i would rather swim to japan than write a huge paper, so i have chosen to do some sort of video instead. i would like to talk about how video games are a the next step in media, and how theyre under appreciated by people outside of the gaming community. they are a very strong and valid form of media, taking everything from a movie and making it interactive. giving someone control over the the pace, content, direction of the story simply makes video games the best technical form of media of all time. on top of giving the players the ability to interact with the finished game, modders and other starting game developers can use the same game and ideas to create something new, or expand on whats already been laid out using the same tools that the original had. its a very unique and beautiful thing that hasnt really been possible until now. i also want to talk about the underlying things that some people dont talk about or think of, like the little things in games that take it to the next level. for example, putting effort into art style and design rather than just pure graphics and resolution.  of course, one thing that i really see as a challenge for this is the “acting”, or possibly voice over that i would do. i hate being on camera/mic, so i might just end up typing a paper in the end anyway for the simple fact that i hate how i look and sound too much to put into any relevant form of media.

The Cabin in The Woods

The Cabin in The Woods, a Joss Whedon production from 2012 is classified as a horror, mystery and thriller movie. This film brought in a total of $66,486,080 worldwide but had an estimated budget of about $30,000,000 resulting in a small and barely doubled profit. There is no mention of comedy on IMDB (contrary to Wikipedia) and watching the trailer, you wouldn’t expect a single humorous line to come out of any actors mouth. Yet comedy plays a constant and immense role in this film. The comedy which Whedon is famous for bringing into his works is what makes this movie stand apart from other horror movies or thrillers. We wondered if the marketing of this film was a part of the limited success of this movie. How might it have done if it had been advertised as more of a comedy, rather than your run of the mill teen horror movie? Would it have drawn more of an audience or would it have flopped just as much? Our goal in remaking the trailer for The Cabin in The Woods was to advertise it as a comedic thriller of sorts. Our hypothesis is that if it had been marketed differently, rather had it been marketed as a humorous horror film, it would have been wildly more successful, bringing in a much larger profit.

In order to choose our scenes, we focused on two main thoughts – what was scary or typical to a horror trailer and what was comedic and would be found in a trailer for a comedy. These two, juxtaposed in this trailer, are a much more accurate description of the movie itself. To enhance the comedy and dramatic effect of the trailer, we used the taglines found on IMDB. Things like, “you think you know the story” and “If the basement door swings open, go down there.” These lines are such accurate descriptions of the movie, seeing as these kids do everything you’re never supposed to do when you’re in a horror film. They are also accurate descriptions of the trailer we have created, showing that Whedon chooses to mock the horror film genre in a way by questioning what makes a good horror movie.

This particular fan fiction story that I read (which is a work in progress) had a very interesting and valid plot to continue on the Marvel universes story. Basically, Loki has apparently died but Black Widow is convinced that he is still alive and has only pretended to be dead. She wants to go to Asgard and warn the people there, but doesn’t have the connections or influences that she used to have when SHIELD was still around. To make up for this, she visits “The Council”, which I mistook for the council in the Avengers and Captain America: Winter Soldier. What she really meant is the watcher’s council from the Buffy universe. In this story, they were pressured to be affiliated with SHIELD but refused in the end, mostly because they don’t have the same interests as shield. They send her to Asgard, and starts to warn everybody that Loki could possibly still be alive, and the story pretty much ends there. The tone overall is very serious, and is a very interesting story. Black Widow, seeing as how she talked with Loki to reveal his plan in the first Avengers, knows what he is capable of and that he will do anything to continue with his vengeance on Earth and Asgard. The council being thrown in is, of course, something that only a fan could write in because of legal issues and continuity errors of the two universes being mixed together, but it works well in this. Because of SHIELD being compromised and really just being Hydra, all their sub-organizations and affiliates would have suffered the same fate. The watcher’s council not being included in that was therefore a safe place to go, knowing that they are free of Hydra influence. They are hardly needed, other than a way for Black Widow to go to Asgard. For people that know of Buffy and the council, it makes sense and they know what is going on (somewhat). This is a predominantly Marvel story, so the average audience will be Marvel fans and not know what is going on in the beginning of the story.

The Avengers is supposed to be a team that works together for the good of the world and the people in it. Even though this team has an extraordinary task, they are still people and still a team, meaning they can have the same drawbacks. People naturally are going to be different and aren’t always going to get along, and the film understood that this can also apply to a group of super heroes. The scene where everyone finds out S.H.I.E.L.D’s plan of making super weapons, a huge argument breaks out. it starts off first with the avengers VS nick fury, but it quickly spreads amongst themselves. this whole scene keeps everyone in character with bits of humor thrown in if you listen closely enough to the dialog, keeping in tune with the rest of the movie. before this specific conflict, there were obvious issues between the members of the avengers that they would try to look past and downplay as real issues, with all of them coming out in one big conflict, much like how many teams of people in real life do. i think in an older movie, every hero would work together well form the beginning just because they are advertised as a team. it wouldn’t matter how their personalities would conflict with each other, they would just ignore that and everything would be great. in modern day movies, writers and directors have realized that it can be a lot more interesting and engaging when things aren’t always so perfect and work without problems, and this is one good example of that.