Final Movie

Extract Practice- April 24

In the Extract, "How is the representation of Gender Constructed", the director portrays the characters in a way that is very specific to their gender, to emphasize the difficulties faced by women in comparison to those faced by men. The director does this by showing the women in the extract, in difficult situations where a man is causing the problem, then he shows scenes in which men create their problems. The emphasis is on how the difficulties faced by the women are much more emotionally damaging, while the men cause problems because of their ego. This is all conveyed through the use of specific camera angles, movements, sound, and other elements of film that help develop the theme.
First off, in the beginning scene, two characters are shown in an argument. The dialogue seen
in this scene shows the man as oppressive, talking down to the female character who seems
very distraught. Additionally, close-ups of their faces are used to help make their contrasting
expressions clear to the viewer. Their expressions show that the man, trying to act superior,
has taken on a hostile tone while the woman seems defenseless by her worried expressions.
Then, as the scene ends a shot-reverse-shot is used to show the man walking away in anger
because he did not win the fight, while the woman appears to be in shock from the argument.
These details are important to the theme since they specifically emphasize their reactions and
the contrast between how they both deal with the situation.

Moreover, in the following scenes, the reactions of these characters are continued. First, a
scene containing a dialogue between the male character and another male colleague is shown.
In this scene, a two-shot is used to show their conversation in which the colleague tries to
convince the male character he needs to take action so the girl does not win. The importance
of the two-shot is how the male character's reluctance is shown as a reaction to his colleague
speaking. His reluctance to do more to hurt the girl and her reputation shows that he knows it is
wrong. Furthermore, another scene is shown where the girl is shown crying in the stairwell. A
high angle is used as a way to show her in an inferior way, contrasting the male character in the
previous scene. The female is distraught after the argument which is seen by her expression
through a close-up shot. The contrast between how each character reacts is significant to the
theme. Additionally, it is important to recognize their “costumes” in the show, since both
characters are dressed as doctors. This adds to the theme by showing that neither character
is superior to the other regarding their careers since both characters appear to be doctors. This
is also important to the theme since it portrays the ego of the male character. 

Furthermore, another scene is shown where the same male character appears to be in an
argument with another male. The other character is defending his female friend, and he acts
protectively over her. The same male character from the beginning scene acts rudely, almost
ignoring the other man. The way he acts continues the development of his egotistical character.
Moreover, in the same scene, the man takes off in the same way he did to the other girl earlier,
shown in a shot-reverse-shot. In this same scene, a medium shot of a girl in a hospital bed is
shown, in reaction to the fight. She also appears to be distraught and acts in a worrying way. It
is seen in this scene that the way the female character acts is similar to how the female acted
in the previous scene, and the same man acts in the same way as well. However, the male
character's opinion seems to change in this scene. We can see this by a gradual zoom onto his
face as he appears to realize the error in how he acted, because of his ego. 

Additionally, another scene appears after this with two men, and their dialogue between each
other. In this scene, the two men try to one-up each other by proving how tough they are and
then get into an argument trying to prove this. The viewer can see the argument build by how
with each shot-reverse-shot of their faces, both of their expressions become increasingly
frustrated after the other says something to one-up them. This is an example that adds to the
theme since the two men are creating a problem because of their egos. On the other hand, this
scene is contrasted by two young women shown in a medium-shot showing their dialogue, and
how they act in a happy, and respectful way. The reason for these scenes being back to back
is to show the contrast between the dialogue and acting of the male and female characters.
This adds to the theme by showing the difference between male and female friendships.

Overall, the theme the director tries to convey in this extract is how women and men act in
comparison to each other. Specifically, how women face issues from men, and men create
their issues from their egos. This is seen through the character development of the main male
character, and the scenes showing how both genders interact with each other. The theme is
further developed through the use of film elements like Mise-En-Scene, where acting and
costumes are important, and then CAMS, the specific camera movement to emphasize certain
expressions, is essential to the theme.

Audience and Institutions Essay

1. Assess the importance of marketing in the media area you have studied. [50]

In the area of film, marketing has relative importance, but that is not to say it can make or
break a movie in terms of its success. The success of a film depends on many factors, one of
which is marketing strategies, but it is not the most important. However, marketing does play
a large role in how well known a film could be, and its popularity. To explain, many movies go
on to become much more successful than they would have been if they had been marketed
differently. Certain strategies like cross-promotion play a big role in how well known a movie
is; For instance, the popularity of Minions drastically increased because of how it was
advertised on many different platforms.
To elaborate, the Minion’s franchise stemmed from the success of its original movie-
Despicable Me. The production company NBC took the idea of Minions, and through specific
marketing strategies, created it into its own brand which led to a Minions movie. Minions were
marketed in many ways like the creation of merchandise like plush toys, cross-promotion
including TV advertisements with well-known companies, minions being used as McDonald's
kids' toys. It can easily be seen that all of this marketing paid off, since Minions went

on to gross over $1.5 billion, compared to Despicable Me 2 which grossed around $900
million. Moreover, through marketing strategies, NBC was able to take a specific
part/character of a movie and turn it into its own brand which went on to become more
successful than the original movie it was a part of. 
Additionally, we can assess the importance of marketing in film through other movie’s
popularity along with how well they were marketed. For example, Guardians of the Galaxy
Vol. 2, grossed almost $900 million. The success of this movie could be because of the
marketing strategies used, or that it was a sequel so it already had a buzz, or even that Chris
Pratt was the main character. In cases like these, it is clear that marketing plays a large part in
the popularity of the movie since it was cross-promoted with many large companies like Lego,
Go-Gurt, Geico, etc., but that does not mean it is the reason for its success. This can be
proven through the fact that many movies may have through marketing strategies to create
buzz, but they still do not do well in theatres. For example, the movie UglyDolls was marketed
extensively: it was advertised in popular stores, during largely-watched TV events, and it even
promoted its characters on National Pancake Day. However, after all of this marketing, the
movie still did not succeed and was considered a flop based on its low earning, netting less
than $9 million. In this case, we can see a movie that was marketed properly but did not do
well in theatres. Based on these cases, it can be said that marketing is important to a movie's
success, but it is not the only contributing factor.
Moreover, some movies are successful only because of the content in the movie. Nowadays,
so many movies are streamed online, and that is the only way some people will watch a
movie. In instances like these, it could be said that marketing barely plays a role in the
popularity or success of a film. To explain, from what I can see, online streaming sites like,
Netflix, are the main source for many people to watch movies, meaning that going to a movie
theater is less popular. Therefore, some movies like ones released on Netflix would require
very little marketing. This is because it is already so accessible, most people will just watch a
movie because it's “free” and easy. Personally, I choose to watch a movie on Netflix by
browsing through the options, and then most of the time I end up choosing a movie I have
never heard of. For example, the movie, To All the Boys I Loved Before, turned out to be very
popular because of reasons completely separate to marketing. The movie was released on
Netflix and became so popular because viewers genuinely enjoyed the movie.
Overall, through the success of many blockbuster movies, we can see that marketing plays an
important role in film, but it is not the most important factor. This is proven through certain
movies that became so well known because of clever marketing strategies, and the high
income of movies like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 because of extensive cross-promotion.
However, we can see that marketing is not the only contributing factor because of movies like
UglyDolls that were marketed well, but turned out to be a flop. Lastly, to relate marketing in
films to current trends, it can also be seen that marketing has little relevance on certain types
of films released online through streaming websites like Netflix. For these reasons, marketing
is important to film, but other contributing factors are prevalent as well.

CCR Final Project

Editing Blog: Putting It All Together

Last week we edited the majority of our footage. We did all the editing on the iMovie. Then, we had to figure out a plan because only one person could edit at a time. So, we decided to do a group FaceTime while one of our group mates edited the footage, while we also did some finishing touches in class. We decided on iMovie because our project does not include a lot of special effects, and iMovie works well for simple editing. So, we had to combine all of our footage for our peer edit. We did this by importing all the footage from one of our group member’s phone onto his computer. This was done by plugging in his phone to the computer, and then dragging the footage into a folder. After this, he went onto iMovie and imported all the footage onto iMovie. On iMovie, he was able to crop certain scenes that had extra acting we did not need. Then, he had to do more specific editing to certain scenes to make the whole project seem more put together. On this, we argued and discussed on FaceTime. We discussed issues like lighting, and order of some scenes. Fortunately, we all had a similar idea of what we wanted it to look like because of the planning we did prior to filming. One thing we took a risk on was dimming the lighting of the forest scenes so it created a more ominous effect. We were unsure of doing this because we did not want it to look too dark to where it was difficult to see and then score badly because of it. However, after reviewing it multiple times we saw that it was still viewable and it created a better mood then the bright sunny lighting. This along with the last scene were our 2 main problems. The other problem was deciding whether to include the last scene or not since it did not entirely match the previous ones. This is because we used a different actor, hoping no one would notice. We decided to include this scene, and overall it turned out a success.

Editing Blog: Peer Reveiw

Today in class we did a Peer Review Assignment. This Peer Assignment was created so that students in the class could get advice on their projects so far. This was done by groups randomly selecting other groups to review their project, and commenting on it during class. We were given a paper with certain requirements on it and other specific questions. So, we were told to watch the film from another group and mark off the requirements it met on the paper. The paper consists of questions about lighting, sound, different camera angles/movements/shots, time requirements, and overall quality. It also includes two questions on the backside where we list one thing we really like about the film and one thing we don't like. The group we assigned did an overall good job. Their movie was about a love story, and one of the characters gets kidnapped. Our group liked this plot and enjoyed that it was easy to follow. However, unlike most groups, they actually went over the time limit. We included this in our suggestions to them because it is a simple fix. Then, while they did not have all of them, they included many different camera angles and movements. Another suggestion we included was to use darker lighting at the beginning where they show a funeral scene. In addition to this, we mentioned that some of the scenes were a little choppy when being cut together. However, we concluded that their project was almost complete and looks sufficient. Then, when it came to another group editing our project it was more difficult. This was because we had to do last-minute editing so we had to make the other group wait for a little longer. Then, they reviewed our project and we had issues with time requirements, but overall it was good feedback. Now, after having our project reviewed we will go back for reshoots to adjust it a little.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Filming Blog: Our Second Day Filming

Yesterday our group met up again and filmed after school. However, this time because it was a school night we decided to film a short scene. So, instead of filming the chasing scenes in the woods, we filmed the final scene in the bedroom. We went to one of our group mate's homes to film this scene. However, it did not go as well as we hoped since we encountered some difficulties. The first being it was bright and sunny outside, so it was hard to figure out the lighting on camera so it looked like it was nighttime. We tried to fix this issue by adjusting the blinds on the window and getting it just right to make the light outside appear to be moonlight. Then, once we got this problem taken care of we encountered another issue. This was the same one as last time, where our main character can not stay in character. We had faced this issue the last time we filmed, and figured it was just a one time thing and it was only our first time filming. However, it seems to be an ongoing problem where our actor can not stop laughing. This does not go well with a movie where the main character is supposed to be getting killed. So, after multiple takes of the varying room scenes, we did not have a lot completed. We then decided because we were all also so tired after a long day of school that it would be best to continue filming the next day. On another note, the scenes we were filming consisted of our main character arsing from her 'dream' in a state of panic. Then we would film a slow pan of the room, creating an eerie mood. We also had our character who acted as the chaser hide in the corner to slowly creep out when our victim had fallen back asleep. However, because of the difficulties mentioned earlier we filmed almost none of these plans for the scene. Therefore, we came up with a new plan to film the whole scene at a friend's house closer to school so it is easier for us all to meet. Hopefully, this time on our third try our main character will be able to stay in focus.