Film Opening

THREE FAVORITE FILM INTRODUCTION

I have 3 favorite films of all time. My favorite films of all time is  The Karate Kid, and The Hate You Give, and The Greatest Showman. These movies all have different stereotypes that relate to different people in society. All these movies taught me different lessons. That's why these are my favorite films.

The Karate Kid

• The Karate Kid is about Dre and his mom moving to Beijing, China because of her job. He feels like a stranger in his new home. He begins to get bullied by a boy named Cheng. Dre meets Mr. Han the maintenance man and he begins to teach him Kung Fu. Mr. Han hopes that all of this training will make Dre finally beat Cheng and win over his crush. (DRAMA)
  
  
• The opening scene shows Dre and his mom packing up the last of there things. Dre is reminiscing about the house he lived in and the city they lived in for all his life. As their getting ready to leave, Dre's childhood friends gives him his skateboard to remember him. This connects to the overall plot because once Dre gets to China he is resistant to accept his new life because he is still stuck on living in Detroit.
• The main purpose of this film opening was to show would be the internal conflict that the main character would be suffering. Dre suffered from internal conflict because he refused to accept his new life.

The Hate You Give

• Starr Carter is constantly switching between two worlds -- the poor, mostly black neighborhood where she lives and the rich, mostly white prep school that she attends. The uneasy balance becomes even more complicated when she becomes the eye-witness to the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend at the hands of a police officer. Facing pressure from both of her worlds, Starr must find her voice and decide to stand up for what's right

• The opening scene shows that Maverick, Starr's dad is going over the Black Panther 10 Point Program with Starr and her brothers Seven and Sekani. Also, what do when they are pulled over by the police. This connects to the overall plot because it shows why it's important to learn about police brutality and what to do when in confrontation with a police officer.
• The purpose of this film opening was to show what African- Americans go through on a daily and to show that this is going to be relatable that's going to happen later in the movie. 

The Greatest Showman

• P.T. Barnum displayed a natural talent for publicity and promotion at the early age of 12. After losing his job, P.T. Barnum turns to show business to show to showcase his imagination.He created Barnum & Bailey from nothing to showcase musical numbers, exotic performers, and acrobatics. Barnum's circus soon took the world by storm and became the biggest show on Earth.

• The opening scene is P.T. Barnum performing and dancing to a song in his circus. At the end of the song, it is revealed that it was a dream. This connects to the plot because it shows how Barnum dreamed as as a child and made his dreams reality.
• The purpose of this film opening was to show the imagination of Barnum and show what he dreams about.

Cinematography

 Cinematography Introduction

Cinematography is the art and craft of motion pictures by capturing a story visually. This includes media codes, codes & conventions, mise en scene, technical codes, and different camera angles. A cinematographer handles all the camera angles and lighting. They use different camera angles to display different meanings. For example, a fade out/ fade in indicates a passage of time between scenes. Cinematography is very important to movies because the different camera angles and movements send a message. Most of the messages are invisible. This is called invisibility. 

Background Research

I did my research on cinematography and gained knowledge on how cinematography is used and why it's important to a movie. Telling a narrative on film is just not about catching the action on camera it's how the shots are captured. Cinematography supports the overall look and mood of a movie. In order for the film to come together, the cinematographer has a lot of responsibilities to make sure the filming of the movie goes smooth. The responsibilities are establishes the camera setup for every shot, determines lighting for every scene, and explores the potential of every off-site location. They use camera angles, camera shots, sound, and lighting to send a message. A high angle: is the camera is placed above the character to indicate small, weak, or young, a low angle: is when the camera is placed below the character to indicate that the character is strong or noble. An extremely wide shot: shows a clear view of a character and it's surroundings, wide shot: shows subject/ character from head to toe, medium shot: shows the upper body, close up: shows only the face and shoulder, and extreme closeup: only characters face is visible. These angles and shots supports the film so much because it sends messages to the audience. Some messages are implicit or explicit. Cinematographers also use sounds. Diegetic sound which would be expected to be in the type of move and non-diegetic sounds that are added that only the audience can hear such as a soundtrack. This is what I learned from my research of cinematography. 

Content Application

My teacher had us use our phones and take pictures of our peers using different types of angles and shot types. We then had to put it into a powerpoint presentation. I had to use one picture that I used and two from the internet. That's how we used what we learned to do a hands-on activity.

Reflection

I learned why cinematography is so important to films and how the key parts send messages to the audience. The key parts are sound, lighting, angles, and shots. Also, how the responsibilities of the cinematographer helps the movie come to be.

References

https://milnepublishing.geneseo.edu/exploring-movie-construction-and-production/chapter/6-what-is-cinematography/

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/film-101-what-is-cinematography-and-what-does-a-cinematographer-do 

  

Different Types of Genre

 

Types of Genre Introduction

There are various types of genres of movies. All of the different genres display different messages and themes. A genre is a category of artistic composition which is characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject. When watching a genre there is different components that is put in certain movies to reveal to the author what movie genre they are watching. Some components that can determine the genre is characters, setting, plot, etc. Examples of some movie genres are drama, comedy, romantic comedy, action, and horror.

Background Research

As I was learning about the new genres I found this genre the most interesting. Drama is the genre I found most interesting. Drama is a genre that contains a story that has a lot of conflict. The different types of conflict that drama is man v. society, man v. man, man v. self, etc.  A drama is shaped by the characters, situation, and tension. There is sub genres in the main genre of drama. I found that there is crime drama, historical drama, comedy drama, and romantic drama. The most subgenre's  is comedy and romantic drama. An example of a drama is the movie The Hate You Give. The Hate You Give is about a girl named Starr that lives in a low income neighborhood and goes to school in the richer side of town and when her childhood friend is murdered by a cop she has to deal with the conflict in her neighborhood and try to hide her real self from her friends from school. In this movie Starr is facing man v. society and man v. self in this movie because she is conflicting with her friends from her school and plus she is conflicting with herself because she acts two different ways around two different set of people and now that her friend died she is battling to trying to continue the act of being two versions of herself. This is what I found out about the genre, drama.

Content Application

To learn more about other genres, my teacher had my class separate into groups and do research about different genres. My group selected horror as our genre to do our research on. My group and I made a powerpoint presentation about the history of our genre, how to analyze it, different techniques, and types of horror movies. After a week of working on the powerpoint we submitted and presented. The other groups worked on other genres and while they presented their presentations the other groups took notes on their presentation and genre. That's how we used what we learned about genres and put it into a project.

Reflection

After seeing all the presentations about the different genres, I learned a lot of new things about genres of movies that I watch everyday. The two genres that I really learned about is musical and action. I learned that in musicals that the songs advance the plot. Before I thought that songs were just an added thing in the movie for entertainment and that back then most musicals were held on stages. I learned that in action films were started by Edwin S. Porter and action films weren't really popular until the 80s and 90s. This is what I learned during my research and listening to my peers presentation.

References

https://variety.com/2018/film/columns/the-hate-u-give-amandla-stenberg-1202987675/

https://theorion.com/78140/arts/the-hate-u-give-is-a-forgettable-drama/

https://www.filmsite.org/subgenres.html