Western AHHH Credits

After debating whether to choose Western or Sci-Fi, we decided to do Western, as it would be really unique. Western peaked in popularity during the '50s with directors like John Ford, four times Oscar winner, and considered by some the greatest director of all time, making a whole filmography based on Westerns. As an "old" genre, some formalities are maybe a little bit old-fashioned, but I'm pretty sure we can make it work. So, because of this, in this blog post I'll research some examples of iconic title screens used in Western films. But before this, a little history research on "Western fonts."

The type of font related to Western is called "Tuscan." Its origins can be traced back to the 4th century, but its popularization sees its origin in American Wood Typing. The time that the 6-line cut of Hamilton’s No 14 (Antique Tuscan Expanded) was manufactured is not clear, but it is probably around 1800.

This type of font started playing a key role in America's visual culture during the 19th century. Due to its popularity, several styles for Tuscan fonts were developed during this time period. Westerns are usually set during the mid-19th century, which makes sense for them to use these types of fonts as they were part of American culture during this time, trying to represent it as close to reality as possible.

Antique Tuscan: semiornamental  

Antique Shade Tuscan: 

More ornamental antique tuscans

Ornamental Tuscan 

Now some movie samples!!

Rio Bravo

A font with a vibrant yellow and red that contrasts with the a little bit desaturated establishing shot in the back is used for both credits and title screen. This looks like an antique light shade Tuscan, not really ornamental, which makes sense, because a really ornamental font will take all the attention off the shot that is behind.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Once again, title screen and opening credits go together; this time they don't have a shot behind. They use a font with serifs, getting closer to an ornamental Tuscan. The signs used for the credits make reference to the origins of Tuscans in wood typing, making it more representative of the Western aesthetic.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

A way more ornamental font is used for these credits and title screen. It really follows that Western image that lies in the collective unconscious.

For our film opening, as we only have two minutes, I believe the most appropriate thing to do is put the credits on the shots rather than making separate graphics for them, as we want to show other types of techniques during the film. As the examples show, for not dragging the whole attention off the shot, a semi-ornamental Tuscan would be appropriate for this task.

I found this website that has several samples of fonts that match this description. Click here to see the website.

Examples: 

Research sites: https://woodtype.org/blogs/news/91-antique-tuscans-in-america

How to start a movie about sci-fi cowboys

For our film opening, we are really interested in two genres: Western and Sci-Fi, and the possibility of combining them. This is ambitious, as they are really different genres, and they are already hard to do separately. But we have a good team and I think it would be good to take the challenge.

The project consists of creating a film opening, so, in the following post, I'll be describing, analyzing, and reflecting on two Westerns (McCabe & Mrs. Miller and THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY), and for Sci-Fi, as it is a genre that I know better, it will be only one film, and it will be the classic Blade Runner.

McCabe & Ms Miller

McCabe & Mrs. Miller is a Western film that tells the story of a gambler and a prostitute who become partners in a mining town in the Old West. The opening, quickly after a wind diegetic sound which establishes a mood of solitude, inserts a song by Leonard Cohen to show a lonely man riding his horse alone through the woods. The wide aspect ratio benefits these long shots that seek to establish the place the film takes place (a fictional town in Washington) as well as to highlight how lonely this character is by showcasing how small and alone he looks in a big environment, through the shot composition.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY tells the story of a group of three men that get together to seek a treasure. From this opening I'd like to highlight how several appraches are made to some extent. The use of long shot stablishes the place, but the constant use of inserts stablish a serious and tensioning tone. 

Blade Runner

Prior to some long shots of a futuristic LA comes the opening credits, in a black screen and a serif font (these fancy fonts with detail on the edges), and after this, text gives context to the world that the movie is going to show. I believe this text uses the same font, to maintain the serious tone established by the music during the credits. After this, a series of shots of the city are shown.

Analysis and Reflection

As a common trait, all of them use their wide aspect ratio for a series of establishing shots (long shots), all of them establishing an environment: forest (McCabe & Mrs. Miller), futuristic L.A. (Blade Runner), and the desert (THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY). This is done because making the setting clear is of high importance to these films due to their unique settings. This is great news, as for my previous posts I said how the approach that establishes a setting or context is the one I find the most organic. Despite sharing the same approach, I believe combining these two genres may be really difficult, as we would have to establish two almost opposite concepts, and at the same time.

The three film openings take almost the whole two minutes until they show a close-up of their characters; THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY is the exception, showing close-ups of two characters around 00:00:40. This would be a good window to showcase some elements of the mise-en-scène, like props or costume design, to show either Western or sci-fi elements.

Another window to establish the coexistence of both genres can be like a tool Blade Runner uses: a text that summarizes a little bit of the context. This would be the easiest one, but there are two problems with it. It is a low-key and lazy way to do it, and it would consume precious time of the two minutes we have for the film opening. It is a good tool to expose, but due to the context, it won't be useful. I believe we may decide just to go with one of the two genres.

Exploration of possible genres for portafolio project

As I stated in my last post, the approaches that I would like to have are either setting, context, or a character. The ones I would like the most are setting and context, as I feel they would feel the most natural to be exposed in the first two minutes of a film, giving a sight of what could come, but not giving away too much. Genres that could fit for this idea are sci-fi and a historical drama, in which in two minutes of film I would be able to suggest a different time or setting. Of course, we don't have a lot of resources, but maybe using dark shots and some colored lights, and a couple of props, we could make it work.

Sci-fi

This genre explores the possibilities of science and technology, materializing them in a futuristic setting or through futuristic concepts. The visuals for these films are stunning as they portray things that the audience hasn't seen in real life. A key element for this is the world-building, in which authors tend to charge their worlds with new things or futuristic representations of daily life activities so the audience can stay engaged learning new things about the world. Doing something like that would be really cool.

Historical drama

A historical drama tries to recreate historical events, figures, or societies with some changes for narrative purposes to enhance the drama. Depending on which time period we may use, establishing a setting may be easier, as we can use mise-en-scène elements such as costume design to establish the setting and not give away a lot. We can also maybe use dialogues, as we could use Old English to help establish the time period. This will be hard, but with some previous preparation, it would be really fun to do, and we could have a great outcome.

Transition: Cambriege Portafolio

Until this moment, this blog's purpose has been to show the preparation for this project. Reviewing some terms and techniques that I already knew, and diving deeper into their application, and of course learning new stuff, all in order to produce a two-minute film opening. I've developed a lot of filmmaking experience this school year, which I'm really excited to put into practice for this. I'm also working with a great group, and we work well with each other. Still, I believe working in a group for a small, time-sensitive project (two minutes) may bring a lot of creative differences, but if we get a cool idea, I'm sure we will create something good together.

I believe the best approach we can take is one in which we expose a context or character, as this demands the most work, making it make sense to have four heads thinking instead of just one. From the sample film openings we watched, I really liked the one of the girl in the '90s. It kind of mixes both approaches and establishes the conflict, setting, context, and, to some extent, the personality of the main character. Usually, in an actual feature film, not much is developed in two minutes of the opening, with some exceptions, of course. So, I'd like to find a middle ground. I believe establishing a clear background and even setting, or a clear character, would be great—not developing too much so it feels natural, but also getting to show something to the audience.

Blog Music Project

 In this video, we show the process of my team's music project. Talking a little bit about the production of the music video and the presentation. 

In case the video doesn't work: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1l0UULh1QcVIlwe45xwxzFnA2w09JX2ah/view?usp=sharing

Music Marketing

As part of our midterm, we were assigned to create an artist from scratch and design a marketing campaign for them. Previous to this assignment, we researched how some bands under the same spectrum (Rock subgenres) marketed themselves and how they were part of the artists' brand.

For my case study, I researched Gorillaz, a band with a really particular marketing campaign, where they use cross-media convergence to build a narrative world around their fictional members. Gorillaz is a brilliant example of how to engage users through social media. For our artist, we won't be able to apply many of the concepts explored by Gorillaz, as our artist Sylas is a small artist and wouldn't have the funds to raise a huge campaign like Gorillaz, but I would take an element that I really like, which is how innovative their concerts are. Of course, we couldn't make anything like Gorillaz live events, but I researched for an alternative that could work for a small artist, finding an interactive experience between artist and fans. Where fans would have the opportunity to do activities like designing album covers, have a meet and greet, and then listen to live music.

As another part of the assignment, we were assigned to make a music video of already existing songs. We chose "Time is Running Out" by Muse. After choosing the song, we had a base to build our artist. We wanted the artist to match the vibes of the song, so we went for a dark aesthetic, but we gave her an eccentric personality, almost like a misfit, but we made her be proud of it. She is also young and rebellious, searching to connect with younger audiences, as these audiences are the ones that are most exposed to social media. This was what we made during the first days as we were focusing on planning the video, as we were shooting that weekend. Later on, we added details to her background like her coming from Flint, Michigan, which is said to be one of the most depressing places, and made her escape to New York, as she felt she needed more. Also, other details of her life like not having gone to college or a past toxic relationship that would be the reason behind the song "Time is Running Out." She is also really creative, that's why for her music video we aimed for an artistic vision, and the little part that could be referred to as narrative is really metaphorical.

We used these two lines as the base for the music video concept. The song basically talks about fighting against the desire of a toxic relationship, a relationship that is described more like an obsession than anything. Under this premise, and the first line in the picture, we translated this to a person voluntarily drowning. First, with some shots of Sylas looking at a person drowning in a loop on her TV, we would portray the obsession. The video would be mainly blue, but will have some elements of red/orange resembling fire, that will be representing Sylas and how it can be extinguished by water, which, as previously mentioned, would represent this other person in the relationship.

With this really ambiguous storyline, we wanted to leave room for the artistic element, which is light, to shine, but at the same time represent Sylas's strong sense of creativity. But we also had to make it a promo video as it would be her first song and the artist should be exposed in her first video. For the promo videos, we kept the water topic by using a reflector to put a water texture over Emi who was singing as Sylas. These promo shots also have our main artistic element, which is light.

In the following days, we will focus on editing the video and making our brand stronger. By portraying Sylas's personality traits in different social media posts. We would like to use Instagram and TikTok to promote her music as it is free and can reach a lot of people. We would like to use her funny side to reach a lot of people. Something I haven't discussed with the group but I think would be good is making videos like Ricky Montgomery, who is a small artist with a lot of financial problems, so he just makes super cheap videos that, because of being cheap, are funny and highly engaging.

We weren't really effective the first couple of days, but today we made massive progress and we are on a good path.

 

Crime & Gangster Genre

Crime & gangster films 

Crime films are those films that portray stories about crimnal activity, law enforcement or invetigation. Being gangsters films more of a subgenre of crime film, focusing on organized crime comited by criminal organizations. This films are characterized by a dark thone sparked by a high amount of violence. This aims to reach a male adult audience. 

Conventions

The conventions of crime and gangsters film come mainly from the film noir; popular during the 40's and 50's. Taking elements from crime movies like the classic and original Scarface (1932) but also from movies which plot isn't crime orientated the entirity of the film like Orson Welle's Lady From Shangai (1947), Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard (1950) or even a romance film like Gilda (1946) with Rita Hayworth. Film noir has an unoptimistic vision of society, portraying it as vicious, corrupt and violent. This is reflected in its characters. Being characterized for their cold and sometimes hopeless nature. This can affect the main character even if it is a policemen or detective. This is done with the intentiont of making the difference between good and bad almost imperceptible. This steryotype of a cold main character hasn't died even with the passage of time. In movies like Drive (2011) we got a modern vision to what this characters used to be. 

In film noir there is a key figure called the "Femme Fatale". A charming woman that seduces the main character and usually tricks him to achieve her personal purpposes. This figure is used to show some sence of humanity or weakness in the main character. This element is still being used; for example; the whole James Bond franchise makes use of this element. Now a days with the evolution of culture the audience may want to see humanity portrayed through a different lence and not just succumbing to carnal desire. There are new conventions that are used to depict this; family bonds in movies like The Godfather (1972) or a genuine romantic interest in movies like Carlitos Way (1993) or the desire to protect a son/daugther figure like in the case of Leon the Profesional (1994). 

Production Conventions 

In crime & gangster films the colors used are often dark. Colors as grey and black are predominant. It is also important to highlight the prescence of red, as the color of blood and the representation of violence. Low level lighting, and a lot of contrast between highlights and shadows are conventions that also come from the days of film noir. 

Crime cinema almost without exception takes place in urban areas. Clothing is another really characteristic element of the mise en scene of crime movies. Suits and ties for men, and fancy dresses for women are almost mandatory in gangster films. This can change deppending on the setting, but for classical hollywood gangster films is almost a rule. The props and make up highly contrast with this elegant vibe, being that both usully reflect violence. Crime films use makeup to show blood and scars and the props are ofcourse weapons, like guns and knives. 

Institutional Conventions 

How can movies about the world of crime, which audiences feel so distant from should be marketed. The key to make this stories attractive and capable of reaching audiences is representation. As the stories can choose to play with the audiences morbid that has grown over time and show explicit content. The other aspect of representation that works as a great piece of marketing is using the criminal world to explore social problematics that can concern an adult audience. The already mentioned Scareface talks about immigration and works as a critique towards the american dream. 

Jackie Brown (1997)

Jackie Brown directed by the well known Quentin Tarantino, is a crime film that actually is a little bit special. This movie doesn't have the dark, neutral colors and low lights the genre is characterized by. It actually is a really colorful movie, and this colors have high saturation. The costume design is also different from usual crime films. Samuel Jackson's (Ordel) character who is a weapon delear he wears pretty casual clothes, that match his really calmed energy he reflects despite his dngerous work. But this also is meant to represent how he is not a professional at all, because at the end of the film we see how Jackie a normal woman is able to get her way, ending up with Ordells death. 

Another aspect in how Jackie Brown is different to conventional crime movies is the lack of violence. This movie is mainly driven through dialogue. This gives a deeper view into the characters allowing the audience to see how they can be related to classical figures in the genre. Jackie, the main character  despite being the minor force in the confrontation between the police and Ordilles, her cold nature helped her fight without hessitation. Also the pessimistic look that main characters have is seen as she is really concerned about how she will keep on living making so little money. But there is another thing I found really interesting about her character. It could be argue that she plays a role of a femme fatal a role normally given to a secondary character but as the main character. Being caught in the middle of the confrontation of Ordilles and the police, she is able to manipulate both sides to steal the money of one of Ordilles biggest sell. This femme fatal role is easy to see when she involes Max Cherry a lawyer in her plan, taking advantge of him because she knew he liked her. 

This movie also represents the struggle of the working class being a key element for the audience to feel related. As well as it portrays a woman as a strong figure opening the possibility of a wider target audience.

Casino (1995) 

One of my favorites if not my favorite Martin Scorsese's film. A film that follows the conventions of its genre: luxury and fancy clothing for both man and women, a lot of contrst with deep black shadows but due to the casino environment going a little bit out of the conventions and using more vivid colors. But it is the maximum exponent of a fast pacing and a lot of violence. The film is almost like a montage of events, with its characters as first person narrators (element popularized in film noir crime films) that increase this pacing. 

This movie that offers a contrast between the characters of Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, but both of them fit into classical crime movies charcters. In one hand Ace Rothstein (De Niro) is a more calm and calculator mind, who tries to have everything under control. In the other hand Nicky (Pesci) is a highly impulsive gangster that acts before thinking. Characters like this are really common to trigger clonficts in gangster film. An example could be Sonny Corleone in the Godfather 1972. 

I've talked a lot about the figure of the femme fatal, and Casino isn't an exception. In this movie Ace marries a femme fatal and tries to control her but her selfshish nature is what takes Ace's empire to the ruin. 

Love this movie fr. 

Other Film Samples. 

    La Haine (1995) 

    Taxi Driver (1976) 

    Reseirvoir Dogs (1992)

    Killers of The Flower Moon (2023) 

    Irrational Man (2015) 

    Nine Queens (2000)

Representation

This is an essay analyzing LGBTQ+ representation in a TV show I watched a couple of weeks ago, which I really liked. It is called "No One Will Miss Us." It's on Amazon Prime, and I highly recommend it.

Representation in No One Will Miss Us

No One Will Miss Us is a miniseries released in 2024. It is set in the 1990s in a Mexican high school, following a group of friends who do others' homework in exchange for money. Under this premise, various issues are explored through its characters, with one focus being on the underrepresented LGBTQ+ community and its struggles, which is the subject of this essay. The 90s setting is used so the writers can employ homosexuality as a deeper plot device, as it was less accepted than it is today. This environment affects the characters' self-perception.

The two characters that the series uses to represent homosexuality are Alex and Rafa. Unlike the typical portrayal of gay men in media, these two do not follow the usual stereotypes. Rafa is open about his sexuality, while Alex is in the process of accepting his feelings. Rafa’s character is presented as alternative and unconventional. His unique clothes and accessories, such as earrings, stand out compared to the other characters’ costumes. This reflects a real-life stereotype, where LGBTQ+ individuals are often seen as more open-minded, expressing this through their style. Some aspects of his acting also portray how he is different. He has a more refined way of speaking and sophisticated body language that doesn’t fall into typical stereotypes but challenges the usual image of the Latin American man.

On the other hand, because Alex hasn’t yet accepted his sexual orientation, he doesn’t show any signs of it in his clothing or behavior. He appears to be a regular straight teenager until he sees Rafa for the first time. His body language reveals his nervousness and the development of romantic feelings, highlighted by a subtle and constant twitch of his foot, shown through a close-up. Alex’s narrative arc is accepting his sexuality despite the societal values imposed on him.

Latin American culture has always been closely tied to religious values, which heavily influence how the LGBTQ+ community is viewed. This is part of the show's selection towards representation . When rumors about Alex’s sexuality start to spread, his environment responds with bullying and rejection, trying to break him down. Alex is mentally strong and isn’t deeply affected, but it does change his mindset toward the topic. Another character who represents the LGBTQ+ community is the teacher, Ilse, who is a lesbian. She offers Alex support, someone to talk to, but Alex, influenced by his surroundings, rejects both her help and his own feelings. In the end, he is able to accept his true self after self-reflection, but Ilse’s character shows how important a supportive environment can be.

No One Will Miss Us provides excellent LGBTQ+ representation, as it portrays challenges that members of the community can relate to. It creates a realistic depiction that fulfills its purpose. 

Sound Project

Sound is an often overlooked element while consuming media, but it is extremely important and arguably the most difficult element to produce. I consume a lot of media and try to appreciate sound design, but I didn’t know much about the terms used or how to classify the different types of sounds. So, the lesson before the actual project was really useful. Through different examples in films, I understood how the different types of sound work together to create meaning. It was a good starting point for our project, which consisted of creating our own soundscape—at least one minute but no more than two minutes long. Like the previous project, this one- to two-minute story had to be something that could happen in real life within the same time frame.

To plan our project, my partner and I decided to set our story somewhere related to water. We thought water provided a lot of opportunities to create a deep soundscape with a variety of sounds. To focus on making a rich soundscape, we chose a story about a man fishing in a swamp, where we could incorporate a lot of animal and nature noises. Thinking about these elements was our main task during brainstorming because the sounds a man could make while fishing were easy to imagine. We wanted to focus more on recreating the sound of nature in a swamp. So, we wrote down different kinds of birds and bugs, which ultimately created a pretty good background sound.

Our outline was divided into six plot points, which helped us plan how to change the background sound to indicate something happening. For example, the first plot point that changed our sound design was when the man arrived in a boat. As the sound of the engine slowly increased, we added sounds of birds flying away or animals jumping into the water to show how they reacted to the engine. In the outline, we also planned a sound perspective where the background noise would go silent, allowing the audience to focus on the moment the fisherman hooks a worm. We did all of this in Adobe Premiere, where I knew how to adjust the audio volume gradually. Premiere was also useful for creating a static effect in the music, so it sounded like it was coming from a radio, which was an important element in one of our scenes.

I was really pleased with the outcome of the project. It was extremely fun to make, and I think we achieved our goals. For the next project, I’d like to try more complex techniques, but I believe I’ll have that opportunity when we mix both audio and visuals. For a sound-only project, I think there’s little to improve.

Project: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1c7iBc0bR8M8-vh72FIMeF6QRMvfPYPLV/view?usp=drive_link

One Word Film Project

This project consisted of making a 1-2 minute short film based on a random word given to us. The short film had to follow several limitations, such as no dialogue, allowing only instrumental music and sound effects, and the story presented had to be something that could realistically occur within 1-2 minutes in real life.

The word given to my partner and me was "hateful." The condition of a real-life 1-2 minute story really limited us, so during our brainstorming, we focused on finding a way to make the word stand out in such a short period. We quickly decided to make the story about a bully, but we struggled for a while to figure out what he could do to make him appear hateful within our limited time. We concluded that we would focus on showing how the bully enjoyed tormenting the victim. This enjoyment would easily make him deserving of hate.

With this as the main drive of our story, we quickly thought of showing the bully in close-up shots so the audience could always see a smile on his face. While drawing the storyboard, we used mid shots for the bully only when we needed to show him goofing around or using his arms. The storyboarding allowed us to plan a narrative where the hateful nature of the bully was easily portrayed through his smile and enjoyment, so we could conclude the short film by materializing the victim’s hatred with a single, simple shot.

We edited the film in Premiere. Both of us had experience with the program, so we worked together on color grading. It was a bit challenging because some of the shots ended up being really dark. However, this didn’t cause any issues with the cuts. Using shot/reverse shot techniques, we enhanced the relationship between the bully and the victim throughout the short film.

Overall, I think the project was solid. The story was simple, but that's what a 1-2 minute real-life story calls for. The editing was really good. Interestingly, my partner and I ended up using very different techniques to achieve the same objective. I think his approach was better, so I’d like to spend more time on editing in my next project. Another area we could have improved was time management. We finished just in time, so some of the final shots were rushed and didn’t turn out as well as we had hoped. However, the project did include some high-quality shots that I’m really happy with, which shows a good sign of improvement.

Project: https://drive.google.com/file/d/13J2b4AUo6ebb3R6_xL4_1zfuRDoiQrUl/view?usp=sharing

Shot Quiz

For our first quiz in this class, we were limited to telling a story through a set of fifteen shots. There were other conditions, such as using inanimate objects as our main subjects, incorporating ten specific types of shots, and working in pairs. The main purpose of the activity was to demonstrate our understanding of the types of shots learned in class, enhancing our storytelling through our shot selections. The primary task for my partner and me was to determine which shot would best communicate a feeling or sensation during the story.

With this in mind, we created a shot list, matching plot points of the story with shots that would effectively portray the particular emotions conveyed in each scene. Our story ended up being quite ambitious for a small task like this one, so we had a hard time ensuring that the story was understood solely through images.

We decided to tell the story of an old book that no one wants to read because it is in poor condition. This results in the book losing its confidence, symbolized by it losing one of its pages. Another book, one in good condition, helps the old book regain its confidence by placing the fallen page back. The story aims to convey a deeper meaning, though it is somewhat subtle. To try to clarify this message, we focused on making the shots look dramatic, with a lot of contrast between highlights and shadows added in post-production. This, I would say, was our strongest point; thanks to my partner's skills, we were able to create high-contrast images that matched the mood we were aiming for.

As previously stated, the story we came up with was a bit pretentious, and I believe we could have done a better job of giving complete meaning to our shots. One particular aspect we could have improved is the clearer identification of the types of shots. Our subjects were books, so distinguishing between a mid-shot and a close-up was really difficult. If we had managed to frame our subjects more effectively, the narrative intentions of our shots would have been more specific, giving us the chance to portray drama through different elements.

For example, this shot was meant to generate intrigue about what the new book was going to do with the page. That is why we chose a mid-shot, so the spectator could see a large part of the subject, as well as the page and its surroundings, trying to anticipate some sort of movement. However, we framed too much of the subject, making it a shot that didn’t fulfill its purpose correctly.

Another aspect we could improve is our management of time. We ended up having to rush the final shots, resulting in lower quality.

Overall, I learned a lot from this assignment, and I’ll focus on improving my mistakes in future projects.

Link: https://www.canva.com/design/DAGPMZNe9_4/--TyNFTMxOimlPCLT-VAHQ/edit?utm_content=DAGPMZNe9_4&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton