Genre Research

Fantasy

Fantasy films tend to include many magic elements, mythical creatures, and usually begin with a quest to be achieved at the end. Most of the time there is a fight of good against evil, which is the main storyline.

The production techniques mostly use very elaborate costumes, special effects for the "magic" scenes, and the sets are designed to seem as if they're from another dimension.

For marketing, visual elements like dragons, wizards, and castles are used to attract people to watch the film. Common themes like fighting evil also attract more viewers.

The Wizard of Oz

This film includes many fictional characters with very detailed costumes, fantasy-like backgrounds, and includes a quest to find the wizard so thatDorothy can go back to Kansas. 

The Princess Bride

This movie has many fighting scenes to fight against evil and save the princess after she was kidnapped. There was very elaborate costuming to really show that the setting is fictional and the storyline is made to keep the viewer engaged/entertained.

More examples:

• The Lord of the Rings
• The Hobbit 
• Harry Potter
• Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Representation

This blog will be dedicated to analyzing the display of representation in the tv show The Good Place.

Eleanor Shellstrop

Her character starts the series as selfish and morally flawed. Eleanor's background is explained as she is in the working-class division of society. This is represented especially through her use of explicit language and her lack of knowledge about other cultures or philosophy/philosophers. These traits reinforce stereotypes about class and its correlation with intelligence, suggesting that people from lower class backgrounds may not have the same moral or mental experience as other people who might come from wealthier, more educated backgrounds. However, as Eleanor evolves throughout the series, the show begins to deconstruct these stereotypes, showing that personal growth and moral improvement are not necessarily dependent on a person's economic class status.

Chidi Anagonye

This character represents a more complex combination of identity. He is a black scholar from Senegal and works in contrast to some stereotypical representations of black men in media, who are often associated with physical or athletic abilities. Chidi's identity as a philosopher helps break those stereotypes and allows people to relate black characters to play the roles of intelligent people. His extreme indecisiveness becomes a big part of his character and helps develop certain parts of the plot. This could be seen as exoticizing the "other" by emphasizing his Senegal heritage and displaying him as a person who overly-thinks to the point of breaking down.

The diversity within cast features an Asian-American woman (Tahani Al-Jamil), a Nigerian-British man (Chidi Anagonye), and a South Asian man (Jason Mendoza).

One of the other types of representation in The Good Place is how it separates morality from Western traditions. While Chidi, Eleanor, and Michael spend much of the series discussing traditional Western philosophical ideas, the inclusion of non-Western perspectives like Buddhist and Hindu concepts of reincarnation, karma, and cosmic justice expands the moral universe of the show. By introducing these ideas, the series "decenters" the dominant Western moral framework and opens space for alternative worldviews, though it sometimes presents these concepts in simplified or romanticized ways.

In conclusion, The Good Place navigates representation with a blend of progressive and problematic elements. While it celebrates diversity and offers characters from a wide range of backgrounds, it also falls into patterns of exoticizing and stereotyping, particularly in its portrayal of non-white characters. Yet, by decentering traditional Western moral frameworks, it broadens the conversation about what it means to live a good life, inviting viewers to consider a more inclusive and complex worldview.

Sound Project Reflection

Assignment Description:

For this project, we worked in pairs to develop a 1-2 minute soundscape describing a scene with action.

The plot of the story had to be carried out with only sound; the only thing visible could be a black screen or a still shot related to the storyline. If we wanted to use words, we had a limit of 7 total to use, and they had to relate to our plot of the story. We also had to add in a minimum of 4 homemade foley sounds.  

Planning/ development:

My partner and I decided to develop a scene of a lady leaving a restaurant and being a firsthand witness to a nearby car crash.

To carry out our idea, we created a word document with a rundown of our scenes, the sounds we were going to use within each scene, and we labelled which sounds we were going to make our "foley sounds."

Once the planning was done, we used the website Pixabay (https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/search/youtube/) to collect premade sounds like background chatter, plates clattering, glass breaking, etc. We also recorded our foley sounds in addition to the premade ones.

After all were done, we used Adobe Premiere to join the audio components and layer them in proportion to our story.

Reflection:

I think that my partner and I could've worked better on a few of the foley sounds, and the placement of other audios. Despite this, the action that is occurring is quite clear and can be interpreted correctly.

Our project:

Sound Project

One Word Film Reflection

Assignment Description:

For this assignment, we worked in pairs to develop a short film representing a specific word given to us by our teacher.

In the film, we weren’t allowed to include any dialogue or music with words, which really forced us to think outside the box on how to develop it. We were instructed to use different camera shots and angles along with a few editing techniques that were taught to us in class. 

Planning/ development:

The word that we got assigned was “Envious”.

Me and my partner began our assignment by completing a brainstorming sheet to list out our idea for the film and how we were going to execute it using all the techniques we’ve learned in class. 

Once we had created a solid storyline, we created a storyboard to illustrate our film and make it easier to visualize. This helped us decide whether or not our idea was going to work out well or not and what the shots were goig to look like when executed.

After all our planning was done and we got our teacher’s approval, we began with the filming.

Then, we summed up all our clips into a single video using iMovie. This software helped us cut up our film to the shots we wanted and it could all be done with much ease. The brainstorming and storyboard sheets helped us put together the film in the order we visualized it in and also helped us remember what editing techniques were going to be used at each part of the film.

Reflection:

Things I think needed more work were the story part of the project, and put more thought into our idea portion.

However, I think the main idea of our film was pretty clear and the editing came out well.

Our project:

One Word Film

Camara Shots Quiz Reflection

Assignment Description:

For this assignment, we worked in groups of two.

The instructions stated we should create a visual story using two inanimate objects as protagonists. We had to include 15 shots, such as establishing shot, long shot, medium shot, close-up shots, extreme close-up shots, a point of view shot, and angle shots. The last few shots were our choice.

The goal of this project was to develop a story through photographs and organization of various shot types.

Planning/development:

We mapped out the basic points of the assignment and started brainstorming ideas for our story. Once we decided on a solid plot, we moved onto the characters of our story. We thought about the basic items we had in our bags, and chose two things as our protagonists, which happened to be a dry shampoo bottle and an empty makeup bag. 

For our shots, we picked the ones which conveyed the strongest themes to go along with our scenes.

Reflection:

Overall, I think that my parter and I completed our project with great success and elaborated our story thoroughly and payed attention to the essential points of the assigned project.

I believe our story has a great impact on the viewer and really portrays the idea we wanted it to.

Something I wish could've been different was the scenery, which we expected to have been different, which led to a shift in the story.

Our project:

The Lost Bottle

Introductory Post

Hello all! My name is Ale, short for Alejandra, and I'm creating this post as an introduction to my journey into learning the essentials of media studies. I am very excited to see things from a different point of view, and especially to be blogging about it on here! :)