Genre Research

 Musical Comedy

Genre Conventions (Content):

-Diversity in characters 

-Catchy choreography

-Comedic timing

-Stereotypes

Genre Conventions (Production Technique):

-Colorful costume design

-Bright lighting 

-Voiceovers

Institutional Conventions:

-Celebrity cameos

-Touring productions

-Covers of popular songs

-Can be geared toward any age group

Film Sample #1: Pitch Perfect

Pitch Perfect portrays musical comedy through acapella performances and comedic content. The acapella groups featured in the film have iconic costume designs that portray each group appropriately.  The Barden Bellas wear matching flight attendant-like outfits, while the Treblemakers wear matching suits. There is diversity in the characters, each character has a distinct personality that uses stereotypes to create comedy. For example, "Fat Amy" is depicted as having a bold personality and often uses her weight as a punchline in her jokes. The movie series features various celebrity cameos including Snoop Dogg, Jimmy Kimmel, DJ Khaled, and Ruby Rose. Overall, Pitch Perfect embodies the musical comedy genre because of its character diversity, costume design, song covers, and celebrity cameos. 

Film Sample #2: Glee

Glee is another great example of the musical comedy genre. It has amazing representation and diversity in race, gender, sexuality, age, etc. The show features various people of color, disabled individuals, and LGBT characters whose backgrounds are often used as comedic opportunities. Glee plays into high school stereotypes, the jocks and cheerleaders, and how they perceive musical theatre kids. Many pop culture references are featured in Glee as well as hundreds of cover performances throughout the show. Several costume choices have also been made in Glee, the cheerleaders wear an iconic red and white uniform, and other protagonists have interesting outfit choices that become a part of their character. The characters tell stories through their musical performances, and lighting choices are also made to better portray what the characters are going through. Glee is well-known for having iconic celebrities make cameos on the show. Celebrities that appear on the show include Britney Spears, Demi Lovato, Kate Hudson, John Stamos, and many more. 

Other examples of the musical comedy genre include:

School of Rock

Mamma Mia!

Hairspray

Alvin and the Chipmunks

High School Musical

Representation in 'The Last of Us'

                                           *This post contains spoilers for The Last of Us Part II*

 The Last of Us is my favorite franchise of all time, not only for its beautiful storytelling or stunning graphics, but I also admire its diverse representation of characters throughout the story. Both games showcase a variety of character types and explore themes of mental illness, inclusivity, and LGBT representation. The Last of Us follows Joel, a smuggler who is tasked with bringing Ellie, a teenage girl who is immune from the zombie virus, across the country to create a cure. The two must survive through a grueling post-apocalyptic world which creates a father-daughter bond between them. In The Last of Us Part II, we see Ellie struggling with grief and we begin to realize that actions have consequences. 

       LGBT representation is very prevalent in The Last of Us. Ellie, the main protagonist of the second game is a lesbian and in a relationship with Dina, a bisexual. Her relationship with Dina is portrayed lovingly and becomes an important aspect of the story. Lev, a member of the Seraphites, is transgender. We hear about his struggles with being prosecuted by his religion for it, but he is able to overcome it. This franchise also breaks traditional gender roles, with the protagonists who don't conform to genderstereotypes. Abby, another protagonist in Part II, has a muscular build that is not typically seen in female characters. Both Ellie and Abby are portrayed as very capable, strong women which I know has been inspiring to me and millions of other women.                                                 

  

      Mental illness is commonly discussed in both games. In the first game, Joel's trauma from the death of his daughter, Sarah is prevalent throughout the game. His PTSD is portrayed through flashbacks and nightmares he has about Sarah's death. After meeting Ellie, Joel's trauma from his daughter becomes love and a desire to protect Ellie, doing anything to ensure her survival. In The Last of Us Part II, the entire plot is centered around the extreme psychological suffering of Ellie after Joel's death. Her anger is raw and causes her to do horrible things, showing how trauma can cause angry behavior. Ellie's PTSD and panic attacks cause her to have multiple flashbacks to Joel's death, similar to Joel's PTSD in the first game. Throughout Part II we observe Ellie's mental health decaying, with each destructive choice she makes that ends up not only harming herself, but others as well. This game does not sugarcoat any aspects of trauma and mental illness which is what makes it such a beautiful and gut-wrenching video game. The video below shows an example of one of Ellie's PTSD attacks. 

                                                

     The franchise also challenges the traditional concepts of "good" and "evil". Throughout the first game we view the story only through Joel's perspective. Playing as Joel, we are forced to kill to survive, not putting any thought to the lives that are ended. Part II offers a different perspective through Abby point-of-view where we begin to realize the consequences of our actions. Initially, Abby is introduced as a cold-blooded killer, who murders Joel for no reason. Players are meant to view her as a villain, since we have grown fond of Joel and Ellie. Joel's death gives us a taste of what it's like to lose a loved-one, just like how Abby felt when her Dad was murdered by Joel. An alternate perspective forces us to understand the consequences of our actions and consider both sides of the story. 

     

Sound Project

 For my most recent project, I was required to create a story using only sound. We had to layer multiple sounds on top of each other to create this story. In class, we had a lesson on sound which helped me open my eyes and realize how often sound is used in film. After watching movies and TV shows after this lesson, I found myself noticing sound effects that I would have never noticed before. Foley artists must layer basic sounds on top of each other to create an accurate soundscape of what's going on in the scene.

I immediately thought about some of my favorite pieces of media. I am a huge fan of zombie media so I thought a zombie outbreak would be a good idea since we could incorporate a lot of noise; I also thought it would be a more interesting and creative approach.

My partner and I began searching for different sound effects on the internet, we had to think of every possible sound that would take place during a zombie apocalypse. We came up with the idea of a man watching TV in his house who hears a commotion going on outside and realizes his neighbors are being attacked by zombies. The zombie then attacks him, but he stands his ground and ends up hitting the zombie with a bat and winning the fight. We created a soundscape plan which helped us figure out what sounds we needed.

We utilized Adobe Premiere for this project, see below for how we layered the sounds.

Overall, I really enjoyed this project and I think we did a great job. I like how our idea is creative and different than what others might have done. I think the story could have been illustrated a bit more clearly, but I like how it came out.