Portfolio Project Genre #1

     The first genre I decided to research was thriller. I wanted to look into thrillers because of the survival game/dystopian shows I've watched, Alice in Borderland and Squid Game. Even though you can probably guess the ending and the survivor(s), which is usually the main character, it's fun to watch, and I wish there were more shows like that. 

Typical Audience:

    The typical audience of this genre is usually teens and young adults. (1.) From a survey done in 2019, it was shown that the 18-29 age group enjoyed these shows the most. However, they only surveyed people who were 18+. (2.) Another survey done in 2018 showed that both men and women enjoy this genre equally, everyone was also 18+. (3.) Since the surveys didn't include teens, I found an article from The Michigan Daily about a teen expressing their obsession with dystopian books and movies. They said that teens crave this genre because they can relate to the feeling of the main characters of rebellion, which is totally true. 

Genre Conventions with Content:

• Crime: Revenge, kidnapping, investigations
• Characters: Criminals, stalkers, investigators, victims
• (4.) Themes/Characteristics: Suspense, fear, betrayal, mind games, escaping and surviving, mystery
• (5.) Flashbacks: usually show the backstory of the main character. If it's the antagonist, then it usually shows the motivation behind their choices, it also adds to their character, and helps the viewer understand the character better

Genre Conventions with Techniques:

• (6.) Music/Sound: Non-diegetic, could be used to intensify the scene. Silence technique builds tension. 'Calm before the storm,' where the music goes from slow and calm to a faster tempo to create tension and suspense
• (6.) Lighting: Lowkey lighting used in tense scenes, shadows represent evil and darkness
• (6.) Editing: many jump cuts, dissolves, fades, and superimpositions (layering), all to build tension and suspense
• (7.) Camera Angles/ movements: close-ups, high angle, tracking, tilted, low angle, over the shoulder, dramatize scene, add tension, suspense, emphasize expression/details 

Institutional conventions: 

• (8.) Structure: Usually, always calm before something terrible happens
• (8.) Characters: the protagonist is usually an ordinary person, maybe in trouble with something like debt, vs. the antagonist, powerful and evil, who can make the debt go away, but does it at a price. There is also a 'shapeshifter' who leads the protagonist to fail
• (8.) Clues: the main character/protagonist finds out clues, connects things together, and ultimately leads them to the antagonist after a lot of trouble
• (8.) Deaths: There are always people dying because the protagonist can't stop the antagonist in time
• (8.) False Endings: When everything seems like it's over because the antagonist got caught, but then a big fight or something similar happens that makes everyone think that the protagonist won't survive. 
  
  

Two Films/Tv productions that represent the genre:

• Alice in Borderland:

Alice in Borderland is a dystopian game survival thriller, released in 2020, with 3 seasons that ended in 2025. I only watched up to the second season because that's where the main story ended when they escaped the game. The third season was unnecessary because they were sent back to a game again right after they just escaped and recovered. The characters were transported to an abandoned Tokyo after what seems like a meteor hit them, but not everyone in Tokyo, just a select few who were all dissatisfied with their lives and all had a heart attack at the same time, almost dying. They had to compete in survival games every few days to survive, or they would be shot and killed by lasers above in the sky. To escape, they had to collect the whole deck of playing cards. Each game they played could result in death if they didn't beat it in time and represented a different card, difficulty, and type of game.

• Children of Men:

Children of Men is set in a dystopian future (2027) in the UK, where it is now a police state, and humans are no longer able to reproduce and will soon go extinct. However, one day, a woman, who was a young refugee, mysteriously got pregnant, and was the only one in the whole world. Another woman named Julian wanted to take her to a research group, trying to cure infertility in humans. They have to keep Kee, the pregnant woman, safe as they wait for her to give birth, from the government and other groups, as she may be the only hope for curing the extinction crisis.

1. Morning Consult. (2019, July). Utopian vs. dystopian movie/TV preference by age U.S. 2019 [Graph]. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1016271/utopian-dystopian-movies-tv-preference-by-age-us/

2. Morning Consult. (2023, December). Favorite movie genres in the United States as of December 2023 [Graph]. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/254115/favorite-movie-genres-in-the-us/

3. Gagnon, S. (2022, November 9). The teenage dystopian film obsession. The Michigan Daily. https://www.michigandaily.com/arts/b-side/the-teenage-dystopian-film-obsession/

4. Hellerman, J. (2023, September 14). What is the thriller genre? Definition and examples. No Film School. https://nofilmschool.com/thriller-genre-definition

5. Paredes, A. (2022, October 15). 10 best thrillers that use flashbacks to tell their story. Screen Rant. https://screenrant.com/luckiest-girl-alive-best-thrillers-use-flashbacks-tell-story/

6. Connor, T. (2016, October 23). Codes and conventions of the thriller genre. Taryn Connor AS Media. https://tarynconnorasmedia.wordpress.com/2016/10/23/codes-and-conventions-of-the-thriller-genre/

7. Gemini Productions. (n.d.). Camera angles types in thriller films. Windsor Girls Media. https://windsorgirls.weebly.com/gemini-productions/camera-angles-types-in-thriller-films

8. Gilbo, S. (n.d.). The 7 key conventions of a thriller novel. Savannah Gilbo. https://www.savannahgilbo.com/blog/thriller-conventions

Transitioning into the Cambridge Portfolio Project

     Its hard to believe we're already starting to work on our Cambridge portfolio projects. It feels like we're still in the first semester. I hope when I look back on this in a few years, I'll be proud of it. Time to get started! 

    In the last two classes, we were getting ready to start the project. The first day, we did a NearPod (an interactive learning tool), took a few notes on film openings, and answered some questions. The second day, which was Tuesday, we went over what a blog should include and a few more parts of the portfolio project. 

    Today, on January 22nd, I have officially started the project. For the past 2 hours, I've been looking at past examples through my teacher's website (tstok.net), where she includes all the links to her past students' blogs under "Projects". She has all her students on there since the 2014-2015 school year, which is impressive, because I can't imagine copying and pasting every link of all my students into a website, including their last name and Cambridge number. I tried to go through a few from every year, but I realised that some of their projects were different than mine (I may have been looking at the wrong place). Also, a few projects were unavailable. 

    I haven't been through that many, but I found one that I enjoyed watching. I'm not sure what year it was from, but I'm pretty sure it was recent (2021-2025). I think what caught my eye was the quality of the video, since many of the projects I watched were a bit blurry. Also, their introduction was creative. I like how they included the credits (on paper and pinned it to a board), how the flashlight guided your eyes around the board, and how the title was shown (looks like cut-out letters from a newspaper, and they move around a bit).

This is the link to the project:

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KzF2TxB136UVhf9FCINklVVpzj1FjE7n/view?pli=1

Link to my teacher's website: 

    tstok.net    

Photos of what I liked:

    Credits + Flashlight:

      

    Title: 

    

Blog for my Music Video!

 

This is my blog for my music marketing music video, edited by my partner, Alana. Most of the footage was taken by me, but I still show up sometimes! Our music video’s song was “We are Young”, by fun.

Music Marketing #1 (Research and Planning Process)

     The research on music marketing was pretty simple. I decided to do UMG since it was the parent company of Island Records, which both my artists were under. The artists I decided to research were Chappell Roan and Keshi. I chose them since the artists had to have music released in the past 5 years, and both of them are pretty popular now and have just released some music recently. Their background was from articles or interviews, their brand identity and marketing were from their social media and music. They both post on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. On Instagram, both of them post photos of their aesthetic and of them singing at concerts and live performances. 

    However, their TikTok is a bit different. Keshi posts more content, engaging with his audience, but also promotional content, while Chappell Roan only posts videos of her singing live and special dates, like when her merch is released or tour dates. She doesn't interact much with her fans. YouTube is where they post their music videos and lyric videos; they also post BTS videos of the process, which I haven't seen a lot of artists do until now. I think this makes their audience feel more included and important. 

    The planning process of the actual Music Marketing project involved reading the directions and writing down what we needed to do. Such as creating a brand identity, the actual artist, or band, in our case. We also split some of the project so we could all focus on one thing. I decided to create the website, posters, and the cover of the song. We all will contribute to the presentation, of course, the making of the music video, editing, and research. Even though each of us has our own responsibilities, we do ask each other if anything is missing from our part or if it needs to be changed to match the band more. 

    

Mise-en-scene blog post

    The mise-en-scene project was a group one; my group had 4 people. We blindly picked a prompt, and with that prompt, we had to create a character. Our prompt was: "A movie lover who enjoys social get-togethers with friends. They have a movie blog on which they post critiques of popular movies." The first day of the project, we worked on creating her physical description, her room, hobbies, work life, school, etc. We had to make everything up about her, and most of it was just how we imagined her as. The project was to make an interactive presentation for our classmates to get to know our character. We had to include physical, visual, and sound representations of her. 

    Her name is Cameron Lee. I'm not sure how we came up with her first name, but I know we got her last name from a producer, I think his name was Spike Lee. We also made her a girl because it wasn't likely that a man would like get-togethers as much as a woman would, also I've never met any man who writes posts about movies they see. We mostly developed our character through stereotypes since that's what we knew best. We didn't focus much on her love life since she seemed to be someone who was just focused on being young and having fun with her friends. 

    Cameron Lee is a 21-year-old college student majoring in Screenwriting at USC. She works part-time as a Starbucks barista since she wasn't really born wealthy. She lives in an apartment where she and her friends are always binging movies, popcorn, and wine. She's also part of a movie club when she isn't writing on her blog. Cameron is a very sweet girl who is always there to help you. She would drop her work in a second to help her friends and family, which is often very kind of her, but she sometimes forgets to take care of herself and ends up exhausted. She has light blonde hair and brown eyes. She doesn't wear a lot of make-up since she's usually at home, also a bit lazy. Cameron does have blush blindness, though; she's always slapping on a ton. Most of her clothes are comfy clothes, baby tees, and sweats that are usually flared. 

    Most of Cameron Lee's things were made physically, both her and her room. The rest were online. When we presented it, we had to prop her up since she couldn't really stand on her own, also she was very large, maybe a foot or taller. Most of the physical things were in the middle for everyone to look through when each group sat down. They each had their own set of headphones to their own computer, where they had to click through a slide show, reading and listening to audio that would represent her or be about her. 

    I think my group did pretty well on developing the character; it didn't take us long, which was nice, but a lot of effort was still put into it. I think it didn't take too long since we were having fun. The physical part of the projects was definitely more difficult; they didn't end up as well as we thought they would. Our expectations were way too high, or at least mine were. I'm not sure why I thought it would be super nice. Many things kept breaking, and it was really frustrating since the doll was made out of paper and the room was made out of clay. The least difficult was the PowerPoint and the soundscape, since all of the sounds were from online websites or YouTube. Overall, I think we still did a pretty good job, even if it wasn't to our expectations. 

Photos and Link (with everything): 

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1WSN4WrQAFfDCf3q96NFoSw988OHB0FRJ

Tactile board:

Doll:

     

Genre Theory: Adventure

Genre: Adventure

Genre Convention - Content:

• Heroic Protagonist:

The protagonist(s) in adventure films are usually the hero; however, there are some movies and series that have a villain as their main character, such as Joker (2019). Oftentimes, the main character is male since most films are made for younger male audiences; however, there have been more female protagonists lately, intended for all young adults or teens. 

• On a Journey or Quest

The journey or quest is what makes the film an adventure genre. The journey or quest is usually looking for someone, something, or they could be exploring just out of curiosity. Most places the character(s) travel to are new, but some could be old and familiar to them.  

• Fights and Attacks

During their travels, the protagonist(s) usually encounter the antagonist, who is usually the villain, and battle it out. Many times, the antagonist wants to take something or someone away from them, or it could also be out of revenge. In a series, the fights could go on longer than just one episode, many of them leaving a cliffhanger, so you would come back for more. Rarely does the antagonist get what they want; if they do, it's most likely that the protagonist will take it back and punish the antagonist somehow.  

Genre Convention - Production Techniques:

• Combination of shots

Adventure films use a lot of extreme long shots, or establishing shots, when the characters reach a new location, to establish the setting and scale. When the characters start fighting, however, they can be a combination of long, medium, and close-ups. The long shots provide the context of the fight, while medium and close-ups show the emotional reactions of the character and build tension between the rivals. 

• Fast-paced and slow-paced editing

Fast-paced editing in adventure films creates excitement and tension, especially in fight scenes or chases where the characters are supposed to be moving very quickly, by using various and very quick shots. Slower-paced editing can also be used to build tension and create emotion; however, the emotion is the opposite of fast-paced and creates a calm or sad emotion. 

• Music

The music in adventure films is usually used to convey emotion and set the tone. In fight scenes, the music is also usually fast, upbeat, and loud, almost cheering the characters on, and in sad scenes, such as in deaths, the music is slow and low. 

Institutional Conventions - How is genre marketed:

Movies and series usually have posters and trailers that they display at movie theaters or on streaming services that display intriguing images of the characters and the setting. Such as in Jurassic World Rebirth, the cover shows the giant parts of a dinosaur behind the characters as if they are hunting them, and the characters look like they are trying to be cautious and avoid something. The trailers are usually made up of quick clips that would make you curious to find out what is happening in the movie. 

Film Sample #1: Avatar: The Last Airbender

Avatar: The Last Airbender (ATLA) is an animated TV series where the main characters travel the world to find people to help the Avatar master all four elements to end a war. The protagonist is a hero who is supposed to save the world, and on his journey, he meets his sidekicks, who all decide to help him defeat the Fire Lord (the villain and antagonist). He is being hunted down by another one of his antagonists, who follows him and his group around, fighting them whenever possible. Every time they travel on Appa, their flying bison that they ride on, they are shown with a long shot that would only show their bison and themselves, and sometimes extreme long shots, showing the size difference of the field or ocean they are above. The animation of the fights is always fast since their movements are sharp, and when they are calm, like when they are flying, it's usually slow-paced. The music also matches up with the animation. When they are doing something chaotic and having fun, there is usually an upbeat and fast song playing loudly, and when something bad happens, there is a slower and softer song. The posters of the series usually display the main characters with serious emotions and the antagonist behind them with predator-like eyes.

Film Sample #2: Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

Frieren is an animated series about an elf and her two companions who travel to a mythical place in the northern lands, rumored to be where souls go after death, to visit one of her dead companions from her journey long ago. Like ATLA, Frieren, the protagonist, is also a hero who saved the world from the Demon King. Her antagonist doesn't follow her around like they did in ATLA; instead, on her journey to Aureole, she encounters them. The fight scenes in Frieren are usually paired with upbeat music, such as the scene where she fights a clone of herself; the music was something you would hear at a festival. During more solemn times, like when she has flashbacks of her talking to her now dead companion, the music was calmer and not as loud or upbeat, but not depressing music. The poster for Frieren is not as compelling as ATLA, as it gives a very peaceful vibe since the characters are standing carefree, looking towards us with no demons on the poster.

List of other film examples within the genre

Ne Zha 2:

Jumanji 2:

Howl's Moving Castle:

A Wrinkle in Time

Shang-Chi and the Legend of The Ten Rings:

Magi:

Soundscape Projects

    I had 2 projects focusing on sound. One without visuals, and one with which was my OWF. The first project I did with sound was without visuals, just a black screen, and my partner and I needed to focus on telling a short story through sound. We first needed to think of a story that could take place in a couple minutes. We didn’t want to do anything too boring because it would probably be hard to tell what’s going on. So, we ended up thinking of unrealistic things such as alien invasions. We chose to do a story about a royal wedding where a dragon tries to ruin it but the knights save the day. 

    After we thought of the story, we needed to create an outline of each scene and what sounds would be needed. We thought of what songs and sounds are at weddings first and then later how it would sound as a dragon flies in to ruin it and lastly fighting and people celebrating. We used ClipChamp instead of Adobe Express since they only allowed two layers of sounds which would be impossible to use. We got many of our sounds from pixabay.com and we also had to make 4 foley sounds. Most of our sounds were for the weapons for the knights since many of the other sounds would be harder to create accurately such as heavy walking and thudding sounds of the dragon stomping.

    The second sound project was to add sounds to our OWF (one word film) project. We brainstormed with our original partner for the sounds that would make sense to hear in school and what the character was doing. After we brainstormed, we worked alone on adding the sounds and editing it. I recorded many foley sounds for this project since a lot of the sounds needed to be custom to fit the actions of the character such as writing and paper rustling. It wasn’t very hard to do since it was just paper. I also recorded myself coughing and sniffling since that’s what you usually hear in a classroom. The nail biting was one of the last ones that I couldn’t find. I had to eat a chip to make the sound since I don’t bite my nails and I also wasn’t sure that if I did, it would be loud enough for my phone to even catch. 

    I think my partner and I did well on brainstorming and adding the sounds that people would usually hear and even those that aren’t thought of often. Most of the audio also sounds like it belongs together. It was only the dialouge part for Sound project #1 that was not good because I had to record them myself since it was hard to find the words we needed online. For my OWF sound project, I think I also did well on the primary and secondary sounds that people would hear around school hallways and courtyards. I think I should’ve added some more outdoor sounds like security gold carts driving around, however I don’t think many other schools have gold carts driving around campus. I also just realised I should’ve added car traffic sounds since it was outdoors. 

Sound Project #1: https://browardcountyschools-my.sharepoint.com/:f:/g/personal/0614029317_my_browardschools_com/ErYc329YLB1IoWCU00YPKr0BlDBcOp_eJWai2P_cdE4MOQ?tdid=fced44ff-f621-4be8-974a-2537917614a0

Sound Project #2: OWFSound_Huang.mp4