Week Two Post #1

     Hello and welcome to another blog posting by yours truly, Richard Leon. Monday's Media Studies class was an interesting and productive class period since we discussed this project, looked at blog samples, analyzed some finished products, and had class time to work with our group after. My partner and I had a great brainstorming session during then. We came up with several ideas and possibilities for our film opening, thus begins our planning process as we work towards our finished product.
     I learned a few key things from that class period to keep in mind as my partner and I work. Number one being to keep in mind this is meant to be and play as a film opening, not as a trailer. Secondly, a simple and low-budget filming location that worked well for other groups in the past is a garage. So, my partner and I have our garages as possible filming locations now. I also learned that I should space the opening credits out for most of the opening to support that it is in fact a film opening, and not a film trailer.
     Moving onward, my partner and I are going to stay in touch closely and, through the magic of technology nowadays, communicate every day. We have been texting and calling each other outside of school hours to discuss our plan and the project in general. Thus far, we've concluded we want our film opening to be of a spy, or some sort of undercover agent, getting ready for a mission since that is what is intriguing to us and what we believe we will be able to capture well because it will be fun for us, which will generate a great finished product organically.
     It will be a dramatic action/adventure or crime drama as the genre. We also decided on this genre after researching the greatest movies of all time, which showed the majority of them as dramas, and most of the top dramas were crime dramas. For example, "The Godfather" is acclaimed as one of the greatest films ever made and is a crime drama.

Another drama movie ranked as one of the greatest films ever made, and a personal favorite of mine, is the "Shawshank Redemption." What I specifically liked about that movie is the character development, and the relationship formed between the characters "Red" and "Andy." Perhaps I may draw on their character traits for inspiration in creating our film opening characters. 

An American spy television show that was on the network NBC called "Chuck" is another source of inspiration from which I will draw from since it is well reviewed show by fans and critics alike, but also because it is one of my favorite shows of all time. The main reason I loved the show so much was because of the characters, specifically the main character, "Chuck." He becomes an unlikely, underdog undercover agent after he got sent an email from an old college friend embedded with classified Government files in a computer program called "the intersect" that upon viewing gets downloaded into the brain. Chuck is excellent, the character and the show, so it would be good for me to use him as inspiration in creating my own spy character.

Excited for what's to come!

     Hello blog, it's nice to speak again since it has been an exciting week with the official introduction of the media studies portfolio project film opening! My teacher gave an extraordinary presentation that prepared me for it and made me super excited for what's to come.

     I have been communicating with my partner, Ryan, more now, planning and brainstorming for our film opening. We've grown closer as friends, bonding as we research for this project. We know it must be an original fiction piece, but we are drawing from notable media as inspiration.

     My preferred choice of genre is drama. The drama genre has a broad range of sub-genres that expands my partner and I's options for what we can do. I am inspired by the drama "Cast Away" to shoot the film opening outside in nature with the drama focused on man vs. nature. Nature shots tend to come out beautifully, especially if filmed on the beach like "Cast Away," and the sun being the source of beautiful natural lighting. For this genre, we'd have only one human as the character and then all nature as everything else, including many extreme close-ups of the flora and animal life to show that although the character feels alone, this couldn't be further from the truth as nature is alive. This concept intrigues me since I often think about leaving society to live in the wild, a dream that I'll probably only dream of, or now I can make a film opening about, and I'd want to act as the main character. 

     One show that inspired me to do a fictional dramatic piece of someone struggling with an internal conflict is the FX show "Legion." This show is a a good example of the fictional superhero/ psychological drama, a genre my partner and I would be interested in doing. We could utilize many unique shooting techniques to capture the internal conflict, including shaky and off kilter shots. 

     It is important to keep in mind my limited resources, and I believe these two genre ideas have great potential with limited resources and creativity. Therefore, they are my top candidates for my choice of genre in this planning process. I am going to keep looking for inspiration though as I always feel improvements can be made. I am excited to continue working on this project as we work towards a beautiful finished product. 

Music Marketing Pro.

     It's been a while since my last post, and oh how so much has happened since December. The biggest thing being, I made a music video. For my Media Studies class I was tasked with creating a music video and an accompanying music marketing campaign for the musician. My artist was named "Loveman Hudson." My group and I chose this name since the artist is a romantic soul singer, which is the reason for Loveman, and Hudson is a Southern name, which is where our artist is from, Austin, Texas.  We figured Loveman Hudson would be an appealing name for a wide array of ears to hear.
     For our music marketing campaign, we created an excellent instagram account and website, with each converging by having links to the other.

https://victoriacmilano9.wixsite.com/lovemanhudson

https://www.instagram.com/lovemanhudson/

     The group and I decided it was best for the target audience, as well as staying true to the nature of our artist's music, to have the black and white be our theme. After doing through research we concluded it was best to have a simple, minimalistic black and white theme for our target audience of soul listeners aged 16-40. The music video is about love, a concept that is absolutely not black and white, which is another reason we chose the theme to be black and white since when we did introduce the color, it would be a stark contrast to add emphasize.

     Overall, I had fun with this project and also learned a bunch in the process. I know that what I learned from this experience will benefit me for the final portfolio project. The major way being I feel more comfortable with my filming and editing skills, as well as my choice of shots and angles and how I utilize them for my storytelling to achieve deeper meaning to my product as a whole. 

Representation

     The way male athletes are represented in media is negative. Typically, male athletes are represented as stupid, loud womanizing partiers. This negative portrayal affects their image by creating stereotypes for people to characterize them by in real life, which in this case would be as stupid, loud womanizers. Jocks also are repeatedly represented as wearing athletic gear and jerseys most of the time through costume design. Male athletes in real-life though do not tend to fit this over-generalized, exaggerated representation, as is the case for most representation in media, it is not good nor is it fair.

The stereotype for male athletes can be broken down into sub categories by what sport they play. Different sports have different stereotypes. For example, Lacrosse players are thought to be "fratty" and cocky while football players are viewed as more aggressive and dumb based off of representation in media. The show "Blue Mountain State" perpetuated this negative representation heavily through the portrayal of the college student male athletes. In the show, the football players are focused primarily on partying, drinking, having sex, and playing football. In the few episodes that lacrosse players are shown they have the costume design of what a snobby rich boy would wear and the “flow” of hair that “lax bros”set as the ideal hairstyle. Both of the male athlete sub-groups though are negatively portrayed, which is unfair to the large percentage of male student athletes that do not fit into the stereotype set by the representation of the media.

A more specific example of a stereotypical jock in film is Steve Stifler in “American Pie.”Throughout the film, Stifler inappropriately hits on women, makes several raunchy jokes, is extremely cocky, and acts like a total jerk overall. This representation of male athletes is extremely harmful to their image, making others have negative early judgement about them. In order to change this representation in media, I would challenge the characteristic of the male athlete not being as intellectually invested as they are invested in their sport, showing that they can be just as focused in both. Sadly, the womanizing aspect of the representation has proven to have truth in it through the many cases of rape male college athletes have been put on trial for in real-life, so, I would retain it. I’d also retain the aforementioned representative costume design of jerseys and athletic gear. 

Second Genre Database Entry

1. Genre: Psychological Thrillers

2. Genre conventions – content:     A psychological thriller is a sub-genre of thrillers, which integrates drama, mystery, and, of course, horror genre elements. Usually, in these films, the main character must battle with internal conflict, battling his or her own mind. Psychological thrillers tend to feature the main character as someone that becomes increasingly unstable as the movie's plot progresses. The main character struggles with issues such as identity and what's really real and what's not. The mind games intensify and increase in frequency until the main character either breaks through and comes out on top, or is consumed by it, leading to his, or her, demise.

3. Genre conventions – production techniques:     

Psychological thrillers utilize a wide array of production techniques to achieve the desired look and feel to the film. Low level lighting creates shadows to generate feelings of suspense and sadness. Quick edits enhance the feeling of shock and with the suspense continuously present. The non-diegetic sounds create an eerie feeling of suspense. Diegetic sounds offer crucial dialog. Flashbacks are utilized to give context as to why the characters are the way they are. Dark neutral monochromatic colors are utilized. Finally, close-up shots are used to show the characters reaction and emotion, which are absolutely essential for this genre.

4. Film/magazine sample #1: Shutter Island

The film “Shutter Island,” directed by Martin Scorsese, is a prime example of a psychological thriller. The film utilizes the usual techniques used for the sub-genre which draws from the genres action, mystery, drama, and, of course, thriller. For example, in “Shutter Island,” low-level lighting, with its many shadows, is heavily used throughout, creating a feeling of sadness and mystery. The non-diegetic sounds heard through the film makes the viewer feel a part of the madness, matching the rising thrill and increasing tension. Camera 

In terms of content, the protagonist, Teddy Daniels, struggles with internal conflict. As he digs deeper into the traumatizing case of his wife’s murder, his mental state is revealed to be deteriorating. This becomes more and more apparent as the film progresses, but he fights it and pushes forward until it is revealed in the end that he was really fighting himself and his repressed memory of the death of his wife.

5. Film/magazine sample #2: Fight Club

            Psychological thrillers focus on the theme of identity, and in “Fight Club,” directed by David Fincher, the main character starts off as unhappy and unsure of what his meaning in life is and by the end of the film he develops into his true identity. The low-key lighting in this film adds to the gloomy atmosphere that the main character views the world in. This film utilizes diegetic sounds of internal dialog by the main character to provide necessary context, and this also reinforces the psychological thriller genre convention of internal conflict since most of the dialog is the main character talking to himself. Close-ups are used to show the characters’ facial expressions, which reveal how they feel when reacting to what is happening or to what was said. In “Fight Club,” the main character’s facial expressions are important to pay attention to as his emotions shift throughout the movie as he struggles with his mind’s issues induced by his insomnia, which he only gets relief from and sleep by crying or fighting.

6. List of 5-7 other film/magazine examples within the genre:

Inception

Butterfly Effect

Donnie Darko

Jacob's Ladder

The Shining

Genre Database Entry

                1.    Genre: 

         Romantic Drama

2. Genre conventions – content: Romantic drama films feature two people, typically of different social statuses, that fall in love despite their differences. A romantic drama tends to use things such as love at first sight, tragic love, love triangles, sacrificial love, and forbidden love. Along the way leading up to the two falling in love, they face obstacles that threaten their developing romance, such as family disapproval and different social classes. They must overcome these obstacles to have a happy ending, usually, with them falling in love.

      3.  Genre conventions – production techniques: Romantic dramas utilize many close-up shots. This is because in this genre of film the emotion must be captured effectively so that the audience can understand how the characters feel and be affected by it emotionally. Also, romantic dramas use many over the shoulder and shot reverse shot shots to effectively capture the dialogue and the reactions. These shots keep the viewer engaged while also making he or she invested in the developing romance. Non-diegetic sound is utilized to develop tone/the characters feelings. Diegetic sound is used to develop the story and romance mostly through dialogue and paralinguistic features. 

4.   Institutional conventions –  how is genre marketed: The romantic drama film genre is marketed to those either in love or those fantasizing about being in love. The movie posters usually have two people in an embrace, or together closely, with an iconic setting for that movie.

5.    Film/magazine sample #1: The film “Titanic” embodies the romantic drama film genre since an aristocrat falls in love with a poor artist. Her family wants her with a fellow member of the high class, but she wants the poor artist. Their love prevails in the end despite this social class difference, but sadly there was not enough room on that floating door for jack, cementing this movie as one of the most noteworthy tragic romantic drama.

6.    Film/magazine sample #2:  In “Beastly,” a curse is placed is on the main character, turning him from handsome to hideous. In order for the curse to be lifted, he must find true love and kiss. The hurdle making this a drama being the curse, which can only be broken by finding true love, making it a romantic film. 

7.    List of other film/magazine examples within the genre: 

The Great Gatsby 

The Fault in our Stars

The Notebook

Dirty Dancing 

Brokeback Mountain

A Star is Born

About

The beginning of it all...

     Hello, my name is Richard, Richard Arthur Leon, and welcome to my blog. Thank you for choosing to partake in reading what the "blogdog" has to offer, which is "rich" with interesting reads that document my journey to completion of this Media Studies project. The project I am tasked with is to create a film opening. My first hurdle is with brainstorming what genre to choose to convey and research. I vacillated between fantasy, drama, romance, action and even documentary (specifically "mockumentary") between drama and romance, which was a particularly hard choice to make since they are basically in the same grouping of a genre category. I decided to choose romance.  

     The purpose of this blog is to track my progress and show my work along the way, organized as a portfolio on this blog to facilitate following along. This will serve as my timeline until completing the end-of-the-year project around the month of April.