What genre is MY film going to be?

 From the three genres I had to pick from, I thought that my film would be able to fit into any of them. After looking into them some more, I've realized that some of them may not be the best fit for the plot of my film after all. I've been able to eliminate surrealist fiction from the possible genres list. This is because, all though any film can have their own style, I don't think anything I could do would fit into this genre well. Left with just psychological horror and horror drama as my remaining genres, I've also decided not to do a horror drama either. The idea for a film doesn't fit very well with the films I looked into. Now I've been left with just the psychological horror genre, which I feel fairly confident is a good fit for my film. I think this gives me a good opportunity to add more confusion into the film. For example, having things happen that may just be hallucinations or something of that nature. I feel as if I'll be able to take a lot of inspiration from this genre. 

Some ideas I have for this movie are going to need other people to help, unless I'm able to make Rube Goldberg machines for every practical effect I want to add. Ever since I've thought of this film, I've always wanted to have a shot of the door to the room opening on its own and having my character look back at it. I believe that this could be a good way to foreshadow how the film is going to end. By having my character hesitate to investigate the door, it'll be a contrast to the end of the movie where he'll leave his room hurriedly. Other than that, I will need to come up with other events that can take place. I want to emphasize that the main character's time alone has started to drive him crazy. To accomplish this, I'll also need to show that he's been on his own for a while. A few ideas I've come up with would be to involve my family in this and use them to show what living with this character entails. That'll come later though, for now I've got my genre decided. I will keep thinking of ideas until the time to storyboard arrives though.

Genre Research: Reading a Lot of Stuff About Horror

 The idea that I plan on going with can be classified as three different genres: a psychological horror, a horror drama, or a surrealist fiction. Just like last year, I've been tasked with research genres to see what is common within them. Similarly to last year, I'll conduct my research by looking into different movies to see what they all share. Unlike last year, however, I won't be describing each movie I looked into. This time, I'll just point out the common tropes.

The first genre I looked into was psychological thriller. Psychological thrillers normally aims to scare the audience with atmosphere instead of jumpscares or creepy villains. Directors John Madden and Peter Hutchins agree that psychological horrors are at their best when they focus on tension and anxiety instead of fright. To me, this meant dim lighting and subtle movements in the background. However, when I looked into different psychological horror films, I was surprised to see that the colors were mostly normal. While some movies, Joker(2019) to be specific, had a decreased saturation, the coloration in general still looked normal. The anxiety and uneasiness that I expected from this genre came from the actors and the scenes that they were put into.

The second genre I looked into was horror drama. A horror drama, or horror film, is a film that seeks to instill fear into its audience. From what I saw during my research, this genre achieves this by having disturbing scenes and imagery. The antagonists of these films were monsters in more ways than one. In some films, the antagonist is human and torments the protagonist as well as the others around them. In other films, the antagonist is actually a monster and when they are, they are usually grotesque or hard to look at. I've noticed the camera work is different in these films. The camera looks up at the antagonist, possibly to make it seem like they are bigger and a threat.

The third genre I looked into was surrealist fiction. From what I've seen, I don't think surrealist films aim to do anything in general. A surrealist film can aim to tell a story or, if it wants, it could just be weird for the sake of it. This genre seems to be the most freeform of the three I've looked into. The whole time I was watching clips and snippets of films, I never fully understood what was going on.

What's The Film About?

The film focuses on a shut-in's phobia of leaving his room. Even when called for, he'll avoid leaving his room at all costs.

Group Members: +0

 As a surprise to no one, I will continue working on my own this year. Just like last year, I plan on completing all of my assignments on my own. Not only because of the current situation of the world, but  also because I enjoy being alone. Until further notice, that will never come, my group will consist of me alone. Last year, I took every chance I could to talk about how working on my own made some things easier. Working around any problems that came up, implementing ideas, and trying out new ways of filming were all made easier to do without having to consult a group first. Of course, not all the ideas I had were effective, but it was still fun to try them out. I can acknowledge that having group members makes filming a lot easier. Of course, I'm no where near filming yet. So I should focus on planning first. 

I remember throwing around tons of ideas on what I should do last year. I thought about doing a horror film, a mystery film, and a handful of different genres that didn't receive as much thought. I was able to fully map out scenes in my head and decide on whether I could actually do them. Doing something similar would take much longer with a group. When I heard what I was doing this year, the same thing happened. I had a ton of ideas going through my head one after another and threw out a good few. I'm still not completely sure on what to do, but I still have multiple ideas. To wrap things up, I'm working alone again. Not only am I working alone again, but I don't have a group to work with. Finally, I am completing this project on my own. 

Same Blog, Different Task

 My last blog on here was on May 7, 2020. Since then, I've graduated 10th grade and am now a Junior. Just like last year, I'm taking a media studies class and are required to keep up a blog. So, if anyone's missed my blogs, you're in luck. Instead of just doing an intro to a movie, I'll be creating a short film this year. I'll have a lot more time to fill and I'm completely fine with that. In addition to more runtime, I'm also tasked with creating a website and different social medias as well.

Just like last year, I've got a ton of ideas swirling around my head and I'm excited to find out what I can and can not do when filming. I can't say I'm excited about having to keep up a blog once more, mainly due to how many I had to do last year. Realistically, it shouldn't be that much of a problem, seeing as I was easily able to keep up with the amount of blogs I had to do. However, I can say I'm very excited about having more time to work with this time around. I've said it in this blog already and it's because of my experience last year. Last year, I overestimated the amount of content I would be able to fit within the time allotted. Because of this, I had to cut out a fair amount of footage to fit it all. I have to make sure that I don't go overboard this year and film more than necessary. I'm a lot more experienced now than I was when I first started last year, so I'm confident that I'll be able to make something worthwhile. Also, I'll be better at blogging.

Audience & Institution Essay

When it comes to films and their distribution, digital distribution is extremely important and can be a big source of income. Not only can digital distribution bring in more money, it can also spread the film to more people. Some people may not want to go to a theatre to see the movie, or may have trouble getting the chance to see it, digital outputs are a way to counter that situation. There is an audience of people that prefer to watch films at home, so without way to access a film online, a film’s revenue and spread would both be a lot worse of. Film companies would be missing out on this audience and would be hurting themselves by doing so.

People normally look at the box office sales of a movie to determine its success. However, domestic sales can reveal numbers that aren’t anything to scoff. Avengers: Endgame(2019) recorded a total of 84 million dollars in domestic video sales. Another big title, Spider-man: Homecoming(2017), recorded 67 million dollars in the same category. It’s not uncommon for films to gross millions of dollars in DVD sales, the list expands with every new mainstream film is released. Baby Driver(2017), Taken(2007), Furious 7(2015), Napoleon Dynamite(2004), and so on. DVD sales alone are able to make back a sizeable portion of the film’s production budget. Especially with films like Napoleon Dynamite, which has a remarkably low budget. Napoleon Dynamite was made with only a budget of 400,000 dollars, which is miniscule compared to more recent box office hits. Its DVD sales, grossing 139 million dollars, can budget the film 347 times. Take some time to take it in that Napoleon Dynamite could be filmed hundreds of times without spending the income from one release. The numbers presented only push my point even further. With every blockbuster release, the list of films that gross millions in DVD sales grow. Admittedly, the numbers aren’t as awe-inspiring as the box office records, but it is hard to deny that filmmakers would be missing out on a huge source of income without them.

Even if the income from the DVD sales are enough to pay for the budget of a film, which is rare, it's undeniable that distributing films digitally is an amazing way to bolster the pockets of filmmakers. It's even more beneficial if one can pull off filming an American classic on a small budget. Of course, not everyone can direct Napoleon Dynamite, so income made from any form of digital distribution will only help make back the expenses of filming. No matter the purpose, digital distribution is without a doubt very important.

Final Products

Film

CCR