Now that you have finalized the setting of your final product, how will it support your narrative genre? Why do you think this setting is the best for your narrative?
The setting of the final product is a dark office. It will have very poor lighting, and be very well organised. The setting will compliment the main antagonist of the film, it being the antagonist’s office. The dark lighting will add an ominous mood to the scene. The scene itself is a drama/comedy.
The setting compliments the genre in a traditional way. It is supposed to be reminiscent of mob movies, where a mob boss might have an office. The narrative will take place in the one room alone. This will add to the genre, making it feel almost like an interogation between the antagonist and protagonist (the scene only includes these two characters, the protagonist being talked to by the antagonist). The setting compliments both the narrative and the genre, and vice versa.
Now that you’ve filmed a character building product, what props will you use to reveal you characters’ personality traits? For example, some of you put that your main character is “creepy”. How could you use props in this person’s life to let the audience know that this guy or girl is a weirdo? Research this by googling movies that feature the same type of character. What props did that director use? Blog your findings and blog about what you will use to reveal some of your characters’ traits.
The main location of the final product is the office of the antagonist. The antagonist has temper issues, though the main personality trait she will exhibit is Authoritarianism. This personality trait causes someone with it to adhere strongly to authority and demand obedience and respect from subordinates. One way that this character’s personality can be shown is through the use of props. Typically, someone with this personality would want respect, and organization could exemplify this.
The antagonist’s personality will go hand and hand with her position in society. She will be a criminal underground boss, so she will have illegal objects, such as knives in her office. Her office will also have normal office objects, such as pens, a phone, a computer, and so fourth. Everything will be very neat and tidy to build upon her need for respect.
A character similar in personality to my project’s antagonist is Daniel Plainview from the excellent There Will Be Blood (2007). This character owns an oil tycoon in the 1920s and does whatever he can to expand it, even if he has to kill. He has serious angered issues and wants to be well respected by his peers. Unlike my antagonist, Daniel Plainview becomes a bitter, broken man, and his office reflects this. He accumulates so much wealth that he has too much money to work with that his office becomes very disorganized with money, documents and bottle of alcohol lying everywhere in his office.
Many of your characters have specific personality traits. Some may even have personality disorders or be physically handicapped. Research the behaviors people with these traits/disorders exhibit and blog about your findings. Be sure to include the URL addresses that you used in your research.
Characters often have different personality quirks that make them unique and interesting to the audience, as well as to make the characters feel like they have believable emotions. Personality disorders, as well as handicaps can have a similar effect. A character in our final film will exhibit anger issues. This character is the villain, so this trait is being used to add to her need to be intimidating to the audience, as well as to the other characters in the film.
Bad anger issues officially fall under the condition (IED), Intermittent explosive disorder. This disorder is typically characterized by impulsiveness, hostility and outbursts. People who have IED have been known to report outbursts relax them, yet make them feel embarrassed. Not all people with IED exhibit this, however. In addition to exhibiting IED, the character will also be impatient and brash. This will further exemplify the anger issues.
Colors can be very important to the tone of a movie or show. They can easily portray emotion. Dark colors can be used for more serious scenes, or lighter colors for more lighthearted scenes. Many different directors utilize this technique. Not only because of this, but because it’s so effective.
The color in our film will be dark. This will compliment a darkly lit scene. It also adds mystery to the antagonist who is shrouded in darkness for most of the scene. Having lighter colors would also not fit the scene very well at all. https://digitalsynopsis.com/design/film-movies-color-psychology/
Now that you have chosen a genre, research the micro elements that are typical of that genre. Record your findings in your blog. How will you apply those elements to your own product? If you are going to challenge the genre’s expectations, How will you do this so that the audience can still follow the narrative? In your blog, be sure to include all the URLs you consulted with on genre expectations.
The genre of our final project could be considered a thriller. It is going to have suspenseful dialogue and tense music. These could also be seen as micro-element examples. Another could be dutch angles. This is a major micro element in some instances. Mauricio and I are going to use dutch angles at appropriate times in the final product, yet unexpected times.
The audience should be able to follow the narrative fairly easily. It’ll not be a very confusing story, but you will have to pay attention to dialogue to know what is happening. If the audience does this, they will be fine during the story of the final project. Micro-elements that will be experimented with will be familiar to the audience and for that reason will be popular. A twist in our story will also make our narrative different from other stories.
Blog #5: Now that you received your approved plot outline back, what changes/adjustments have to be made to meet the instructor’s suggestions/requirements?
Our (Me and Mauricio’s) project is very simple in story. We also have a good idea of what direction we want to take out story in. Our original outline made an effort to outline plot elements, but not in an in detail way. This is one change that will have to be made to the outline. Another change that will need to be considered is the length.
The film itself takes place in a single room with only two characters and will be a thriller, so there’s a lot of room for suspense. An issue with our outline was that there was not a lot of detail around the dialogue. The new version of the project will be extended with details to overall expand upon the story itself. These needed changes will vastly improve our final product.
Now that you are outlining your final product’s plot outline, what obstacles are you anticipating and how will you overcome those obstacles?
There will mostly be more obstacles on this project in comparison to previous projects. Most of the obstacles will be self-inflicted as I want to try to implement more advanced filming techniques and editing techniques. More advanced shots will be a probable obstacle, as well as audio syncing and lighting. I anticipate the issues will not be difficult to deal with.
I find editing issues will be easy to take care of by practicing editing more. As this class has progressed, I have developed new editing techniques to speed up the editing process. I also want to experiment with new types of shots. I will try new techniques that I have never used before in the final product.
You are now in your permanent group for the final product. What did you take into consideration when choosing your group members? What are your expectations for this project?
When picking my group members, I definitely wanted to work with people I knew I could trust with their respective work load. I wanted to work with Mauricio because he has proven to be a reliable worker in past projects. Usually, Mauricio handles formatting the script and helping direct the actual filming, both of which he is good at. I usually find myself being the cinematographer, video and audio editor in past film projects. This project, however, I realize will be different from past ones for obvious reasons.
My expectations for this project are much higher than previous ones. I want to put more focus into cinematography and specifically editing. I would also want to provide more elaborate and complicated shots using new techniques. I overall feel as if this project will be my most enjoyable to make because Mauricio and myself will put more thought into the project in every aspect; My excitement is immeasurable.
Blog #2: What did you learn about hegemonic theory from the film you researched?
My pick for hegemonic theory was the pilot for 2015’s Mr. Robot. The plot of the show follows Elliot, a young programmer who works as a cyber-security specialist by day and as a hacker vigilante by night. Elliot is approached by a hacking group and is recruited to destroy the cyber security firm that he’s paid to protect. The main antagonists of the show consist of shareholders of the show’s fictional E-Corp, a massive conglomerate that secretly pulls the strings of the economy behind the public’s back. The entire plot of the show is very telling of hegemonic theory, showing the minority ruling over the majority whilst also manipulating the majority.
The main thing that Mr. Robot showed me about Hegemonic theory is how a large business can apply to the idea of Hegemony. Large corporations very well can oppress consumers in many ways. For example, Facebook’s analytical scandal showed some users of Facebook that the company didn’t respect customer’s privacy, and some people stopped using Facebook entirely because of it. In the show, E-Corp secretly also listens in on people that use their products. Mr. Robot’s fictitious conglomerate could be seen as a sort of fictional parallel to real life’s Facebook and other companies when it comes to privacy issues.
Blog #1: What did I learn about Marxist theory from the film I researched?
Marxist film theory highlights the struggle that the lower and higher classes have against each other. Marxist film theory very heavily related to the film I specifically picked, mostly because the entire film as a whole highlighted the theory. The film of discussion was Snowpiercer (2013). In the film, the last survivors of humanity live on a massive train after a massive environmental disaster renders the earth frozen and uninhabitable. On the train, you have a lower, middle, and upper-class; the lower class lives in the tail section, the middle class lives in the middle of the train, and the upper-class lives in the front section, a long with the train’s creator, who has absolute power among everyone on the train.
The plot of the film highlights members of the tail section revolting against the front section and it’s leader, Wilbur, the inventor of the train. By the end of the film, a member of the tail section, Curtis, comes face to face with Wilbur, by which Wilbur explains to him that the lower and upper classes must function together in order to survive. As a whole, this film taught me about how the upper-class in Marxist society does manipulate the lower class. Curtis is told by Wilbur that everyone in the train is a prisoner, no matter what class anyone is. This is a clear manipulation tactic used by Wilbur to make Curtis seem equal to him in a way.
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