Psychological Thriller vs Dramedy?

So I have a dilemma. I'm stuck between two possible genres for my film opening: Psychological Thriller and Dramedy. I know what you're thinking. How on earth is this guy stuck between these two very, VERY different genres? And the answer is I don't know. I love each of these genres for what they stand for and the brilliant movies that have come forth from under these umbrellas. Let's delve into each of these genres and hopefully I can learn more about which one takes the edge for me along the way.

Psychological Thrillers:

I LOVE this genre. Why? I can't remember the last time I've gotten through a psychological thriller and felt remotely good about life afterwards. I mean the entire premise of movies in the genre are to effectively wiggle their way into your mind, altering your brain chemistry and making you question what's real and what isn't. It's great.

Some of my favorites from this genre include:

Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Midsommar (2019)

Fight Club (1999)

In terms of what this genre entails, some key things to look out for are unreliable narrators, suspenseful sound design, non-linear storytelling and themes of isolation, paranoia, and descent into madness.

The opening to Midsommar is one of my favorites. It does an excellent job at establishing the cynical tone of the film, as well as the uncomfortable, suspenseful mood -  as made clear through the sinister violins mimicking the sound of sirens, making your ears beg you to lower the volume.

Perhaps the holy grail of psychological thriller tropes, the plot twist, epitomizes everything this genre stands for. Messing with your head. If done right, plot twists can stick with audiences forever and practically immortalize a film. Some of my personal favorite mind-bending twists are Oldboy (2003) and Fight Club (1999). 

Dramedy:

Dramedies are characterized by a mysterious psychotic killer chasing down victims with a weapon of choice. Wait. Wrong genre. Sorry. Dramedies are what they sound like. A film that balances dramatic elements with comedic elements perfectly. 50/50. Make sure you don't incorporate too much humor or too much drama because something bad will happen probably. Be careful.

One thing I love about this genre is it's flexibility. Dramedies can just as easily leave you feeling fulfilled as they can empty. They rely so much on making the audience latch onto and connect with the characters, that the emotions and thoughts of the characters are often reflected upon the audience. 

Some key conventions to look out for in dramedies are: realistic situations/circumstances reflective of everyday life; down to earth, relatable characters; and character driven plots.

Some of my favorite dramedies:

La La Land (2016)

Garden State (2004)

High Fidelity (2000)

That Thing You Do! (1996)

What I admire most about this genre is the crucial role the soundtrack plays in each film. YOU COULD EVEN SAY ITS INSTRUMENTAL (sorry). Seriously, I am a longtime lover of music and have always admired the effect choosing just the right song can have on a specific scene. Even if I don't end up choosing this genre, I would love to see how I can implement some of my own personal music taste into my opening. I even have a playlist of songs on Spotify that I would love to include in a movie one day if I ever make one, including my favorite artists like Wilco, Elliot Smith, and New Order.

I love this scene from the film That Thing You Do! (1996). The girlfriend of the singer of fictional 60's band The Wonders has just heard their new song on the radio, and runs to find the other band members, share the news, and spread her excitement. This scene is profoundly uplifting and exciting, in large thanks to the soundtrack. Fun Fact: The song in question -  "That Thing You Do" was written by Adam Schlesinger, the bassist and songwriter for American alternative band Fountains Of Wayne.

Overall, I think I'm leaning more towards the psychological thriller genre, mostly because I'm scared of what might happen if I have too much drama and not enough comedy in my opening, or vice versa. In all seriousness, I don't know how to explain it. I've always been fascinated by how psychological thriller writers think of such intricate, encapsulating plots. I feel as if I'll be greater inspired when creating an opening within this genre, but I'm considering a variety of elements from many different genres which I would like to include.

Transitioning Into the Cambridge Portfolio Project

 Hello blog viewers! From now on, I officially begin the Portfolio Project, so all my posts from this point on will work toward developing the project. In exposition to the project, my teacher showed my class examples of various film openings from a variety of genres, from Scream all the way to Stranger than Fiction. We were introduced to the many different approaches to film openings, including establishing the setting, introducing characters, and even developing mystery. 

Some notes I jotted down on the different approaches to film openings

One film opening that really caught my attention was Jaws, and while I had seen the film previously I was really drawn towards how the opening builds the majority of tension and suspense without ever truly showing the villainous shark.

I would love to incorporate something like this into my project, something that keeps the audience guessing and catches them off guard. 

I also have always loved the opening to Memento (2001) as it catches the audience entirely off guard, and putting the entire opening in reverse is absolutely genius in of itself.

Memento (2001)

 I'm not sure exactly how just yet, but I would also love to incorporate something into my film opening that is entirely unique, unlike anything a viewer has seen before. 

 Overall, I can't wait to get started on this project, exercise my creativity, and document the entire process right on this URL! Let's see how it goes.

Music Marketing Blog Post #2

 

This video documents the process of developing our Music Marketing Project. I had a lot of fun creating this, so I hope you enjoy it!

*Also, it should be noted that we changed our artist's name from Lone Ranger to Easton Cooper, and we made the name of his LP Lone Ranger instead.

Music Marketing Project Post #1

 For this project, we split off into groups of 4-5 and were randomly assigned a genre. With this designated genre, we first researched and developed a case study including 2 record labels and 4-5 artists from both labels. With this research, the goal is to develop a successful music marketing campaign for a brand-new artist, including a campaign outline, a music video, marketing techniques, a distribution plan, and more.

In my group, I worked with four other students, and we were assigned the "country" genre. We decided to research Warner Records and Big Machine Label Group as our labels. Our artists included Kenny Chesney, Zach Bryan, and Blake Shelton from Warner Records, and Dolly Parton and Jackson Dean (who I researched) from Big Machine. In our research, we considered trends in marketing and distribution, as well as branding and social media presence. 

My research for Jackson Dean

After the research process, we were given a choice between 2 songs which fit the country genre to be our artist's debut single, which we would also create a music video for. We chose the Song 'Wild Animals' by the group Trampled by Turtles. Being a more slow-paced song with rather bleak lyrics, we decided to campaign a somber, wise, singer-songwriter-style country musician by the name of Lone Ranger. We decided that depicting him with neutral and earthy tones like black and light brown would be best as they would contribute to a more rugged, authentic branding. We decided that creating a website with merchandise, Instagram, and Facebook page would be a beneficial marketing decision as our research had proved these habits to be a trend amongst country artists. Also, they would allow all ages of the country audience to be reached.

When planning the music video, we all agreed that a combination of a promotional and storytelling music video would be best. The music video tells the story of Lone Ranger traveling to pay respects to his mother's grave, which we felt would effectively capture the mood of our song. The name of the song would be changed to "Rust", taken from a line in the first verse of the song. We also thought it best to film in a remote, rural location as the majority of country music videos are filmed in locations such as these. Storyboarding turned out to be very helpful in bringing this concept to life in our heads.

                                       

Our storyboard for the 'Rust' music video

This past weekend, we met up and began filming at a local park. With the exception of a few shots, we practically finished the shooting process. I have started the editing process and unfortunately discovered that editing a music video is far more challenging than it looks. Syncing the film to the song and finding the right balance of shot variety to prevent the video from feeling boring is no easy task. From this point, my group must finish recording our audio files for the stand-alone presentation, and I must finish the editing process.

My current editing timeline

                                                                         

Slasher Research

 SLASHER

Perhaps the most famous subgenre of the large umbrella of horror films, slasher films are characterized by the killing of a large number of people by a psychotic murderer, typically with a sharp deadly object.

Content:

The most essential aspect of any slasher film is the villain/psychotic killer. The killer is characterized as stronger than a typical human and seems unfeasible to overcome, other than running or hiding. More often than not, the killer wears a mask to conceal their identity, and aid in creating the sense of inhumanity, mystery, and suspense. Furthermore, the antagonists in slasher films are almost always equipped with a weapon of choice, which often becomes representative of the character.

The iconic "Ghostface" mask from the Scream franchise

Jason from the Friday the 13th franchise holding his machete

The setting of slasher films is often an eerie and unfamiliar place, such as the woods or the countryside. However, this aspect is subject to change. For example, Halloween (1978) is set in a suburban neighborhood, which, in a way, makes the film all the more uncomfortable. It forces the audience to juxtapose the rather comforting setting with the nefarious, murderous acts taking place on screen. Additionally, it is common for slashers to include the "Final Girl" trope, which is when a leading female character seems to avoid all the mistakes made by the other characters and makes it to a final confrontation with the killer, the climax of the film.
                                                              

Slasher films typically provide a backstory to the killer which may provide context to their motives.  Another common content characteristic is a character making a foolish mistake that puts them in grave danger in the face of a killer (Ex: being cornered, tripping). This heightens the level of suspense of these films and keeps the audience at the edge of their seats. It even adds an extra level of audience interest as the audience wonders what they would do differently and may even feel aggravated when a character makes a costly foolish mistake.

Production:

Slashers often utilize low-key lighting to create shadows and strong contrasts, which limits the information directly available to the audience and aids in creating a sense of suspense and mystery. To fill in the missing information, the audience relies on the soundscape, thus becoming more sensitive to what they hear.

The sound design of slashers relies on creating an enormous contrast between dead silence and sharp, ear-piercing loudness. With this contrast, slashers work to catch the audience off guard and push them outside of their comfort zone. The sound perspective often draws attention to unexpected sounds and makes them unrealistically audible, such as footsteps, unsheathing a knife, or heavy breathing. This technique creates unpredictability, unfamiliarity, and suspense for the audience.

Perhaps the most infamous of all production techniques, jump scares go hand-in-hand with slasher films. A jump scare's job is to capitalize on all the suspense that the film has been building up, and if done correctly, will even make the audience feel unsafe. They are often aligned with loud stings of sound that act as punctuation to make the jump scare feel all the more sudden.

                            One of the most famous jump scares from Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Marketing:

The target audience of slashers are typically teens and young adults (16-30) due to the attraction held to thrill and suspense by this age group. While the audience is stereotypically male, over time the genre has become less targeted to any specific gender.

In the marketing process for slashers, marketing teams have one job: to invoke fear. Due to the few guidelines and regulations, slasher films are known to be very creative in their marketing. For example, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) was marketed as a true story with a documentary aesthetic. This made the film feel even more terrifying as it made the horror feel more realistic and unsettling.

A movie poster for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

Another example would be The Purge: Election Year (2016) which utilized emergency response units to stage fake "Purge nights" in various large cities such as Los Angeles and New York. This tactic created urgency and panic for those nearby and turned out to be an effective marketing strategy. Word quickly spread on social media and developed anticipation for the film.

Samples:

Halloween (1978) follows the story of Michael Myers, a psychotic masked miller as he terrorizes a suburban neighborhood on Halloween night and draws an obsession to the main character Laurie, the "Final Girl". This film perfectly embodies what it means to be a slasher, as the audience follows Michael Myers as he goes on a brutal killing spree with his weapon of choice, a knife. Michael Myers is displayed as an ominous character with his terrifying mask which never comes off throughout the film, helping to develop a sense of inhumanity. His towering posture and menacing stalking of victims aid in portraying him as a powerful, undefeatable entity. The nighttime setting of the film paired with Michael Myer's navy jumpsuit slightly obscures him in the audience's eye, adding to the mysterious quality of his character. The use of low-key lighting, an unpredictable sound design, and well-constructed jump scares all help to both build and capitalize on the suspense of the film. 

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) is a film about a group of young adult friends who find themselves targeted by a cannibalistic family in the middle of the unfamiliar Texas countryside. The film embodies a slasher due to the feature of Leatherface, a horrifying masked killer who terrorizes the group with his chainsaw. Leatherface's character does not speak at all throughout the film, which further characterizes him as a mentally inhumane entity. The film also features the main protagonist and "Final Girl" Sally. The majority of the film takes place during the daytime, which creates a juxtaposition between the safe environment of the day, and the morbid brutal events of the film. Critics often state that what contributes to the terrifying nature of the film is how "real" it is. This is achieved through the use of minimalistic editing and almost entirely diegetic sound. The diegetic sound of the film and the use of master shots work to immerse the audience into the film, making it believable and attaining the realist approach.

Some Slashers to Consider: 

The Representation of Better Call Saul

Tuco Salamanca

    Through Tuco Salamanca, Better Call Saul others the community of Mexican people. From the very second episode, Tuco is characterized as a violent, unpredictable, illogical man who displays little to no morals as he holds Jimmy McGill at gunpoint.

 Tuco threatens Jimmy in Season 1, Episode 2

    The selection of this character excludes any sign of goals or future plans within his life, aside from being a vicious drug dealer. Tuco is constructed through the use of colorful, floral clothing creating a link between him and Mexican culture. Tuco's character also follows widespread stereotypes of Mexican people, as established in the media over time. These include being generally louder and more outgoing, and valuing his family, specifically his "Abuelita" and "tío", above all else. Therefore, this specific construction, and close following of stereotypes makes it clear that Tuco is the series' representation of the majority of Mexican culture. Unfortunately, the exclusive selection of the character depicts him as an unpredictable, immoral, evil drug dealer with the inability of releasing anything positive into the environment around him. This may cause the audience to subconsciously other and overgeneralize the Mexican population, creating a nonexistent perceived divide between the two.

Tuco and his tío, Hector Salamanca

Lalo Salamanca

   Through the introduction of Lalo Salamanca, Better Call Saul further others the Mexican population, yet manages to add a unique aspect to its representation. Lalo is constructed with cleanly parted hair, visually appealing and colorful clothing, and is always dressed with a certain level of formality. Furthermore, Lalo frequently seems to be eating or cooking while on screen, which creates a sense of vulnerability, familiarity, and emotional relationship between the character and the audience. 

   Despite the selection characterizing Lalo as a sociopathic psycho at times, at others he is portrayed as an intelligent, charismatic, witty man who evokes a feeling of warmth and even comes across as likeable. Lalo additionally follows many Mexican cultural stereotypes, such as his passion for cooking and his apparent hospitality. Therefore, the combination of Lalo's well put-together construction, dualistic selection, and following of cultural stereotypes, while still othering the Mexican population, adds a unique aspect to the series' formerly one-sided representation of the community.

A few examples of Lalo's charisma

Chuck Mcgill

                                         

Chuck and his "space blanket"

   A major aspect of Chuck Mcgill's character is his mental disorder, severe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder(OCD). Throughout the series, Chuck is portrayed as an obstacle for his brother Jimmy, the protagonist of the series, and at certain points it feels as if Chuck assumes the role of an antagonist. Chuck is constructed with perhaps the most important prop in the entire series, his "space blanket." This blanket is used as a shield to combat his self-diagnosed condition, electromagnetic hypersensitivity, or being allergic to electricity, which ultimately ends up being a facade. This misdiagnosis came as a result of Chuck lacking understanding of his own developing mental disorder, which contributed to a decrease in his social ability. The selection portrays him as a genius, as well as an incredible lawyer, while also being a jealousy-fueled, insecure brother who does not wish to see his brother succeed. He also follows certain stereotypes of the elderly, as he is portrayed as an unwelcoming, uninviting, grumpy man, and relies solely on the newspaper to obtain his daily news. Overall, Chuck's depiction as an inconvenience and an obstacle throughout the series could result in the audience subconsciously developing a misunderstanding of those with mental illnesses and a neglection of the elderly. These two groups are historically underrepresented in media as is, and the representation in this series fails to promote progress in either direction.

Chuck hesitantly runs outside in his "space blanket" to collect the newspaper

Sound Project

   In this project, we were paired up and tasked with telling a story of our choosing by only using sound. We were limited to using no more than seven words of dialogue, and at least four of the sounds in our project had to be created using random objects on a “foley stage.” The rest could be taken from online sound effect databases. 

   Prior to being assigned the project, we were taught about the different types and uses of sound in media and explained the differences between them.  We were made aware of how drastically the smallest change in sound can completely alter the tone and mood of a piece. We were also shown videos providing great insight to the difficult, time-consuming processes foley artists undergo.

   As my partner and I brainstormed different stories we could illustrate using sound, we were looking to find one specific sound that an entire scene could either build up to or revolve around. After going back and forth for a while, we settled on creating the soundscape for a car crash.

   The creation of an outline played a huge role in our creation of a coherent, well-layered soundscape. We were able to visualize how one sound would lead into the next, and how they would mix together to create something that sounded realistic and believable. We decided to break the outline up into 4 parts, the character leaving their home, driving, the car crash itself, and the post-crash environment.

   Additionally, the outline was instrumental in helping us recognize what sounds would work best as foley sounds. These turned out to be footsteps on a grass surface (using shoes), footsteps on a hard surface (also using shoes), a car turn signal (using a pen on a table), and a heartbeat (using a towel).

Our outline:

   Feeling familiar with it due to using it in my last project, I chose to edit the soundscape using Adobe Premiere Pro.                              

                                                                     Editing timeline:

     Overall, I think my partner and I did well at creating a realistic soundscape and making intentional choices to develop tone, such as the relaxing jazz music being listened to in the car, to create a huge contrast between the pre and post-crash environment. I believe that while we did layer a variety of sounds, we could have spent more time thinking of additional sounds to layer to make the soundscape all the more believable. 

My Soundscape