Genre Research: The Judge Movie

     This movie was like many others that I often enjoy watching on my free time. It displayed real-world family problems and relationship issues. What I found the most interesting was when the lawyers' child began speaking to him about the divorce he and his wife were thinking of having. She showed actual knowledge and did not hide the fact that it bothered her.
     The only thing I can say that I did not like about this film was the mother dying and them announcing it in court at the beginning of the movie.

    Camera Shots:
1. Wide Shot: When the lawyers are in the bathroom and Hank is confronted by the counsel on the opposing side
2. Long Shot: When "The Judge" is entering the courtroom
3. Point of View: The conversations in the car
    Camera Angles :
1. High angle: The drive on the way to his fathers' house, showing the city and the water
2. Eye-level: Throughout the dialogue
3. Low angle: The confrontation about the car accident
    Camera Movement :
1. Tilt: "The Judge" entering the courtroom in the middle of the movie
2. Zoom: Hank is on the plane, and receives a phone call about his father
3. Flashpan: Dialogue back and forth with officers in the department

    Costumes: This movie takes place mostly at the courthouse and the homes of the characters. They wear business attire when in the courtroom and semi-formal throughout this film.
    Lighting: The beginning of the movie is filmed outside where there is natural lighting and sunlight. The lighting is the same throughout because they are in buildings, except for when they are in the basement because of the storm. The light is very dim then.
    Action/Actors: In the beginning, they are in a courtroom and there is a quarrel between the two lawyers, in the bathroom one of them urinates on the other. They show the body of the main characters' deceased mother in the casket. Most of the actors are either a part of the trial, policemen, or family members of the main characters.
    Make-up: The deceased mother is dressed up in the casket. Throughout the movie, the attire of the characters does not really change. When "The Judge" is vomiting and defecating himself in the bathroom, he looks rather pale.
    Props: The empty ring box that Hank has. Everything else is inanimate and stays the same.
   Setting: 
- The house of "The Judge"
- The courtroom
- The courtroom bathroom
- The judges' chambers
- The cars

Genre Research: Chosen Genre

        After researching these three genres, we chose legal drama. The reason why we chose this genre is because we felt that it would be more interesting. Also, we would have more availability to get props and costumes for this film. The legal drama would bring a smart but twisted effect for our audience.
      We feel that the western would be too standard. It is unlikely for us to be able to create a desert looking setting with cowboy hats and guns. For a musical, we feel that it wouldn't be that interesting. We wanted to choose a genre that would have our audience on the edge of their seats. With legal drama as our genre choice, that is sure to happen.

Genre Research: Musical Genre

     This assignment was about explaining what a musical film was. We were given a genre and were told to give an example of the camera angles, movements, and shots. Our PowerPoint was to include pictures and colors that correlated with our genre. Since our genre was musicals, we used uplifting colors and the transitions that would help our PowerPoint pop out and be more visually appealing. This assignment was to expose us to the fact that there is more to a genre of a film than what is shown on the surface. After this assignment, when watching other films and productions it was easier to point out movements and shots. I believe the purpose was to do this, and it worked. Musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing.​

Chosen Pitch

        The two pitches that we narrowed the choices down to is 'The Escape Room' and 'Double Deceit'. The reason why we canceled the 'Forbidden Love' pitch is because there is not enough availability for us to film it. It would be too long of a storyline. Even if we tried to fit it in two minutes, it would look very rushed. We also canceled it because Escape Room and Double Deceit. would be more interesting approaches, than an African - American and a Caucasian falling in love. Additionally, those approaches have more availability to film. In the next paragraphs, we will explain why.
        The first pitch is The Escape Room. This pitch is about a group of people who had their drinks drugged at a party, then they find themselves in a room they must escape from. The storyline that we were going to make for this pitch is how different obstacles are in the room, making it hard for them to escape. What makes it even harder is that the pill that was slipped into their drinks has the ability to impair their thinking. Only one person out of the whole group is going to survive this course. My group and I figured that this would be an interesting film to make. However, there is not enough availability. We would have to make an 'escape room' and all the obstacles to suffice our filming needs.
       The second pitch is Double Deceit. This pitch is about a woman who is a lawyer by day and criminal master mind by night. She is defending a woman who is being charged with neglect for the kidnapping of her son. What the woman doesn't know is that her lawyer is the culprit. My group and I decided that this pitch is also a more interesting approach. It also has more availability for us to film. We would be able to incorporate the characters, the plot, and the cliffhanger all in two minutes. We feel that this may be our choice out of both pitches.
         The pitch that my group and I decided to choose was Double Deceit. We chose this pitch because we thought that it would be a good way to catch the attention of our audience. There is no proper way to present a cliffhanger, than to have your character playing both sides. We also thought that it had more availability than the other two approaches. It would be easy for us to film a kidnapping, a law type of environment, and more. We feel that the most important part of this two - minute film is to leave the audience on the edge of their seats. Leaving them wondering is exactly what we will achieve by choosing Double Deceit.

Start of Final Task

        Hey you guys , I’m back. And in case you forgot , name is Micahia. I am still currently in the 11th grade here at Fort Lauderdale High School. If you remember, the purpose of these blogs is to keep track and record of my progress in my AICE Media class. We went on a break for a while but we are back in business now and ready to get started. We are starting another project, this one will be a movie. It’s not exactly us filming a movie. Our assignment is to create an opening for a movie. In my previous projects, I worked with the same group members. However, we’ve decided to add another individual to our group. Janell, Jessica and I added Erik to our group. He will be our cameraman.
         I’m excited for this new assignment because we get to ultimately be on our own when coming up with ideas. With the music video we had certain directions and limitations and the commercial had to follow a certain format as well. But this movie is all from the ideas we have in our heads. The way we want it and we have more time to film. I learned when doing the previous projects that it’s all about time and preparation. Also, location is everything. With a good location you have good props and lighting and that sets the scene of what the idea is.
      The movie requires pitches. A pitch is a Hollywood term to describe an idea where a film is encapsulated in 25 words or less. It’s usually one sentence and explains the entire idea. We wanted to brainstorm ideas so we were instructed to come up with 3 different pitches. 1st Pitch- A group of people have their drinks drugged at a party, then they find themselves in a room they must escape from. 2nd Pitch- A white male, black female find themselves in love with each other and although this isn’t the olden days, their love is still forbidden. 3rd Pitch- She’s a lawyer by day and criminal master mind by night, she abducted her clients’ child and wants to build a new family with him.

Editing Music Video Blog

      Finally we’re finished recording all of our important footage. Everything else that we have left to record is minor. Mainly bits and pieces of other parts of the story in general. We dumped all of our footage from the camera. It took us a while because we did it late. We didn’t come to our teachers class the day we were supposed to because we forgot the camera. I reminded my group mate, Janell, to bring the camera and tripod the day after. She did so and the next day we had the class we started the editing process. After we got the SD card reader we used it to retrieve the footage from the camera and dump it on to the laptop.
       Afterward, we reviewed the footage and decided on which ones to keep and delete. I told my group mates it would be in our best interest to keep the shots we did twice. The reason being is so that when we decide to edit we will have a wider variety of shots to choose from in case some didn’t fit or whatever the case may be. We aren’t using pinnacle studios to edit. Obviously there were many technical difficulties with using this editing app last time in our previous project. We didn’t get to finish recording all of our footage. As i mentioned before, we recorded the footage that was the most important and that we had the availability to. We will record the rest of the footage this weekend at my house. We’ll be both inside and outside doing so and will also use this day to cut and put together all of our footage.
       We will be using iMovie to edit. We chose this editing app because it was one of the only ones that wouldn’t leave a watermark on our footage. We had a few ideas of what apps we wanted to use but they all had the problem of leaving a watermark so we really had no choice. None of us are familiar with this app but I will still edit and do so with the best of my ability. We also will be adding our song to the footage in the end when everything comes together. Our hope is for the music video to flow smoothly. Also for the editing process to be without error. We’ve learned from our past mistakes and will hopefully be able to successfully complete this project.

Final Filming Blog

       We got to film this weekend on Saturday. It wasn’t at all as I expected it would be. We were all running late on meeting at the Beach. When we finally reached Fort Lauderdale Beach we had to think of a place to film. We wanted our filming background to match our storyboard of course. My idea was to just sit down in a place and film. Generally, that doesn’t usually go so well being that we’re in a public place. However, the beach was full but the stores nearby weren’t as full so there was availability. Janell handed me the bag with the tripod and the camera after she’d emptied it out and set everything up. I had been the one in charge of the props. I brought purses for each of us and I brought my speaker.
       We decided not to film everything in order this time around. I said since we didn’t have everything exactly how we’d imagined or wanted then we should just film what we had first. One of Jessica’s friends came along and was the person who video taped us. Janell, Jessica, and I strolled arm locked together and attempted to recreate the part of the video where they did the same. After we recorded the shots of us females together, we forgot about the male. Leslie was supposed to film with us but he had family issues. This caused him to not be able to film on that particular day or at that particular time. Luckily, one of my friends Tavar was available. He came in under 30
minutes. Just as he was pulling up we were just finishing recording the main part of our music video. When beyoncé and the other friend consulted Kelly as she broke down.
       We then recorded the scenes where Kelly’s boyfriend was aggressive toward her. It was difficult because people kept walking through and we had to re shoot to get the perfect shots. When we did get the final and perfect shot, we all decided everything else would be recorded at my house this Saturday. We are going to either record the scenes of the couple at their home, or change the storyboard in regards to the location.