Genres for Portfolio Project

Hellooo Cambridge! Today I have fully set on two genres that I have in mind for my film opening! This is an important first step to take in order to have a set plot in mind as well as decide what choices I will be making prior to producing my opening. I will also be focusing on my inspiration I will incorporate in this opening including many films in the horror genre as well as drama including classic movies like Scream (1997) and Legally Blonde (2001). It's important to note that I'm focusing on the genre and conventions within the openings of these two movies and deciding which to choose from there.

Horror

So let’s get started! In the horror genre, The Scream franchise movies always start off with an opening of a “kill-off” where the main slasher (known as ghost face in the movies) kills someone that’s in the movie. A perfect example is the first movie where ghost face encounters the blonde girl that we later find out is named Casey Baker. You can click on the link below in order to fully understand the mise en scene elements, set design, and makeup that is used to perfectly portray a sense of fear in the audience in this opening.

Watch Scream (1996) Opening Here!

Scream falls under a more slasher horror category. We haven’t addressed this, however, there are multiple sub genres to horror including but not limited to… supernatural horror, psychological horror, slasher horror etc. With the horror genre the audience will be able to expect a sense of fear conveyed by my opening which i could allow to be either unsettling or  disturbing.

Scream (1997)

Drama

Moving on to the other genre I am considering which is drama. This is a genre that portrays real life experiences through dialogue, conflict (character vs character as mentioned from my previous blog post), and Legally Blonde (2001) is a great movie to portray this category in their opening. In the opening there is context and background that is giving the audience a sense of what is happening in the movie. There are also different sub-genres for Drama as well but I would like to consider a more comedy drama that has comedic timing which also conveys real-life experiences like in the movie with Elle Woods going through her town which is seen to be a college campus and she is portrayed as the perfect sorority girl who doesn't have a care in the world. With this drama comedy genre, developing context and background in the opening would be critical and many dialogue choices, song, and costuming would be very crucial if I were to pick the drama genre.

Legally Blonde (2001)

Now that I’ve narrowed down my decisions towards genre, conflict, and what type of approach I will be taking towards this project, I can finally access which decisions will be perfectly adjusted to what I will like to do. With this said, I have decided to take my opening with a horror genre  with mystery to intrigue my audience. This also means that I will have my work inspired off scream and have some mise en scene elements from this time period the film was portrayed in. 

Thank you Cambridge! Stay tuned for more blog updates on my portfolio project and the process I will be taking into this lengthy production! See you all next week 🎀

Transitioning to Portfolio Project!

    Hello Cambridge! The following blog posts over the span of 2 months will be towards the creation of my portfolio project. I have been doing research and will be applying everything I have learned throughout this course and implement it into this project. This transition will help me have a more planned and successful approach to my project. With this being said, let's start the process of jumping into this project by accessing the different approaches to take with the opening:

My notes to the film opening portfolio project!

    These notes have helped me realize which opening i was really fond with and which ones I wanted to approach this project with. I'd like to establish a sense of conflict concerning character vs character. This would be inspired of the opening from Scream (1996). With the opening scene focusing on a horror genre as well as include a sense of mystery. I prefer this type of approach because in this 2 minute film production opening I will be able to use up my time to develop a plot without giving away the entirety of the plot and intrigue the viewers to watch this movie that I made the opening to. With this approach, I will be able to focus on my favorite aspect of filming productions which are mise en scene elements like costume and setting design as well as lighting in order to effectively give off the vibe im trying to give to my viewers. I will also be able to produce foley sounds and incorporate knowledge from my previous project in order to create sounds to represent off screen elements like diegetic sounds.

   I also have another approach I would like to consider which is developing context and background for my opening. This approach is very generic and would focus on mise en scene elements as well which is a prime reason why I'm considering it. Establishing context would also be a good idea for an film opening due to it being natural and still giving the audience a lot of hints and try to figure out what's going to happen in the story while still not telling them explicitly. With judgements on environment, set, and tone the characters in the film will be established as well as what they will be experiencing in the film with this opening approach.

Music Marketing Project - Recording Video

     This is the behind the scenes video for my team's project on the music marketing campaign for Disco Landing. This video was filmed by many group members including Me, Maria, Samia, and Sofia. It was also edited and voiced by Jacey.

Music Marketing Project - Planning Process

    For this project, we were tasked to pair up into groups of 4 or 5 members. My group was chosen to do the Pop genre and do some background research of the genre marketing and distribution practices amongst 5 singers in the pop genre. We were told to make a marketing campaign for a artist that our group will build up from the bottom up based off of the background research we made. 

    We were advised that it was better to break this project into many parts. The first part consisted of us doing background research about the five different pop artists in the certain genre along with a case study for each artist. We had two distribution labels, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group, along with the three artists for Universal Music Group and two for Warner Music Group. The three artists we researched for Universal Music Group was Ariana Grande (the one I researched), Justin Bieber, and Sabrina Carpenter. We also had researched Melanie Martinez and Charli XCX for Warner Music Group. We learned how certain artists used social media in order to appeal to target audiences to stay active on platforms like TikTok, YouTube, X (twitter), and Instagram. As well as, distribution practices including producing music and publishing it on online platforms such as Apple Music and Spotify. We are planning on using YouTube and Instagram to promote our artist. Moreover, most of the pop artists had websites to sell clothes, vinyl, and other merch which is also related to how we will promote our artist. 
    Background Research: Music Research Chart.docx 

    My group's music marketing project planning began with us picking a song that will lead most of our decisions for our artist's marketing, internet presence, performances, and other distribution practices. The song we picked was 'Awkward' by San Cisco. It is also worth mentioning that we will make our music video that will pertain to our artist's marketing campaign. 

    Original Song: San Cisco - Awkward

    

    Recently, we have tried to make a timeline or schedule to figure out how we will work on this project and stay organized. This timeline has each person's role in the project along with dates and estimated due dates we expect that section of our project to be done. It's divided in sections such as planning the music video, outline the presentation, and finalizing the music video and editing. We have also organized a storyboard to keep the scenes of our music video in tact with how we will shoot, where, and with who.

    Timeline: Music Marketing Project Development.docx

For now, we are following the timeline as closely as possible and making alternations as needed depending on how efficient or if we finalize ideas for our artist. Our storyboard for the music video is finished and we decided how we will pertain our artist, Disco Landing (alias name), as a retro 90s-2000s vibe which is very retro. We have decided that the music video will be a combination of promo and storytelling which is a duet between our artist and another female lead that will promote Disco Landing, a male singer, and get him known. I will be back with an update on how our project has gone!

    

    

Genre Research - Horror

What is Horror?

  

  To put it simply, the horror genre is a method of telling a story in a suspenseful, intimidating, and shock. The intent of horror is to mainly shock and terrify its audience. Speaking of which, the audience can range from those who love being scared and having goosebumps to those who will have nightmares the next night but will still watch because of curiosity. This genre's target audience however are those who are easily scared by anything either if it's supernatural, sanity, and of course the blood and gore parts. This genre has been apart of the media sphere for a long time from what started from books and literature has advanced into movies, television series, and even video games. 

Genre Conventions

Content

    The use of the audience's phobias is very common to see in horror movies. In fact, it is the entire genre of playing into the character's phobias and trick the audience that they should be in fear of their phobias and that they are very much real. Very big companies like Blumhouse intent to scare their audiences with the advantage of abusing their phobias. Many phobias can reach to the supernatural, psychological, or even gore. Of course companies are aware that some of their audiences are different and they need to change how much fear factor they incorporate into their production. This instance is seen in the different of PG-13 an R-rated films. 

EX: The phobia of clowns kidnapping children and luring them into dangerous habitats is incorporated in the move It. This phobia was used to induce fear upon clowns and strangers.

    It's very commonly known that in horror movies the characters that meet their fate aren't the brightest even when the situation that is present is very easy to get out of alive. This is a plot used in many classic horror movies and it is so that the killer can be seen as the winner and strike far in the audience that they can kill anyone that stands in its way. However, sometimes the audience can find this infuriating and get annoyed when the character dies eventually. This might also be intentional as it makes viewers at the edge of their seat to see if their favorite character of the franchise will live till the end of the movie

EX: This classic trope is seen in many of the Scream movies as the killer, Ghostface, slaughters his or hers victims one by one until they get revealed by the end. This continues the ongoing series of the movies. 

Production Techniques

    In many horror movies there are slow moments that build up suspense in order to make the audience know they are about to be jump scared but at the worst possible time. Even if you know it will come sometimes the audience will still get spooked and even though repeated, it's a classic characteristic of horror movies that we love to see in the movies. 

EX: In the Jaws movies, the slow and suspenseful moments until the shark shows up leaves the audience at the edge of their seat as they listen to the iconic sound motif that is played faster and faster but the movements in the scene are slow and drag on.

Institutional Conventions

Marketing

    The marketing in this genre can vary to seeing random references to the movie in real life to making the movie seem like the next big and terrifying movie that has ever been brought to the cinema. 

     In many movie posters of these big horror movies are seen with either the colors red to black which mostly signify blood and fear. These kinds of colors are seen in more higher rated movies that aren't for the lighthearted and should be taken seriously. Most posters included the "killer" or "attacker" and all of their victims that are seen with distraught expressions as this isn't a funny movie. 

EX: A movie that shocked the internet with its clever marketing tactics was Smile. This is where some actors would go into public places and smile into the camera in order to market for the movie.

Film Samples

The Conjuring (2013)

The movie The Conjuring (2013) is actually a series of movies that all take place in a timeline. However, the first one is the perfect embodiment of paranormal horror and has references to the supernatural. This incorporation of haunted dolls, evil spirits, and priests that are called to banish them. The first movie is actually based on the real-life experiences of two people, Ed and Lorraine Warren, who are investigators that investigate hauntings and paranormal activities with families. This film uses clever jump scares with an unsettling setting and environment that completely intrigues the audience and submerges them into the story. Ed and Lorraine try to help a family that is being attacked by dark forces and supernatural beings. This film has the production design of having slow moments followed by jump scares that can catch you off-guard. As well as the incorporation of the phobia of the devil and definitely more religious topics. However, the audience doesn't have to be any sort of religious in order to enjoy the movie. 

Child's Play (1988)

The film Child's Play is about a young boy named Andy who receives a innocent-looking doll named chucky. As you can see from the movie poster, Chucky is anything but innocent. He is actually a doll possessed by the soul of a serial killer and goes on a killing spree as a doll. Through this movie the incorporation of the phobia of haunted dolls is used to scared children that have dolls at home. Most likely, the audience will have a little fear factor that contributes to the idea of haunted dolls even though they know that the plot is make-believe. This movie also has that common trope where the characters are seen to be clumsy and can't escape from a plastic doll even though the audience can see that it seems fairly achievable to escape chucky. However, most of his victims are those who are caught off-guard and don't take the haunted doll seriously and when Chucky proves them wrong they have already met their fate. 

More Horror Movie Examples!

Goodnight Mommy (2022)

Terrifier (2016)

Friday the 13th (2009)

Halloween (1978)

The Ring (2002)

Representation Patterns in Media

    Representation in the early 2000's is very differentiated from how it is in the media now. An example of representation of diversity, or lack of, can be found in the 2004 film Mean Girls. One of the side characters, Janis Ian, shows a clear element of feminism and against the social norm of being popular. The movie uses the selection of how she's seen visually and what she says to contribute to the characteristics of this character. She's seen as the hateful, "edgy", and cool girl that is laid back but can also be mean. She is also the main character's best friend that is trying to be her ally and help her from the mean girls.

    Another example of this film that shows the representation are the three mean girls that are the antagonists of this film. Their names are Regina George, Gretchen Wieners, and Karen Smith. Karen Smith is stereotyped as a "dumb blonde" and doesn't gain any character development even towards the end of the film she's seen as just a mean girl who cares about her looks. Regina George is the typical mean girl and is shown through a negative lens that she is a backstabber and insecure. Gretchen Wieners is another character that is seen as a stereotypical "second-hand man" to Regina George that is the typical two faced mean girl that is seen as insecure and constantly compares herself to her "best friend".  

    This film repeatedly shows the stereotypes of mean girls, however, it might be accurate to how teenage girls acted towards each other at the time. These stereotypes are negative and represents how girls acted towards each other considering insecurities, friendships, and relationships. For instance, the representation of how Karen Smith acts is a very exaggerated way of how dumb blondes got their reputation of only caring about their looks and not their education. This representation differs from how this movie is in more modern versions in order to accurately represent how teenagers act. 

Sound Projet

     For this project, we were assigned to create a 1-2 minute film with just audio and no visuals through sound effects and foley sounds. We were randomly paired with a partner to develop a storyline that can portray a location that can be layered with various sounds. We had to make at least for sound effects as foley sounds created by random objects using a "foley stage".

    While creating our outline, me and my partner decided we would portray a storyline that is in a rather quiet place but has opportunity for a lot of layering audio. We came up with the story of a teenage girl getting a doctor's appointment and it ends with her focusing on the clock because she is annoyed how she still has to go to a pediatric clinic with little kids. To effectively plan this project we used a outline that helped us picture what sounds we wanted to include and which ones we would need to make from random objects in order to create a good story: Soundscape Planning Outline.docx

    We broke down this story into five scenes that our project will flow as: arriving to the clinic, walking to checking check in area, checking in, going to sit down, and finally, waiting to be called up. We knew we had to incorporate the usage of kids crying, sneezing, and coughing to give the illusion you're in a pediatric clinic office as well as other key factors to indicate the character's attention to everything around her. For example, when walking by the kid sneezing and playing with blocks you can hear the kid's movie playing in the background and u can hear crying from the examination room. Using Adobe, we used the editing technique of selecting a room reverb in order to make it sound like the crying was coming from outside the waiting room in order to bring life to the illusion of waiting in a clinic. Also, the kids sneezing and coughing was a good way to layer these sounds along with the background noise of the receptionist desk, also known as the check in area.

     After choosing which four sounds we would create using foley sounds, we decided that these sounds were mostly background noises except for the clear indication that this is a teenager walking. For instance, the walking we saw that most audio effects used high heels, and I thought it would be better to utilize a ink bottle and a piece of paper to indicate she's walking in sneakers and give the story a more realistic approach. In addition, the background noises used were putting on gloves using rubber, getting hand sanitizer by squeezing a wet paper towel, and a ticking clock by hitting a role of tape and a screwdriver that added dimension to the audio project. This is a video of the foley sounds that were created: RomeroSeoane_foley_per7.mp4

     Lastly, something that I believe was done very well was the brainstorming and different techniques used to layer these sounds and give a audible sense of actually being in the pediatric clinic. I believe it's rather clear that you're in a doctor's office and it relates to kids in some way because you hear sneezing and you're checking in. On the other hand, something that could be improved was the use of words in our project, when checking in we used 6 words to portray the sense of being asked if you have an appointment and to sign medical slips. This was really difficult to make it concise so we don't waste 7 words, however, this problem can be avoided next time if the sound can replace the words. For example, when asking to sign a piece of paper instead of saying "sign" it could be more effective to tap the clipboard with a pen to indicate they need to sign the forms.

Final Project: RomeroSeoane_soundscape_per7.mp4