in the US starting in the ’80s. At this time it was mostly VHS or video home system that was being distributed. In 1997 the DVD player and discs became available and people saw how much better it is than VHS. In 2003 the DVD made VHS almost obsolete. A notable company that saw the ability to make money off of video rental was Blockbuster. They first emerged in 1985 around when VHS first came out and the founder, David Cook, saw an ability to make money off of renting videos and he used his money to invest in a business that would be very successful for a long time. We can see that once the DVD became famous in 2003, by 2004 blockbuster peaked as a company with over 9,000 stores in the US. Unfortunately, all good things come to an end and the business announced that they were closing down in 2010. This happened due to the number of competitors in the streaming service world. People realized that it is easier for them to watch the movie from home instead of having to go out and buy it. One DVD service that is still around today is Redbox. Redbox acts as a sort of movie vending machine. It is very simple, you select a movie, put in your money, then the machine gives you the movie, easy as that. This type of service is very successful because of its convenience. These DVD services fell behind in the movie industry due to new technologies taking over the industry.

The new technologies talked about above include online streaming services, illegal downloading, and pretty much anything that isn’t disc-based. Most people love digital movie services due to the fact that this is the easiest way to watch a movie. As of 2018, a total of 54% of people enjoy watching a movie at their home rather than at a movie theater. While only 13% of people prefer watching a movie at the movie theater. Online streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Video, and Disney+ are very famous and most people use at least one of them. All that’s needed is a monthly subscription and you have access to hundreds of different movies and TV shows. Another way people watch movies these days is through illegal downloading or pirating movies. I myself have even watched movies this way. If a movie looks interesting, and it is not in theaters anymore but not on streaming services yet, I try and find it online for free. Today’s technology has made it very easy for almost anyone to access any movie you want for free. An example of how streaming services are making DVD obsolete is from a case study done on Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2. The movie was released onto streaming services like amazon video before it was released on DVD. In another case study done on Spiderman: Homecoming while the movie was released in theaters the movie was also released to Xfinity Stream. This shows that the digital services are not only competing with DVD but even with the actual movie theaters. In an additional case study done on The Lego Movie Part 2, on black Friday, Warner Bros. released the first Lego Movie on YouTube in its entirety for one day only, with a trailer for The Lego Movie 2. This shows that digital services are also being used not only to distribute media but also to advertise for it. Overall, technology has made way for digital services and these services have made it easy for almost anyone to watch their favorite movie anywhere.

All in all, the different ways to watch movies over time have evolved from only going to the theaters now to an extremely wide variety of options. In my opinion, watching a movie at home on streaming services is the easiest way to do it. However, my favorite way to watch a movie is to go to the theaters because it is the most fun. Media consumption has changed over time and will change in the future, only time will tell what those changes will bring.

Extract Practice-24

The vision of the author was to show that you can’t be too careful with the people you trust. The woman has vital information that the man wants. He is trying to get the truthful information because he thinks she is lying. He believes this because he knows that the woman wants to get something out of this transaction of secrets so she very well could be lying for her own benefit. The director wants to show the thriller genre in the show so that is probably why the part where he gets mad and pins her down is added to this scene. All in all, the extracts follows suit of the thriller genre and shows a theme that can be interpreted in many different ways. 
In scene 1 of the extract, the main male character is seen trying to get the information about a bomb out of another woman. The scene starts off by the man walking in and handing the woman a piece of paper while they say no words and the room is completely silent. While this is happening the people in scene 2 are watching the people in scene 1 through a camera. The man finally starts to speak and he starts to ask her questions about the bomb. He thinks that she is lying about the information she is giving him so he starts to get mad and flips the table. She is not fazed by his action because she knows he can’t touch her. He continues to try and get the information out of her but fails and finally, he snaps and pins her against the wall this is when scenes 1 and 2 merge, and the people from scene 2 go to get the man to stop. Scene 1 also shows the viewers many camera angles and movements. One example of this would be the close-up on the woman’s face. This was used to let the viewers see close up to show how the woman is really feeling adding suspense to the story. The editing in scene 1 was mostly a shot-reverse-shot between the two people. This was used to build the characters as well as to build suspense. The sound in scene 1 was mostly dialogue between the man and the woman. This dialogue shows how calm the woman is and how angry the man is because he wants to defuse the bomb before it goes off. This adds suspense to the film because it shows how they are on a time constraint. The mis en scene was the specific type of lighting that they used. They used something called low lighting. This low lighting is a common convention in movies with genres such as this. This leads the viewers to believe that it is in the thriller genre. All together, scene 1 was used to build suspense and show the genre of the extract.
Now we will talk about scene 2 of the extract. We see the start of scene 2 where a man and a woman are watching the people in scene 1 through the camera in the room where scene 1 takes place. We see that the people in scene 2 are getting more on edge the angrier that the man in scene 1 gets. We also see that when the man in scene 1 is calm the people in scene 2 are also calm. They are emulating his emotions in a way. Once the man in scene 1 finally snaps they see this and start to run to the room to stop the man from hurting the woman. Scene 2 is shorter than scene 1 but still contains different camera angles, movements, edits, sounds, and mis en scene. To start off we have a two-shot and medium shot. Pretty much all of scene 2 was shot with these to show the two people watching the camera very intently. This was used to show the viewers that they are on edge and want to see how scene 1 unfolds. The editing in scene 2 was the split-screen. This was shown when the man in scene 1 snaps on the woman and the people from scene 2 run into the room to try and break it up. This adds suspense because it has fast-moving camera movements as well as people which contributes to the thriller aspect. The sounds used in scene 2 was mostly non-diegetic. It used eerie and suspenseful music to embellish the fact that the extract is in the genre of thriller and to keep viewers scared and interested on the edge of their seats. The mis en scene used are lighting and costumes. The lighting used was low lighting and as mentioned before is used in many thrillers. The costumes used were suits and this was to show that they are important people who are probably high up. All in all, scene 2 was used to add suspense as well as to give more information about the plot.
The director’s vision was very obvious. In this extract, his goal was to represent the thriller genre, build suspense about the storyline, and all-around to entertain the viewer. The normal conventions of the thriller genre are shown in many different examples in the extract. The different sounds, camera angles, movements, and even editing helps show how the suspense builds all the way through the extract. In conclusion, the extract is extremely entertaining for the viewer due to the different filming elements that they put into the extract that add suspense and make you curious about the story.

Final Task and CCR

In this blog, I have presented my Final Task Project as well as The Reflection questions as an interview.

Music Video and CCR

In this blog, I have presented my Music Video as well as the Reflection questions for the music video as a PowerPoint.

Re-editing

The process of re-editing has been difficult because of our situation. The main factors of change were to lower our amount of takes and to try and decrease the choppiness of the film. Unluckily, because of our circumstances and our inability to go to school, we failed to recognize how this was going to work. We made the choice to buy pinnacle studios on Kathy's computer. This was about $45 so we all paid $15. Since Kathy was the person with the editing software so she is obviously the editor for the time being. Although this situation is not ideal, we are doing our best to work it out. Amy and I obviously cannot be there to edit, so we are informing Kathy of our editing ideas so she can apply them. If Kathy needs our input on anything with the editing process she can either call or text us. In the meantime, while we wait for her to finish we will give her our honest opinions so she knows exactly how to make it better. We are very thankful that we had a personal SD card because that meant we had all of our footage. Luckily, since we found a solution for editing we did not need to be stressed about it. We also had the problem of not having an SD card reader but Kathy's computer has an SD card reader in it so that was solved easily. We by no means anticipated this situation to arise and for the world to go on lockdown, however, it has and we have to deal with the cards that were dealt to us. Although it is annoying to edit and no longer be able to do things at school, I think we are managing matters as well as we possibly can. I'm so grateful for the people I got to work with as well as my instructors for being so beneficial to our learning. Without the help of our teacher, we would not know how to do anything and would be very confused. The people that I am working with are very smart and know exactly what do do in hard times such as these. Even though this whole situation is very random and unexpected it has turned into a good learning experience. All in all, I believe that our final task is going to come out amazing and I cannot wait to see how it looks.

Summing Up Editing

In this blog, I will be talking about my journey through editing. Before the final task, my knowledge about filming was very limited. Throughout the final task, I slowly understood and learned more and more about editing. I gained this information in a couple different ways. One of them being through my groupmate's teachings. The second one being through personal experience and messing around with the software until I understood it. During our editing journey, we ran into many problems. We were unsuccessful even on our first day of editing. For some unknown reason our editing software, pinnacle studios, would not open. We tried it on multiple computers and multiple accounts but had no luck. We went through that class waiting for it to startup but it never did which led to us being very unproductive throughout the class period. After being in the class for an hour and trying almost everything the problem solved itself. The computer finally loaded up pinnacle studios. Unfortunately, it took so long for it to load we only had about 1/3 of the class left to edit. We started off right away in an attempt to get the most work done possible. Class after class this kept happening to us so we did not get a lot of editing done. We then ran into problems with the coronavirus and needing to leave school. Due to the coronavirus, we were forced to not come to school. This was a big problem for us because all of the editing materials we had were the ones the school provided us with. With the fact that we had no way to edit we had to purchase all of the editing materials ourselves. In the end, we are going to finish our editing and our final task even though we ran into many problems.

Summing Up Filming

During the filming process for our final task, we have learned and done many things. At the beginning of the process, I would say my filming skills were mediocre at best. Now my filming skills have greatly improved. I would say that I could do this again with a lot less difficulty. While we were filming, my part in the movie did not need me to be in the scenes a whole bunch. Due to this, I filmed in the movie more than I acted. This helped me develop more skills through experience. In the few scenes that I did act in, I believe I did very well. In the film, I was the kidnapper so I had to put on a very solemn and scary act. It took me a few tries at first to get into character. However, I believe that once I got into character I played my role very well. I am very excited to see how it will turn out after editing. My job was also to set up the camera and tripod before filming because I was the only one who knew how to do it correctly. What I enjoyed most about filming was learning about how real companies film and emulating them in certain ways. We emulate them by making up scenes, storyboarding, acting, filming, editing, and much more. It is really like we are creating a movie for everyone to see even though that is not the case. I also had to carry and sign out the camera and tripod at times. We ran into a few problems with people forgetting these items but in the end, we sorted it out. I truly enjoyed all the time spent filming for the final task. All in all, I believe that we were truly successful in our filming and I am excited to see the final product of our film.

Editing During a Pandemic

A new disease has taken over the world as well as the media. This disease is known as Covid-19 or more popularly Coronavirus. This disease is very infectious as well as deadly. Due to this, all schools closed for around a month. They did this as a preventative action to make sure it does not spread even more. The US is even thinking about a full-on quarantine. While this is somewhat helpful giving kids a break, unfortunately, it also hurts us. I say this because this is going to put us behind in many of our classes including our AICE classes. AICE testing is not being moved at the moment so it is going to be hard to catch up on all the missed days. Right now people are very unsure of what is going to happen making it quite stressful for not only the students but the teachers as well. With the fact that we are not at school, editing has halted. We edited using school computers with the school's editing software. This means the only way we can access our edits is if we are at school. Our editing process has not been going smoothly even before the pandemic. This has put us further back in our editing process than we already were. My group and I talked through with each other to try and find the best solution. None of us have a mac or an apple computer so we could edit with our computers using Imovie. We tried it out using our phones but it was very choppy and did not work well. We finally decided to all chip in a little to buy Pinnacle Studios for ourselves because our teachers were not giving us any other options. We chose to do this because we will probably have school off longer than expected so we will need to own the editing software ourselves if we want to get anything done. I hope that this pandemic will be over soon and things will return to normal. 

Editing Our Footage

Last Friday we continued to edit our film. Unfortunately, we ran into more problems again. Just our luck huh! If you have seen my past blogs, you would understand that we have been having problems for a while now. Although, this time was different from the last. For some reason, the laptop we usually use was missing. We looked in the laptop cart as well as went around the class asking if someone has it. After looking throughout the whole class we could not find it. We need to use the same laptop throughout the whole editing process because that is how the program works. My reasoning behind this is that the editing that is done is saved to the laptop and not the account. This means that you have to make sure you use the same laptop. It was a huge disadvantage that we did not find our laptop. I say this because we are already behind on editing and this just set us further back. After all of this, we had to come up with some sort of solution. To avoid any other hiccups we decided to get 3 more laptops just in case pinnacle studios doesn't work on one or two of them. My computer booted up first and opened pinnacle studios so we decided to use mine. Pinnacle studios took a long time to start up as usual. Fortunately, we already had the music and font size decided before the fact so it went pretty smoothly after. After pinnacle studios finally loaded we had to import all the footage onto this computer as well because it was a new computer. We did not get much done because most of the class we were sorting out the problems. We put the laptops away and hoped that next time our computer will be available. All in all, it was not very successful and I do not know how we are going to get the rest of the editing done.

Re-Shooting

On Tuesday we completed re-shooting for our film. Once again we ran into a few problems. I forgot the tripod at my house. I did this because I was rushing to leave because I did not want to be late for filming. Thankfully I do not live far from Kathy so I called my mom and she brought it. This was only a small hiccup and took up maybe 20 minutes at most. After this, it went pretty smoothly nobody else forgot any equipment at their house. The camera was fully charged so there was no need for an extension cord. We started right up after we got all the equipment. Firstly we set up the tripod by pulling out the legs and placing it in the desired position. Then, we unplugged the camera from the wall and put the SD card in it. At this point, we were ready to start filming so we got started immediately. We re-shot 6 different scenes because they were either too blurry or choppy. Firstly, we filmed the ankle scene where Amy takes the restraints off of her ankles. Then, we filmed the gag scene were Amy spits out her gag so she could speak. Then the window scene where the knocks on the window and screams for help. Afterward, we filmed the door scene in this one Amy tries to open the doors around her to escape but they are locked. After that, we filmed the hallway scene where Amy is walking down a mysterious hallway trying to find her way out. Lastly, we filmed the kitchen scene were Amy turns on the light in the kitchen to see her surroundings. All in all, it was a productive day of filming and I'm glad we got it all done.

Finally Done Filming

Hooray, we finally finished filming. We have fully completed filming all the scenes shown in the storyboard. But this does not mean we are finished. I say this because we have to complete re-shoots as well. For the first time so far in this project, we ran into zero complications. Katherine made sure the camera was charged by charging it overnight. The parts for the tripod were all there and none of them were broken. Also, everybody remembered to bring their items such as a camera, tripod, and SD card. With everything working out so smoothly yesterday, we got a lot done. Once we got to Amy's house we unpacked all the equipment from the bags. We set up the tripod and put the SD card in the camera. Finally, we started to film the last few scenes needed. We started by filming the flashback scenes that our main character gets. These scenes are flashbacks that explain how she got set up to be kidnapped. Her friend makes her go on a walk and hires someone to kidnap her. In the scene that her friend forces her to go on a walk, we had an action match with a closing drawer. This adds a better transition between the story and the flashback. We then filmed the scenes with the phone call between the friend and kidnapper. We did it in a dark room to create an ominous tone that embellishes the fact that the conversation is with a criminal. We finished up the last few scenes and packed up the equipment and we were done filming. It was very productive and I can't wait to see it finished.

Peer Editing

This past Monday we peer-reviewed another group's movie. We do this so that we give other groups and ourselves ways to improve. After reviewing we go back to re-shoot and re-edit to fix the faults in the movie. The group that we peer-reviewed was a group of 1 person. The movie was about two twin assassins who get sent to kill each other. However, from the film, I did not get that they were twins and needer further explanation to find this out. Other than that the film was very well made. The quality of production was amazing with clear graphics. We learned from this because it shows how an iPhone camera's quality is better than the camera the school provides us with. The sound was also very good because we could hear what the actors say without any background noise. This is important because if u have something like wind, you wouldn't be able to hear anything. Another thing that was done well was the editing. They had difficult editing styles such as split-screen. I would know that this is hard to edit because I had one for my group's music video. Now that I have gone over the good things lets talk about the bad things. The main problem is that the storyline shown does not match up with the actual storyline. What I mean by this is that it shows in no way that the two main characters are siblings. They need to include something like a baby photo of the two of them to make it more obvious that they are related. The last thing that needs to be done is to add titles, so far there are no titles in the movie. Other than those two things the movie was quite enjoyable. All in all, it was a successful and productive day.

Editing Gone Wrong

Last Friday we begun editing our footage. We did not get very far because of technical difficulties with the editing software. However, on Tuesday we attempted to edit our footage again. For some unknown reason our editing software, pinnacle studios, would not open. We tried it on multiple computers and multiple accounts but had no luck. We went through that class waiting for it to startup but it never did. This led to us being very unproductive throughout the class period. Also, today we went into class to edit our footage and the same problem arose. None of the computers we tried would startup. After being in the class for an hour and trying almost everything the problem solved itself. The computer finally loaded up pinnacle studios. Unfortunately, it took so long for it to load we only had about 1/3 of the class left to edit. We started off right away in an attempt to get the most work done possible. To start off the editing process I opened up pinnacle studios. I then preceded to put the SD card reader into the computer. I did this so that the footage we filmed can get dumped onto the computer. I read all the usual popups and dismissed the ones necessary. After Amy completed her part of the editing process I got back to mine. The class was about to end so all that I did was delete all the unnecessary footage such as failed takes. Unfortunately, all of our days of editing were extremely unproductive and we are going to need to put in a lot of extra time to make up for this.

Filming Again

Today we started our second day of filming. We ran into a few problems filming again. Firstly, we were supposed to film over the weekend but one of our groupmates forgot the tripod on her bus. We were going to film anyways without the tripod but decided against it because we didn't want our shots to be shaky. We chose to wait until we had the tripod because we want the movie to be a good quality. The second problem we ran into was that the camera was not charged again because my other groupmate forgot to charge it. We used the same solution as last which was getting an extension cord. This has happened the past three times we have filmed. To stop this from happening, from now on I will look after the filming equipment to make sure that everything is working correctly. The third and last problem was that the screw that holds in the tripod handle was missing. To fix this we manually moved the camera on the tripod. Once we finally started filming it went relatively smoothly. I believe that today we were more focused and efficient. We knew exactly what scenes to do as well as how to do them. All of this helped us complete today's filming process quicker. We completed a number of scenes in today's filming. Firstly, we finished the scenes where Amy wakes up in a mysterious room. Then, we filmed the scenes where she is walking around the house and discovering her surroundings. Lastly, we filmed the flashback scenes where I am kidnapping Amy. These scenes were filmed outside and the extension cord did not reach. Due to this, we were on a bit of a time constraint because the camera only had 20 minutes of battery at this point. We swiftly filmed these last few scenes and finally completed our set of scenes needed for today. All in all, it was extremely successful and I cannot wait for our next day of filming.

Filming Blog

Our filming plan was to film this past Sunday. Unfortunately one of our group mates, Amy, forgot the filming materials at school. So instead we filmed today to make up for the lost day on Sunday. We started off by setting up the filming materials. We used materials such as a tripod, camera, and tripod camera attachment. We had to pull out the tripod legs as well as apply the tripod attachment to the camera. As we started to film we realized that the camera's battery was about to die. To fix this we got an extension cable so we can film all around the room. Another problem we had is that the end of the tripod handle was missing. To fix this problem we decided to just use our hands to physically move the camera. Once we've found the solutions to our multiple problems we finally started to film. My job in today's filming process was strictly filming. We filmed a total of about 20 scenes out of the 60 needed so we got through a substantial amount. The scenes we filmed were the ones of Amy after being kidnapped and waking up in an unknown room. To set this up we had to give Amy wrist restraints, a blindfold, and a gag. At times it was hard for Amy to stop laughing so we had to calm her down which wasted a bit of time that could have been better used. I also had to fix the lighting in the room to get it the correct amount of light. I tried a few combinations such as the ceiling light only, one lamp only, and two lamps only. After this trial and error, we decided the best type of lighting that we were going for was having only two lamps on. I also had to look at the storyboard and tell my groupmates what scenes to do next. At the end, we packed up all the filming equipment back into their respective bags. All in all, it was a very productive day of filming considering our time constraints and problems that arose.

Planning Blog: Storyboard

This google slide consists of our storyboard blog. Storyboards are the basis of how our film is going to look. They're helpful in ensuring that our vision will come to life while we're filming and editing. Directors and movie producers use the storyboard they create while they film each scene. The storyboard is almost one-hundred percent accurate. Sometimes weather or environmental factors may change a concept entirely however, we will try and stick exactly to the storyboard. Each box of the storyboard would normally be approximately six seconds long. For this project though, we wanted to make sure that everything was perfect so we made each box last around two to three seconds. This is more accurate and will make it the process of filming easier. Storyboards are tedious to create, but without them, no film project would come out as well as they already do. 

Planning Blog: Title Design

When considering how we were going to incorporate titles into our film, our group took some time to carefully make decisions. Our genre for the movie is crime/thriller therefore, the font and size would have to be appropriate and match. We acknowledged the concept behind the movie for each choice that was made. Choosing a title took a good portion of our time as we wanted to ensure that it fit the movie accordingly. We also did not want any titles on the screen that would confuse the audience or imply something that was not intended. This blog mentions how leading and tracking will be used in the film. It will also explain why some decisions were made, such as the size and the color of the titles that will appear. To add to the movie's mysterious mood, titles will fade in and out. The outcome of the movie's beginning is determined by how the titles are approached and executed. This means that a small mistake in font or color can throw off the viewer's experience. Though the details seem small, they make all the difference. 

Planning Blog: Schedule, Location, Participants, and Safety

This week, my group and I fully discussed our plans for making the project. We talked about when we would each be available or busy or what days would be the best for everyone. We came to the conclusion to have multiple filming dates in case we need to record some parts here and there. We also decided to give ourselves enough time to edit to not feel rushed in the long run. As for the locations, it had already been decided that the majority of the film would be filmed at Kathy's house since there are lighting and rooms that match our original pitch. Some of the movie, however, will be filmed at Amy's house. Each group member will be fully participating in this project, whether acting as a director or an editor. We will all be seen in the film as actors at some point. Safety and health aspects were well-considered too as we all are prepared for any emergency. Parents or supervisors will always be around in case we need assistance with anything serious.

Planning Blog: Sound Script

In this PowerPoint, we talked about the different types of sound we will use in the film. We used different sounds such as diegetic, non-diegetic, and incidental music. I will use the different types of sound to present the elements of the film. A film such as this one, crime/thriller, needs sound in it to build suspense in the movie. We used more upbeat sounds in the flashbacks when the main character is safe. However, we use creepy sounds when it shows that she has been kidnapped. In the film, there isn't much talking but is more sound-oriented. This element increases the spookiness of the film by leaving the viewer without explanation. The limited dialogue that is in the film is between the bad guys of the movie even further increasing the suspense. I believe that between the eerie dialogue and the creepy sounds this film will truly accentuate the elements of our genre.

Planning Blog: Shooting Script

This is a PowerPoint of how the shooting will be done. This shooting script will be about 95-98% accurate. The accuracy is not 100% due to conditions like weather and lighting that we are unable to control. We only film a few scenes outside, so something like rain will not affect the whole film that much and won't be that big of a deal in the grand scheme of the film. Shooting scripts, like ours, include things like movements of the characters and camera, angles, and setting. We will follow this while shooting, so we have more structure. Without this outline, shooting would go a lot slower, due to having no format during our filming time and not knowing what to do. We use all sorts of angles, like high angles, low angles, and a trunk shot. We also have a lot of different movements, like a tracking angle. This shooting script also allows us to see how our film will follow the crime conventions.

Title Research: Trapped

How many titles are displayed during the opening sequences to the film? 
There are 31 titles displayed in the opening sequence. It ends with the title and the creator of the movie.

What images are prioritized in the opening sequence? 
Some of the images in the sequence are close ups of corpses and the injuries that led them to death. It also shows the setting of the movie which is in the ocean because the movie takes place on a boat.

What connotations do the images carry?
The images are shown to tell the viewer what the movie is about. It does this by showing these images that consist of setting and foreshadow. It uses action matches and graphic matches to switch between the two types of images used to make the sequence more interesting.

How is genre reinforced through symbolic and technical codes from the outset? 
The genre of crime is reinforced here by the slightly spooky music as well as dark and dead images. It also alludes to the genre being a mystery by showing a dead body but not the killer.

How does the film establish an enigma from the outset? 
The movie uses the outset to establish a sort of tension or wonder in the viewer's mind. It gives the audience these interesting images without explanation. This tactic makes the viewer want more and become more invested in the film.

What strategies are used to ensure the film appeals to its target audience? 
The film uses a strategy like what was said above. It leaves the viewer with questions that can only be answered in time within the movie. It appeals because the target audience would be mystery/crime lovers and they always want to figure out what is happening before the movie shows it. To do this you must be fully attentive towards the film.

How has technology been used effectively? 
The technologies that were used consist of close-ups, establishing shots, action matches, graphic matches, low lighting, and ominous music. It uses close-ups when it is showing different body parts of the corpse. It uses establishing shots to show that it takes place in the ocean by showing large waves hitting rocks. It uses the action and graphic matches to switch between the close-ups and establishing shots. Finally, the low lighting and ominous music add to the mysterious tone of the movie.

Title Research: Motherless Brooklyn

How many titles are displayed during the opening sequences to the film?
During the opening sequence of the film, 32 titles are displayed. Such titles include cast, producer, film editor, and production designer.

What images are prioritized in the opening sequence?
During the opening sequence, images of Brooklyn and its characteristics are accentuated as the movie directors want to ensure that the audience knows that the setting takes place in Brooklyn even though the movie titles implies that. An example includes the Brooklyn Bridge. There are also a variety of different random objects such as shower heads, film tapes, books, gears, and penguins. Unfortunately, by only watching the opening sequence, there isn't a clear or definite explanation to these images.

What connotations do the images carry?
The movie directors want to ensure that the audience knows that the setting takes place in Brooklyn even though the movie titles already implies that. The out of the ordinary images make the audience want to understand how they all connect to the movie's plot.

How is genre reinforced through symbolic and technical codes from the outset?
The genre of mystery is reinforced throughout the outset and one can imply that there may also be crime and drama present. The music instills wonder in the audience. Also, throughout the outset, the technical codes seen is the key lighting used. This includes dark lighting and shadows.

How does the film establish an enigma from the outset?
The film uses the outset to make the audience wonder what is occurring in Brooklyn. This interest makes the audience want to continue watching the remaining part of the movie. Additionally, the incidental sound at certain points during the outset appeals to the audience's curiosity since the music increases the suspense and tension present during that part of the movie.

What strategies are used to ensure the film appeals to its target audience?
At certain points, incidental sound is used to capture the audience's attention. The movie's target audience is most likely watching the film for the crime and drama seen throughout it so ensuring that the outset includes music that immediately begin to increase one's interest is very important. Additionally, the film was able to establish curiosity by the wonder behind some aspects in the outset. This includes the occurrence when there were a lot of children on the street, allowing the audience to use this part to make a connection with the title of the movie. There were also many nice transitions introducing the people involved which, unlike boring transitions, kept the audience attentive.

How has technology been used effectively?
In the opening sequence, technology was very well incorporated by providing different transitions and editing techniques. Such techniques include using a wipe out, a zoom in, and a zoom out. A wipe out was seen where one part was replaced by another. There were multiple zoom ins and outs to show clarification or to show the bigger picture.

Title Research: Seven

How many titles are displayed during the opening sequences to the film? 
There are 26 titles displayed. The ones displayed were the director, who the casting is by, the main actors, and of course the title of the movie. The title of the movie comes about halfway through the opening sequences, not too soon but also not too late.

What images are prioritized in the opening sequence? 
The images that frequently come up and are prioritized are the newspapers, baby images, and a razor. There is a lot of writing materials, like notebooks, leaving you to believe that there will be some sort of journalism or a detective.

What connotations do the images carry? 
The images carry a dark and ominous connotation. It is suspenseful and mysterious, and the images leave you wanting more. The images are confusing, which also leaves the audience at the edge of their seat.

How is genre reinforced through symbolic and technical codes from the outset? 
There is low lighting and suspense, which follows the conventions of the genre. The angles also continue the conventions of the genre with the close-ups and over the shoulder shots.

How does the film establish an enigma from the outset? 
The film establishes a suspenseful and mysterious enigma. The opening sequences leave you confused and wondering about all the writing materials, the baby photos, and the newspapers.

What strategies are used to ensure the film appeals to its target audience? 
Like said before, the opening sequences leave you feeling suspenseful. This appeals to the target audience because the people that watch crime movies love the suspense and the mystery. Having the mystery makes it so people won't walk out of the movie as it is on.

How has technology been used effectively? 
The low lighting and closeups and over the shoulder shot are similar to the crime genre and even follows its exact conventions. This leads the audience to believe conventions will be used throughout the whole thing and can prepare for low lighting, high angles, over the shoulder shots, and more conventions.

Title Research: Hostage

How many titles are displayed during the opening sequences to the film? 
The opening sequence of this movie has a total of 29 titles displayed. Some examples of these titles include the director, the production company, who the film is by, and the title of the movie. The last title is who the director is, just like most opening sequences in movies.

What images are prioritized in the opening sequence? 
The images that are prioritized in the opening sequence are a lot of buildings surrounded by polluted air. The air looks polluted due to the redness. The colors of the opening sequence stick to red, black, and beige/light brown. Telephone poles are also prioritized and so are the roofs of buildings.

What connotations do the images carry? 
The images carry a spooky and ominous connotation. Even though the exact color of the sky isn't clear, it still looks as if it is gloomy out. The opening sequence makes it seem like the movie will be somber.

How is genre reinforced through symbolic and technical codes from the outset? 
The genre is reinforced through the lighting. It follows the convention of having low/dark lighting. There is also high angles, following the genre conventions once again.

How does the film establish an enigma from the outset? 
The film starts off and leaves questions as to why there are buildings, gloomy air, and telephone poles. The opening sequences don't give you any information as to what the plot of the movie will be.

What strategies are used to ensure the film appeals to its target audience? 
The film appeals to the target audience of people that like crime movies by building suspense. This will ensure that people won't walk out when the movie is going on.

How has technology been used effectively? 
The camera angles, similar to the crime genre, include high and low angles. There is also low lighting. Following the conventions of the crime genre while in the opening sequence shows that they will probably follow the conventions throughout the whole movie.

Title Research: Watch The Titles

During this portion of my group's research, we are starting to look into titles. To help us as we research, we will be looking at the website www.watchthetitles.com. The structure of this website is very convenient as everything is placed where my group and I can easily locate it. We are looking at this site to develop a better idea on how titles are placed in movies. We also wanted to see if their placement or the moment they're seen affects their significance. While looking through this website, I realized that there are a lot of different movie beginnings provided that relate to the crime genre. "Watch the Titles" separates the top of its home screen into Title Sequences, Designers, Studios, and Search. As I mentioned before, this structure allows for easy identification of what I need to select: Title Sequences. It was also convenient for this website to cut the title sequences into just the first couple of minutes which meant that I would be able to know when the titles would stop showing up. With every movie, the website provides its title and a picture so that the audience somewhat understands what the movie will be about regarding its genre. This helps me save time and look through some videos more efficiently as I won't be selecting movies that don't have anything to do with my group's genre. After watching a couple of videos, I learned that the main title of the movies is normally shown very creatively and spark interest. This ensures that the audience's attention is captured and that they continue to watch the remaining portion of the movie. How the titles are placed and their order, is determined by their importance. An example is the director, whose role is very valuable and the majority of the time is seen at the end of the title sequence, usually the last job.

Title Research: Art of the Title

I chose the Art of the title website for my research. This specific website is not only recommended by my teacher but also by Cambridge. We need this to have examples of what title sequences looked like in real movies. There is a great deal of examples ranging from many different genres. If you would like to find one specific genre, all that is needed is for you to type the genre into the search bar. Their selection is from movies that are slightly older but they still represent the idea. There are many different titles to look at during opening sequences. In one specific genre there are many different variations of that genre. The research of the different types of titles was vast. You would see the different jobs in the movie as well as their names. These include actors, producers, artists, directors, etc. These titles stay on the screen for up to 5 seconds. The titles start with the movie name and end with the director of the movie. The site is very simple to use so i believe that it will be easy to find the right example movie. I enjoy using this site because it makes it easier than trying to find the opening clip of a movie from Netflix or YouTube. All in all, I hope that the movie research will go smoothly and correctly.

Genre Research: Panic Room

Another movie that came to my mind after talking with my group was Panic Room. Jodie Foster and Kristen Stewart star in this movie as a mother and her daughter whose house is invaded by robbers and they have to stay safe. While watching this movie, I paid close attention to all of the details put into it by its creators. Such details include camera movements, angles, shots, mis-en-scene, editing, and sound. The camera angles that I noticed throughout the movie were establishing shots, two-shots, three-shots, low and high angles, medium shot, close-up, medium long shot, over the shoulder, and medium close up. The camera movements seen in this film lacked variety since there were only a couple used. These were pan, tilt, tracking shot, and zoom. As for mis-en-scene, there was a lot of thought put into each scene. For costumes, the characters wore clothing that was appropriate for who they represented. For example, the police officiers wore their uniforms, a robber wore a black ski mask, and a neighbor wore his pajamas during the middle of the night. There was a variety of lighting as well such as natural lighting in the daylight and at nightime and articial lighting in the house. Also, in the house's panic room, there were fluorescent lighting that at one point began to flash. The acting in the movie by each actor and actress was exceptional as was the makeup that was able to showcase a burn on a robber's face, sweat from the mother's face, and blood on a captive's face. Some props seen in the movie were a gun, flashlight, cell phone, cameras, and a watch. The setting in entire movie was set in one specific house with a panic room that was mainly filmed too.
Unlike "Secret Obsession," in this movie there wasn't a large range of editing techniques used. After watching the complete movie, I noted that there were only a select amount of editing techniques used that would be repeated and replicated in the remaining scenes. Such techniques include jump cuts, cutaways, eye-line matchs, and action matches. The most common technique used similiar to most crime movies was cross cutting. This allows the audience to see what is happening to both the criminals and the innocent with two different scenes that are occurring at the same time. This movie also used a couple of sounds. Like most movies, there was dialogue, diegetic and non-diegetic sound present. However, this movie also had incidental sound and ambient sound. At one point, no sound was used to accentuate the importance of a lamp falling down in the near future which would alert the robbers. There were both elements that I liked and disliked in this film. I believe one element, not commonly used in crime movies, were the allusions to certain things such as Edgar Allen Poe and the Titanic. These allusions incorporated some relationship between the audience and the characters since it helped me personally better understand what the characters were doing or thinking. Another element that I liked was that the movie began with incidental sound right away. This made me gain interest immediately on what was going to happen in the future. An element that was commonly used in this movie that I didn't like so much were the scenes that were supposed to create tension but actually made me bored. Such aprts included conversations that would've been better if they got to the point faster. In these scenes, the directors decided to make it longer than necessary making the situation last for a while and this led to multiple scenes that were dull.

Genre Research: Wolf of Wall Street

The movie that I chose to watch was The Wolf of Wall Street. This movie has very famous actors including Leonardo Dicaprio, Matthew McConaughey, and Margo Robbie. The movie focuses on Jordan Belfort, who is focused on by the FBI due to his empire of success, which he got by defrauding wealthy investors out of millions of dollars. He and his friends live life going to parties, having sex, and doing drugs. Like many movies, the camera angles, movements, sound, mise en scene, and more were thought about heavily, affecting movie quality. This movie is out under the crime genre. It follows a lot of the conventions, making it similar to other crime movies. It does have a lot of different qualities, which separates this movie from others. The common movements that were used as the zoom-ins/outs, the tracking shot, and the tilt. They used a lot of different camera angles like the establishing shots, mid-shot, long shot, and over the shoulder shot. They also used close-ups, 2 and 3 shots, and high angles. The CLAMPS of a movie is the mise en scene that is used. It stands for costumes, lighting, actors, makeup, props, and sound. The costumes in this movie are tuxedos/fancy clothes because they're business people. They also wear boat/rich people clothes that they wear while they're chilling around/on a boat. This fashion is commonly worn on fraternity boys. The lighting in the movie is bright/outside lighting, usually. It also has building lighting, while they’re in the office and night time/darker lighting. The actors are usually serious and they act tough, but they do make occasional funny comments. The actors are also brilliant because they are businessmen dealing with hundreds of millions of dollars. The makeup, like most crime movies, is natural/as if they aren't wearing any. Common props in this movie include money, cars, boats, phones, and watches. Since they are rich, they tended to have items commonly associated with rich people. The sound in this movie includes the dialogue, the songs played at the parties and the songs that are background noise (non-diegetic sound). There’s also a lot of ambient sounds like cars in the background. There were a lot of different editing techniques used in this movie. These include jump cuts and cross-cutting. The movie also had action and graphic matches and cutaways. Like said above, the movie followed a lot of its genre's conventions. This included the props like money, the high angles, and the tracking shots. An element of the movie I really liked was watching them live such extravagant lives. It felt like you were living with them and you were part of their action. I didn’t like the parts of the movie that weren’t action or tension-filled. They were necessary, but they felt boring. This is, of course, a part of every movie, though. Other than that, this movie was fantastic and definitely fit the crime genre in many aspects but also challenged the conventions in ways, too.