AICE Media Studies

While researching title sequences, we discovered the movie Along Came a Spider on the Watch the Titles website. As an intriguing suspense-thriller from 2001, it caught our eyes.  During the opening sequence, the film studio, production company, first-billed actors, the movie name, casting directors, music supervisors, costume designer, and editors. The titles were introduced gradually, with a single letter crawling to the middle of the screen, as if it were a spider gliding down a thread. The rest of the letters in the titles were soon revealed. This process repeats until all the names are shown on the screen one at a time.  There are little to no explicit images shown in the opening. For almost the entire sequence, the background was just a series of constantly flickering green and blue lights. It’s extremely difficult to distinguish where these lights are coming from, until it is shown that it is actually a monitor by the end of the sequence. Thus, immediately as the movie s...

  With the use of the website Art of the Title, we were able to come across the film Shirley, a thriller movie. The thriller film Shirley begins with the jobs and occupants’ names. Following these important names, the name Shirley appears in cursive letters with a black screen behind it. There is only one main image priority during the opening sequence seeing that it is one continuous shot. This shot is a slow zoom into a woman and man dancing to music in a house. It shows a bond between both characters and establishes a relationship. Since the shot is in low key lighting and is set at night time, it shows a negative connotation while making the audience feel uneasy and off putting. Although, when the camera begins to get closer to the house window, the light inside begins to get brighter. This introduces a new, positive connotation, different than the previous one. From the beginning of the opening sequence, the audience absorbs the thriller feeling through a fade into a blurry sc...

The title sequence of this movie, from Watch the Titles, begins with introducing the novel that the movie is based upon. It also introduces all of the production companies involved. The lettering is in white, thin letters that have neon tones. It then shows the name of the main actor followed by the title. The title of the movie is in the same font as the previous titles. Followed by this are the rest of the actors’ names along with the crew involved in bringing the movie to life. Different images of planetary bodies and the circulatory system. Once, the title of the movie passes, and the rest of the cast and crew are shown, the background images shift from  outer space to images of cells and other aspects of the circulatory system. The connotations of these images are mysterious and uneasy. Outer space is a place that humans do not know much about. This connects to the movie being about unknown extraterrestrial creatures. The aspects of the circulatory system shown also demonstrat...

       What titles are displayed during the opening sequences? The thriller film Final Destination, from Art of the Titles, initializes by first displaying the title of the film. Then proceeds to display the names of the cast and crew, producers, and the studios. Such names include costume designer, director of photography, production designer, and so on.       What images are prioritized in the opening sequence? Final Destination is a thriller franchise. Most or if not all their opening sequences contain very dark, aggressive, sinister images. Images  prioritized in the opening sequence are spooky like toys staring directly to the screen. Other images of skull heads are also shown. Images of objects such as nails, knives, are images used typically used throughout the opening sequence of the film.       What connotations do these images carry? The connotation that these images portrayed carry, is a meaning of death and hor...

  Our next focus was on the website Watch the Titles! When researching this website, we found a variety of information, which included opening sequences, designers, and studios. Our group viewed this website to further our knowledge in the opening sequence scenes in the thriller genre to aid our future project. We were able to see how different credit designers designed credits in multiple films for which they were featured in. A student showing option was also available to us so that we could see other students' own creations. This helped us see others creativity and thoughts while also being open minded and influenced. Our group also saw that opening and credit sequences were featured in not only films, but in television shows and video games. The opening sequence sets the stage for the theme and mood of the upcoming movie, show, and game. This website helped further our knowledge and information on the opening sequence scenes for which we will need to include in our upcoming fil...

  When our group was conducting research, we focused on a website called Art of the Title. We decided to view and research this website because it would further our knowledge in the opening credit scenes and help us with our upcoming project. In this website, it describes in words and pictures what a movie’s opening sequence and scenes are. We were able to see opening sequences of various film genres and movies, specifically thriller. Our group also saw that the opening sequences of the thriller movies were from different eras. This meant that we could see how the opening scenes evolved over time to add to the depth of the movie or film. We could also see how different directors of various films had different visions for their opening sequence. For example, one director took the title of the film literally, while another director focused on the editing portion. Since the group’s upcoming project includes an opening sequence, it was important to research the different and unique se...

  In the film, The Purge, thriller elements were found throughout. Majority of the movie was filmed with low key lighting, or even with just the light of a flashlight. This raises the attention of the audience seeing that it causes them to focus on one thing, yet look for details. During the action and killing scenes, the camera movement continued to be handheld, making the viewers feel as though they were truly there. There were also tilted and canted angles during this scene to show the audience a full view and experience, while making them feel uneasy to the unknown angles. When looking at the common costume and mask in this movie, it can be most closely associated with danger and death. These costumes are now a staple in the Purge franchise and now famously known around the world. When watching this movie, there was an abundance of ambient sounds when the characters were not talking to smoothly tie the scenes together. They also expressed tension and suspense within the viewer....

For our research, we decided to watch the movie Us. Released in 2019, Us is a horror/thriller film directed by Jordan Peele. While watching the film, there were multiple elements that stood out to us. We enjoyed the variety of sounds and music that played throughout the film at any given scene. The soundtrack of the movie was unique and featured many eerie background music that could send shivers down the spine. Sometimes, there was even upbeat Beach Boys music playing while the characters were being murdered. It created an uncanny and ironic contrast between the events happening. It made the audiences think, "what...is going on?"  In our opening sequence, we hope to use eerie background music as well. Additionally, the characters and dialogue were realistic. Of course, there were a few fantasy elements surrounding the murders, but, to provide an example, the family that was on a vacation interacted with each other in a realistic and relatable way. Thus, when they were random...

  In the movie Bird Box, key thriller elements are found throughout. There are various types of high angles, low angles, over the shoulder shots, and closeups that occur in this film. These angles/shots are all used throughout thriller films to either indicate vulnerability of the victim or to emphasize one’s reaction towards the situation. Birdbox also contains multiple different camera movements throughout the film. Such camera movements include: Tracking/Pan and the handheld camera movement. These elements contribute to the suspense and tension of the movie by illustrating that the character is being followed or watched and also by creating a greater sense of immediacy for the audience. The various settings of the film also provides a sinister and mysterious feeling as it focuses on deserted, distant spooky locations. Other elements such as knives and scissors used as props and the sound which was mostly diegetic was used thoroughly throughout the film. An element that appealed ...

In the end, we all agreed to follow the thriller genre. After researching the elements of thriller, horror, and drama genres, we felt that thriller was the most fitting for our project. The thriller genre combines aspects of horror and drama into one, which allows thriller films to be unique and creative. When our group came together we all had differing ideas on what the genre of the opening sequence would be. The top 4 genres that were debated among us were fantasy, horror, drama, and thriller. Fantasy is definitely a fun genre and would be great to try and incorporate into our film. Yet, we had to discard it because it would require a lot of props and location changes, which is difficult to do with a global pandemic. Then, our group began researching the three remaining genres. Action is certainly one that came to our minds as the genre we wanted to do. We researched it but unfortunately had to discard that idea, since we did not have the facilities to produce something with that ge...

When conducting our genre research on thriller we entered our findings on a PowerPoint. This PowerPoint consists of different elements and aspects of the thriller genre. We included mise-en-scene, camera angles/shots and editing into this PowerPoint. Our group began with the most common type of lighting in the thriller genre. We provided examples of the most common type of lighting from various thriller films, which is low key lighting. Next, our group researched the different types of camera angles most commonly found in thriller films. For example the most common angles are high and tilted angles. We furthered our knowledge in the CAMS section of thriller by noting additional relevant types of camera movements. These relevant camera movements were the pan and the zoom. As we continued on to different components of the thriller genre, we came upon mise-en-scene; which is made up of lighting, costumes, makeup, and setting. The most used type of lighting, as already mentioned in thrille...

     The upcoming media project requires our group to produce a 2 minute intro to a movie that we are creating. Our group all agreed to use the same continuous theme of suspense and thriller in the movie intro. The movie genre thriller can be characterized as holding suspense, anxiety, or excitement. It draws the audience in by leaving them on the edge of their seat throughout the entire film. We decided to focus on creating a plot with a thriller genre as it seemed like it would be fun and interesting, yet challenge our skills as film producers. However, there were some concerns and difficulties when deciding and agreeing to a complete concept. We began by thinking of similar movies in the thriller, suspense genre that we all enjoyed. Topics of murder, stalking and more began to arise in our various discussions. For example, one of our members was inspired by the show Defending Jacob, and wanted our movie to incorporate elements of a child murderer. We then began to expl...

    My name is Hannah Ezammudeen, a current 11th grader. I am taking AICE Media Studies and AICE Music this year because I wanted to see how the music industry ties into the filming Industry. I enjoy various types of films and music such as timepieces and soundtracks to these movies. I also enjoy reading novels on murder mysteries and romance on my spare time. Throughout this course, I have gained much knowledge on the directing and editing portion of the filming industry. However, I hope to gain experience in the team building aspect of movie production. In this upcoming AICE Media filming project, myself and my peers will be producing a movie intro in 2 minutes. Unlike the previous projects, where I continuously worked alone, I will be working with 3 other students. My group members name's are Judith Reyes, Jocelyn Colon, and Raquel Lopez, which are all in the same grade as myself. Seeing that I have been working by myself in past assignments, I believe that this will b...