Mystery Film Analyzing- Get Out

   The award winning movie Get out is filled with lots of mystery and thriller. The movie begins with a man walked down the street late at night and notices a car following him. The setting is very dark and creepy. The actors are all dressed in causal clothing nothing out of the ordinary. For a portion of the time the camera tends to film his body and not face. A lot of wide and long shots are included. This movie is a great example of mystery because for a big portion of the movie everything is okay. The main actors in the beginning of the movie is a young relationship between a Caucasian female and African american male. This couple decides to drive up and met the girls parents. The setting switches from their house, to the car, to the parents house.

    The makeup/hair is pretty basic because they are just regular humans. Once you get to the middle of the movie things start to get very weird. He realizes there is something wrong with the workers in the house. The boyfriend is starting to freak out because hes surrounded by all these white people and everyone's acting different. The movie includes many close up shots. They also like to add in Medium-closeups, high angles and long shots. The directors made such that there was a lot of eye-level shots which helped the watches connect to the actors. One thing I don't like too much about the movie is that it takes a lot time for something to happen. Its a little boring before it reaches the climax. Something I did like was that towards the end the movie really surprised you.

    I enjoyed that it kept me guessing the whole time. The story line was filled with mystery and keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole movie. The ending also took me by surprise. The girls family tricked him so now hes trying to escape. I believe the editing was done really well because there are smooth transitions. The sounds that was included were great because it was very detailed. I could hear the foot steps, breathing, and the door cracking. Most of the lighting took place inside with artificial lighting. I also noticed some tracking shots. I personally find mystery/thriller very interesting so this was a great movie for me.

Mystery Film Analyzing -Murder Mystery

In order to create our film, we need to research actual films that have been created within this genre. To start off with, we watched the movie, "Murder Mystery" by Kyle Newacheck starring Adam Sandler, Jenifer Aniston and Luke Evans. The movie begins with an ariel shot of the city to establish the setting for the movie. This could be considered the establishing shot, as most mystery movies include. Following this, they incorporate a tilt shot, which leads down to two characters talking. Once they have established the characters and setting involved in the film, they use a handheld shot of the two characters talking. This technique is placed here to make the audience feel as if they are involved within the movie as well. There are no extravagant examples of make-up, props or costumes yet. Since the characters are living in a city, they are wearing normal clothes and makeup. When researching this genre previously, it stated that this would occur, as mystery is more natural; not needing to incorporate these aspects a lot. As for sound, the beginning of this movie is using dietetic sound. You can hear the wind blowing, the people talking, cars honking and people talking in the background.

Now, we have reached the middle of the movie. So far, they have established all the characters, the setting and the problem. The problem is occurring when all of the characters are on a boat and different characters keep getting killed, but nobody knows who is committing his crime. In the middle of the movie, (and beginning) the lighting throughout has been normal, either sunlight, or common room lighting. As for camera movements, we are beginning to notice a lot more instances of zooming in and out. This is used when a character says something important, most likely pertaining to the crime. Furthermore, there are many instances of cutaway shots. These are used throughout conversations, especially important ones where both sides of the conversation have important things to say. There are many two-shots, as the two main characters are a couple exploring together. As we have now reached the middle of the movie, more characters are being introduced that are wearing different costumes from the rest of the cast. 

Now that we have reached the end of the movie, the character that committed the crime has been revealed, and the mystery is solved. Throughout the film, the director incorporates hidden clues to make the audience guess who was the culprit. The way that he accomplishes this is through certain camera angles, shots and movements listed above. Specifically in there end, there are many examples of tracking shots. Since the characters are involved in a car chase, the camera is following the cars on a track so that the camera stays steady, and that the audience can feel as if they're involved in it too. As stated before, there are many zoom shots. Since the characters are in a crisis, they want to show the audience each of their emotions up close, by using the zooming technique. The new aspect that is incorporated into the end of the film is that they are using makeup to represent blood from the mystery. Once the movie is over, they run the credits at the end with a song playing in the background (non-dietetic sound). Overall, we realized that there are many specific aspects that are used in this genre in order to be successful

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Deciding Genre- Mystery

After conducting research on the two genres that we were debating between, we finally decided to make our movie fall under the mystery genre. We decided that horror was too basic, and too hard to make our movie different from the rest. A lot of horror movies follow the same plot, and we do not want to copy any ideas unintentionally, as our idea is original. Since we decided on mystery, we have more freedom to stretch our plot and make it more original. Additionally, with horror, most of the time extravagant costumes, makeup and props are included for that. Since we are young and not experienced enough to incorporate these aspects, mystery is a better choice. Furthermore, our idea just overall aligns better with the aspects of mystery. We are excited to experiment with different camera angles, lighting and movement particular to this genre.

Genre Research- Horror and Mystery

For our film, we are now conducting research on other genres. We are currently debating between horror and mystery because each of these could fall under the category of our film. This powerpoint attached below, is our research for the horror genre. We conducted research about the CLAMPS, CAMS and overall elements of genre. Additionally, we included the elements of comedy that appealed to us, and those that didn’t appeal to us. I learned that in horror, there are many different camera angles being used, many of which are high angles. High angles in horror are used to show weakness of a character, or portraying the victim of the plot. Also, there are many close ups, and extreme close ups. These are used to show very specific aspects of emotion, like extreme fear that can be clearly seen up close. Overall, there are many specific aspects to horror that stand out from the rest of the genres. Below is a powerpoint with all of our research that we conducted particular to this genre.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1XeFHPDCEAS5GLX3yJztfkkdLi8lRJbOrf7FS7MYi4X4
Overall, we are debating for our movie to fall under either the horror, or mystery genre. Since we already conducted research for horror, we decided to conduct research about the mystery genre. Mystery is also a very specific genre, that includes many elements specific to this genre. We included information about the CLAMPS, CAMS, and the elements of drama, along with the elements that appealed to us and did not appeal to us. Some elements of mystery that appeal to me are the overall curiosity that lies within the plot, and the hidden clues that are placed within the film. I enjoy, as the audience, watching a mystery movie and attempting to predict who is the culprit, and who assisted in the mystery. This is appealing to many audiences, as they can become emotionally involved into the plot itself. One element that does not appeal to me is if the mystery is poorly constructed, and not leaving the audience with enough clues to predict the ending. This can lead to confusion, and overall dislike of the movie. Below, is a powerpoint with all of our research conducted on this specific genre, mystery.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1QNAZkRVF1YYnvQr0ErkltneH7psZfYqzk7nulGnTG60

Genre Research- Comedy

This powerpoint, attached below, is research for a genre of film. This is a project that we have completed this year, in which we were randomly assigned a certain genre. The instructions said that we needed to research this genre, specifically the CLAMPS, CAMS and more. My group was assigned comedy, which was helpful to learn even though that our movie does not fall under this category. I learned many different things about this genre, of which I would not have known if i did not conduct this research. Specifically, I did not know about the certain camera angles being used. For example, I never realized that most comedy is filmed at eye level, as most comedy is shot in real life situations. Additionally, I didn’t realize that there are a lot of zooming in and out shots, until after I conducted this research. Overall, this project was helpful for our movie, in the way that we can now eliminate comedy as one of the options for the genre of our film. The research we conducted does not match up with the description of the thoughts for our pitch.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1VDqgqkRIPMCkwmtJVh_fVPPv5Ppyww7XSZMs6vDYqi0

Narrowing Pitches Down

Today, 1/16/2020, my group decided on our 3 pitch ideas (as listed in the previous blog). Upon debating between them, we realized that there are many pros and cons to both. We based our decision mainly on two different factors: originality and drama. Accounting for this, we decided to narrow out our first pitch. This pitch was described as a horror, kidnapping film. This pitch is much different from the others, as the others are mystery and this one is horror. We are aiming to stick with mystery, so automatically we decided to narrow out this pitch. Additionally, we determined that this pitch was not very original. There are many movies that have been created involving kidnapping. We created this idea originally because we thought that it would be easy to work with. After long consideration, we decided that it is not original and not within the right drama that we had envisioned doing.
Now, we narrowed our options down to our last two pitches. One being the pitch involving an abandoned house, and the other being about the restaurant poisoning. After discussing each one in depth, we decided to then rule out our abandoned house pitch. Even though it does fall in the right category, it would overall be too complicated to film. I believe that we would have trouble securing the location because we would have to find an abandoned home. Along with finding a good place, there is also a major safety issue involved. Abandoned houses are not safe, and we would be trespassing on private property. This situation is not ideal for the filming of our movie. Even though it would be a fun movie to film, it is not ideal conditions that can guarantee success of our final project. Accounting for this, we decided that this pitch would not be a good fit for our movie.
On the other hand, we decided that the pitch about the restaurant poisoning is most likely the best idea that we have thought about so far. We believe that this idea fits all of our requirements and in the end, will hopefully turn out the best. Beginning with the genre, we believe that mystery is going to be the easiest and most interesting to film. As this film is involving the poisoning of ones drink, this causes it to fall under mystery because the goal is to figure out who did it. Additionally, we believe that our idea is very original. We intend for the movie to begin with a normal group of friends casually going out for dinner. Following this, they all order their dinners and drinks, and the waiter comes back to deliver them. However, when she hands back the drinks, she makes sure to give one of the girls a certain drink, even though they all order the same thing. Shortly after, the girl that was given the certain drink falls ill. The rest of the movie will show the characters trying to determine who poisoned the drink. This idea was envisioned by us, and not based off of any other movie. Therefore, it is original, and the perfect fit for our movie.

Start of Final Task

My name is Danielle and I am a student at Fort Lauderdale High in Florida. I am in 10th grade and I am currently 16 years old. I am currently taking 4 AICE classes, including this class. The AICE classes that I am taking are Thinking Skills, Media Studies, English Language and European history. This is a big challenge to take on as a 10th grader, but it is very important in order to achieve my AICE diploma. I am looking forward to graduating with this extra diploma, with hopes that I can get into a prestigious college that I wish to attend in the future. I am aspiring to get accepted into University of Florida, and I strongly believe that my AICE diploma will be a prominent feature in this journey. In my free time, I go to dance every day after school. I have been dancing since I was very young and I hope to continue my journey throughout college. I aspire to dance in college as well, to keep me busy and in shape.
Before taking this class, I did not know much about editing and filming. After filming our commercial and music video, I have learned many different ways to film, plan and edit a video successfully. In our first project, our commercial, we used pinnacle studios to edit. However, using the school computers for this combined with this application, did not result so well. Our final project was successful, but there were many malfunctions along the way dealing with the computers. On the other hand, our music video that we created turned out just the way we had planned. We decided to film with our iPhones and edit on iMovie instead of using pinnacle studios on the school computers. It was much easier to edit and manipulate. For this project, I am working with Julia and we are very excited to begin. We are planning on using iMovie this time, as it was the most successful application to use.
To begin working on our project, the first step that we need to approach is creating our pitch. A pitch is a hollywood term to describe an idea where a film is encapsulated in 25 words or less. It took us a while to think about, but after long discussion we finally narrowed it down to 3 ideas. Our first idea is, “As normal, a mom comes home from work, excited to see her daughter. However she is not there... where did she go?” This idea is inspired from our idea to create a horror movie involving kidnapping. Our second pitch idea is, “Its Halloween and as a tradition, a group of friends explores an abandoned house. However this year turns out different... what do they find?” This idea is a mystery movie involving a group of kids finding a bottle with a note in it that takes them for a journey. Our last idea is, “A girls night out goes wrong and someone ends up with a poisoned drink. Who poisoned them?” This idea is also a mystery movie, involving a group of girls who go out for a normal night. They are all given waters, and the waiter gives them the drinks in a weird way, causing them to suspect something. One girl falls ill, leading them to believe that someone poisoned their drinks. So far, we are leaning towards this idea because we believe it is the most original and creative. Below, are pictures of us working on our blogs and pitch ideas today, 1/16/2020.