blog 4. the Vlog (home stretch!)

Yes, we have arrived at the most dreaded part of this project: the Vlog. I have never enjoyed being on camera, and this was no exception. I apologize in advance if I seem awkward for being awkward. 

Anyway, I've done most of my editing up until this point on iMovie, but for the sake of not having to deal with moving large files, I just recorded and edited everything on my school laptop (you'll have to excuse the quality). With the publication of this video on the interwebs, I suppose I am now officially a YouTuber™. I can even feel the warped sense of egotism setting in already. Don't worry, I promise I'll do my best to remain grounded and equal to all of you inferior mortals.

In any case, this vlog didn't turn out exactly as I planned. It seems that Movie Maker is a really low-quality video-editing platform (who?? knew???). I had originally wanted to put in clips I'd accumulated over the last few weeks of me in the actual editing process, but Movie Maker somehow managed to corrupt / ruin all of them. And I, as an inexperienced video-editor, did not save any copies. Great job, I'm just sO proud of myself.  Oh, well. You live and you learn.

I suppose that's enough stalling for now. Behold, Hannah's Genius Project Vlog (2018):

There's one more blog after this, in which I will be displaying my final progress and results. See you next week!

blog 3. horror conventions of Tangled's recut (part 1)

Welcome back! Given that we are now just about halfway through the entire project, I decided to further move things along and focus on a broader picture this week. Instead of choosing another specific element to study, I decided to research the general structure and conventions of a horror film, which will culminate in me attempting to imitate an existing recut of Disney's Tangled trailer. Tangled has long been one of my favorite Disney movies 9 (after Mulan, of course). In comparing the original and recut trailers, I found them to have the most polarizing differences, so I thought it'd be a good one to start off with. (see bottom of page)

Right off the bat, the opening scene for either trailer sets up the mood and purpose. The original begins with a montage of Flynn Rider cracking witty jokes, while the recut features a closeup of a lantern being lit on fire (pictured bottom right).


Horror films use close ups in order to restrict the viewer's vision in order to create intrigue. The close shot is most popularly used to achieve this, as illustrated by the recut opening scene. Similar angles are used on characters' faces, such as Mother Gothel (left).

The lantern scene is immediately followed by a slow fade transition to a glass door opening by itself against a dark backdrop of moonlight. A slow fade-to-black transition is commonly employed in horror films to increase suspense and mystery. The original trailer features exactly the opposite, using simple click transitions between various scenes of Flynn Rider's antics.

Looking at the two videos as a whole, the recut trailer is significantly darker in lighting than the original. The colors are either muted or tinted with black/blue, while the original is consistently brightly colored. Just take a look at the iconic Disney castle.



The pseudo black-and-white color scheme of the recut trailer is used throughout the entire trailer to mimic common lighting techniques used by film directors to elicit fear and dread.


The soundtrack to the two trailers are also drastically different. As I discussed in the last blog, volume, tempo, and key of the music play a critical role in determining the overall mood. In horror films, nonlinear sounds such as a baby crying or dissonant chords can set the audience on edge. In the recut Tangled trailer, the original score is replaced with an eerie song highlighted by intense buildups and sudden cuts. Children's voices are also common elements in horrors. Because they are generally considered paragons of innocence, bringing direct contrast to this perceived image can elicit subconscious feelings of discomfort, as per this scene in the recut trailer:

After completing this analysis, I took it upon myself to attempt to recreate the edits of the Tangled trailer. This will be a two week project, and I'll hopefully have a cohesive product by next cycle. I will also be documenting my process in the video blog, so stay tuned!


Original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycoY201RTRo
Recut: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30T0lHR5_eo

Research: 
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3943&context=honors_theses
Dreyer, Courtney. “Crafting Fear: The Horror Film Trailer.” Western Michigan University, 2018.

https://repository.library.northeastern.edu/files/neu:cj82n5571/fulltext.pdf

Fu, Xiangyi. “Horror Movie Aesthetics: How Color, Time, Space and Sound Elicit Fear in an Audience.” Northeastern University, 2016.

blog 2. music & mood

Believe it or not, we're already about a third of the way through this project...which means I really need to buckle down. I began my learning experience this week by watching some introductory tutorials on YouTube, but I quickly realized this was kind of a waste of time. They were extremely bland and static, and most of them were telling me things I could pretty much figure out on my own. I realized I didn't really need a tutorial-based video; I could just as well learn by actually doing. Upon this revelation, I decided to skip this step and just begin with the subject I had planned: music.

In any film, various scores of music stimulate the subconscious to instigate different emotions. For example, thriller and horror and films will often employ dissonant screeching sounds we unconsciously associate with animals in distress. A study conducted in 2010 by the University of California found that humans are more sensitive to nonlinear sounds, a characteristic exploited by film composers to unsettle the audience. In the 1960 film Psycho, the overextended use of brass and string instruments was designed to imitate noises of panic in nature.

Infrasound, sound waves that have a frequency below the human detection range, is also shown to be able induce high levels of fear and anxiety. This tactic was revealed to be used in the 2007 film, Paranormal Activity, where audience members reported "dizzying fear levels despite a lack of action onscreen." Given my planned final project of editing a normal video into a horror-type, there will be a big focus on the changes in dynamic and tempo.

To get a little practice in, I shot two versions of an aesthetics video. Both versions use the same clips, but the first utilizes a less upbeat soundtrack with a slower tempo.
** For better quality, I recommend not watching these videos on fullscreen.

Music & Mood v1

This song is a cover of Hozier's "Angel of Small Death and the Codeine Scene" by the band Seafret. It's written in the key of F# minor, which helps to create a darker, sadder sound as opposed to the brighter and cheerier sound of major chords. This particular cover also strips down most of the original instrumentals to the minimalist guitar score, making it a little more mellow.

Music & Mood v2

This second song is Semisonic's "Closing Time," written in the key of G major. It's upbeat and plays at a faster tempo, both of which contribute to establish a more lighthearted mood than the first. Even though the two videos are technically the same, the music can convey an entirely different feel.

This week was certainly a nice throwback to my piano and music theory days! My mini-projects actually turned out better than I expected, which I find to be really motivating especially given how  I'm feeling a little apprehensive overall about my final project. In any case, stay tuned for next week's subject!


Citations

Inspiration: Aesthetic: A Chain Video

Research:

Stewart, Helen. “How Do Film-Makers Manipulate Our Emotions with Music?” BBC Arts & Culture, BBC, 13 Sept. 2013. www.bbc.co.uk/arts/0/24083243.