Title Research: Coming-of-age The Virgin Suicides

     We're researching the coming-of-age film, The Virgin Suicides. We're watching the beginning off of www.artofthetitle.com
1. How many titles are displayed during the opening sequence of the film?
     There were only 10 titles. It listed the directors, producers and the time of the film.
2. What images are prioritized in the opening sequence?
     The main scene was the suicide scene. There was a chaotic crowd at one house. They carried out one of the daughters that lived there and bought her to the hospital.
3. What connotations do the images carry?
     The scene shows a serious tone. The ambulance and fast actions gave this "rush" to the audience. The mood declined when it cut to the doctor talking to the victim about her condition.
4. How is genre reinforced thought symbolic and technical codes throughout the outset?
     During the whole time, the ambulance was getting the victim from her house, it cut to these 3 boys watching them. The paramedic was telling the victim everything is ok and that she's safe. Then the scene cuts to the doctors telling her that she's lucky and were asking questions.
5. How does the film establish an enigma from the outset?
    After the scene at the doctor, it cuts to the house and was a title saying about 25 years ago. There's a car that pulls into the driveway and the same daughters come out of the car. The whole time, the same 3 boys were watching. This hints at the idea that the boys might've affected. the girl in a negative way.
6. What strategies are used to ensure the film appeals to its target audience?
    The very beginning of the movie was very calm. It showed city workers inspecting areas and other residents going about their day. There's an aerial shot of their neighborhood then cuts to a girl in the bathtub. Then you hear a lot of commotion from the family and paramedics trying to help. Its a way of grasping someone's attention unexpectedly.
7. How has technology been used effectively?
     The sequence was very interesting and unique. There aren't many movies that show what happened at the end then does a flashback on why it happened. It was unexpected when there was a title for the flashback too.

Title Research:Coming-of-age Dazed and Confused

     We're researching the coming-of-age film, Dazed and Confused. We're watching the opening sequence off of www.watchthetitles.com
1. How many titles are displayed during the opening sequence of the film?
     There were only 12 titles. They didn't list any actors. Instead, they listen to directors and producers.
2. What images are prioritized in the opening sequence?
     The whole scene was what was happening around the school before it started. It showed kids in the halls, outside and even on their way to school.
3. What connotations do the images carry?
     There was a title saying it was the last day of school. It was mainly a bunch of high school kids hanging out with their friends and having fun. This would suggest the mood of the scene is positive and happy.
4. How is genre reinforced thought symbolic and technical codes throughout the outset?
     It shows the kids having fun before school starts. The camera cuts to the teacher walking into the class and then the bell rings. The rest of the students in the halls run into class. This can symbolize their understanding of the importance of school.
5. How does the film establish an enigma from the outset?
     When they were showing the different students, it also showed the different things they did. It shows students smoking together and even one of the girls rolling up substances to smoke. It also showed some gambling before the bell rang. These behaviors are serious and illegal to do.
6. What strategies are used to ensure the film appeals to its target audience?
     The setting is based on a high school. The different activities shown are common with what kids are doing nowadays. It's also common to hear these in rap songs. This aspect can appeal to a large audience.
7. How has technology been used effectively?
    When the camera cuts to the different students, its movement is smooth. For example, the camera would track one student walking then cut to a student walking down the stairs.

Title Research: Coming-of-age Lady Bird

     We're researching the coming-of-age film, Lady Bird. We're watching the opening sequence off of www.artofthetitle.com
1. How many titles are displayed during the opening sequence of the film?
     There are 26 titles in the beginning.
2. What images are prioritized in the opening sequence?
     The scene kept switching from her going to church and school. It shows the everyday things that happen. There's a routine she follows every day.
3. What connotations do the images carry?
     The main character's facial expressions show she's not in the best mood. She doesn't pay attention in church. She also doesn't enjoy being at school. She looks rebellious compared to her other peers.
4. How is genre reinforced thought symbolic and technical codes throughout the outset?
     When the scene starts playing, it shows her zone out on the cast on her arm. Then it shows her routine of her going to school and church. She eventually participates more in church. This can symbolize her religious growth.
5. How does the film establish an enigma from the outset?
     There are segments throughout the intro where it shows interactions with her friends. She shows more expressions and lights up. It shows her having a better time with her friends than at school.
6. What strategies are used to ensure the film appeals to its target audience?
     There cast on her arm with profanity as the opening scene. Most kids in middle school to high school have an inappropriate vocabulary. The main character has dyed hair. This can attract anyone interested in doing the same thing.
7. How has technology been used effectively?
     The intro is a bunch of jump cuts from the main character at church and at school. The jump cuts used helps show the main character's routine and what happens in her life.

Title Research: Art of the Title

     We researched the website artofthetitle.com. This website has a very neat design. It is also easy to navigate. We are researching this website because we are creating an opening scene for our movie. This website contains the opening scenes to many movies. Opening scenes usually include titles which are an important aspect of a movie. Seeing many examples can help us gain inspiration. Titles are important not only because they help set the mood but it is also important to credit the people who took part in the movie making process. The website also credits the designers and studios who take part in creating the opening scenes. We also recently found out that there is a whole career dedicated to making titles in the opening scenes of movies. We want our titles to give the audience a good idea on what the movie is about. We also want the audience to be entertained by our opening scene. This website has great examples of what we want to do. This project is something we are really excited about as we can be as creative as we want. This website overall is a great website to use for our research of opening sequences. 

Title Research: Watch the Title

We researched the website watchthetitles.com. This website contains the opening scenes of many movies. It also contains the opening scenes of video games and tv shows but we the movie opening scenes is what we really focused on. The reason we are researching this website is to help us with our new class project. This project is to create an opening scene for our own movie. Opening scenes are important as they set the mood for the rest of the movie. We want to have a creative opening scene so we are using this website to help. For this website it is better to search the movie title rather than the genre. This website not only has the opening sequences but the studios and designers that made them. If we find a designer we like the website can give us our name so we can search their other works so it is very helpful. The website also ties the relation of the opening scene to the movie. This can help us gain an understanding to the thought process of making an opening scene. The website also offers a wide range of movie selections from different time periods and in different languages. The website definitely shows creative title sequences. Overall the website is very helpful in our research in opening sequences and gives us many ideas of what our opening sequence could look like.

Title Research: Coming-of-age Juno

     We're researching the coming-of-age film, Juno. We're watching the beginning off of www.watchthetitles.com
1. How many titles are displayed during the opening sequence of the film?
     There was a total of 23 titles that were shown.
2. What images are prioritized in the opening sequence?
     The main image prioritized was the main character. It mainly showed her walking around common areas in her life like her neighborhood or the park. There are occasionally some people that will pass that possible go to her school.
3. What connotations do the images carry?
     It started off with the girl walking in her neighborhood alone. She's holding a SunnyD gallon and minding her own business on her walk. This gives it a calm, relaxing vibe from something she potentially does every day.
4. How is genre reinforced thought symbolic and technical codes throughout the outset?
     There was this one part shows the character walking in front of the stores. It shows a fancy nail salon, then a guitar store, then a kid's store. This could portray the personal growth the main character develops throughout the movie.
5. How does the film establish an enigma from the outset?
     The main character is shown walking past everyone. This can show numerous amount of emotions. She could be lonely and sad about her not having many friends. She can also give off a feeling where she's independent.
6. What strategies are used to ensure the film appeals to its target audience?
     In the beginning, the film would be partially sketched out. The roads, cars, and stores would be sketched out but the girl walking is real. Most of the features like houses, trees, and other people are actual cut-out photos of them. It's put in a stop-motion style editing. This strategy is used for the whole scene.
7. How has technology been used effectively?
     I think the stop motion animation is an interesting and unique idea for the titles. It's interesting how they use drawings and pictures of certain things.

Coming-of-age Genre Research Movie Example: Booksmart

     We researched Booksmart a coming-of-age movie about two teenage best friends who seek to have fun before graduation. Many angles used in Booksmart follow the conventions of the genre. These angles include close-ups, eye-level shots, high angles, low angles, medium shots, medium close-ups, medium-long shots, and over the shoulder shots. The camera movements also follow conventions as the movie uses many tracking shots but also pans, tilts, and zooms. There are many wide shots, two shots, and three shots with some establishing shots throughout the movie. The costumes are everyday clothes at the beginning but towards the middle the characters dress in fancier clothes which consists of suits and dresses. The lighting is dim or neon in the night scenes but in the daytime scenes, the lighting is natural. The actors are mainly young adults who are Caucasian there a few who are people of color though. The makeup is mostly minimal to none with only a few characters wearing a visible amount. Props in the movie are mostly phones or cups. The setting changes a lot from school to a car to a ship and to a house. The editing has a lot of cutaways, eye-line matches, reaction shots, and shot reverse shots but there are also crosscuts and jump cuts. The sound has dialogue, diegetic sound, non-diegetic sound, and ambient sound. The score is made up of many different genres from pop and mellow pop to funk and hip hop. The movie was filled with awkward moments, funny moments, parties, high school crushes, and friendship. We liked that the movie was funny and that the main characters were likable. Also, there was a main character who was a lesbian and wasn't treated like an outcast or weird. We didn't like that they made a teacher having a relationship with a student normal.

Coming-of-age Genre Research Movie Example: The Edge of Seventeen

We watched and analyzed the coming-of-age movie The Edge of Seventeen about a teen whose life starts spiraling after her best friend starts dating her brother. The angles in this movie are mostly eye level, over the shoulder, point of view shots, close-ups, medium close-ups, or medium shots but there are some high and low angles sprinkled in. The camera movement consisted of pans, tilts, and many tracking shots. This movie had many of this genre conventional shots such as wide shots, establishing shots, two shots, three shots but also had some handheld shots. The costumes in this movie were everyday wear made up of jackets, long sleeve shirts, and skirts. The lighting was either dim or natural throughout the whole thing with a few scenes having neon lighting. The actors were Caucasian young adults who played the teens and Caucasian middle-aged actors who played the adults. Makeup was never heavy it was mostly minimal to none. Props were things such as backpacks or phones. The settings were mostly school, a house, restaurants, or a car. Editing was mainly cutaways, shot-reverse-shots, eye-line matches, reaction shots, and jump cuts with fade-ins and outs appearing once or twice. There was dialogue in the movie along with diegetic sound, non-diegetic sound, voiceovers, ambient sound, and music consisting of rock, pop, and melancholic songs. The elements of the movie were awkward moments, sarcasm, arguments, emotional scenes, and funny moments. We like that the movie was realistic and funny. We did not like that the movie tried to push the brother and best friend having a deep connection even though there are no scenes really showing the audience proof of that.

Coming-of-age Genre Research Movie Example: Good Boys

     Good Boys is about a group of middle school boys who has a high school neighbor they spy on. The camera angles were high when someone was talking to the boys but low when the boys would talk to someone else. There were establishing shots before every scene and a lot of over the shoulder shots between the talking characters. Aeriel shots were used when they would spy on their high school neighbor. There wasn't much camera movement other than track and tilt. One scene had a selling deal going on and the camera would follow where the characters went and tilted at the objects they had. The cutaway and shot reverse shots were used whenever the characters were talking. The action match help shows the time passed between the scenes. The main sound was the dialogue and diegetic sounds. The sound motif would occasionally happen when something went wrong or something sneaky was happening. The costumes were just regular clothes. Natural lighting was used throughout the whole movie. The house would be lit up from the light outside or the street lights. The actors are young middle school boys and some high schoolers and adults. The boys didn't wear makeup. However, the girls would be shown putting some makeup on but it looks natural still. The main places the characters went to was each other's houses and school. We like the maturity these kids have at some parts of the movie and other parts they wouldn't know how to act and be scared. We dislike how they talk about girls because it sounds like they're objectifying them for their own needs.

Coming-of-age Genre Research Movie Example: American Honey

     American Honey is a coming-of-age movie about a girl from a bad neighborhood who lives to provide for her needs while she moves across the west. The camera angles were at the regular height of the actor most of the time, there were some scenes that were shot at a low angle. The main camera shots were two-shot, establishing shots and mid-shot. Most of the movie was following the main character and the struggles she deals with on her trip. The camera movement was tracking Star (the main character) and the interactions she encounters. A lot of jump cuts and eye-line matches were used to show what Star was doing. There are some scenes that fade out into the next scene to signify it's the next day. The sounds in the movie were dialogue, score, and ambient sound. The movie mainly showed what Star experienced in public areas like music playing at stores. The costumes worn were regular clothes you can buy anywhere. There wasn't really anything extravagant worn.

All of the movie was filmed with natural lighting from outside or store and street lights. The actors were a diverse group of teens and young adults. The actors weren't really wearing makeup or it would be natural. The main places Star went to were different neighborhoods and most of the time she was being transported. We like the story of what an independent girl can do to fic her financial issues and finds herself through the process. We dislike the age gap because we think the concept of older adults shouldn't be hanging out with teens.

Genre Research: Coming-of-age and Romance

     We are researching the conventions of coming-of-age and romance movies. We are finding the CAMS, which is camera angles, movements, and shots. The editing, sound, and different elements are also important. We also have to find CLAMPS, what we liked and dislike about the genre.
     Firstly, we researched the coming-of-age. The camera angles generally used in this genre are close-ups, eye-level shots, medium shots and point of view shots. The camera movements used are mostly tracking shots and zooms. The shots used are establishing shots, wide shots, two-shots, and three-shots. Costumes are everyday clothing and something a teen or young adult would usually wear. Lighting is usually natural or bright for the happier scenes while dark and neon for the sadder ones. Action in this genre can vary from fight scenes to kissing scenes. There is normally minimal to no makeup used on the characters. Props are mostly personal items like a phone, skateboard, notebook, etc. Settings are predominately high schools or homes. Editing in these movies consists of cutaways, shot reverse shots, eye-line matches, reactions shots, and jump cuts. The sound mainly used is diegetic, non-diegetic, dialogue, voice-overs, ambient sound, and a soundtrack of happy upbeat songs and slow sad ones. Elements we found in coming-of-age movies are big party scenes, romance, them being about teens or young adults, and moral lessons. We liked that coming-of-age movies are ones that everyone especially teens can relate with. We didn't like that some of the characters' problems seemed vain and that these movies are not diverse; usually only having one person of color or one gay person throughout the whole movie. 
     There's a two-shot, over the shoulder shot and mid-shots are the main shots used in romance movies. The camera would track the subject when they walk or run away or to their love interest. The camera is normally angled the same as the subject, there isn't really a high or low angle used. Most actors in romance movies would normally wear everyday clothes as costumes, or dress for the occasion they're attending. The lighting depends on the scene if there's a dance it would have darker lighting than if it was a brunch date. The actors could vary to anyone, but the main actors in most films are caucasian. Makeup is normally used for special occasions the actors attend to. Common props could be anything from keys or a phone to a cake or a car. The setting also depends on the scene, it can be anything from a castle to a sketchy ally way. There are a lot of shot-reverse shots and an eye-line match to capture the characters' dialogue and some cross-cutting to show what events are about to happen. The main sound in romance is the dialogue but there's also ambient sound and score. We like the drama in the movie because it's funny and appeals to our age groups since we have similar drama that goes on in our own friend group. We dislike the exaggeration used in conflicts because it's not necessary.

Choosing the genre: Coming-of-age

     The genre we decided to do was a coming-of-age movie. We like the concept of the character growing mentally and/or physically. We also decided to do this genre so we can implement political issues in the movie. We couldn't find a way to put that into a romance movie. We wanted the movie to be relatable to the audience. This genre is easier to film than a romance movie. We need fewer props and actors in the coming-of-age movie than the romance movie.

Genre Research: Musical

     Our assignment was to write about the genre that was given to us. We had to research about common things in musicals. We had 10 topics to research about so we split them up among the group. I took the responsibility of lighting, mis en scene, and sound. Another person in the group did camera angles, elements, and songs. The third member did camera movements, examples, and they found the pictures used in the presentation. We all worked together on the last two slides. We decided on the different elements we like and dislike about musicals. This project really helped us with learning about genres and the different elements that go into film making.

Choosing Our Pitches

     Out of all of our ideas, we liked rom-com the least. We would require more actors to film. This could cause problems in scheduling. It would have to line up with everyone's schedule. We would be forced to film at school for the background people needed. Specifically when everyone switches classes. This wouldn't be good with the audio or time because we have to find all of our actors. The other ideas focus on global issues happening. We want our video to have a deeper meaning. Overall, the rom-com did not compare.
     The dramatic movie was one of the top favorites. However, the elements needed would be a finance issue. We were picturing a drone shot of the sunset and highway. We obviously don't have $500 to buy a drone to get the aerial shot. We would also need to close off the highway since the plot is an apocalyptic wasteland. The background of the scene has to be changed differently too. We would need a green screen to edit the background but since we're new to editing, we don't want the scene to look bad or choppy. The lighting wouldn't look well or match since we would have to change it during editing. We were thinking about doing a glitch effect that showed a fantasy world to the reality of the wasteland. We don't know how to do this during editing. This pitch just requires too much money and technique that we don't have.
     Our final choice for the movie was the coming of age movie about the influence of social media. We really liked this idea because we can incorporate global issues into the movie. We wanted to focus on important topics that are still relevant. It would also be the easiest to film out of all of our ideas since we have a limited time to film. We were thinking about a POV shot of the phone and the teen using it and see how their emotions change. We wouldn't need as many people during the production of the film. This can relate to others out there when they receive daily news from the internet. We feel teens especially could relate to this through the use of social media. We put a lot of thought into our pitches and how to find time creating them.

Starting the Final Task

     Hi, I'm Audrey. I'm a very nice and generous person mainly because I'm shy. I like being organized and planning out things. I think the time is very important and I try to manage it as best as I can to my schedule. I take school seriously and try to get my work done as fast as possible. I enjoy being active sometimes, but I also enjoy taking naps. I like trying new hobbies or anything that interests me, I don't really stick to them though. I'm an open-minded person and like to keep up with the news to see what's happening around the world. I have big plans for myself and try to do as much as I can to help benefit myself in the future.
     I'm going to be working with Alicia on this project. We have similar ideas and thought it would be easier. We didn't want people to do more work than others and take credit for it. I learned a lot of new skills from our commercial and our music video. I didn't do much when we were working on our commercial. We had one girl in the group that knew how to use it more than everyone else. I just mainly looked at the different features Pinnacle Studios has. In our music video, we all started editing it together. I took the responsibility to finish editing our video. I had a lot of freedom to try out the different features and even figured out how to use iMovie.
     Our pitches for our film is:

1. A dramatic story about the effects of global warming turning the world into an apocalyptic wasteland and an isolated mentally disturbed teen.

2. A rom-com of 2 guys fighting over a girl realizing she was already taken and they eventually fall in love with each other.

3. A coming of age movie of how social media impacts a teen's life. It highlights the global issues happening in the modern-day world.