Genre Research

 The science fiction genre, but specifically dystopian films has currently been popular, but it’s golden age was in the 2010’s. A dystopian world means opposite to an Utopian one. Utopia means perfect and Dystopia means imperfect, corrupt. Directors such as Francis Lawrence, director of The Hunger Games, and Neil Burger, known for Divergent, are recognized for their iconic contributes to modern sci-fi. Science Fiction’s main target audience is young adults. 

Dystopian movies are set in oppressive societies, often shown as futuristic or post-apocalyptic worlds. Most of these movies have elements in common like surveillance, social control, protagonists (usually young), rebellion and survival. For example, Divergent follows Tris in a world divided into fractions based on personality traits where she doesn’t fit in, therefore threatening the strict social order. 

Production techniques in dystopian films highlight the oppressive society. Using a muted color palette to illustrate desolation and dehumanize the society. The HUnger Games emphasizes the contrast between the capitol and the districts by portraying muted browns and blacks in the districts and in the capitol there is exaggerated amount of vibrant colors. Costume design also emphasizes this contrast because in the districts, the citizens wear simple and modest clothes meanwhile int he capitol they wear luxury and extravagant clothing. CGI is also heavily used like, for example, The Maze Runner has the maze and the deadly traps that the charac ters need to avoid and escape, and CGI is used to enhance the feeli9ng of danger. 

Dystopian films are marketed through intense trailers, posters, and social media campaigns that interact with the intended audience. Trailers sometimes features moments of suspense and conflict to attract to viewers. Posters typically highlight the protagonist in the dystopian setting like in the Hunger Games or Divergent. With most of these movies, they’re based on books. So fan interactions and character reveals build anticipation for the book fans. 

The Hunger Games is one of the most famous dystopian films. It features Katniss’s journey rebelling against her oppressive government. This film’s production contrasts the luxury of the Capitol and the poverty of the districts, demonstrating the society’s inequality. The movie’s marketing emphasized its adaptation from the best-seller book by Suzanne Collins. 

Divergent is a very popular among dystopian movies that shows a futuristic society that divides its population into four factions based on personality. Tris is the protagonist in the movie who doesn’t fit in. She is divergent, therefore becoming a target in the government’s eyes. Tris’s story shows individuality versus societal pressure. The color scheme is cold, and uses a different color pallette for each faction, emphasizing their segregation. The marketing relied mostly on the popularity on the popularity of the books.  

Other movies that are dystopian are Maze Runner (2014), The Giver (2014), Elysium (2013), Tomorrowland (2015), and Ready Player One (2018). 

Representation in Little Women

 "Little Women" Is a fil that represents society after the Civil War and the poverty-struck families. The four March sisters try to succeed in a society that's against independent women. Greta Gerwig's film is based on the book "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott. In this post I'll be talking about the representation of the second oldest sibling, Jo March, and the youngest sister, Amy March.

Jo was shown as the rebellious child, and Greta Gerwig, the director, used the technique of othering to represent Jo. The second oldest in the family wanted to be a writer in a world where women only did housekeeping for their husbands. She didn't want to marry, she wanted to be an author and support her family financially. She didn't fit into the stereotypical girl back in the 1800s, she cut most of her hair off to give money to her mom, and dressed simply. She is the stereotypical rebellious middle child who doesn’t dance at parties and would rather play outside. She rejects any affection towards her and thinks love won't last in a marriage (Laurie proposes to Jo), but when she achieves her goal, she doesn’t want to be lonely (Jo wants to be loved). She’s also very ambitious and when her sister, Amy, burnt her book that she was writing, she was persistent hating her until Amy almost drowned because of Jo. When the other sister, Beth, got sick with scarlet fever twice, she paused her dreams, and decided to stay and nurse her sister back to being healthy and the second time Beth got sick, she stayed around even after the funeral to write a memoir about their life in remembrance of Beth.

Amy is the opposite of Jo. She is the epitome of elegance but has a modern view of gender in society, proving her point when she gets to an argument with Laurie about her role in society where she doesn’t own anything, it would her husband’s (marriage is an economic proposition- Amy and Laurie). Since she was young, she had wanted to be a painter in paris, and she achieved that goal. When Beth got sick the first time, she went to live with her rich aunt. And when her aunt took her to Paris to paint and find suitable suitors for her. When she got proposed to, she rejected him because she was in love with Laurie. They get eloped when their coming back for Beth's funeral because nobody had told Amy that she was sick. She’s the stereotypical overlooked bratty spoiled little sister but had a huge character development at the end. Amy is unapologetically herself was overlooked by her older sisters, but she got her happy ending marrying the love of her life that’s also very wealthy. Amy has always felt that the world is against her and society is built for men and not women.

Sound Project

 

I learnt quite a lot about sounds because I had never realized before how much effort went into this part of film. All the layering, techinques, such as, synchronous and asynchronous sounds, motif, and sound perspectives have changed the way I view common sounds inthe films I watch.

For this project, I had to create a scene that compromised action that would occur in a 1-2 minute timespan. So at first, me and my parnter decided to do a safari ride, but we figured out that a savannah tour would take more than 2 minutes. So we got to thinking, and decided to do a basketball court. We created a very detailed outline of everything we could add, which helped a lot, and started gathering the sounds. Thanks to the outline, that was easy, because we had highlighted all the sounds we needed to make, find the sounds online, and what we already had. After gathering all of the sounds, we used Davinci Resolve to edit the project.

I think for next time we could layer the sounds better to add more dimension to the scene and make clear, what was happening and where. I believe one thing we did really well was having a variety of sounds so we could use the best one for each moment.

D'AllevaMoreno_soundscape_per1