3 favorite films

 My top 3 favorite films of all time are freedom writers, star wars the force awakens, and jump in.

Freedom writers: A drama film that is based on a true story about one teacher by the name of Erin Gruwell that worked in a school that was in long beach which at the time, divided by race, dugs, and gang warfare. The teacher was told that the class she would teach had little to no hope of graduating high school because of this but, Ms. Gruwell saw this as a challenge to teach the students beyond the classroom with something similar to what they would go through in daily life, that something would be the tragic events of the holocaust that brings the students to better understand that they were all the same in someway that allows them not only to become better students but better people. The opening in this film last for 1 min and 56 seconds, this opening is a flash back opening that shows us memory's or past experiences of a main or important character in a film. The opening of this movie connects with the rest of the film because it gives backstory to some of the events that main and important characters had to go through in their lives showing plot and character development at one time.

Star wars the force awakens: this is a sci-fi film that is about the return of the magical energy known as the force as a new Jedi prodigy is found. The opening scene for this film is a opening credit scene, this type of opening is used to show credits before a movie has started, in the case of star wars it is used to show what happened in the last episode or last film. I know that star wars is a sci-fi film because it has a futuristic elements like different planets and advance tech like x-wings and tie-fighters, this is a convention that is purely for sci-fi films. The opening in this film is about 9mins long that is a scene or a war breaking out, the purpose of this is to introduce the newest villain to the movie and also show other characters that would become important later on in the film this is called enter the villain. 

Jump in: A classic Disney 2000s film that is about a young boy named Issy that is forced in to the sport of boxing by his father but then due to some local girls in the neighborhood he is introduced to a new sport that he quickly falls in love with and try's to prove that his true passion is jumping rope. The opening scene last 1 min and 47 secs in the first shot we are introduced to our main character with powerful music and a narrator with the main characters face hidden by a shadow as he is jump roping in a boxing ring showing that he may be dealing with something internally. The genre of this film is family friendly I know this because of who the movie is made by which is, Disney known for their child friendly movies with happy go lucky characters. the importance of this opening is to show our main character off and get a introduction to who he is before the movie starts.  

compare and contrast

All three of these movies are extremely different from one another but are alike as well for example all three movies introduce the main characters within the first two or three shots, they also have similar camera movement and shots like medium shots, close up shots, long shots, and establishing shots to create meaning.

Some of the differences in them is the setting for example in star wars the movie takes place in a different galaxy while the other two movies take place on earth, another difference is the tone of the films, each film sets a different tone in their film jump in sets a happy and joyful tone, freedom writers sets a more meaningful tone as it is based on true events and star wars tone is set with the intro of the new villain which is symbolic as there is a new generation of good and bad.   

Film Openings

 When looking at films one of the most important parts of the film is the opening. The opening of a film is extremely important to a film because it allows viewers to see basic information to learn what the film will most likely be about.

Key Characteristics/ Key Elements 

In order to understand how to analyze a films opening you must first understand the key characteristics of the opening. key characteristics of film openings or opening shots are 

Tone: the general character or attitude of a place, piece of writing, situation, etc. 

Setting: the place or type of surroundings where something is positioned or where an event takes place

Main Characters:  a central character(s) who acts as the audience surrogate

Theme: the subject of a talk, a piece of writing, a person's thoughts, or an exhibition

The meaning behide the opening

Even though there are many different types of film openings; they all serve the same general purpose which is to introduce the viewers to the main concept or idea of the film and what the film will be about. Some examples of these openings are 

Prologues: a montage or scene that is meant to succinctly communicate important backstory that happened before the film. Sometimes prologues have voiceover narration that dumps exposition onto the viewers all at once that is most commonly used in Fantasy and Epic type films. Prologues also can have no voiceover but instead have a flashback to revel a pivotal moment in the characters past (most likely from childhood). 

Inciting Incident: this type of opening scene introduces the inciting incident that sets the story into motion these events could be something similar to weddings, funerals, apocalypse or any major event of a characters life. An example of this is in the film "welcome home Roscoe Jenkins" made in the year 2008 in this film the inciting incident that gets the film up and going is a family reunion.

Day in a life: an opening scene that introduces the main character usually revealing a key strength and key liability and shows what the characters life is like before its changed by the events in the film. Sometimes day in a life scenes are not that dramatic or exciting. These types of openings are commonly seen in drama, comedies, and action films.  

Cold openings: the purpose of a cold opening is to grab the audience's attention and establish genre elements before beginning act 1. this is most common in Horror movies, Crime thrillers, and action movies. 

The similarities between theses film openings is that they all allow the viewers of films go get a basic idea of what the film they are watching would be about, they also allow viewers context as to what will happen during the film.  

Compare and contrast 

The three genres of film that I will be comparing are sci-fi, action, comedy. Some of the similarity's between each genre are that they all make use of certain shot types like the medium close up shot that is a shot of a character from the waist upwards that is used to show what a character is doing within a scene. Another similarity between each genre is the use of conventions like hero vs villain an example of this would be movies like star wars, avengers, and Brooklyn vampire. 

Some of the major differences in the genres are that all the films have different uses of Mise en scene 

for example costumes in sci-fi films are futuristic and technologically advance, while costumes in  action films could be super hero costumes that have a lot of detail like captain Americas suit. Another difference between the genres is setting of the films themselves, comedy movies can be universal and have any type of setting while sci-fi films are strictly in space or different planets or parallel universes. 

  Types of Movies / Movie Genre 

    Over the course of two weeks my class and I have been learning and studying different genres and movie types. 

What is a Genre?

The word genre is originally a French word that means type or kind. Genres are category's best used to describe and analyze films. Genres are also convenient terms that develop informally.

The class assignment

in order to better understand the different types of genres our class did genre PowerPoints explaining and  teaching them to us. the genres include: horror, action, sci-fi and many more.   

Background research 

while researching what I learned...

Action films include high energy, physical stunts, big budgets and always have a good guy and a bad guy fighting to rather save the world or destroy it. 

Comedy films: are light-hearted plots that are consistently and deliberately designed to amuse and provoke laughter by exaggerating the situation.

Drama films: are serious plot driven presentations portray realistic characters settings and life situations normally with high stakes and lots of conflict

Horror films: are designed to frighten invoke are hidden and worst fears often terrifying ours with our worst fears and nightmares the theme of horror is to not take things for granted and be very careful what you wish for some of the techniques that are used in four films are jump scares mirror reflections tight framing etc.

Sci-fi films:  include a wider variety or futuristic concepts since they're so imaginative anything goes, some of the most common elements of sci-fi are time travel, teleportation, extraterrestrial life forms, and parallel universes. re genre incorporates hypothetical and science-based themes

Our project 

after doing our research in class we were tasked with creating a PowerPoint for the genre we choose 

we did this to show what each group learned about the genre and to teach it back to the class, with every little detail: the history, who created it, why and how is it used, etc. 

Reflection 

Before this project I didn't really know a lot about the different types of genres in films, all that I knew is film makers use these different types of genres to make the different types of movies for entertainment.

After doing research and learning about the different types of genres on a deeper level I can say that I have learned how to makers put together the different types of genres to create meaning in their films by using different techniques like camera angle, shot type, setting, lighting etc. 

    

Mise-en-scene 

What is it? and how is it used?

Mise-en-scene is a French word that means everything in the scene. it's used to create mood and feeling within a scene. 

Components of Mise-en-scene 

the main and most important components of Mise-en-scene are design and composition 

design: the look of the setting, props, lighting, actors, makeup, hair style, and costuming all come together to create the scene and overall tone of the shot in the film.

Composition: the organization, distribution, balance, and general relationships of actors and objects within the space of each shot. 

Why is Mise-en-scene important?

Mise-en-scene is important because it allows the viewer to be in a certain place at a certain time it also affects how we think of characters and story of a film. 

examples of Mise-en-scene in play 

here in class we had a project on creating photos using elements of Mise-en-scene to create a meaning for the pictures and shots we had took. 

 

Here is one of the shots that my partner and i had took using some toys that we had laying around at home. using these props we were able to create this shot of a teddy bear riding a motorcycle on the open road. The shot implies the feeling of freedom something that every American teen dreams of.   

 Our second shot is one just showing the motorcycle by its self on the open road during a sunrise. Just like the last shot we used this shot to represent freedom. 

What I learned 

what I learned from the project is the different ways that you can use elements of Mise-en-scene to create meaning for shots. the project also taught me why using Mise-en-sence is so important to films 

without it a viewer would be lost and confused about the message the film is trying to tell.

 Cinematography 

What is cinematography?

Cinematography is the art of photography and visual storytelling in a motion picture or television show. it it uses all on =-screen visual elements including camera motion, camera angles, framing, lighting, and composition. 

Why is cinematography important? 

Cinematography is important because it sets and supports the mood and look of a film narrative. 

How cinematography is used?

Cinematography is the composition of different types of angles for different shots, we use the different angles to get different feelings or emotions out of each shot. 

Class application 

in class we learned how to identify different types of shots and what they look like. here in the photo is shows mutable examples of the different shots and angles used in cinematography. 

some of the shots that are included in this picture are:

close ups: fill the screen with the majority with the character's head or face 

medium shot: frames a person from waist up

long shot/wide shot: shows character from top to bottom

What I learned 

What I learned is that cinematography is important because it allows directors to create different shots to help create meaning within a scene ,also mark that the different shot types help make scenes in movies. One of the most important things that I learned is how to identify the different shot types I feel that it will help me in the future when creating my portfolio.