Week 6 4/25

3 Main Ideas

• The importance of horror
• Challenges when creating a horror film
• Self achievement and new experiences

20 Time One Pager

Horror movies. Are you the type of person that binge watches them Halloween night, or watches them here and there, or maybe you avoid them at all costs. The truth is, you can’t. They make their rounds on the TV, they have their suspenseful commercials including their best jump scares, or maybe you’re on Youtube, about to watch a funny cat video, then BOOM, they advertise by showing their trailer and you have to wait the excruciating five seconds before you can skip the advertisement. People think that scary movies are all blood and gore, that there’s no story, no character development. For some cases, that’s true. When making a horror film, it’s common for people to think that to create a scary movie it’s high budget and all effects. Professionals use grand sets and famous actors, Americans seeing these creations from Hollywood underestimate the work it takes to go through the process of making a film. People think horror movies are blood and gore, but there’s more to the genre than they think.

The author in the article has produced many horror shorts. They say when writing the script, it’s best to keep it simple. One does not simply have a “full scale satanic church with a goat emblazoned altar.” Which is something most people don't have, especially an amateur like me. I’m working with a regular bedroom in my house; no altar, no goat. Sadly. He says it's best to keep your cast and crew happy because they aren't being paid and that is important to me. A piece of advice they have is to focus on the story and not the gore. “Telling a compelling story with characters that feel real and should always come first.” What he said is something I can fully agree with. Also, as a bonus tip, they recommended watching many other short films to see what works and what doesn't work. For me, there will probably many trials of failure before there is success, if there’s even a success. The author says it’s normal with the process of making a film, especially if it’s a beginner.

Horror films are one of my favorite movie and television genres. They have good characters and storylines, but I'd say the horror films full of blood and gore are awful. There's no story or suspense. It grosses me out and it's hard to watch. I enjoy a jump scare here and there, but if people are constantly being tortured and getting limbs torn off, then I'm not a fan. It’s like comparing the Saw movies to the Conjuring movies, to me, they don’t seem like the same genre. Making a set, using the correct lighting, even writing the script was more difficult than I thought it would be. Even though it’s supposed to be a dark and scary set, it actually has to be well lit for good screen quality and then using effects afterward to add the desired lighting. The bottom line: making a film is a handful and takes time.

Week 5 4/17

I chose to contact someone with experience or someone in the field industry of horror movies. As much as I'd like to have a mentor ship and meet famous directors like James Wan, Guillermo Del Toro, Stephan King, or M. Night Shyamalan and learn from them on what makes the best horror films, I sadly can simply send them an email or shadow them for a day. It would be an amazing experience, but close to impossible to accomplish; it isn't a feat that can be accomplished in one three day weekend. I don't think meeting or emailing someone would be any different from finding tutorials on Youtube or the internet. There might be some specific questions that can only pertain to my project specifically, but all horror movies generally follow same guidelines and techniques for a satisfying end product. The Youtuber D4Darius has some really good advice for making short films and he's tried making a few of his own.

Week 4 3/24

I have changed my 20 time project from coffee to making a horror movie or short film. Probably a short film because there won't be enough time to create an entire movie or enough time to view the whole thing in class. If I had to create a whole movie in such short time it would turn out bad. My short film might turn out bad too because I have little experience in film making. This isn't something I can do alone so I'll need people I can rely on throughout this project to help me create and see through to the final product. It'll be a challenge with scheduling because I'm busy with work and my friends who will hopefully be able to help me will be busy with school and work as well. Hopefully I can write out a script with a good story line and plot that actually is the definition of horror. I enjoy scary movies so maybe I will enjoy making one as well.

One Pager 03/03

Coffee is present in our everyday lives. People today tend to believe coffee is too be consumed in the morning to wake one up and keep them alert throughout the day. There are those people who can’t survive without coffee in the morning and then there are those who don’t care for it. Some might believe that coffee is similar to addictive drugs. Those people are either the ones addicted who realized it, or the people who witness the addiction but don’t get into the hype.

Another discussion point is whether or not the caffeine in coffee likely causes insomnia. Insomnia caused by coffee is believed by the general populations because they use the caffeine to wake themselves up in the morning.

In the article “Caffeine Myths and Facts” they start off by saying that caffeine is almost present in everything we consume, but the two main source we get our caffeine from is coffee and tea leaves. When discussing whether caffeine is addictive or not, they confirm that there is some truth in that statement. In their words, “Caffeine is a stimulant to the central nervous system , and regular use of caffeine does cause mild physical dependence,” but they finish their paragraph by saying that caffeine doesn’t threaten our physical, social, or economic health the way addictive drugs do. They say if one were to stop taking caffeine abruptly, one might have symptoms of withdrawal: irritability, depressed mood, and difficulty concentrating. The severity of the withdrawal or harmful drug-seeking behaviors that are a process for street drugs or alcohol is not something that can be caused by caffeine.

The article also labeled caffeine causing insomnia as a myth, as long as the  caffeine isn’t consumed later in the day. It should be should be consumed at least six hours before going to bed, but it depends on metabolism and our metabolism they say. They back those statements up by explaining that caffeine is absorbed in the body quickly. Caffeine is processed through the liver and has a relatively short half-life. This means that after eight to ten hours, 75% of the caffeine is gone.

I would say that I used to believe caffeine is addictive, which it technically is, but not to the degree of drugs or alcohol; which is good. The article supported my idea that consuming caffeine later in the night cause irregular sleep patterns. I know this because I’m the type of person who is more likely to consume caffeine later in the day than in the morning. I believe caffeine helps with my performance at work; it keeps me from getting tired, but when I crash from the caffeine high I’m sluggish and sleepy, sometimes I’ll get headaches. Caffeine can either help or hurt you.

Week 3 02/23

As for progress on my 20 time project I've been able to narrow down what I'm trying to get as an outcome for my project. My goal is more clear thanks to the pitch because I was able to put my ideas into words and paraphrase a plan. I'd like to become a barista of sorts, but my main goal is to see what can be done to create a coffee drink with the utmost quality; starting from how the coffee beans are grown to how the coffee grounds are brewed as an end result.  A difficulty could be that everyone has different tastes. An idea I have is to try taste testing to see if people of different backgrounds or ethnicity have certain tastes they enjoy or dislike more.  There is someone I work with who is a self trained barista and I'm sure from her experience there are things she'll be able to help me with. She's also trained someone who knew nothing about coffee to work in a coffee shop.

Checking in

Julia:

Picking something about which you are passionate is going to serve you well!  There is so much to learn. I am curious to see what you resources end up looking like. Here is my friend, Jarrett's website for Wake Up Iowa. Maybe this will be helpful for learning or reaching out to him or both.