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As I look back on our film and our filming process, there are several things I have learned. For instance, I've learned that while filming, there should be several shots from different angles of the same scene, so that way when the editor goes back to edit the film, there is a wide variety of samples they could use. Keeping this in mind, our second cut had better angles and shots we could use and work with. As for our first cut, I ran into some problems with setting and recreating that "club" scene like I was expecting to have. However, I learned that by using close-ups and wide shots, it was easier to recreate. I'm hoping that the final film that my group and I submit will fulfill all expectations we had hoped for along with the feedback from our instructor.

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Independent Distribution and Marketing Plan - "Slipped"

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Independent Distribution and Marketing Plan - "Slipped"

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1.) If I were to distribute my film independently I would distribute my movie to FilmRise because they have partnerships and access to many various distribution services such as Amazon, Hulu, HBO, and Starz . These streaming services present a lot of thriller and drama movies which falls perfectly within our category. They also boast an impressive library of more than 50,000 licensed and originally produced scripted and unscripted feature films and television episodes across all genres. I think the film festival in Venice would be most interested in potentially screening our film because they tend to pay special attention to debut films, young talents, indie features and lesser-known cinema.

2.) The name of our film is called "Slipped." Although this title may be short, it represents the film very well because the movie is based around a guy getting drugged. I think our title does not need to be changed because it suits our film well.

3.) "Revenge is best served... when it's least expected."

4.) The target audience for our movie is young men ages 17-35. Our target audiences hobbies include hanging out with friends, working (something simple not full time), night life, and occasional playing of video games. Social media platforms that our target audience hangs out on would include, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, and TikTok. Online games they would be playing could include some sports games along with some violence. VOD platforms they would be on would include all of the streaming platforms (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, etc.). They are buying and renting movies that have thriller in them and will keep them on the edge of their seats. They are shopping and eating in common areas like the city and downtown of where they live. In Naples this would be known as Mercato or 5th Avenue.

5. If we were self distributing our movie we would have to look at our target audience and what they surround themselves with to know where to market and distribute our film. Knowing that they use streaming platforms, play video games, and go on social media gives us an idea of where to put out information about our film. 6 virtual places we would market would be YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, and TikTok. 4 non virtual places would market would include common areas, work places, downtown, and restaurants/shopping. We would market in these places because this is where our target audience spends their time, so they would see our marketing ad's for our film.

6. Ways to engage our target audience would be by making deals with other companies. For example, on Facebook it could be if you sign up for the premium Facebook then you get BOGO movie tickets to our film. This is a good way to get people to want to see your movie. They are watching a movie at a discount, but also getting a premium membership to a platform that they use daily. By doing this you are bringing in money to yourself, but also to another company. We would make the ad pop by making it vibrant colors and bold lettering. This makes peoples eyes be attracted to your ad leading them to wanting to engage with it. They will also tell friends who enjoy Facebook and thriller movies about this deal and that then brings in more customers.

7. I would design my movie poster with dark colors like reds and blacks. The reasoning for this coloring is because the subject of our movie is dark and the person is trying to seek revenge. This gives you a hint about the film because if it were to have vibrant coloring you wouldn't think that it would be a dark subject matter. Iconography that would be used would include a picture of a solo cup from a high angle with a pill dropping into it. This gives the audience an idea about what the film will be about without giving the whole plot away. This causes the audience to then wonder about what the movie is really going to be about because it could go several ways based off the movie posters images. The font would be bolded and in all caps.

8. In thriller movies they try to make the trailers leave you wondering what is happening next. Movie companies use this technique a lot because it then draws people to go to watch the movie. For example, in the movie "Don't Worry, Darling" the trailer is showing you the expectation vs. reality when something goes wrong. This draws people to wonder what will happen next.

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Writer:
After getting constructive criticism on our original script, my group and I decided that changes would benefit our story drastically. Our original script's story line was good, however it didn't give off major suspense or intensity as a normal thriller would. Originally, we had the guy drugging the girl and taking advantage of her, but after careful consideration and advice from our instructor, we decided that reversing the roles of the people would not only be a thriller, but it would also show social representation that this kind of situation doesn't only apply to guys drugging or taking advantage of the girl.

Director:
My editor and I discussed what we would like our film to look like and our ideal film would be something that looks very realistic as if it could happen at any point in anyone's life. Our plot is a boy getting drugged by a girl and the outcome of it. Usually in real life it would be the other way around by a girl being drugged by a guy. Since we switched this around we want our film to portray how these kinds of things can happen to anybody not just for say girls. Also, we want a sense of confusion shown. The boy needs to show confusion on why this is happening to him as he would never expect him to be put in this situation and the audience needs to be surprised as well with the thoughts of why is this happening to a male instead of a female.
When it comes to the setting of our movie we want chaos to be portrayed. We want to try and represent the characters being in a club, where there is a lot of loud sounds, music, and talking occurring. We are going to film at a clubhouse with all of the lights off with flickering flashing lights to portray that a lot is happening. It needs to be dark because when she drugs the guy it wouldn't be in normal daylight, it would need to be in the dark.
Some shots that we want to include in our movie are spin arounds, high ankle shots, and over the shoulder shots. Spin arounds are going to be a huge key role in our film. They can show confusion and fast movement occurring which is exactly what we want to be portrayed. Also, high shots are going to be used a lot in our film to get an overview of everything that is going on. It gives you an angle from the top view allowing you to view things that you wouldn't be able to see at normal eye view level. Over the shoulder shots will be used when two characters are having a conversation. This is a good way to see the expression on their face from the POV of who they are talking to.
Some ways that we are following conventions is by the chaos of our films. Thriller genres are very chaotic and have a lot occurring at one time. A way we might break conventions is by being able to show how much is going on in the setting that we will be in.

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Original and Revised Script for Movie AICE MEDIA 

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1.) The opening starts with a long lasting shot of a man (one of the main characters) stroking his hand against his wife's hair as she lays on his chest. As he strokes her hair, you hear a voice over of him saying, "When I think of my wife, I always think of the back of her head. I picture cracking her lovely skull, unspooling her brain, trying to get answers. The primal questions of a marriage: What are you thinking? How are you feeling? What have we done to each other? What will we do?"

2.) "Gone Girl" has a variety of genres, including thriller, mystery and drama. The targeted audience for this film would mainly be towards middle-aged women/couples.

3-Part A.) The opening of the film begins with the logo, "Twentieth Century Fox and Regency Enterprises" and fades into "A David Fincher Film." Both in the same font and color, all in caps and the color blue. After the main shot in the beginning,  the title of the movie appears over the scenery of a lake in dim lighting. The actors names and other company logos that involve music of the film then appear sporadically as you get multiple shots of the town they are in, a desolate town.

3- Part B.) The opening still image presents an eye-level angled shot, which is shown when the wife turns her face towards the camera. This type of angel is to focus more on the wife's face rather than focusing on the background of the shot. Different camera angels are used throughout the opening scene where different shots of the town are shown. For instance, the first image (the building) is a worms-eye angle shot that gives the perspective that the camera is giving the illusion that the shot is tilted. Similar to the first still image, the second shot, along with some of the final shots of the opening scene, is at a slight low angle that is intended to give a abnormality on the town.

4.) The sound throughout the whole opening scene is a high pitched sound almost creating suspense for what's to come. Diegetic sounds are also used in the opening, including the sound of waves hitting the shore once the title of the film presents on screen and the sound of birds chirping in the morning throughout the scenic still shots of the town and the scene of Nick (the main character who kills his wife) at the end of the sequence.

5.) At the end of the opening scene of "Gone Girl" I was already wanting to know more. I wanted to know exactly what the main character (Nick) meant by his first few lines in the beginning. Was there physical abuse in their relationship? Did something happen where the wife maybe cheated on him which is why he said he wanted to "crack her lovely skull?"

6.) I noticed that the directed wanted complete focus on the wife's face when she is looking back at her husband stroking her hair. I felt as though he wanted the audience to focus on her emotion and look throughout that long shot, as she stares at her husband's face. There was another part where the director goes from different angles to get a view of the husband at the end of his driveway. For me, this was intended to show Nick as he is kind of giving up or having an "over it" disposition as he just stares into the open and then looks back at his house.

7.) This opening scene adheres to several conventions you would typically see in thriller. The wife in the beginning shot is shown to have her hands rested on her husbands chest. She has beautiful blonde hair and definite features that give the idea that she is innocent and pure. However, when she goes to look back at her husband, her facial expressions look worried or scared, as if she is holding her muscle in her neck from anticipation. This gives off the illusion that she is a victim of some sort, which matches the typical thriller character. Although you can not see the man's face, you can already tell that he is a violent man through the annotation of the monologue he is speaking. The way he strokes her hair also gives off the impression that he has some sort of control over her and she is in his possession. This gives off that psychotic, almost criminal, character he presents himself as.

8.) Although there are several conventions that lead you to the thriller genre, there were plenty of things broken. The lighting, for example, was not conventional and didn't conform to typical thriller light. Usually the lighting within a thriller is a bit darker and not as bright-lit, which creates a shady presence and builds suspense. This is huge, especially if music isn't present throughout this scene.

9.) The first two minutes of this movie showed issues such as relationship and controlment problems within a relationship. This was represented when the husband was talking in a very sinister way while stroking his wife's hair.

10.) I think when the film was distributed it was intended to reach out to middle-aged woman who struggle in their relationships where the men are too controlling or over bearing. It was distributed in a sense that these women could relate to and try and figure out what to do. I also think that when David Fincher, the director, released the film he was looking to get emotion and transport the audience to be put in the wife's shoes.

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In November and December of 2022, we learned about  editing, sound, and screenwriting/screenplay format.  We studied film editing concepts and created documents featuring 20 plus kinds of editing techniques.  In class, we watched a documentary on film editing, "The Cutting Edge" and a video on use of color. We also studied sound basics, and watched a documentary on cinema sound "Making Waves". For better understanding of original screenplays, we read  "The Incredibles,"  and learned how to format our own screenplays using special software, and wrote a two minute horror film opening about someone having a nightmare as the basis for our midterm film project.

For our assigned midterm film, we were required to create a   one to two minutes, horror or horror hybrid film, an "opening" rather than a finished film product, minimal dialogue included within the script (mostly music, sound effects/ambience), no wall-to-wall music, no long takes, starting in black with company ident and/or logo and title and (optional) credits before straight cut or dissolve to first image, minimum of three crosscuts between actor and nightmare, edited/shot/uploaded by yourself, and writing a blog post to upload as well. The film had to include one close up, one dutch angle, one high or low angle, one low key light set up or one silhouette, one pan or tilt or track/push or spin around, one zoom or dolly zoom  one subliminal cut or multi-take or smash cut, one match cut, one J cut or L cut, one use of slow or fast motion, one intentional use of color for story/emotion, one instance of intentional use of costume/hair/makeup, one instance of visual complexity in setting choice (color, texture, depth, lines, shapes, etc.), three sound effects, one piece of incidental music or one sound motif repeated three times. There was also extra credit to include within the film such as adding: quick cuts, montage, wide establishing shot, split screen, POV shot, reflection shot, intentional break of the fourth wall, intentional break of the rule of thirds, rack focus or pull focus shot, intentional use of handheld camera work, use of color filters to create a dream like quality, fisheye lens or fisheye effect, and a company logo with high quality graphic.

To adhere to horror conventions, I added a killer to my film. As a result of this, it contributed to the sense of fear, because not only are the friends unaware of the killer, but the audience as well. Adding to that horror aspect, I created the film at night, outside which typically shows that eerie and dark feeling that you are exposed and anything could happen to you. For codes, I used low key lighting to bring out the darkness in the nightmare. As for audience expectations, my goal was to create suspension as to who the killer might be and why these things are happening to the characters in the movie. Although I created a horror film, there were several horror conventions, codes, audience expectations and engagement that were broken. For example, an audience expectation I feel I broke was that the antagonist and protagonist never really came face-to-face with each other and having confrontation. A code I broke was that when I was filming, I left out quick cuts at pivotal scenes, like when my main character heard the scream and ran immediately to the place where he heard it. Lastly for conventions, there were several chase scenes that were either cut short or not included causing scenes to not be directly followed. Some ideas or people I represented was mainly about teenagers because sometimes they're not quite aware of what's happening and just have that immediate urge to make rational decisions.

My piece may have not met high standards, however there were several scenes that I thought were a success. In my film, I was trying to create a panic in the main characters face when he heard a girl scream from the distance. I thought this was well portrayed in this particular scene because the actor's face showed the panic. Another scene where I thought was a success, was when everyone was gathered around the hot tub shocked about the character's death. Angles along with some shots, I felt I could've better established. For example, the group making more of an effort to show the actual fear and panic of what is actually happening could've been portrayed better if there was more emotion and body actions that went along with it. Another less successful part in my piece was that I didn't meet most project requirements, such as match cuts and J or L cuts. During this process of creating my script, I used Arc Studio. For shooting, I mainly used my camera on my iphone as well as my flashlight to help with the lighting. Finally, I used CapCut to finalize all my editing. Creating this film was definitely a challenge to not only come up with a script, but also put together a film that made the script come to life. I learned a lot of things along the way, like what goes into the process of writing a script, filming a movie within a certain time frame, and editing the movie to meet certain touchstones. Overall, I think my film was okay, but I could've improved on multiple things such as, editing, directing, and fitter camera work.

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Over the past few weeks, our class has studied various movie genres, including, thriller, war, animation, comedy, musicals, mysteries, superheroes, romance, sci-fi, sports, drama, crime, and adventure. Our final project for the unit was to present a PowerPoint with an assigned genre. Within the presentation, we studied the conventions, codes, and audience expectations of each genre. We also watched three movie clips from three different time periods that represented the genre.

Of the previous films my group has made, we've come to the agreement that our first film was within the drama genre, and romance and drama for our second film. For our first film, we wanted the audience to feel sympathy and intensity for our main character. We created and portrayed a film about a new kid at school being bullied, intending to teach a valuable lesson to our audience. This lesson created and highlighted several convections of drama. With the variety of camera movements, such as close ups and tracking, we were able to give the audience that dramatic and sympathetic feeling for the main character. For our second film, our main goal was to  make the audience feel surprised and to keep them on the edge of their seats, as well as create a sense of romance between two characters. Our storyline was about two brothers traveling to New York and later on, one of the brothers gets kidnapped by the other's lover. To create the genre of romance and drama we used camera movements like close ups, three shots, two shots, and tracking. Sometimes the camera movements would be in a wide shot, then zoom in to a closer point of view to show the audience what was really happening. For this film in particular, I believe our group could've taken this genre more seriously, because showing the film to our audience gave us the realization that there was some comedy in it when really that wasn't our intention.

Overall, my favorite genre is horror. I love the feeling of adrenaline rushing through my body, intensity, and getting scared. If I were to create my own horror film, I would probably base it off of a true story where there was paranormal activity and unfortunate events that happened to someone or something. I would create the movie in eerie, low lighting, and mysterious settings, such as a dark, old house or abandoned building. For the audience's reactions, I would expect them to be thrilled, scared, and on the edge of their seats.

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My group and I were assigned another group's original film and tasked with rewriting and improving the script, and that had to include 10 different kinds of shots and camera movement. The original plot of the film was a girl who went to New York with her dog, then the dog goes missing and gets stolen. She later finds out the the person who took her dog was her lover. We edited the plot into two brothers traveling to New York and one of them falls for a girl, then when they meet up with her, she kidnaps the other brother. The ten shots/movement types we chose to put our film included wide pan shot, low angle, medium close up, tracking, wide shot, over the shoulder, long shot, high angle, two shot, and handheld. In the last film we shot, I was the director, however in our new film I was an actor. My experience definitely changed from being behind the camera to now in front, but it was refreshing to reenact the vision that was created in our minds.

For the most part, I thought our group did a good job implementing the story line and following through with each scene. Specifically, the scenes of the kidnapping and meeting of the lover. However, our film could've been improved with better transitions moving into different shots. For example, there was a scene where one of the brothers is talking to the girl he meets and while shooting this scene, we broke the 180 rule. We could've been more precise and clearer with a few shots, like the shots where the two lovers were sending messages back and forth. The camera wasn't close enough to the phone in order for the messages to be read and understood. On a more positive note, there was tracking shots in the film that worked out really well. For example, when the brothers were walking through New York City, the camera followed them and was able to give the audience the feeling of actually being there with them. Another shot we added was a three shot when the brothers and girl meet. This shot was essential to the plot of the other brother getting kidnapped.

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This is my first Media Studies Film that I have made this year. My role in the film was being the director. The people who helped create this film were Julian, Griffin, Kevin, and Ashley. Julian and Griffin were the actors, Kevin starred in a bit of the film, as well as edited it. Our film was about a kid who comes to a new school and gets bullied by a fellow student. The new kid later finds a friend who helps defend him against the bully.

After watching the film, I personally felt as though there were several moments that needed improvement. For example, sound was a major issue. We weren't able to hear majority of the conversations our actors had. Camera angles and camera movement was also a big problem, as we needed to follow our actors motions and activity more. Lastly, transitions were choppy and more coverage was needed to be filled throughout the film. However, overall, and for being our first film of the year, I think we did a decent job following the assignment.