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Wes Anderson's The Breakfast Club

Posted by Gabriel Copeland in Reel Reading · Giknis · C Band on

Wes Anderson is one of the most recognisable directors out there. His symmetrical style, consistent storylines, choice of color and sound set him apart from other directors and genres to the point where he is his own movie. I decided to imagine what it would look like if Anderson were to direct The Breakfast Club, the beloved film from the 1980’s about high schoolers spending a saturday in detention. I created the following presentation as an potential storyboard for the trailer combining some of the most well known scenes in the film with his directorial flair.


First things first, what would be a Wes Anderson film without Futura font? Parodied by Honest Trailers on Youtube, they pointed out that in every film Anderson has made, he has used that specific font which is true! Therefore, I presented the first slide as the actual title cards of the film. They are in Futura font and yellow, a color predominantly used by Anderson for his title cards. The rest of the writing throughout storyboard is also in yellow Futura font as to be consistent.


The second slide pertains to the opening of the film and has been redone to fit Anderson’s style better. In the original, the quote is said over different cuts of an abandoned school. Since in that time the five principal characters are introduced, I decided to mimic Anderson’s fondness for introducing characters via close ups. Instead of using an abandoned school, I decided to use close ups of each character's face as their stereotype is said and linger for a few seconds. The titling of the slide also includes, “Light background.” which is in reference to Anderson’s color choice, usually settling upon light pastel colors.


The third slide is supposed to be from when all the kids have arrived to detention and they are given a speech by Assistant Principal Vernon, hence the quote. Instead of having the kids all sit in different places and rows, I have organized them together looking up at the whiteboard in boy girl boy girl boy order, to fit as close to symmetrically as possible since there are only five characters. The whiteboard is off slightly from being center but only because I could not move the table over without bumping into the wall. As stated before, Anderson is noted for his use of specific types of color and in my interpretation that has not gone unnoticed. Three of the characters as well as the wall they face are different shades of blue which for this film will be the primary color palette.


On the fourth slide is the only deviation from the original film. There has been a whiteboard added with the word, “Detention” in big bold underlined letters. The idea is here is for a classic Wes Anderson wide long shot. This is what the kids are looking at after all so the camera would hold focus and not move for a good fifteen seconds, there would be a ticking clock in the background but otherwise silent.


For the fifth slide, we have Bill Murray as the assistant principal, so this would be a rare full body shot. Anderson does not normally use body shots but to satisfy symmetrical requirements, Murray’s hand is directly underneath his head on a straight line. He too is also dressed in blue, continuing the color theme for the film.


On the sixth slide of the trailer and just over halfway through, we reach the famous, “Eat. My. Shorts.” line. I set this up with another close up since it is a classic technique he uses, this time though not as close as usual. The background is meant to be a pastel color, most likely a light shade of green, still relating to the blue theme. The face of the “criminal” is centered symmetrically in the frame, because like most films and shots, Anderson emphasizes symmetry to a T.


Next we get to the seventh slide, or the dancing scene. In the original, it’s set to Karla DeVito’s “We are not alone” but in the Wes Anderson version there will be a different tune. Anderson is fond of classic rock songs, generally with guitar and not too loud so the choice of songs is quite numerous to be narrowed down.  The background is going to be a light pastel blue staying continuous with the early color theme. Occasionally Anderson makes a wipe cut where he takes a contiguous part, such as a facial expression or a person standing still, and then cuts to a completely different scene at which the facial expression changes or the person adjusts to their new surroundings. That is what happens here from the dancing to running in the halls, it's meant to be a seamless transition so when the characters dance off frame, they return in a new setting.


Slide eight is the new setting described earlier, therefore the song from the scene before will still be playing as the characters run into frame. At this part, the characters are running in the hallway so the setting changes to blue lockers. As for the characters running, the camera would be on a dolly and follow them as they run down the halls. This mimics scenes where he has side shots of motorcycles driving and the motorcycle appears to stay still, but the setting whips by as the motorcycle drives by. In this instance it would be lockers that fly by behind the characters as they run down the hall.


Slide nine takes place in one of the most poignant scenes of the original film where all the characters open up to one another and reveal something hidden about themselves to the others. This image is meant to be when the girl on the right says “When you grow up, your heart dies.” Though not symmetrical, the image represents a whip pan. A whip pan is where the camera is focused on an object or person then quickly whips to a new subject. When the whip pan is finished the girl on the right will be sandwiched between two boys, bringing back a type of symmetry close to Anderson’s style. Since the girl on the right is the “basket case,” the camera will pause and hold its position. This is intended to let an awkward silence linger over the characters, something Anderson does often to denote a bit of dry humor or moment where someone is out of place.


Lastly we finish with slide ten, a photo of “We are The Breakfast Club!!!” This sentence is ever so slightly paraphrased from the ending when assistant principal Vernon reads the essay written for him. Instead of him holding up the letter and reading it, we have him look down at the letter where we shift to the camera’s point of view. The camera then starts at the top of the page and pans down the paper as it read aloud and when the final words are read, the camera holds on the paper and lingers for a few extra seconds to accentuate the silence in the room where the kids once were.


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Reel Reading q4 BM copeland

Singin' In The Rain Goes Wrong

Posted by Tia Roberts in Reel Reading · Giknis · C Band on

For our fourth quarter benchmark we decided to convert the hit musical Singin’ in the Rain into a terrifying horror film that will scare you right out of your socks. In order to accomplish this goal, we had to first learn from the best. Starting from all your favorite halloween specials and fright night films, we looked for all the cinematic elements that really made us jump. All the different types of coloring, dark lighting, camera angles, underexposure, distorted music, etc. really pull the film together and keeps the audience interested. While still using the original clips from the film we tried to highlight the below eye level angles, creepy facial expressions, and scenes where the movements played well into the storyline we’re trying to create.

Just like how Alfred Hitchcock's used the technique of knowledge for the audience during Psycho. You need to give the audience information to create great suspense throughout your film. This is something we are trying to incorporate during our trailer but in a different way. We put in clips that would tell the story but not give away what exactly is happening. You seem to understand who the main focus is on and can begin to put your own storyline together.

Along with worrying about what makes a great horror film, we had to find what elements would make a great trailer. Should we focus more on the pop up aspects like The Conjuring , follow a normal life of the people that just suddenly turns bad like in Texas Chainsaw Massacre, or walk the audience through every important location like in the Psycho trailer? After looking at each and deciding whether or not we would actually watch the films. We decided to do a happy energetic scene to start off and allow the trailer to get more and more horrifying over time. This way you aren’t just bombarded with scary things popping out but more so a story that just doesn’t end so well.

One of the main things we focused on in this converted trailer is the music. We wanted to continue to use music from the actual soundtrack and just flip it to more distorted scary sounds that will play throughout the film. This way we aren’t pulling too far away from the theme of the movie but still adding that creepy aspect. Also, we included many dissolving edits between the scenes that will allow the images to play through quickly, allowing the audience to be exposed to little parts of the shot.

Most of the shots are either eye level or below eye level. Even through these were scenes from the actual movie, we actually did try to focus on the scenes where the camera was leveled or lower because it creates this thought that the audience is little and the actor is more powerful making it seem scarier. It also plays into the theme that you do not have the power which is usually a common theme in horror films.

Overall, adding all these little changes and touches to this film, I feel we did a great job not only converting it into a horror film but creating a trailer the audience would love to watch.


By: Jessica Guarino and Tia Roberts

Singing In The Rain as a Horror Film // Jessica and Tia

Posted by Jessica Guarino in Reel Reading · Giknis · B Band on
​

For our fourth quarter benchmark we decided to convert the hit musical Singin’ in the Rain into a terrifying horror film that will scare you right out of your socks. In order to accomplish this goal, we had to first learn from the best. Starting from all your favorite halloween specials and fright night films, we looked for all the cinematic elements that really made us jump. All the different types of coloring, dark lighting, camera angles, underexposure, distorted music, etc. really pull the film together and keeps the audience interested. While still using the original clips from the film we tried to highlight the below eye level angles, creepy facial expressions, and scenes where the movements played well into the storyline we’re trying to create.

Just like how Alfred Hitchcock's used the technique of knowledge for the audience during Psycho. You need to give the audience information to create great suspense throughout your film. This is something we are trying to incorporate during our trailer but in a different way. We put in clips that would tell the story but not give away what exactly is happening. You seem to understand who the main focus is on and can begin to put your own storyline together.

Along with worrying about what makes a great horror film, we had to find what elements would make a great trailer. Should we focus more on the pop up aspects like The Conjuring , follow a normal life of the people that just suddenly turns bad like in Texas Chainsaw Massacre, or walk the audience through every important location like in the Psycho trailer? After looking at each and deciding whether or not we would actually watch the films. We decided to do a happy energetic scene to start off and allow the trailer to get more and more horrifying over time. This way you aren’t just bombarded with scary things popping out but more so a story that just doesn’t end so well.

One of the main things we focused on in this converted trailer is the music. We wanted to continue to use music from the actual soundtrack and just flip it to more distorted scary sounds that will play throughout the film. This way we aren’t pulling too far away from the theme of the movie but still adding that creepy aspect. Also, we included many dissolving edits between the scenes that will allow the images to play through quickly, allowing the audience to be exposed to little parts of the shot.

Most of the shots are either eye level or below eye level. Even through these were scenes from the actual movie, we actually did try to focus on the scenes where the camera was leveled or lower because it creates this thought that the audience is little and the actor is more powerful making it seem scarier. It also plays into the theme that you do not have the power which is usually a common theme in horror films.

Overall, adding all these little changes and touches to this film, I feel we did a great job not only converting it into a horror film but creating a trailer the audience would love to watch.


Video Link: https://youtu.be/eQ70UiKawtY

21 Jump Street in the Wild, Wild West // Madison and Emma

Posted by Madison Militello in Reel Reading · Giknis · B Band on

21 Jump Street, a 2012 film by directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, follows two undercover cops in modern day high school trying to bust a drug ring. Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum play a hilarious duo who help each other out during police training and beyond. They are eventually paired together to go undercover at a high school. Their assignment is to find who has been selling this new street drug, and to find the supply. Jenko and Schmidt are now brothers, Brad and Doug McQuaid. Their journey is full with shooting scenes, cars on fire, and intense chases. It is humorous, and action packed simultaneously.

We converted 21 Jump Street to the western genre. The genre is full of tropes that force westerns to stand out. They both share guns, violence, chase sequences, various conflicts, and the good and bad guys. Along with the shared theatrical elements, there are cinematographic traits they both share. These two films rely heavily on tracking, establishing, close up, and extreme close up shots. 21 Jump Street is easy to adapt to a western because of their similar compositions: different plots, but same features.

The scene we chose to adapt was a sequence where Schmidt and Jenko

are bored on bike patrol in a quiet park, until they spot bikers smoking marijuana illegally. When they confront the bikers, they deny everything and run away, initiating a chase scene. When brainstorming for our storyboard, we decided to keep the characters the same. Jenko and Schmidt are now two cowboys who ride horses instead of bikes. We switched their bike helmets for cowboy hats. Instead of a quiet park, their setting is a desert day time scene with mountains in the far distance. Schmidt and Jenko still carry guns in holsters, but their uniforms are now long coats and cowboy boots.

The camera shots and angles are key elements that ensure western films stand out. Landscape, close up, and extreme close up shots are all heavily incorporated into these movies. These were easily convertible to 21 Jump Street. For the intense scenes, we used extreme close up/close up shots to display the violent nature that was about to occur. Tracking shots were used for chase scenes that needed to keep up with the characters on foot or riding horses. Landscape shots are important: they establish the setting which gives clues to the upcoming events.

21 Jump Street and the western genre collide well. The action packed films keep viewers on their toes with dramatic shots and angles. Contrary to usual westerns, we decided that our adaptation should be more colorful. Westerns have neutral tone settings due to the desert setting. We included cacti and a beautiful montainrange in the distance in our desert. We wanted the liviness of 21 Jump Street incorporated into the storyboard. We emphasized the tropes like cowboy boots, horses, and cacti by coloring them brightly. We still didn’t lose the plot of 21 Jump Street within this because the genre plots of dramatic suspense fit well.


Full Storyboard: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rbpbEK7u1cSuavzd0W1yuARU1HU89U5ZPDON0eRFLeo/edit?ts=5b06d250 
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IMG_2002

Edward Scissorhands as a Horror Trailer// By Trey & Alex

Posted by William Matthews in Reel Reading · Giknis · B Band on
Copy of Q4 Benchmark %2F%2F Film Conversion (1)
​Edward Scissorhands as a horror film trailer
CLICK THE PICTURE TO SEE ALL THE SCENE:

#1
Bright colors of neighborhood

-In this picture show highlight the fact that there is a high angle and establishing shot.  Not only that but we definitely make the colors of the neighborhood stand out by giving the neighborhood nice bright and friendly colors. This will give the audience a friendly and welcoming feeling. This technique is similar to what most horror films do which is start off the film as normal and peaceful. Using the same soundtrack and scores that is used in Edward Scissor Hands to start off the trailer.
#2
Still bright colors and shots to show the lady who sells avon products

-In this scene we are showing the nice and peaceful introduction that every horror movie has. In this picture it is a two show of a lady trying to sell Avon products. We use a two shot to show both the Avon lady and the customer. The expression on the customer face is angry and the Avon lady is showing happiness.
#3
Dark lighting and pic of an abandoned house

In this scene we show another establishing shot of an abandoned house. Instead of calm music playing in the background we will replace it with suspenseful and creepy music. 
#4
Dark shot of Avon lady in the house

This shot shows the avon lady in the abandoned house using a close up. Her face expressions shows fear and confusion. Replacing the normal and calm music they used in the regular film we will use the same suspenseful and creepy music that we played in the previous scene. Keeping the close ups will keep at the audience attached.
#5
Black screen with heart beats

This particular part in the movie we will just have a black screen. Stopping the suspenseful and creepy music leading to a black screen with heart beats in the background. Adding this to the film will give the film a horror look because this will set up the suspense for the upcoming scene. Keeping it quiet and having the audiences to be on the edge of their seats
#6
Shot of edwards Scissorhands but he is blacked out

This scene will be a really creepy scene to give the audience a scared feeling. Loud screeching sounds will be part of this scene when introducing Edward scissorhands.
#7
Neighborhood looking at edward

This scene will start off with a quick cut. It will show the whole neighborhood surprised and scared to see Edward. Instead of everyone leaving and going into there house because there's a new person in the neighborhood they would be leaving because they are scared.
#8
Kim seeing Edward

This is perfect for a horror film because every trailer has somebody screaming in it; in order to give a quick “fear preview”. I decided the best camera view for this shot was a side one. Because the audience can see more, and can say, “Kim! Turn around!”. Instead of a POV shot (that was used in the film), because that ‘s  a little predictable, and less fearful. 


#9
Scene of Edward on top of the kid

We can make this scene look ten times for scarier. By playing some screeching and creepy music in the background and showing Edward on top of Kevin after he saved him from getting hit by a car. Also showing the kid looking really scared. Not only that this will be showing Edward’s face. We will also keep the angle that was used in the film, because it’s the perfect type of angle that portrays Edward trying to hurt Kevin. However, we will alter the context of how their lines were said in this scene. So, instead of Edward trying to actually assist Kevin, we’ll change the context to him being a “deranged sarcastic killer”. 

#10
Pitch black #2

Right before Edward is about to slice, it cuts immediately to a pitch black scene with upbeat music,  just to strengthen & speed up the scene. 

#11
Edward’s zoom in

The camera zooms in on one of Edward’s scissorhands just to show the audience how sharp his weapon is, and to also introduce the next final scene. The sound would be a slow beat heart, so that it can represent that the audience's heart should be skipping a beat when they see how dangerous his hands are. 

#12 
Final scene 

We show a high shot of Edward’s father (so that way the audience isn’t given any spoilers about who dies in the film, a nood to Infinity War ;) )on the floor dead, after Edward cuts him to see if he was still alive in the original film. But we manipulate to make it seem like Edward killed him.

A Quiet Place becomes less quiet? Alex C & Addison Z

Posted by Sarith Chuon in Reel Reading · Giknis · C Band on

The Movie “A Quiet Place” is originally a horror movie that doesn’t have a lot of dialogue, so we decided to do our version of “A Quiet Place” which is “A Quiet School” in which is a horror-comedy instead of just a horror. Because “A Quiet Place” is a horror, we wanted to maintain that horror but add comedy. But how can we add comedy if there’s no talking? We decided to incorporate actions more so than a cinematographic element. Though, we did keep the elements needed for a horror movie, that includes camera shakes, shoulder-shots, close-ups, tracking, and more in order to keep that horror aspect. At the beginning of the trailer we wanted to make people question what are they looking at, and what are they hearing? After the first scene, we decided to make it more of a casual type of “movie” and decided to go with casual clothing, and keeping an eye-level angle with the camera. It allowed it to make it seems like everything was fine and equal until the “horror” kicked in. Thus, the camera work became more intense as the background sound become intense. It also became fast pace, making you see and take in a lot of information going on in the movie trailer. The fast pace comes from the constant cutting during a scene or two giving it that effect. We also added a first person shot while the actors were running to give the viewer a feel of what is going on. There were many shots that were still due to the fact of the green screen not being big enough for a track motion shot. To make sure we were able to get the message out there the acting and expressions were able to serve that purpose.

The soundtrack plays a big part of the trailer due to its aspect of giving it a suspenseful feeling throughout the trailer. Without it, the trailer would’ve looked random and dull. But the soundtrack can't just make it horror, in a horror-comedy trailer. During some scenes, the soundtrack was lowered in order to hear what was going on in the scene. Or what you can call “Comedic break.” The comedic break was helpful due to the very fast pace scenes going on throughout the trailer. How we used the comedic break into the horror scene was we first changed the sound of the trailer giving the audience a different type of feeling rather than a suspense feeling the whole time. We just stop the audio so the audience can hear what was happening (which was the slap.) The audio stop on the slap wasn’t the only thing where it occurred. Later on the trailer a scene with another character conversing with the suppose two protagonists you hear the audio dimming down and was able to hear what was going on the scene with the 3 of them going back and forth shushing and asking for money. Throughout the whole trailer, we didn’t use as many elements as we would’ve thought and planned out, but the trailer was still able to become a horror, that was also had a comedic sense implemented.


The Avengers go West by Luis and Saamir

Posted by Luis-Manuel Morales in Reel Reading · Giknis · C Band on
The Avengers go West by Luis and Saa

The scene we decided to transform was the “Impenetrable Shield” scene from Marvel's The Avengers (2012) It Provided the perfect setup that could translate well into a Western Movie Scene. It has a mexican standoff between the villain (Loki) and the protagonist (Tony Stark) where Loki has a weapon that is a danger to Tony. For our scene we transformed the environment into a Wild West town, the characters into cowboy versions of themselves, and Loki’s Scepter into a magical shotgun.

Our scene opens up with a long shot of the characters in a staredown, smack dab in the middle of a dry, saturated environment. The ground is sand, the sky is orange and black and all the building use hot colors to demonstrate the warmth of the environment.

The second shot is a eye level close up shot of our villain, with the orange sky behind him to keep the dry theme going.  Loki's outfit is a western take on his Asgardian robe from the film. Rather than a low shot looking up at the characters like the original film, we followed the Western trope and brought the camera to his face, showing his emotion clearly.

The third shot cuts to Tony’s face, in the same eye level close us style as the previous shot. Tony is wearing a western inspired poncho with the colors of his Iron Man armor. His facial expressions express the cockiness of his character that he carries with him in all his interactions.

As their staredown continues, our fourth shot is from over the shoulder of Tony. He looks as Loki approaches him with the Scepter. The colors continue to be dry and saturated as a tumbleweed is blowing past in the distance.  

A typical western includes a drunk protagonist. Tony is just that, opting to threaten his opponent while he takes a sip of some alcohol. This over the shoulder shot looking at Tony taking a big gulp of his beverage demonstrate that he is a laid back yet gutsy and reckless hero that relates more to the audience that a know it all, all righteous hero.

As a typical western would have, the “draw your weapon” scene. The sixth shot is a medium long shot of Loki in action, drawing his scepter at Tony. The town building is in the background to keep the audience in the town to keep the environment small but sufficient in this scene. Similar to how the movie takes place with New York in the background but inside of Tony’s penthouse.

The seventh shot is an extreme close up of Loki’s scepter failing to fire. In an intense moment the misfire is a relief to both the protagonist and the audience.

The final frame medium shot of the scene shows Tony looking down at the Scepter pointed at his chest. His attitude provies humor in a time of chaos and concern, making the protagonist even more of a crowd favorite, and lightening the mood of the intensity.

The existing content the movie provided some pre existing western movie tropes. Taking those and going full on western creates a new take on the genre that we are proud to show off.

Notting Hill as a Thriller// Claire and Lydia

Posted by Lydia Anderson in Reel Reading · Giknis · B Band on
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image1

For this project, we decided to convert Notting Hill into a thriller film. Notting Hill (1999) is a romantic drama by Roger Michell, starring Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant. According to IMDb, Notting Hill tells the story of “The life of a simple bookshop owner [who] changes when he meets the most famous film star in the world.”


Like most genres, thrillers have a signature style. Thrillers are identified by the “thrills” a viewer feels and they often overlap with Horror and Science Fiction genres. Thrillers focus on action since they’re more defined by their plot. They excite their audiences by being fast-paced, having frequent location changes, and by being laced with tension and suspense.


In our version of Notting Hill, we will incorporate elements of thrillers and adjust cinematographic and theatrical components to transform this classic film. Our main take is that Anna is an obsessive stalker and William is her victim.


The components that we are keeping the same will be framing. We will continue to use two-shots, shot-reverse-shots, and eye level angles to keep a section of the characters’ conversation relaxed and natural.


The minor shifts we will change to convert this film will be the camera angles and acting choices. Throughout the scene, low angles will be used for shots of Anna and high angles will be for William. A low angle shot is a result of the camera being placed below Anna with the lens pointing up. This causes Anna to appear large and menacing, a dangerous stalker. A high angle shot happens when the camera is placed above William with the lens pointing down. This makes William appear small and vulnerable, allowing the audience to be scared for him.


The change in action choices will also be minor. Anna will smile widely more often, a freakish action. She will also move slowly (recognized by the sound of her footsteps to be addressed later) which will paint her as a monster. William, on the other hand, is casual at first, making the audience relaxed and unaware. When Anna’s behavior becomes increasingly erratic and violent, then he freaks out.


Our major shifts to Notting Hill will be camera movement, lighting, sound, costumes, and props. Our main change in camera movement will be a dolly zoom onto Anna’s face while William is waiting for her response to his rejection.  This dolly zoom is achieved by zooming the camera’s lens while the camera dollies (moves) forward Anna’s face. This effect distorts the audience’s perception of the shot since the background appears to change size. This distorting will make Anna creepier, therefore thrilling the audience with the possibility of violence.


For lighting, we will include flickering and darker lighting, to add a sense of foreboding. The flickering lighting will be used with Anna in the frame, adding to the idea that she is unnatural and monstrous.


In terms of sound, we will have diegetic noises (sounds made by objects in the story and heard by the characters) and non-diegetic music (sound effects added for dramatic effect). As mentioned earlier, the diegetic sound of Anna’s slow and careful footsteps will be pronounced, making the audience think that she’s creeping around. We will add non-diegetic music (creepy strings) that are a typical horror/thriller element and will explicitly paint Anna as nightmarish.


The costume changes will dress Anna in a fiery red dress and William in simple blue pants. This contrast of color temperatures will foreshadow their character - Anna being hot-tempered and William being cool.


Finally, a prop will be added to our conversion of this scene. Throughout this thriller version of Notting Hill, the audience has been waiting to see if Anna’s concerning actions will lead to violence. When she pulls out a knife, the audience is as scared as William is and completes Anna’s career as a villain.


Up as a horror film By: Jamie Polson and Nadia Green

Posted by Jamie Polson in Reel Reading · Giknis · C Band on

If Up Were A Horror Film:

By: Jamie Polson and Nadia Green


Here is the link to our video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNd_5BylO6g


We chose to turn the animated film Up into a horror film. We wanted to turn an innocent family friendly movie into something that was not expected.  The first thing that we did was allow for the storyline of Ellie and Carl to play. We wanted a build up, like most horror movies have. It begins to seem like an average film until the character Russell is introduced. We chose the most dramatic moments in the movie to feature in the beginning. Carl lived a happy life with his wife Ellie. The trailer showed a timeline of the life events when there became a turning point when Ellie died. The trailer showed Carl saddened by the death of his wife. We had a dark background when the words were appearing on the screen. Then we used a sound effect in between transitions to bring suspense. We wanted to focus on creaking of the door to make the viewers feel like they’re on the edge of their seat when watching this trailer. We wanted the build up to seem real and natural.  


The first thing that we did was make the background visually darker. Dark backgrounds and shadows are a staple in horror films. We wanted to make it appear that the now horrified movie provided suspense. We added emphasis on sounds such as the door creaking. This allows for a very quiet and still shot. Your focus would be on what is going to happen, sitting on the edge of your seat, which horror often does.


The next thing that we did was spliced together a sequence of scenes together of people or animals looking nervous or scared.  For instance there is a shot of Kevin (the huge bird/snipe) running across the screen. It is followed by text on the screen saying “No matter where you run…” This is supposed to make the audience get more engaged with the trailer.  It piques their interest because it makes you wonder what it is talking about and why it is so dangerous. This is followed by a clip of Carl closing all the blinds and curtains very fast and looking very nervous. There is then text on screen saying “No matter where you hide…” This emphasises how dangerous it really is and that no one is safe no matter what they try to do.  Then this is followed by a scene of Carl sitting in his armchair and settling down but is interrupted by three loud slow knocks at the door, followed by text saying “he knows where you are…” This is meant to spook the audience even more and make them feel uneasy or restless because we have now learned that we are never safe even when we think we are and have entered a state of paranoia.   Then there is a clip of Carl looking out his peephole onto the porch and he opens the door and looks around and sees Russell there even though he is in the air. This is followed by text on the screen saying “He is…” The the reason we included a peephole is because they are kind of a staple of the horror genre. Any horror film that takes place in someone's house usually at some point uses the peephole.  Then finally we hear a peak in the music and see the word “RUSSELL” on screen. This is meant to give some closure to the audience. They finally know what this mysterious thing is but they still have so many questions which is what the trailer is meant to do. They have been intrigued and now want to see the movie to find out what happens. The final thing we see on screen is “Coming to theaters October 2019”  This is very unlikely to happen but the reason I chose October is because that is the month that Halloween is in so people will be in the scary movie spirit and may be more likely to see it, so it makes a lot of sense financially.


Big as a Horror Movie // Eli

Posted by Eli Block in Reel Reading · Giknis · B Band on
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IMG_0450

Eli Block

The first shot is of Josh waking up to his mom’s voice. She yells “Josh wake up!” in a motherly way. The camera is zoomed in on Josh’s face as he wakes up and his eyes open the camera zooms out. It appears as if nothing is wrong in that moment but it is clear to the audience that his life is not as it once was. As the camera zooms out you can see Josh is covered in blankets, the room is dull, grey covers the walls. You can see that it is still dark outside. The movie is very playful and full of colors so the dark colors create an immediate difference. The slow camera movement builds suspense.

The second shot is of Josh walking to the bathroom. You can see him walking at the second floor of the house while his mom is cooking below. The suspense continues to build. There is non-diegetic music playing, it is very ominous sounding which helps build suspense. Along with the music you hear the creaking of the floor signifying a lot of weight is being put on it and the comforting sounds of Josh’s mom cooking.  The sounds are incredibly important in this shot as it gives a homey feeling while showing not everything is okay. The camera does not move and shows both floors of the house.

The third shot shows Josh looking at himself in the mirror. The shot is an over the shoulder shot and shows Josh looking at himself. He begins to freak out. The camera then pans to Josh’s room where his mom is folding clothes. To her everything seems fine while the audience knows what happened to Josh. The camera then pans again to Josh trying to figure out what happened to himself. He clears his eyes and shakes his head. There is diegetic sound of all the actions happening.

The fourth shot is the most suspenseful. You see Josh cautiously leave the bathroom however he is clearly unaware of his mom in his room. The camera is at eye level and follows Josh as he slowly moves closer and closer to his room. The floorboards creak with each step. Then Josh’s mom shouts “Josh are you okay?” Josh’s face quickly changes, he looks mortified. He responds “yes mom” as he runs back to the bathroom. He closes the door and begins hyperventilating behind the closed door. The camera continues to stay at eye level while following Josh’s face.

The fifth and final shot is of Josh frantically collecting his things. The camera movement follows Josh’s and as he begins to trip and fall while getting his things together the camera shakes with him. The non-diegetic sound gets louder and faster. The suspense builds and it seems like something big is going to happen. At this point the room is bright. There is a big difference from the first slow moving dull shot and the fast moving bright shot that is happening now. As Josh attempts to put on his clothes he realizes he fits none of what he owns. Yet again we here Josh’s mom ask to make sure he is okay and this time there is more fear in his voice when he responds.


Shrek as a Spike Lee Joint // J'Lynn & Opoku

Posted by J'Lynn Matthews in Reel Reading · Giknis · B Band on
Shrek (1)
Shrek (1)

Spike Lee is without a doubt one of the most well known black directors in film. His works commonly deal with issues of race, with the protagonist always being a person of color. The movie Shrek on the other hand is a comical film with the protagonist being an ogre, however when the film is thoroughly analyzed one can see slight factors that when amplified could make it a Spike Lee film, the main factor being that the main character is hated by a white town and attacked, for being physically different. For these reasons when tasked with re-visioning a film in the eyes of a new director, Shrek and Spike Lee seemed like automatic fits.

For the re-creation to be successful the focus on Shrek being “colored”(green) would have to be amplified in this case and those attacking him would be remain white as they are in the film. This is shown in the storyboard by Shrek being quite literally the only colored character. The arms and legs of those in the mob are all white and colorless. Since Spike Lee is also known for limiting the information the audience has about those that aren't the main character, in the storyboard the only face shown is that of Shrek. The mob attacking him is represented solely by their footsteps and weapons, as those are the only things that add importance to them in Shrek’s life. Furthermore there would be the use of diegetic and nondiegetic sounds to represent the two different moods in the storyboard. When the mob is on the screen there is no background music, instead the rumbling of their feet, weapons, and the combined shouts of their voices will create the sounds that represent them. Shrek on the other hand will have an upbeat song playing in the background during his time on the screen, to symbolise the peace and tranquillity he is experiencing. The camera will rarely be still, as common for Spike Lee films, with it shakingly following the mob via dolly while gentle and smoothly following Shrek in his house cooking and eating. All this will be occuring in New York since all Spike Lee films occur in urban settings. Shrek’s house will be located at the bottom of a tree in a park to further solidify he is an outcast from this white society. The storyboard ends with the weapons belonging to the mob moving closer onto Shrek slowly, since Spike Lee commonly uses background music even in slow parts of his film there will be a sad song letting the audience know that Shrek is now at the mercy of the mob. Originally this scene takes place in the beginning of the movie and in this case it will as well, this will allow it to set the mood for the film and show the racial tension in the setting of the film.

Shrek as A Spike Lee Joint

Posted by Opoku Kwateng in Reel Reading · Giknis · C Band on

Spike Lee is without a doubt one of the most well known black directors in film. His works commonly deal with issues of race, with the protagonist always being a person of color. The movie Shrek on the other hand is a comical film with the protagonist being an ogre, however when the film is thoroughly analyzed one can see slight factors that when amplified could make it a Spike Lee film, the main factor being that the main character is hated by a white town and attacked, for being physically different. For these reasons when tasked with re-visioning a film in the eyes of a new director, Shrek and Spike Lee seemed like automatic fits.

For the re-creation to be successful the focus on Shrek being “colored”(green) would have to be amplified in this case and those attacking him would be remain white as they are in the film. This is shown in the storyboard by Shrek being quite literally the only colored character. The arms and legs of those in the mob are all white and colorless. Since Spike Lee is also known for limiting the information the audience has about those that aren't the main character, in the storyboard the only face shown is that of Shrek. The mob attacking him is represented solely by their footsteps and weapons, as those are the only things that add importance to them in Shrek’s life. Furthermore there would be the use of diegetic and nondiegetic sounds to represent the two different moods in the storyboard. When the mob is on the screen there is no background music, instead the rumbling of their feet, weapons, and the combined shouts of their voices will create the sounds that represent them. Shrek on the other hand will have an upbeat song playing in the background during his time on the screen, to symbolise the peace and tranquillity he is experiencing. The camera will rarely be still, as common for Spike Lee films, with it shakingly following the mob via dolly while gentle and smoothly following Shrek in his house cooking and eating. All this will be occuring in New York since all Spike Lee films occur in urban settings. Shrek’s house will be located at the bottom of a tree in a park to further solidify he is an outcast from this white society. The storyboard ends with the weapons belonging to the mob moving closer onto Shrek slowly, since Spike Lee commonly uses background music even in slow parts of his film there will be a sad song letting the audience know that Shrek is now at the mercy of the mob. Originally this scene takes place in the beginning of the movie and in this case it will as well, this will allow it to set the mood for the film and show the racial tension in the setting of the film.


IMG_87441_20180524_193554
IMG_87441_20180524_193554

Jevon and Siani Reel Reading Conversation

Posted by Siani Wilson in Reel Reading · Giknis · C Band on


For the film conversion benchmark, we were tasked with remodeling a scene of a movie into a different genre or through the style of a different auteur. The purpose of this being to test our knowledge of cinematic and theatrical elements, and how they play a crucial role in deciding the kind of film that is created. My partner Siani and I focused on the 2012 blockbuster Hunger Games. The film centers on a young woman, Katniss, in postmodern North America, as she participates in an annual event entitled “The Hunger Games” which calls for teenagers to fight to the death until only one survives.

Written as a dystopian novel, and produced as a science fiction and fantasy film, we aimed to take the core aspects of danger and the will to survive and adjusted them into a new setting. With the usage of cinematic and theatrical elements, we adapted the film into a western. The scene we focused on, common titled, “Career Pack chase Katniss” shows the main character Katniss being hunted down by a group of fellow participants in the games. In order to make transform this scene into that of a western, we needed to employ and highlight the various techniques that are commonly found in westerns, techniques that would give the scene the smooth yet intense style of westerns.

Beginning with the cinematic elements, framing is one that played a critical role in capturing feeling. Often in western films, employs close ups to capture the emotion and facial expression of the character as well as to highlight important aspects. Similarly we used many close up shots on our characters faces along with their weapons to show the importance of feeling in the person and of their object, in this case their guns which were very much so apart of them. Long shots, which are used to show the character entire body, usually from a distance, were employed in instances where multiple characters were in the scene so that the audience could see everything that was happening in the scene. Medium shots, which shot from the waist up, were used in many of the scenes to show the characters while also keeping some of the background in view of the reader. Two angles were used in our storyboard. High angles, which are when a character is filmed from above, was implemented during scenes where the Career Pack chased Katniss, to emphasize the danger that she was in. The second being eye level, so that the audience could look at Katniss directly and see the emotion that she is trying to relay. In most western movements, dolly/tracking is used. This is to show the movement in the scene. We used this form of camera movement and included a few slow shots to build up tension as the scene goes along.

In the form of editing, we used two types, eyeline match and cut. A cut edit is when two shots are pieced together to make the illusion of an instantaneous shot. This was evident in scenes of action/confrontation where dialogue, bullets, and the overall action was taken place from different areas of the set. Eyeline match is a technique used to allow the audience to see what the characters are seeing. We used this, during dialogue between the characters to make them reader feel they are in the scene.

When it comes to sound, many westerns are absent of outside music, instead opting for diegetic sound which is sound that originates in the scenes of the movie. In westerns these are often things like the wind, footsteps, bullet sounds, cactus rolling etc. We used diegetic sound to emphasize the sound of the weapons and to catch things that would match the environment. Lastly, rounding out the cinematic features is lighting. In terms of lighting, we aimed to remain true to the time that a western would have taken place. This means natural light in the outside scenes, and dimmer in the indoors.

While cinematic elements are important to a movie’s conception, theatrical elements are just as necessary. First off, one of the most important aspects of a film is the set. This is where the movie takes place and ultimately provides a backing to the film. The particular scene in was taken from the arena, which showed a forest of sorts. Western’s usually take place on the American Frontier, so we made that the new set for our scene.

Like set, costumes also play an important role in distinguishing a film as a western. You will often find things such as cowboy hats, boots, vest, loosely based clothing in warm or earth tones. Instead of the modern clothes as seen in the movie, our characters wore cowboy hats and boots to make it clear they are in a western. In the Hunger Games, weapons such as arrows and knives were the main props utilized throughout the movie. To make it fit the time period, we traded in the arrows for guns, as big portion of westerns are the epic shootout scenes. Acting choices can set the tone of a movie, as it is the characters that the audience is following. We wanted to keep the same tone for the modified clip from the original as it the choices made emphasize the desire of fighting to stay alive. Overall, a lot of things go into creating any specific type of movie. These are the ways in which we were able to transform the Hunger Games into a traditional western movie.

 

 

StoryBoard
( Elements Used In Each Section)

Panel 1
Shot/Framing: Long
Angle: Eye level
Costume: Cowboy hat
Prop: Horse

Panel 2
Shot/Framing: Long/Wide
Angle: Low
Prop: Horse

Panel 3
Shot/Framing: Medium/Wide
Angle: Eye level
Set: Tavern
Lighting: Natural

Panel 4
Shot/Framing: Long/Wide
Angle: Low
Costume: Cowboy Hat, Vest

Panel 5
Shot/Framing: Medium/ Close up-Then Widens out
Angle: Eye level
Prop: Gun
Sound: Diegetic(Gun/Bullets)
Editing: Cut

Panel 6
Shot/Framing: Medium
Angle: Eye level
Prop: Bullets
Sound: Diegetic(Bullets)
Editing: Cut
Camera Movement: Dolly Tracking

Panel 7
Shot/Framing: Long
Angle: Low
Set: Inside Tavern
Lighting: Dim

Panel 8
Shot/Framing: Close up
Angle: High
Set: Tavern
Sound: Diegetic(Snoring/Sleeping)

Panel 9
Shot/Framing: Long/Wide
Angle: High
Sound: Diegetic(Screaming)
Editing: Dolly Tracking
Acting Choice: Run around/screaming/outlandish

Panel 10
Shot/Framing: Extreme Close up
Angle: High-Then Eye Level
Sound: Diegetic(Bullets)
Editing: Dolly Tracking

Panel 11
Shot/Framing: Long Shot/Wide
Angle: Eye Level
Sound(Bullets, Laughter,Screams)
Props: Gun
Acting Choices: Vicious, Clearly trying to harm one another

Panel 12
Shot/Framing: Long/Wide
Angle: Low-Then High as she rides off
Prop: Horse
Sound: Diegetic(Laughter/Glee/Horse trotting away)
Acting Choice: Katniss is happy
Editing: Eyeline match/dolly tracking

The Cat in The Hat into a Horror Film

Posted by Athalia Tan in Reel Reading · Giknis · B Band on
Athalia Tan and Tajnia Hussain

The Cat in The Hat, is a film based off of the book, that portrays the story of two children named Conrad and Sally spending their day with Cat in the Hat. This film is quite an enjoyment for children and exudes of fun and no rules or boundaries. The actor and costume of the Cat is a tad bit intimidating and has a terrifying of a face so we wanted to create a horror film trailer for it. Since the film came out in 2003, it already has an old fashioned aesthetic which is very convenient to turn into horror type elements for a trailer. The Cat in The Hat himself, looks very intimidating and his costume, facial expressions, and laugh doesn’t seem to be very “fun” to an age group as us so we used these elements along with multiple different shots in the trailer to make him look like he's the villain. Only one time did we use a filter on the Cat’s face, in the very beginning when introducing him, to make the frame look darker and which would make it fall under a horror film genre.

In the beginning of the trailer, it shows the landscape of a swing, swinging on it’s own, along with the production company title. This is sort of an introduction to the trailer already, automatically giving the audience horror film vibes. In the background there is dramatic music playing, an instrumental score, that is played throughout the trailer. Mainly when the Cat is chasing the children and when ruining their home. Most of the scenes are in color, accentuating the children’s book element but also showing how bright the kids are and how dark and twisted the Cat is. Black and white and dark tones are only used when Conrad goes into the closet and when introducing the Cat. This gives this sense of darkness, adding tension to what will happen next. The background music, gives the trailer some suspense.

We also included wording throughout the trailer, with the horror trailer theme that was provided from iMovie. This gives a horror movie vibe, making the audience to be at the edge of their seats, wondering what will happen next. During these times there was also non-diegetic very slight piano music playing, which is a continuous method used by many directors of horror films. Along with this, there was an establishment of the setting in the very beginning with close-up shot-reverse-shots of the town and the panning out of the kids, when they are left alone after their mother leaves, as well as the panning out and zooming in of the rain, the windowsill, and the exterior of their home.

When the Cat in the Hat was “torturing” the babysitter, this tremendous fast non-diegetic orchestral music was added to show that he is out of his mind. This music was also used towards the end when displaying the treacherous acts of the Cat, such as him pulling out needles and knives. The specific scenes that we used were ones that we thought would be suitable for a horror film including ones of the Cat’s companions, Thing 1 and Thing 2 violently attacking the babysitter. The Cat’s facial expressions and looks are already frightening in many scenes and we purposely put suspenseful music at those times. One scene was when the Cat was going down the stairs, we chose this scene because it demonstrated a low angle showing that he was superior than the kids.

Many of the shots of the kids are selected medium and close up shots to demonstrate facial expressions and actions of Conrad and Sally to prove that the Cat can be scary. This includes scenes of them screaming, the high angle shot of them going up the stairs when first encountering him, the high angle shot of Sally looking up at Thing 2 on the ceiling, and when the Cat/Thing 1 and 2 were ruining their home. The buildup to when they first saw the Cat was made to be suspenseful, which is why it is a lengthy 30 second scene of Conrad slowly opening the closet door and then suddenly snatched inside. This was kept without music because it contributed to the quiet element and sudden boom in the end in a horror genre.

In conclusion, we hope that you enjoyed our twist of The Cat in The Hat as a horror film. We put together many different cinematic and theatrical aspects to help us achieve our goal. Enjoy! :)


Youtube: https://youtu.be/TIxPFo2aMGk 


Bridesmaids in a Wes Anderson lens!

Posted by Kaamil Jones in Reel Reading · Giknis · B Band on
​

We started with one of our favorite romantic comedies, Bridesmaids, and decided to change the genre to the style of Wes Anderson’s directing. The scene we chose was during one of the main character’s bridal shower where they begin by sitting and watching Lillian open her presents. From here, the scene escalates because her best friend, Annie, can no longer hold in her anger about Helen, another bridesmaid, trying to steal Lillian from her. This scene is done well by the setting, props, facial expressions, tone, and pace. Wes Anderson has a very different style of comedy, so there were many areas we were able to change.

Firstly, we researched Anderson’s style which involves scenes that are filmed using a wide shot and they are also always symmetrical which plays to his aesthetics. Our redone scenes were from a distance to make it more of a wide shot, and we kept the people centered and mostly symmetrical while filming at eye level, another tool he uses. Anderson is also known for higher saturated scenes, so we used backgrounds that were bright and high in color. In one section, we have a bright blue background to demonstrate how Anderson uses such bright, pastel coloring. We also filmed in front of windows to get a natural and bright lighting, again similar to his directing style.

Secondly, we decided to change a lot of our scenes to the style we believe Wes Anderson would do. One change that we made was to add a lot of cuts. The original scene in bridesmaids had very few cuts and more tracking shots, and when we filmed we decided that we were going to cut almost all of our talking shots, this way it would be more dramatic and show Anderson’s comedic style by switching back and forth to props and people. We also changed one of the characters to be male. In Wes Anderson films most of the characters are men, and he is even noted to only use women as tools for the lead male characters. Bridesmaids is an entirely female centered movie, so obviously we didn’t want to take this away but it added another layer by having a male play a lead female character. Kaamil’s character Annie is originally played by  Kristen Wiig , the film is also surrounded by Annie’s character so we thought it would be in Wes Anderson fashion to make the main character a man. We made things seem a little more fake in our redone scene as well. Wes Anderson films make some things seem very over the top and ridiculous based on the background and props, so we changed the big cookie in the original film to a bag of cookies and the chocolate fountain in the film to a carton of school milk. Wes Anderson is also known to have things in his films that are really weird and catches people off guard. We decided to change the dog in the original film to a human with a leash which is really strange but funny, again reflecting Anderson’s unique directing style.
The final things that we changed was the speed of dialogue. In the original film Annie talks really fast but we decided to have Annies character slow down which added to the comedy because of the ridiculous things she says, so the audience can catch is more easily. The pace of Anderson films tends to be very slow, even though a lot is going on. Overall, we were able to change many aspects of the original Bridesmaids scene to reflect Wes Anderson’s directing genre where we were able to analyze each component of the original movie and relate it to Anderson.

 Video Here!

The Cat in the Hat into a Horror Film

Posted by Tajnia Hussain in Reel Reading · Giknis · B Band on
Tajnia Hussain & Athalia Tan
​
The Cat in The Hat, is a film based off of the book, that portrays the story of two children named Conrad and Sally spending their day with Cat in the Hat. This film is quite an enjoyment for children and exudes of fun and no rules or boundaries. The actor and costume of the Cat is a tad bit intimidating and has a terrifying of a face so we wanted to create a horror film trailer for it. Since the film came out in 2003, it already has an old-fashioned aesthetic which is very convenient to turn into horror type elements for a trailer. The Cat in The Hat himself looks very intimidating and his costume, facial expressions, and laugh don’t seem to be very “fun” to an age group as us so we used these elements along with multiple different shots in the trailer to make him look like he's the villain. Only one time did we use a filter on the Cat’s face, in the very beginning when introducing him, to make the frame look darker and which would make it fall under a horror film genre.

At the beginning of the trailer, it shows the landscape of a swing, swinging on its own, along with the production company title. This is sort of an introduction to the trailer already, automatically giving the audience horror film vibes. In the background there is dramatic music playing, an instrumental score, that is played throughout the trailer. Mainly when the Cat is chasing the children and when ruining their home. Most of the scenes are in color, accentuating the children’s book element but also showing how bright the kids are and how dark and twisted the Cat is. Black and white and dark tones are only used when Conrad goes into the closet and when introducing the Cat. This gives this sense of darkness, adding tension to what will happen next. The background music gives the trailer some suspense. 

We also included wording throughout the trailer, with the horror trailer theme that was provided from iMovie. This gives a horror movie vibe, making the audience to be at the edge of their seats, wondering what will happen next. During these times there was also non-diegetic very slight piano music playing, which is a continuous method used by many directors of horror films. Along with this, there was an establishment of the setting in the very beginning with close-up shot-reverse-shots of the town and the panning out of the kids, when they are left alone after their mother leaves, as well as the panning out and zooming in of the rain, the windowsill, and the exterior of their home.

When the Cat in the Hat was “torturing” the babysitter, this tremendous fast non-diegetic orchestral music was added to show that he is out of his mind. This music was also used towards the end when displaying the treacherous acts of the Cat, such as him pulling out needles and knives. The specific scenes that we used were ones that we thought would be suitable for a horror film including ones of the Cat’s companions, Thing 1 and Thing 2 violently attacking the babysitter. The Cat’s facial expressions and looks are already frightening in many scenes and we purposely put suspenseful music at those times. One scene was when the Cat was going down the stairs, we chose this scene because it demonstrated a low angle showing that he was superior to the kids. 

Many of the shots of the kids are selected medium and close up shots to demonstrate facial expressions and actions of Conrad and Sally to prove that the Cat can be scary. This includes scenes of them screaming, the high angle shot of them going up the stairs when first encountering him, the high angle shot of Sally looking up at Thing 2 on the ceiling, and when the Cat/Thing 1 and 2 were ruining their home. The buildup to when they first saw the Cat was made to be suspenseful, which is why it is a lengthy 30-second scene of Conrad slowly opening the closet door and then suddenly snatched inside. This was kept without music because it contributed to the quiet element and sudden boom in the end in a horror genre. 

We hope that you enjoyed our twist of The Cat in The Hat as a horror film. We put together many different cinematic and theatrical aspects to help us achieve our goal. Enjoy! :)

Making A Change Myself

Posted by Ashton Krause in English 1 · Giknis · Y Band on

I have invested this past year in learning and writing about a controversial topic in America. I chose to explore transphobia.  If you are unaware of what that is, it is “intense dislike of or prejudice against transsexual or transgender people.” In my first essay Transphobia in America I wrote about the percentages of mistreatment and unequal treatment against transgender individuals. In my second essay Change Is Still Needed I interviewed two people, a transgender male and a doctor at CHOP (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia) who educated transgender people on safe sex. I then explored the murder rate of transgender people.

Since my last article there hasn’t been any activism for transgender persons rights, but that doesn’t mean the fight is over. Although there has been no activism, there has been more deaths since my last essay (March 18th 2018). Only days later on March 26th 2018, Amia Tyrae Berryman was shot to death at the Shades Motel in Baton Rouge, LA at the age of 28. Sasha wall, 29 years old, was found shot to death in her vehicle in Chesterfield County, S.C on April 1st. Carla Patricia Flores, 18 years old, found strangled to death in her home in Dallas, Texas on May 9th. ALL transgender women of COLOR. The rate that transgender women are murdered is one of the highest in the country. Nino Fortson, 36 years old, transgender man found shot to death in Atlanta May 13th. These are just a few reported cases. Many are not even recorded.

Since there has been no activism fighting or educating anyone about the transgender people, I decided to go out and do it myself. Tuesday, March 6th I was on a panel in the Mutter Museum hosted by CHOP. I was accompanied by my mother and four other transgender males. We answered questions to feed their curiosity and to educate. Here is the panel I was on, fast forward to 1:11:00 if you want to see the panel part. I answered questions about my life and my visits at the hospital. I decided to go about my activism this way because I am offered to do things like this all the time, of course I accept. So I figured I can use these opportunities to educate.

Throughout my year of doing this project I learned more about myself and community. My community is at danger and nothing has been done about it. No acknowledgment from law enforcement, no help just “thoughts” and “prayers.” Those are nice, but they don’t help the people in need. I learned more about myself than ever, I need to start being more open minded and exploring topics that I usually don’t. It is up to my generation and I to right the wrongs everyone has made.


White Chicks.....of Ryan Coogler

Posted by Nathan Little in Reel Reading · Giknis · B Band on
​Analysis 

Nicholas Shaw and I chose the film White Chicks because it shows the millennials of race, and how that specific race encounters beauty, wealth, power, and authority. Something that other races don't particularly have. Specifically minorities. The main point in the movie is to show the viewers what it would be like if one of those minorities would somehow transition to that one specific powerful race. From that point of view, the movie shows dominance and a sense of humor, What it does not show are deep thought and a hard process. The movie is meant to bring joy and laughter, a situation that could go in any form but only leads to laughter. When we look at this movie through style, we look at beauty, feminine, sass, fear, and confidence. Looking at the director, we would transition by not looking at the opposite of beauty, but looking at the opposite of race. Significantly looking at the standards of what white people like versus the standards of blacks. It brings a huge difference whether if youŕe defining actual race and what we wear and like. There's not much of a similarity. The choices we made were made differently and we find them to be pretty accurate for the difference between white culture and black culture. One of the examples was the 2 protagonists Marcus and Kevin, instead of wearing suits, they’re wearing dashikis. The people that help them transform into white chicks, instead of wearing white lab coats, they can wear black lab coats/garments. We rearranged most of the design in clothing and texture, but not rearranged much of their knowledge and what they say. When you see the storyboard, you see the texture and what defines the movie based off the director’s perspective. Not only does this storyboard shows the race differential and each cultures design, but it also shows how well the scene correlates between races and how something that’s different can bring people together. The scene also only includes a short script in the beginning and from there, is just the background music and the texture and style. The song we chose (for a change) is Ride wit me By Nelly. The song talks about the difference in what wealth and power can bring to people. It can bring them joy and happiness apparently and it makes them feel good. In the film scene we selected, the characters can basically change from a dilemma of one race to another, feeling the difference in the standards of each race and the expectations they’re supposed to have. The original song in the scene was “Shake it (Like a White Girl) By Jesse Jaymes. The title is easy to predict that it correlates with white people in the film adding on that Marcus and Kevin are transforming from black dudes into white chicks. We thought that choosing a song that has the opposite meaning was the way to go. One that doesn’t necessarily have to talk about black people, but in what black people like to do (for who they are) based on what society judges by it.

Print Making/Element Tin

Posted by Sophia Paul in Art - Freshman · Hull · e1 Band on
This is my print that I made.
This is my print that I made.
The element that I had was Tin and the atomic symbol is Sn. The atomic number is 50. Tin has been around since the ancient times. We do not know who discovered it. Even back in 3000 BC there are artifacts with tin in it. Tin has many uses; Tin can be used on boats and ships to prevent having barincles, glass is made on molten tin to create the flat surface, it can also be used to prevent corrosion on object. Tin can be combined with fluorine can be found in toothpaste, tin is also makes up many soda cans. The idea of how I wanted to make toothpaste was from some research I did. I found that a tin alloy can be found in toothpaste, and that no many people know that. I did not want to do a tin robot or tin can, because those ideas are too basic and I wanted to do something unique. The first thing that I did is that I made my design on a 4" by 6" inch of paper and then made my toothpaste bottle and toothbrush. I then had to transfer that design onto my "tracing paper" so I can have the same design on the plate. To make sure that the plate would print in the right, I had to trace the design onto the plate backwards, so when it printed, it was printed the right way. I used all of the colors and I ended up with my blues and reds looking the best because they were bolder and looked better than the other colors. If I had to print another time, I would make the design bigger and more clear and also print better and make it look cleaner. The part of the project that I enjoyed the most was the printing. It was so satisfying to pull the sheet of paper off and see the clean, crisp design underneath it.

Nick & Nate Reel Reading

Posted by Nicholas Shaw in Reel Reading · Giknis · C Band on
Nick and Nate chose the film White Chicks because it shows the millennials of race, and how that specific race encounters beauty, wealth, power, and authority. Something that other races don't particularly have. Specifically minorities. The main point in the movie is to show the viewers what it would be like if one of those minorities would somehow transition to that one specific powerful race. From that point of view, the movie shows dominance and a sense of humor, What it does not show are deep thought and a hard process. The movie is meant to bring joy and laughter, a situation that could go in any form but only leads to laughter. When we look at this movie through style, we look at beauty, feminine, sass, fear, and confidence. Looking at the director, we would transition by not looking at the opposite of beauty, but looking at the opposite of race. Significantly looking at the standards of what white people like versus the standards of blacks. It brings a huge difference whether if youŕe defining actual race and what we wear and like. There's not much of a similarity. The choices we made were made differently and we find them to be pretty accurate for the difference between white culture and black culture. One of the examples was the 2 protagonists Marcus and Kevin, instead of wearing suits, they’re wearing dashikis. The people that help them transform into white chicks, instead of wearing white lab coats, they can wear black lab coats/garments. We rearranged most of the design in clothing and texture, but not rearranged much of their knowledge and what they say. When you see the storyboard, you see the texture and what defines the movie based off the director’s perspective. Not only does this storyboard shows the race differential and each cultures design, but it also shows how well the scene correlates between races and how something that’s different can bring people together. The scene also only includes a short script in the beginning and from there, is just the background music and the texture and style. The song we chose (for a change) is Ride wit me By Nelly. The song talks about the difference in what wealth and power can bring to people. It can bring them joy and happiness apparently and it makes them feel good. In the film scene we selected, the characters can basically change from a dilemma of one race to another, feeling the difference in the standards of each race and the expectations they’re supposed to have. The original song in the scene was “Shake it (Like a White Girl) By Jesse Jaymes. The title is easy to predict that it correlates with white people in the film adding on that Marcus and Kevin are transforming from black dudes into white chicks. We thought that choosing a song that has the opposite meaning was the way to go. One that doesn’t necessarily have to talk about black people, but in what black people like to do (for who they are) based on what society judges by it.     
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20180524_123840 (1)

Ajanae + Ryan Reel Reading BM #2

Posted by Ryan King in Reel Reading · Giknis · C Band on
For me and Ajanae's project, we decided to create a storyboard which showcased “The Florida Project.” This movie was directed by Sean Baker, a director known primarily for creating movies that are drama or comedy titled. This movie was titled as a drama and so we decided that it’d be interesting to convert it to a western movie. The movie would include features that typical westerns like those created by Sergio Leone included. Through research, we found out that Sergio Leone likes to include lots of long shots and high angle shots in his films of the scenery in the Wild West, along with close up shots of character to build suspense during character conflict. Western movies also tend to include black and white imagery, rattling and loud music and lots of emphasis on treasure and violence. The scene we decided to storyboard is one that depicts the brutality and violence that occurs in Western films. This violence is something that is idolized and something people look for when watching films like these. 

In the Florida Project lot’s of tensions rose between characters like Hayley and Bobby, Jancey’s grandmother and Moonie but one of the most intense beings between Hayley and Ashley. Throughout the movie, Hayley and Ashley were portrayed to be best friends along with their kids, Moonie and Scooty. But soon the children’s mischief in a nearby neighborhood ruined the parents’ friendship. The kids started a fire in an abandoned condo which burned down the neighborhood’s projects and hell broke loose. Ashley felt as if Hayley’s child was endangering Scooty’s life and decided it’d be best that she cut off Moonie and Hayley altogether. In the scene that we converted, Ashley and Haley have a huge fight. 

We are going to start with the first scene on the storyboard. The scenery is inside the “saloon”, it is a long shot of the hallway on the floor in which Ashley lives. The next scene over is the start of their confrontation. Ashley is peeking out of her door and has come face to face with Hayley who has a cowboy hat and dirty skin: characteristics of some folks in Western movies. In this scene, Hayley is asking Ashley to spot her rent although they’re no longer friends. Obviously, Ashley says no and as the scene goes into an argument transpires about Hayley’s prostitution choices in her hotel room. Ashley starts screaming and going off on her and this leads us to our next scene on the storyboard. An extreme close up of Hayley happens and she has a very angry look on her face. Fumes around her are bright red and her face darkens in color. Her eyebrows furry as Ashley continues to bombard her with insults. An attack happens which brings us into the next scene. A wide shot of the fight is filmed by directors and Hayley sends 3 fearless blows to Ashley’s face. After the fight is over, the camera zooms out to film a high angle shot of the entire saloon. Silence falls and the scene is officially over. 

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IMG-1118

Film Conversion Project- The Hunger Games

Posted by Jevon Price in Reel Reading · Giknis · C Band on

For the film conversion benchmark, we were tasked with remodeling a scene of a movie into a different genre or through the style of a different auteur. The purpose of this being to test our knowledge of cinematic and theatrical elements, and how they play a crucial role in deciding the kind of film that is created. My partner Siani and I focused on the 2012 blockbuster Hunger Games. The film centers on a young woman, Katniss, in postmodern North America, as she participates in an annual event entitled “The Hunger Games” which calls for teenagers to fight to the death until only one survives.

Written as a dystopian novel, and produced as a science fiction and fantasy film, we aimed to take the core aspects of danger and the will to survive and adjusted them into a new setting. With the usage of cinematic and theatrical elements, we adapted the film into a western. The scene we focused on, common titled, “Career Pack chase Katniss” shows the main character Katniss being hunted down by a group of fellow participants in the games. In order to make transform this scene into that of a western, we needed to employ and highlight the various techniques that are commonly found in westerns, techniques that would give the scene the smooth yet intense style of westerns.

Beginning with the cinematic elements, framing is one that played a critical role in capturing feeling. Often in western films, employs close ups to capture the emotion and facial expression of the character as well as to highlight important aspects. Similarly we used many close up shots on our characters faces along with their weapons to show the importance of feeling in the person and of their object, in this case their guns which were very much so apart of them. Long shots, which are used to show the character entire body, usually from a distance, were employed in instances where multiple characters were in the scene so that the audience could see everything that was happening in the scene. Medium shots, which shot from the waist up, were used in many of the scenes to show the characters while also keeping some of the background in view of the reader. Two angles were used in our storyboard. High angles, which are when a character is filmed from above, was implemented during scenes where the Career Pack chased Katniss, to emphasize the danger that she was in. The second being eye level, so that the audience could look at Katniss directly and see the emotion that she is trying to relay. In most western movements, dolly/tracking is used. This is to show the movement in the scene. We used this form of camera movement and included a few slow shots to build up tension as the scene goes along.

In the form of editing, we used two types, eyeline match and cut. A cut edit is when two shots are pieced together to make the illusion of an instantaneous shot. This was evident in scenes of action/confrontation where dialogue, bullets, and the overall action was taken place from different areas of the set. Eyeline match is a technique used to allow the audience to see what the characters are seeing. We used this, during dialogue between the characters to make them reader feel they are in the scene.

When it comes to sound, many westerns are absent of outside music, instead opting for diegetic sound which is sound that originates in the scenes of the movie. In westerns these are often things like the wind, footsteps, bullet sounds, cactus rolling etc. We used diegetic sound to emphasize the sound of the weapons and to catch things that would match the environment. Lastly, rounding out the cinematic features is lighting. In terms of lighting, we aimed to remain true to the time that a western would have taken place. This means natural light in the outside scenes, and dimmer in the indoors.

While cinematic elements are important to a movie’s conception, theatrical elements are just as necessary. First off, one of the most important aspects of a film is the set. This is where the movie takes place and ultimately provides a backing to the film. The particular scene in was taken from the arena, which showed a forest of sorts. Western’s usually take place on the American Frontier, so we made that the new set for our scene.

Like set, costumes also play an important role in distinguishing a film as a western. You will often find things such as cowboy hats, boots, vest, loosely based clothing in warm or earth tones. Instead of the modern clothes as seen in the movie, our characters wore cowboy hats and boots to make it clear they are in a western. In the Hunger Games, weapons such as arrows and knives were the main props utilized throughout the movie. To make it fit the time period, we traded in the arrows for guns, as big portion of westerns are the epic shootout scenes. Acting choices can set the tone of a movie, as it is the characters that the audience is following. We wanted to keep the same tone for the modified clip from the original as it the choices made emphasize the desire of fighting to stay alive. Overall, a lot of things go into creating any specific type of movie. These are the ways in which we were able to transform the Hunger Games into a traditional western movie.


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Ajanae Mills Capstone

Posted by Ajanae Mills in Capstone · Baird · Wed on
In March of 2018, I and 9 other amazing girls traveled through the jungle of Yorkin, Costa Rica. In this jungle, we encountered some of the most humbling experiences that inspired me enough to produce an informative presentation on it. Through my experiences with the loving indigenous people of this community, I've learned to be humble and giving. Giving my time, my effort and my thoughtfulness to the community and world around me not only creates a safe space for me but as well as my people. Giving in that community gave children and families water and other human necessities, such as insight on education. 

My process started in a classroom. As I dove deeper into the history and current issues in Costa Rica, I began looking at what specific issues I could bring awareness to. My attention was drawn to education, an important privilege I have had in my life that I sometimes take for granted. My belief in a global education system that gives everyone the opportunity to be educated made me want to find ways to help and get involved. 

So I did through my journey in their village and through my journey in this Capstone project. 

Link to Annotated Bibliography:

Link to Costa Rica Presentation: