Genre Research : Jexi

      Another movie we chose for our genre is Jexi. This is a comedy based movie which features Phil, who is the main character of this movie and he has a major dependency issue -- he's addicted to his cellphone. He has no friends and his love life is nonexistent. Forced to upgrade to a new phone, Phil soon learns that the latest model comes with Jexi -- an artificial intelligence life coach, virtual assistant and cheerleader. With its help, he begins to get a real life but as he becomes less dependent on the phone, Jexi starts to morph into a tech nightmare that's determined to keep Phil all to itself. The phone assistant, Jexi starts overriding the phones control and starts ordering Phil to do actions or else the phone will act up and potentially embarrassed or ruins Phil’s reputation in public and his workplace. As the movie plays throughout, Phil starts getting more used to his phone as he sees that it not as bad as he thought since the phone got him promoted at his job and also helped him get his first girl’s number.

          My group really enjoyed this show as it not only funny but a lot of camera angles and editing techniques as used throughout the whole movie. Since the group project is focused on the opening of a movie, we watched the opening of Jexi multiple times as it was quite confusing at first since the opening of Jexi is just scenes of people walking around the streets, all staring at their cellphone so it got my group wondering what was the purpose of that other than the people in this movie is all addicted into their cellphone. However, as time passed, we gained a further understanding of the opening of Jexi, the purpose of the opening of Jexi was to show the audience and viewers that the main character is addicted to his cellphone and is not aware of his surrounding. This will eventually lead to the climax of the movie which is when Phil bumped into another person which caused him to break his phone and forced him into getting a new phone.

           The movie really starts getting more interesting as Phil receives his new phone and starts interacting with his new mobile assistant known as Jexi. My group wanted to use similar scenes from Jexi to create a humorous opening for our own movie. We wanted to make a opening such as a scene from Jexi where we will have one of our group member open a phone box to act like they just received a new phone and the phone will get activated and starts voicing commands to the group member. This will freak out the group member and we will have the group member screeching and running around the room which will set the viewers laughing. We thought this will be a very creative opening for our project because not only does it cause a sense of mystery as to what will happen throughout our movie but it will also set a good laugh seeing our members in fear and being clumsy.

Researching two genres : Horror and Fantasy

Horror

The horror genre has been around since the late 1800's. The first horror film was released in 1896 by Le Manoir du Diable and was called "The Haunted Castle".

CAMERA
ANGLES:
Birds eye or the high angle is often used; to make the object that is being looked down on seem powerless.
Tilted angle; adds dramatic tension to shots and could simplify a supernatural being.
Low angle; can show how powerful or scary the villain is.
MOVEMENT:
Tracking; connotes movement to show if someone is being followed or watched.
Hand held; used to promote a sense of reality which makes the audience feel more involved.
SHOTS:
Close up; used to see the reaction on actors faces and capture detail in an important scene.
Establishing shot; establishes the scary setting and can add suspense.

C-Costumes are usually always involving normal attire as they are mostly all filmed around normal people in the real world.
L-Lighting varies throughout movies. It can range from red light, black and white lighting to dim lighting.
A- Actors in horror films are mostly always every day people with also supernatural beings included.
M- Makeup in horror films is makeup that will just help the actors appearance but isn't dramatic to where it stands out. There is also special effects however that can be used to show the injury's of people and enhance them to look supernatural.
P- Props used are usually nothing out of the ordinary, unless the film is centered around an object. For example, there's a movie that's centered about a music box that contains evil spirits
S- Setting depends on what the film is about. Normal settings count be a normal house or a old, worn down house that looks scary.
EDITING
Suspense plays a big role when editing horror movies. Editors often use extended uncut clips to grow suspense and make the audience wait longer for whats about to happen. Fast pace editing is used a lot to build suspense as well. Cutaway is used to show characters reactions to the situations they are facing. Smash cuts are  used to shock the audience in the change from loud to quiet. Jump cuts are used to allow the the passage of time to show. Fade outs are used to give a mysterious feeling.

ELEMENTS
Elements of the horror genre would be tension. The whole point of horror films are to scare the audience or have them feeling tense by the time they leave. Elements also use supernatural beings to promote the feeling.

EXAMPLES
Get out, Hereditary, The Babadook, Psycho, The conjuring, IT, Jaws and The ring.

COMMON SOUND
Sound often used in horror films are loud sounds which put the audience on edge, fast music which can help shock the audience, no sound whatsoever which creates an uneasy feeling and sound effects like footsteps, doors creaking and the wind are commonly used.

ELEMENTS I LIKE
I am not the biggest fan of horror movies unless i'm watching it with multiple people. However, I can appreciate the suspense it makes audience feel and just the over all theme of some scary films are interesting. For example, IT. I like the whole theme of the movie and how it wasn't strictly scary, there was some funny points in there as well.

ELEMENTS I DIDN’T LIKE
I have a problem with the sudden sound changes and the sound affects that are quick and loud. I just don’t like being scared.
                                               Fantasy

CAMERA
ANGLES:
High angle; To look down on a character
Low angle; To look up at a character
MOVEMENT:
Tracking; Used to show the action in the film as it's happening
SHOTS:
Establishing shot; To show where the movie will be taking place
Close-up; To show an important facial expression in the film
C- Costumes are a big part of fantasy movies. The costumes can range from tribal outfits to outfits that resemble wizards
L- Natural lighting and artificial lighting are both used and the movie can either be back lit, side lit or front lit
A- The actors are important too. There wont be just people in the films usually, there is most likely also mythical creatures
M- Special effects are used to make certain characters be known.
P- Props that are used depend on the movie. For example, in Harry Potter they have wands as props because the movie is based on magic
S- Setting also depends on what the movie is about. The settings aren't usually ordinary places

EDITING
Editing techniques include the element of surprise. For example, in Jurassic Park, the director edits together shots of actors reactions before what their looking at is relieved. This creates a sense of suspense that is usually included in fantasy movies. Cross cutting is also used to create the same kind of suspense and allow the audience to follow important dialogue.

ELEMENTS
A common element of fantasy is excitement, being able to be taken away from this world and getting sucked into another. Another common element is the idea of far fetched things. For example, wizards and zombies.

EXAMPLES
Some examples include Harry Potter, Aladdin, Hellboy, Star wars and Black Panther.

COMMON SOUND
Music in fantasy films is used to create the correct atmosphere and mood. The music signals what the scene is going to be about or what to expect. Sound affects are also big in fantasy films because props or action is usually in fantasy films. so the sound for the prop needs to be there to add a more dramatic effect.

ELEMENTS I LIKE
I like that fantasy films makes you think outside of the box by adding all of these super powers and abilities characters can do in movies. Rather than it just being a normal movie with normal people in it.

ELEMENTS I DON'T LIKE
I don't have any elements that I don't like from the fantasy genre.

Opening Sequence

We have all came to a conclusion. Out of all the genres we could've chose from we narrowed it down to two. It was the comedy genre and the horror genre. We had a lot of discussion on how we would preform the task of an opening for a movie. We discussed our schedules as we wanted to make sure we had enough days to film what we needed. For the horror genre we were going to do the opening for a movie in which a doll was possessed. For the comedy genre we talked about showing the morning routine of us teens but portraying it in a funny way. We decided to pick the comedy genre because it would take less time to film and the audience can relate to it more.

Genre Research : Mean Girls

Another blog being researched from the comedy genre is mean girls which has become a movie icon over the last two decades. The movie follows the life of Cady Heron who was educated in Africa from a young age by scientist parents. When her she moves to the suburbs off Illinois she finally gets to experience public school and the gets a quick run down of the highschool laws of popularity from her new friends Janis and Damian. Finding herself in the hands of supreme popularity group dubbed "the plastics" who initiate friendship with her and encouraged by Janis to reciprocate for their own amusement, Cady finds herself entangled in a world of popularity which at first starts out superficial until she fully indulges herself into becoming a plastic. This is such a great comedy movie because it accurately describes the drama and feuds that are apart American highschool. Of course a lot of the situations are exaggerated which we believe emphasizes the comedic aspect of the movie.

The opening scene of the movie starts out with Cady's parents looking down. A low angle is used to show them talking down to someone small and young which would be assumed to be Cady. The audience however isn't aware yet of who Cady is until it is revealed she was sitting down on the porch stairs and springs up. Then the voice of Cady narrates over the movie talking about how most normal kids have their first day of school when they are five but on hers she is sixteen and how great life was in Africa until her mother acquired a job in the states. As she says goodbye to her parents and heads to cross the street she nearly walks into a rapid moving bus to which her mom reacts by screaming and Cady tells her she will be alright. This is an act of surprise because it is so random and pops out of no where into what seems like a very peaceful and wholesome scene of parents getting emotional on their child's first day of school. Later in the movie there is another scene where one of the plastics gets totally run over by a bus which was Cady's initial fate. It is such a strange way for an accident to happen in a movie and the way it is portrayed is what adds comedic flair. Randomness and things being added where they normally aren't needed makeup a lot of comedy movies and are those scenes you didn't need but are glad you got.

One of the scenes from the movie shows Cady and the plastics on the phone with each other. The two other plastics had enough of their clique leader Regina George who had been taking advantage of them and belittling them since day one. Cady decides to trick Regina into saying what she really thinks about Gretchen and Karen while having them on the other line. On screen the girls are all shown split in 4 screens. Our group originally thought we could include a split screen call for our movie opening and have something different going on with each person. Some of them could be super weird bringing the comedic aspect while another person is completely unaware of what is going on on the other line.

Genre Research : Whitechicks

In this comedy genre movie, it about two FBI agent brothers, Marcus and Kevin Copeland ,accidentally foil a drug bust. As punishment, they are forced to escort a pair of socialites to the Hamptons, where they're going to be used as bait for a kidnapper but when the girls realize the FBI's plan, they refuse to go. Left without options, Marcus and Kevin decide to pose as the sisters, transforming themselves from African-American men into a pair of blonde, white women. It a very funny comedy movie with right timing set with the right dialogue from the actors.

           Throughout the whole movie, it occurs in many different settings. Since we are doing a opening of a movie for this project, we decided to look at the opening of White Chicks , the movie starts out in a drug bust. However, this drug bust was put into a humorous tone as this is a comedy movie after all. The two FBI agents were in a convenience store where they are trying to bust the ice-cream man who is potentially trying to sell drugs rather than ice-cream but little do the FBI agents know, it was the wrong suspect after they beat them up. What makes the scene more funny was the fact that the actual drug dealers came right in the store and they went into a whole gunfight after realizing they are going to get busted. Nobody got hurt but the criminals escaped. As a punishment, the director of the police department decided to task them with another job which was to be a pair of socialites’s bodyguard so they could snatch a potential kidnapper. The pair of socialites found out about the plan and was too scared to go so at the end, it was up to the two FBI agents to dress up like the female socialites which was very funny and basically throughout the whole movie, they must look and act like them till they catch the kidnapper. This is where the whole comedy of the movie is centralized.

            My group was amused by how funny this movie was so we decided to use some scenes of the movie as inspiration for our movie opening. We thought of a great scene in the movie where the two male FBI agents was putting on makeup to look like the females they was replicating. We thought we can start our opening with the similar setting where one of our actor would put makeup on and there will be a knock on the door pretending to be one of the person’s friend, and this spooked the person putting on makeup, so the actor would start rushing and knocking over props purposely. This will leave the audience very confused as to what is going on in the rest of the movie and also serves a good laugh.

Genre Research : Shallow Hal

For this blog the movie being researched is Shallow Hal. The story revolves around a young man named Hal. With his father dying he took on to follow his dying wish which was to only date the embodiment of female physical perfection. Throughout the beginning Hal and his friend Mauricio only focus their attention onto physically attractive females til one day Hal has an unexpected run-in with a self-help guru Tony Robbins. Intrigued by Hal's shallowness, Tony hypnotizes him into seeing the beauty that exists even in the least physically appealing  women. I think this was a great concept for a comedy because many jokes and humor can be fit into these sorts of situations. I also think this succeeds as a comedy because it is bringing attention to something that often does happen in the real world which people can relate to. I feel as though comedy serves to make people laugh it is useful in making light of serious situations.
Me and my group decided to take a look at the opening scene of the film since for our final task we will have to create a comedic one of our own. The opening scene starts out serious. It is in a hospital setting where a doctor calls over Hal's mother to advise her of her dying husbands condition. He tells her he is heavily sedated and suggests sending in Hal for a final goodbye is not a smart idea since his thinking and speech is heavily interrupted by the morphine. She pleads for her Hal to be able to say his goodbyes and the doctor complies. Then the scene cuts to the room where Hal's father, Reverend Larson, is speaking nonsense to the nurses tending to him. When the doctor enters the room with Hal and tells the nurses to give them privacy the comedic aspects start to emerge from what is initially interpreted as a sadistic and serious opening. Larson says "Tell her to come in" thinking Hal is a girl when told of Hal's presence at the door. He then starts to discuss his regrets on settling for less like when he married Hal's mother "Betty" to which then Hal corrects to be Mary. The comedic nature of the scene is emphasized when Larson starts addressing Hal in explicit and crude speech from his deathbed. As he is dying he is telling Hal to promise to settle for female perfection which in his view is a women with "a perfect can and great toddies". It is also funny because he is a Reverend and is telling Hal to take his advice because it will make him right with the lord when actually all the advice he had given Hal is the exact opposite of what he should do to be spiritually righteous. This opening scene drives the entire plot of the movie and Hal's initial behavior as a character who had decided to follow through with his dad's wishes out of respect.
The movie really takes off when Hal meets the seemingly physically beautiful women Rosemary who is actually overweight and much larger than Hal. My group and I thought the cutting back and fourth from the scene and throughout the movie showing Hal's perspective and everyone else's perspective was very clever and funny. There is a pool scene where Hal has a canon ball competition with Rosemary. He taunts her saying she won't be able to make a splash nearly as big as him. Everyone else starts to fear when she gets on the diving board because they know she will make a ginormous splash since she is actually huge. Hal however is hypnotized and sees all "ugly" women for their true inner beauty which through his eyes he sees as very physically attractive. Due to this he sees her a small and skinny women who would have a small splash. When her splash is so humongous he is very impressed that such a physically perfect women could make such a ginormous splash when everyone is startled. The scene even zooms up to a little boy who was in the pool and landed in a tree because her splash was so big. This is such a funny dynamic and we will think out adding one similar to our project. We can have one contrasting perspectives where one of the actors interprets/sees something one way and then another person can see it totally the opposite way and then they will continuously bicker since they each think the other person is insane and wrong.

Comedy Genre Research

This is a blog we did at the beginning of the year. I did it with my group who I am working with as of now. This was a nine slide power point where my group members and I had to research one film genre and discuss the attributes that are commonly found within that genre. We chose comedy. We researched common lighting, camera angles, elements of comedy, examples of comedy films, and sound commonly found within comedy films. We also were allowed to place our own personal input on what elements of comedy we do like and elements that we don't. This was am interesting project to do because I never realized how much features and concepts went into a full genre. Especially for comedy I never realized the patterns found between them or how there was common lighting. The point of this project was to get to know a certain genre well. How we did this was by our teacher allowing us to pick random genres out of a random cup. We had to decorate the PowerPoint and add pictures from comedy movies as well as GIF's that related to what was on the slide. This task helped us learn more about the genre and how it differentiates from other genres. It also helped us become better prepared for our final task which is also going to be within the comedy genre.