Short Film vs. Feature Film

 I’ve watched a short film and a feature film version of 9. The short film was only 7 minutes long while the feature film is an hour and 20 minutes long. Both films had many similarities while being completely different. The films had a similar plot, setting, and characters. One of the biggest contrasts was the dialogue in the feature film. The short film had absolutely no dialogue. In the feature film, it portrayed the different dolls more than the short film did. In the short film, there were only 2-3 different dolls shown while the feature film introduces everyone and their personality. The length of the movie gave more of an opportunity for plot development. For example, in the feature film, it shows how the souls of the dolls were taken and how the dolls were created. In the short film, it's very vague and doesn't explain why or what the ragdolls are trying to do. The feature film also gives more of a background to what happened to the world. While in the short film, the dolls were just placed into the apocalyptic environment with no particular goal or reason. Both films had similar core elements where the dolls were saving the others from the robots and freeing their souls. While I enjoyed both films, I prefer the featured film more. It gave more background to the characters which helps create a connection with the audience. One of my favorite parts in the feature film was when 9 found out that the other dolls are souls from the same scientist. In the end, this information bonded the group together which was really heartwarming to me.

Research 9: Featured Film

 I had to watch the featured film 9. The film is based on the short film 9. The film is an hour and 20 minutes long. The setting looks was an apocalyptic place and damaged from the revolution. The main sound in the film is dialogue, ambient, and incidental music. The plot is revolved around 9 rag dolls. The rag doll, 9, is the last doll built by a human to help save humanity on Earth. When 9 wakes up in the studio, he starts to wander around the place. As he explores the area, he finds one of his friends, 2, however, he was taken by the robot beast shortly after their meeting. Another doll, 5, finds 9 in a struggle and try to take in to care for. In their sanctuary, 9 gets to meet the other dolls. There's the main leader of the group which is 1, he controls and rules what the other dolls to keep them safe. The 8th ragdoll is the biggest and he's the "guard" of the group to make sure they're following 1's commands. 1 explains to 9 what has happened to the world and how they're supposed to be discreet. 9 and 5 start planning their rescue for 2, despite 1's disapproval. They ventured out towards the industrial buildings and found 2 locked up in a cage. When they tried to free him, a robot started to attack them only to be saved by 7. 9 found a device that took the soul of 2 to power the robots. The other three dolls eventually escaped the robot and 7 led them to a library. At the library, they found the twin dolls 3 and 4 to help them find answers to defeat the robots. They eventually found a correlation with the devices that awakened the machines only to find out that doll 6 was studying them. The dolls go back to the church to tell 1 about their new knowledge only for it to cause an argument. They were ambushed by a robot bat creature and had to relocate after the damage. After figuring out that the devices were from humans to create the dolls, 1 started to diminish their ideas which caused the group to drift. 1, 6, and 8 were attacked by the machines and took their soul to power more robots. The other dolls realized that the device with the symbols was what contained their souls and put them into the robot to fuel them. The remaining dolls, 3, 4, 7, and 9 help save the others by removing the piece from the robots. 9 put a sequence into the device which released the souls of the other dolls into the sky to free them. In conclusion, I very much enjoyed the featured film and the journey the ragdolls had to go through.

Research 9: The Short Film

 Today, I'm suppose to research the short film, 9. The film is only 7 minutes long. The setting looks like a futuristic wasteland. This is very similar to the movie WALL-E and how he's the only cleaning robot on Earth which is covered in garbage. The characters look like rag dolls, however, their eyes are the only "human like" characteristic. This reminds me of the movie Coraline and how her parallel universe was the "rag doll" version of herself but her eyes were buttons. There's no dialogue in the film which is interesting.  I like how this can give the audience some freedom when watching the film. The audience can create their own conversations and plot which can be entertaining. It also helps emphasize the characters emotions though their eyes. The main noise is normally ambient or diegetic sounds. There is some score in the film when the robot is fighting with the dolls. The lack of dialogue helps focus more on the ambient noises. This creates a more suspenseful and tense scene. The plot of the story is very intriguing. In the beginning, it shows two of the characters and one of them has a 9 written on the back. They have this glow up device to help connect the characters together throughout their mission. However, there's a giant robot that targets 9's partner. Sadly, they was taken and it looked like the robot had his soul sucked out and into their glowing devices. I'm guessing later on in 9's life, they're reminiscing about their lost crew mate and adventure. Coincidentally, the same robot creature comes back to attack 9. In an intense chase and battle, 9 eventually tricks the robot onto a ledge and makes it fall into a pit. After their attack, 9's devices started glowing. They put the two devices together and it exploding out a bunch of the other cremates and their numbers. 9's original partner, 5, comes out and looks back towards 9 as a sign of their redemption. Overall, I really enjoyed this short film and the redemption that 9 gets back for their friends.

Genre Choice for Film

 We have researched 3 genres for our film. Our genres were romance, comedy and coming-of-age. Out of these three choices, we have decided to do a romance genre with comedic elements. We decided on romance because our main plot point revolves around 2 girls falling in love. Therefore, we decided romance was the best fit for our film over coming-of-age and comedy. We decided to add comedic elements because we wanted the movie to be light-hearted. We had more of a liking toward romance. The genre is very versatile, so they're many roads you can take with the romance film. We really liked the freedom the versatility provided us with. This freedom is also why we added comedic elements to our film. We have grown up watching numerous rom-coms. When we've pictured our film, we didn't think of our film being dramatic. We wanted the romance to be more happier instead of a sad and intense film. We were also inspired to add comedic elements because of our own personal lives. Our interactions with our own friends are more humorous than serious. Average teenagers are more easy going than they have been portrayed in recent media. Many TV Shows and/or movies, like to have teens act like adults. However, teens still are kids and like to banter with their friends. We don't need to modify our pitch because we've already corrected our mistake.

Genre Research: Comedy

The second genre we researched is comedy. Some examples of comedy films are Ghostbusters and Jumanji. Common shots in comedy are usually close up, mid-shot, long shot, two shot and over the shoulder. There isn't much camera angles used in comedy, they're normally shot at eye level. Common camera movements are pan, track and zoom shots. The sound in comedies are diegetic, non-diegetic, ambient, score, dialogue, sound motif and incidental music. The costumes depends on the plot of the movie and can range from normal clothes, uniform and costumes. Lighting is normally bright or mainly directed towards the speaker(s) in the scene. Actors are normally adults but sometimes there are teens or kids incorporated. Many of these comedians are Caucasian, but there has been more diversity in the recent decades. The makeup also depends on the plot but it's normally natural or something that goes with the costumes. Props can be anything ranging from furniture to food or even stores. Setting can be anywhere like a park or a restaurant. Common editing are shot reverse shot, eye-line match, action match and cross cutting. We like comedy movies because the jokes match our humorous personality. However, some of the jokes can be offensive to minority groups which we don't support because we believe in equality.

Genre Research: Coming-of-age

  Our last genre we researched is coming-of-age. Famous coming-of-age examples are Eighth Grade and Little Women. There are not a lot of angles used, but there are some high angles every now and then in this genre. There's not much camera movements, however, they would mostly be tracking and zooms shots. The different camera shots used are establishing shots, wide shots, two-shots, close-ups, eye-level shots, medium shots and point of view shots. The sound is mainly diegetic, non-diegetic and dialogue. There's also voice-overs, ambient sound, and a soundtrack of happy upbeat songs and slow sad ones. Costumes are normally 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. Actors in this genre are mainly Caucasians. Fortunately, the media is starting to diversify the actors/characters in this genre. There is normally minimal to no makeup used on the characters. Makeup is usually used to show an emotion like crying or injury. 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.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.person of color or one gay person throughout the whole movie.

Genre Research: Romance

 One of the genres we are researching is romance. Examples of romance would be the Twilight series or the movie Your Name. Two-shots, over the shoulder shots and mid-shots are the main shots used in romance movies. Tracking shots would also be used when the character walks  to or runs away from their love interest. Pans would also be used during romance movies. The camera is normally angled at the same level 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 characters attend. 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. Elements of the genre we liked were the versatility and the feel good effect. Romance is very versatile in the way love is portrayed whether through tragedy, happiness, etc. There is also a feel good effect that romance has when the couple is together and happy that makes the viewer feel happy. We disliked the lack of diversity in romance movies as many of them are heterosexual with white leads. We also disliked how many romance movies follow the trope of falling in love with someone who bullied you or did bad things to you. We think that arc is somewhat toxic because many of these bullies/ bad people do not have a good redemption arc all that happens is they apologize once if at all and the main character falls for them or stays with them.

Genres I Would Like to Research

 For the movie my group and I will be filming soon, we have to pick a genre. There are three genres we decided to research. The first genre is romance. The second genre is comedy. The third genre is coming-of-age. We felt these genres would be potentially the best fit for our movie. Our movie's main plot revolves around a girl who likes another girl. This is why we chose to research romance. Also, when planning this movie we didn't want the mood to be heavy we wanted it light and comedic. This is where we got the idea to research comedy. Our movie is also set in high school which is where coming-of-age movies are primarily placed. That is why we decided to research coming-of-age. These genres not only go with our pitch but we also have interest in these genres aside from that. Coming-of-age movies especially have an impact on us since we are high school students. There also many romantic and comedic elements in coming-of-age movies. This also influenced our chosen genres to research. We have seen many romance, comedy, and coming-of-age movies that are set in high school. This will give us experience and a feel for what our movie will be like. We are excited to research these genres. Since we have watched so many of these movies casually it is nice to analyze these genres. It's fun to see what makes that genre so nice to watch.