Why is Color Important?

 The color palette of a movie is extremely important in a movie since it can change the way the viewer feels and reacts. Here are some example of colors and what they make the viewer feel: 

Warm Colors

Some examples of these colors are yellow, red and orange. These set of colors usually are used for more optimistic films that want to transmit happiness and energy.

Happy Colors

People associate bright colors with happiness, therefore colors such as red, pink, orange and yellow can uplift someone's mood when watching the film. The lighter and brighter the color, the more intense this effect is. 

Energizing Colors

The colors that produce this energetic feeling for the viewer are strong, neon or bright colors.  It also works for grabbing the viewer's attention like when something dangerous is represented in red. Then colors highly pigmented such as magenta or royal blue would make the viewer feel refreshed.

Cool Colors

In comparison to warm colors, these are the complete opposite. Some examples of these colors ate purple, blue and green. They can express feelings of sadness or it can be used when the environment is calmed. 

Sad Colors

People associate sadness with muted and dark colors. Some examples of these colors are blue and grey. Sometimes brown and beige can be associated like this. 

Calming colors

Blue and green colors are associated with calmness. Other colors with similar effect are pastel colors such as baby blue and beige and grey.

After reviewing how colors affect the way the viewer would perceive a film, there is a set of colors we plan to incorporate in the film. I think that our introduction for the film should include a lot of green and yellow at the beginning since the plot begins with the main character and her best friend having a nice conversation and jogging together. Then it should transition to incorporate more colors such as red to represent the danger the main character is becoming. Then grey and blue to represent her sadnesses and suffering towards the murder.

https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/how-to-use-color-in-film-50-examples-of-movie-color-palettes/ 

Representation Analysis

 Representation in media has previously been constructed to represent reality. Everything in media is a representation that someone created. Representation can affect the public’s perception of a certain group if it displayed with the same characteristics in multiple forms of media. It is important to evaluate that representations are not an accurate form of reality.

The first example is for the Axe Body Spray commercial

The concept of the commercial was that if men use Axe Body Spray, multiple woman would like him. It uses elements of nature and survival combined with attractive woman to appeal the young male audience. The commercial shows hundreds of attractive women small bikinis all running to find this man who is wearing Axe Body Spray. The woman run in the nature even like it was survival -some of them pushing each other and others even swimming in the open ocean, to find this man. This should not be taken literally since it was a joke to make the commercial more appealing to the audience, but what the advertisers want their public to think is that Axe Body Spray means dominance and attractiveness. 

The woman in the commercial are shown almost as animals surviving in the nature all looking for this man who is spraying the Axe Body Spray. The commercial highly objectifies woman, it shows them in revealing bikinis and it is very clear that the viewers are supposed to look at their bodies when they are all running. The commercial sets unrealistic expectations towards men when the man wears the Axe Body Spray and attracts every single woman. But it also sets unrealistic expectations in how a woman should look like. The commercial shows hundreds of women that meet the ideal beauty standard, all of the woman in the commercial are young, skinny and white. The commercial even ends with the slogan of “Spray more, get more” which indicates that if the man sprays more of the product, he will get more woman. 

The second example is the H&M “close the loop” commercial

The commercial covers every type of style anyone could think of, it begins with the narrator mentioning specific clothes all the way to general adjectives that describe how people feel wearing it. A typical fashion advertisement has the purpose of conveying a specific style or product to the public, but the H&M commercial purpose is to imply the importance of recycling clothes. The commercial does this by mentioning every type of style a person could wear or feal identify with to emphasize in the end that “there are no rules in fashion” and then deliver the message of the ad by saying “But one: Recycle your clothes.” The commercial is really inclusive, there is people of all races, ethnicity, genres, LGTBQ, and age. It truly shows a representation of people in real life which is not usual in other fashion advertisements where they only show a specific group of people, usually young attractive adults who are models. The ad shows the people doing all kinds of activities in different scenarios in a city, walking, working, exercising, partying and posing.

Some of the statements are “Wear a short skirt if you are a man,” “Be trashy,” “Be neat,” “Be old,” and “Be new.” The statements are trying to imply that the viewer can do whatever they want, any style any choice they make is acceptable. The message of the importance of recycling clothes is emphasized when the narrator juxtaposes clothing styles such as “trashy” and “neat” and implies it does not matter as long as people they recycle clothes.

H&M ends its commercial by saying that fashion has no rules and that the only rule that should be followed is to recycle your clothes. Then it proceeds to mention how people can leave unwanted clothes in their stores so that they can recycle them. Additionally, they add how many litters of water can be saved by recycling a single shirt. The ad really connects with environmentalism and water conservation because it emphasizes the importance of one of the biggest issues in the world at the moment, the increasing waste of clothes every year that harms the environment. Costumers who truly care for the environment might be more likely to buy in H&M since they can see in the ad this is one of the few companies who is trying to do something about the waste of clothes and the consequences it brings to the environment. 

Schedule

 Hello, blog! Today my group and I took a few decisions on how are we going to record our introduction for our film. We met through a video call and discussed the times and places, where we would record, here, is our schedule:

Monday 03/01/2021- meet up and get ideas together

Wednesday 03/03/2021- start recording the first scenes

Saturday 03/06/2021- go to Markham Park to explore the area and see what would be the best place to record

Monday 03/08/2021- record more scenes at Markham Park

Thursday 03/11/2021- record car scenes

Sunday 03/14/2021- get together to edit and evaluate what scenes to add or delete any scenes

Tuesday 03/16/2021- film any scenes left

Thursday 03/18/2021- combine new scenes and edit what we have

Sunday 03/21/2021- edit with sounds or specific techniques

Wednesday 03/24/2021- meet up to review our film intro and check for all details

We wanted to make sure we included enough time to plan, record, and edit our introduction for the film. We decided to record in different settings, one of them is Markham Park. Here we can make the shots of the girls running and set the time zone as early in the morning. Here are some pictures of the potential settings we can use for our introduction.

A Breakdown of the Characters

After deciding our plot and how the story will develop. We wanted on the most important characters in the film. Here is more information about each character and what role they play in the movie.

The main character

Maya: The name "Maya" means "illusion" in Sanskrit which symbolize how everyone in Maya's life convinces her that what she saw was all in her mind. Maya Miller is an 18 year old who loves spending time outside and exercising. Running with her best friend Lucy is part of their routines but she is unable to go back after she witnessed the murder. Maya ends up having a tragic end in the film since she decides to take her life away because she believed she was insane. Even though at the end the audience learns everything she saw was real.

Secondary Characters

Lucy: Lucy is Maya's best friend and serves as her emotional support and reality check throughout the film. The audience will most likely believe the version of Lucy's reality and will agree that Maya is suffering from some kind of hallucinations. 

The police: Because Maya believes an actual murder takes place, she goes and tries to report it to the police. The officers first take it seriously and start asking a series of questions. Maya starts feeling better because her voice is being heard but at the end the police says what she is saying does not make sense because they could not find a body or any type of evidence.

Allan Walker

Allan is the man who was supposedly murdered and only Maya could seem to notice. Even though the details of his life have not been decided yet, we want to make this character to have an interesting yet suspicious back story to create more suspense in out film.

Building a Story

 After brainstorming ideas and researching ways to create a plot and build it correctly, we now have a story for our film. We plan to call our film "Walker 9:27 a.m." and it bases on one murder and how it affects its only witness to the point it drives the person insane.

The main character is named Maya Miller, an 18-year-old girl who was jogging in the morning with her friend and witnessed this life-changing event. Maya is running with her friend Lucy, but Lucy leaves her behind because Maya stops to tie her shoe. She then hears something that sounded like a scream and proceeds to follow the sound. She then finds a body and enters in panic. She calls her friend to tell her what just happened but suddenly the body is not there anymore.

Maya starts obsessing over what just happened because what she saw felt so real yet no one believed her. She finds the name of the supposedly dead person called Allan Walker and tries to find as much information about him as possible. Her friend Lucy is convinced Maya is hallucinating and that she needs help. Maya attempts to report the murder to the police but no one believes what she saw. What Maya witnessed is what destroys her sanity and this is why she ends up killing herself. At the end of the film the audience learns that the murder was real and that Maya was right. 

Thriller in Film

 Hello again! Yesterday I started researching more about thriller as a genre and how to develop one. Here are some examples of good thriller films I watched and learned about.

Inside Man (2006)

"Inside Man" was produced by Universal Pictures and Mule Filmworks is a thriller directed by Russell Gewirtz. The film became successful and won multiple prices such as NAACP Image Awards for best direction for a movie and Black Movie Award for best director.

The plot bases on a police detective who is facing a bank robber. The detective has to negotiate with the criminal's perfectly executed heist to save the people who are holding hostage and arrest the criminal. The movie is recognized for its well designed and complicated plot that engages with the audience.

Us (2019)

The film "Us" is a great example for a more recent film within this genre. The film produced by Monkey Paw and Universal Pictures is a social thriller that became very popular the year it was released. The film won seventy seven awards out of a hundred and fifteen nominations. Including an Academy Award as the Best Original Screenplay.

Adelaide and her husband go to a house where she grew up near the beach. They feel that something weird is present in the house but do not understand why, then they find four people with masks present in the house. But the movie becomes more suspenseful and scary when they remove their masks and reveal their faces. The film focuses more on implications of culture and society. It focuses on the way the characters think, act, and talk. And it even brings matters of race in the U.S.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0454848/plotsummary

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6857112/

Exploring Chosen Genre

 Hello guys! I recently reunited with my new group with my classmates Eliana and Abril from AICE media studies. We recently decided we want to do a film with the genre of thriller. There are multiple aspects of the genre I want to research before planning our film.

What is a thriller?

Thrillers come all the way back from ancient history, one of the first thrillers known is by Homer, a Greek poet, who created the  Odyssey in 725 BCE. Thrillers are usually dark films that use elements of suspense to keep the viewer engaged. There are many types of thriller sub-genres such as action, crime, psychological, spy, legal, political, and science fiction. 

Some elements a thriller should include are elements of suspense, a hero, a sidekick, a villain, plot twists, possible explanations, big questions, exciting climax.

The three Cs

All types of thrillers have three characteristics in common:

Crucible: when you create an environment for the characters where they have no place to escape and are forced to take action.

Clock: adding the element of time pressure to the plot or characters builds suspense.

Contract: a promise that implied and is not revealed until the end.

What to consider when writing a thriller:

After reading multiple sources, here are the best tips I found to develop a thriller story.

1. Watching films and reading books with the genre of thrillers. examining how thriller stories work helps anyone trying to write one for inspiration.

2. The location should be intriguing to the audience. It helps with the inspiration and development of the plot and characters.

3. Another important successful technique is creating a mystery to make the audience want to find the truth. You can do this by promising the reader there is something they do not know, then slowly start giving hints until the final answer is shown at the end.

4. An interesting piece of advice I found is creating a complicated story for the character. It helps the audience engage more with the character and question how the event of the character's life shaped them to the person they are and how they act.

5. A tip I also want to consider is compressing the timeline of events since it creates more pressure on the film. It is important to consider pacing in this type of genre.

6. Finally, introducing parallel plot lines helps to create suspense and make the story more interesting. This can be done with the main character and a secondary character or villain of the story.

 https://www.masterclass.com/articles/writing-101-what-is-the-thriller-genre-definitions-and-examples-of-thriller-in-literature#quiz-0 

Transition of my blog

 Hello there! I am happy to announce I am officially moving on to discuss my content for the Cambridge Portfolio. There are multiple things I expect to accomplish this week, deciding my group to work for the project, deciding a genre, brainstorming ideas, and creating a plan. I am excited to challenge myself during this 8 week period and improve my work as much as I can. I will keep you updated with my class, see you next week!

Changing the Subject

     Hello blog, here is a new important update regarding my content. In the past week, I tried explored genre options and learned about how to do the Cambridge Portfolio. In order to prepare, this past week has been all about learning and research. This 8-week project includes different aspects, one of them is creating a 2-minute introduction for a film. 

Here are some of the genres I am considering doing for my Cambridge Portfolio:

Drama

Drama includes a multitude of genres such as melodrama, tragedy, tragicomedy, and comedy. Although they all have their unique characteristics, they share a lot in common. The genres of drama are based on creating impactful films that affect the audience's emotions. One great example of this genre is "Titanic" (1997), the tragic story of Jack, and Rose in the ship that sinks. This storyline is more based on the dialogue to create emotionally impactful scenes and has a slow storyline.

Horror

There is a multitude of genres in Horror as well, they are often combined with fantasy, science fiction, and thriller. Its purpose is to produce feelings of shock and fear throughout the movie. This is done by incorporating suspense and frightening scenes. One great example is "Cult of Chucky" (2017), Chucky terrorizes Nica who is in an asylum making her think she killed her family. 

Education Help. "Characteristics of Drama." Medium. Sep 10, 2015. https://medium.com/@english_grammar/characteristics-of-drama-2d42c83e9a08

Hellerman, Jason. "Defining the Horror Genre in Movies and TV." No Film School. October 26, 2020. https://nofilmschool.com/the-horror-genre-in-movies-and-tv

"Cult of Chucky." IMDb. 2017. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3280262/plotsummary

Ebert, Robert. "Titanic" https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/titanic-1997

Horror Research

Have you ever wondered why a genre that is meant to disturb its audience is so popular? Why do people enjoy feeling uncomfortable and scared?

Famous horror directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, John Carpenter, and Wes Craven have continued to create famous films in this genre. The purpose of the genre of horror is very clear, it is meant to build up the suspense throughout the movie until it makes the audience feel scared and in shock. But people enjoy this negative emotion because they get to experience feelings of excitement, fear, and danger in a safe way since they are just watching a movie. According to a 2005 study, people who look for intense experiences are more likely to watch a horror movie because they want to feel a high level of emotions which is called sensation-seeking experiences. People who enjoy the horror genre are the ones that feel excitement while they feel horror all at the same time.

The target audience for horror movies is mostly male with ages between 15 to 24-year-old. The reason behind this is that gender can be a factor in interest in horror films since more men have reported enjoying more this genre than women. Also, interest in horror films tends to start young according to a study from 2010 where some children as young as 7 years old who preferred watching scary films.

Between the 1920s and the 1910s, the first pieces of horror film were published.

One of the earliest films was The Student of Prague (1914), it is about a German who deals with a dual personality. Horror films started incorporating evil creatures, animals, or persons to disturb the audience. A few years later some of the most popular films in history were created. Some of these stories are Dracula (1931) featuring a vampire, King Kong (1932) featuring a giant enormous gorilla, and Frankenstein (1957) featuring a monster.

Some elements that these movies have all in common are hinted at throughout the movie that builds up suspense and creates a higher feeling of fear. Alfred Hitchcock describes suspense with “the bomb theory” in his movie The Birds, he explains that there can be two different scenarios. The first one is the character, Melanie, in a boat and a bird scares her, the audience might feel in shock for a few seconds but then it is like nothing happened. However, the following scene is built with more suspense. It alternates from the scene of the birds and the woman who is not aware of the birds who have previously shown a sign of danger and the music gets louder and louder. The frames cut back and forth closer and closer to rise the tension. The audience would feel a higher level of suspense because they cannot do anything to help the characters. The audience would feel more the pressure in the second scene when waiting for that moment of action which will be more impactful than the first scene that is just a short moment of shock.

Marketing in horror films differs from most films in the industry. A simple way to promote the film is showing the creature or monster. But promoting a horror film can be far more creative for example the Blair Witch Project by Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick. The film’s marketing campaign purpose was to establish uncertainty, people did not know if the footage was real or if the people were actually killed. The marketing team even created police reports, stories, and missing person pamphlets. This created a great interest in the potential audience which caused a lot of people to watch it.

The first sample is The Conjuring by James Wan (2013) which is based on a true event story. It is about a married couple Lorraine and Ed Warren who are paranormal investigators, they have a family in need of help with a strange case. The new family of five moves to an abandoned house that was cursed by the witch Bathsheba. Whoever lives in this house will be cursed, every night the clock stopped at 3:10 a.m. which was the exact same hour the witch died. The mother of the family started seeing bruises on her skin and her children would see dead people and hear weird noises. The most impactful scene is when the mother is possessed by the witch and Lorraine and Ed go to do an exorcism on the woman. But the witch does not let the poor woman go. The scene takes place in a dark basement with little to light and then the light explodes, symbolizing that something bad is about to happen. This creates an extreme feeling of fear in the audience and then the possessed woman proceeds to follow her children and try to kill them. This series of scenes build suspense to the point of fear to the audience.

The next example is Anabelle Comes Home by Gary Dauberman (2019). The plot is about the previous couple Lorraine and Ed Warren and her daughter. Her parents leave and her babysitter stays with her in the cause. A friend of the babysitter visits her because she knows the famous couple and their supernatural possessions. She goes to the secret room where they store all the most dangerous possessed and enchanted objects even though the daughter and the babysitter told her not to do it by any circumstance. But she enters and touches everything awakening every spirit. The friend opens the glass box of Anabelle that was blessed by a priest. But when she opens it the spirit is able to move, and the doll slowly starts moving when the friend does not even notice. This scene causes way more suspense until the moment the character notices the doll is free to possess everyone in the house and eat their soul.

 

https://youtu.be/7LEvYqiDL_E

https://www.britannica.com/art/horror-film

https://youtu.be/s-QVHJDmD6A

https://www.site-seeker.com/blair-witch-project-still-greatest-marketing-campaign-15-years/

 

Introduction

 Hello! My name is Patrizia. I am a senior in high school working to finish my last credit for the AICE Diploma. Media Studies is one of my favorite AICE classes so far, I have learned a lot about the media and how its role in our daily life. I find it really interesting and my favorite part is analyzing pieces of film. My favorite genres of movies are drama, thrillers, and comedies. I am very thrilled to share my first blog here!

The purpose of my blog is to have a platform where I can display my documents from the Media Studies course. Cambridge's judges and my peers are also able to look at my work where they can see my progress throughout the class and my own opinions of film and the industry. 

I hope you like my blog. Feel free to comment with any suggestions or opinions, I would love to see it!

Music Marketing Blog Post #2

Hello blog! I am here to update you with my finished Music Marketing Project for my media course. My group worked hard to make sure our artist FERUZA would have a great start in his career. After we brainstormed and planned the steps, we created a marketing and distribution plan. Our first step is to have FERUZA assist in multiple opening acts of popular artists of the same genre of R&B and soul, this way FERUZA could start building a solid fanbase. 

Then we have our social media presence, we decided to mainly focus on TikTok since our target audience is mainly teenagers and young adults and Instagram as discussed in the past blog post. We also decided to connect with followers on Twitter as well. We want our artist to be as active as he can in social media because it is the most effective way to connect with fans by sharing parts of his life and uploading future projects. We would specifically post video teasers on TikTok, post about concert dates on Instagram, and interact with followers on Twitter. 

Another essential part of our plan is the third step: creating a website. A website is extremely useful for marketing assets. An email list and new sellers will be created to keep updated on any of FERUZA's new products and give special discounts. Our website will also have access to videos, concert dates, merch drops, and fans' engagement.

For our merch, we wanted to create products that would represent our artist. We decided to create sweatshirts and shirts since their fans can show off who they listen to and face masks because of the current pandemic We chose maroon, black, yellow, and red as our main colors for the merchandise since we want our artist to have a common theme within his products. . We also created a poster flyer and song cover image with the same theme. 

Our fifth step is releasing FERUZA's first song to the public. In order to do this, we first have to announce the release date to the public. FERUZA would post on his Instagram when his new single is coming out to prepare the fans. The song would be available on all kinds of platforms and streaming services. We would then release the music video available on youtube one week after the song is released on a Friday. And finally, we would book a national tour.

In our presentation, we successfully covered are of the selling points of FERUZA as an artist and our marketing plan steps to achieve a loyal fan base to keep releasing music and products. We created a popwepoint presentation that went along with FERUZA's theme of red colors and explained all of hour objectives here.

The Music Marketing project showed me how powerful is a good social media presence for an artist. A good digital presence helps to keep FERUZA's name on their mind. But what I learned the most about in this experience was the importance of music videos. It not only serves as a marketing tool but it helps to build the individuality of the artist and give meaning to the songs he releases. Here below is the website available where we the video of the song "Me And Your Mama" which is based of a couple who faces their ups and downs of their relationship until it's finally over. We used red colors to represent Feruza in the video and blue to represent his lover. And when they were together we used purple to represent their union. The use of color and dramatic scenes help viweres to engage with the video and hopefully enjoy it. We plan on keep incorporating red tones on FERUZA's products to help build an image for him. This project helped me in thinking critically and identifying how can I find solutions for said problem such as how could I launch a new artist career and build his image.

https://anaigarcia033.wixsite.com/website  

Music Marketing Blog Post

    Hello blog! I am here to update you on my new project for my media course. Our project is based on creating a music marketing campaign for a new upcoming artist. We started by researching record companies and its artist as case studies. My peers Abril, Ana, and Eliana worked together to find in-depth information for Glassnote Records and their artists Childish Gambino and Daughter. For the second company, we chose Warner Records and artists Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Prince. We incorporated all aspects of the researcher including history, marketing, audience, and distribution. 

    Here is a screenshot of some of the research we did for Glassnote Records and its artists. As you can see we tried to incorporate as much detail as possible. We also tried to choose artists within the same genre as Childish Gambino since his song "Me And Your Mama" was the one we chose for our project. We chose this song because it was the most unique among all our options and we saw a lot of potential for creating our artists and campaign.

    After we were done with our research we started brainstorming some ideas for our upcoming artist and music marketing campaign. At first, we did not know how to start and how to build his persona. But we end up finding the perfect name "FERUZA" and we started having many good ideas that help us build his image. 

            Here is a sneak peek of our potential ideas for our music video. We plan to make more of an artistic video that includes a story. Because the lyrics constantly refer to someone being in love, we decided to incorporate a couple in the video where we can see their fights, good memories with the child, and the whole story of the relationship. We also plan to add any type of eye-catching and colorful effects to make the video more artistic and interesting to watch.

 Here are our plans to promote our artist Feruza in his digital and physical presence. We chose TikTok as our main app for promoting his music and concerts. We also want to allow FERUZA to show his personality to make fans feel more connected to the artist. An Instagram account will also be open for him where he can share his life through stories as well and tease the fans with sneak peeks of his music video or promoting his concerts. Our group decided to release his music on all platforms as well so that anyone can listen. We also plan to create a merchandise store and do "pop-up" tours around the country to create a loyal fan base.