Introduction

We have officially begun our Cambridge portfolio project! I'm really excited to be as creative as possible and make something I'm proud of by using everything I've learned in this class thus far. Todays blog is a basic introduction and some research about my general ideas for this project.

 From our previous projects and blog posts I've been able to learn how to research films and genres properly, this is really helpful when building the foundation of a project, which is the key to a good final piece.

For my project I'm debating between 2 genres, horror and thriller. They are somewhat similar but they have a lot of distinct characteristics. I personally love to watch thriller films, and most horror films as well, but nothing too scary..

An interesting psychological thriller I found for my research is, Blink Twice. This film was released in 2024, by director Zoe Kravitz. The story stars Channing Tatum, Naomi Ackie, and Alia Shawkat. The film delves into some heavy concepts of abuse on women, by men. We see this through a young woman's emotional states and how she goes through manipulation. 

(Channing Tatum in Blink Twice as Slater king, the antagonist)

Using symbols to convey messages behind my project is something I would love to include, whether its a thriller or a horror genre opening. It keeps the important message below the surface, and isn't blunt. This keeps viewers thinking and engaged, along with the stimulation components of a thriller. 

To make a thriller film a thriller, we see suspense build up, and tense music in scenes. In the example Blink Twice, which is a physiological thriller we see heavy topics get tackled, to add a psychological component to the film.

For the horror genre, I focused on the movie Scream VI. The newest one was released in 2023, it's director is Matt Bettinelli, and Tyler Gillet. The movie is the sixth sequel, all of them are a continuous timeline of the infamous Ghostface, who is a serial killer. The seventh film is set to release in 2026. 

(Ghostface in Scream VI)

What I took away from this horror movie was how to include jump scares that give a startling reaction to viewers, and how important it is to create the right antagonist for the story. In this case they built this character Ghostface, who is a slasher. All of this would add to my horror element and build the genre if I choose to do a horror opening. 

Something similar I noticed in Scream VI and Blink Twice, is that they both used a pallet of darker colors and lighting. A lot of the scenes in their trailers that I watched used low-key lighting, and this created mystery and suspense for both genres. This is something I think I will definitely add to my opening to create a tense mood, and keep it intriguing. 

Overall, I'm excited to begin my brainstorming and put together ideas for my opening. This genre research definitely helped me narrow down my options and know how to create a opening of that specific genre by using different techniques. 

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog, see you soon! 

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