Film Form.

Em has produced a very interesting video ưhich I think leaned more to a documentary style. She got out a lot of what we have learned and experienced in the weeks that we got to study, observe and film interview videos. There is almost no fictional element from the video, or at least from what I take there is no intentional plot, everything was developed from what her grandmother actually thinks. Yet, its flow and the way she arranges the shots and content makes the experience very different from just watching a mere interviewing video. It stays true to our class’s approach to our practical works throughout the semester, and in a way I think she worked out how to determine the ‘form’ of her choosing in this particular piece. Where normally, when I think and see an interview or anything in a question and answer form, it would develop into a more literal and practical manner; however she turned it into something much more cinematic. All the shots are very aesthetically pleasing to my eyes. And I noticed she has somewhat the same way of opening her video as me, in which there is a black screen with background noise that would lead to the first scene. However, I think she manages her audio much better than me, I especially like the way she captures her grandmother’s humming and whispering and all the sounds of her actions in the video. This is something I would like to work on in the future.

Marlow – Different to Em, Marlow’s video is appealing because it’s very raw and very realistic. In a way, it feels like watching a vlog of people documenting their life on Youtube. I was interested in Marlow’s project since he introduced it for the first time with his presentation because the way he leads his audience to the content is very appealing. And he kept that in his actual video. What I (and probably Marlow himself) didn’t expect is that the video could not turn out the way I thought it would because of technical problems. It then, in my opinion, became pure actuality capturing which I think not a lot of us did in this final project. Marlow did manage to handle the setbacks really well and he was able to adjust his plan, what he would film, and the script if there was one on the spot. This ability of quick thinking and problem solving in the media and film production context is what I think would help us a lot when we enter our career and creating contents,

Shock! A new horror.
I choose to take a look at Shock! A new horror studio, and I would admit this would not be among my top choices to study, partly because I was not drawn into this genre and I don’t really know how it is supposed to work and create fear due to my lack of experience with horror movies. I was very impressed with the two films I watched: Gooey and Lost In The In-Between. Especially the Lost In The In-Between film where everything works out very nicely together and the cinematographic is immaculate. From the title of the video, I thought this would explore more into the genre and create chances to produce a not so typical horror film where it would be filled with jumpscare of graphic and violence films – this, I thought, would be the ‘new’ aspect. And in a way I think this was partly true because although Gooey has some disturbing scenes, overall both of the films did not focus on scaring the audience with visual images. From what I observe the horror element is showcased mainly through the plot, the atmosphere, the dialog in a subtle way and guides people to think of different scenarios to ignite fear rather than straight up showing them or hinting heavily about spiritual things. The two films also have the same build up and structure where the story would eventually develop to its climax towards the end, which I suppose would be the ‘shock’ element that they want to include. I initially thought there would be some plot twist, however the two movies still work out nice and effectively without the twist. This gives me a new and inspirational insight where they have successfully proved to me that a horror movie can still be done in a very subtle, light and not so graphic style and still have the effect, which I think would be true in not only this genre but also another in a sense that we still can work out something with new approaches and without some typical touch when working with a genre.