The motion picture industry, or cinema, has been around since the early 19^th century, and has gone through a variety of changes. From the stories that are bring told, to the technology being used, to the techniques, and the number of movies being produced around the globe. And with these changes, there have certainly been trends that have come and gone over the decades. 

One of the staples of cinema, that grew particularly in the 70s, is horror films, and with it, came many subgenres. From classic Universal Classic Monsters Films such as Dracula, The Invisible Man, and Creature from the Black Lagoon, to Slasher films like Halloween, Psycho, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and Friday the 13^th. But one subgenre that really gained traction is the found footage horror genre.  

The found footage horror genre gained attention with the 1999 film, The Blair Witch Project. From there, the genre spawned films such as, the Paranormal Activity series, Cloverfield, and Noroi: The Curse. What made the found footage genre so big and trendy was on how profitable the films can be. The first Paranormal Activity was produced on a budget of only $15,000 and made $193.4 million at the worldwide box office. The production can be filmed in mainly one location, and they did not have to hire A list actors, making the film at the very low budget. The franchise then went on to develop 5 sequels, all earning back more than 4 times their budget. However, found footage horror films are nowhere near as popular as they once were, mainly because audience members just stopped caring less about the genre. 

Another trend that has specifically been happening a lot in today’s age of cinema, are biographical films, or biopic for short, particularly based on singers and musicians. The film that started the trend is a film that was released more recently, Bohemian Rhapsody, based on the lead singer of Queen, Freddie Mercury. Like with Paranormal Activity with the found footage horror genre, Bohemian Rhapsody was a box office success, grossing over $903 million worldwide, on a production budget of $50 million. 

 When the box office numbers came out, multiple other studios decided to start developing films about other singers and musicians. Rocketman, a biopic centered on the life of Elton John, was released the following year. Soon to follow are Elvis, a biopic on the life and career of Elvis Presley, and a biopic centered on Leonard Bernstein is in the works. With these projects being in the works, it is safe to assume that we will be getting musician-based biopics for a while. 

With trends in Hollywood, it has been clear that the trends are often created and expanded upon, only when the box office results are revealed. Only when the they make back more than enough money, do producers and executives decide to create more, in hopes to keep making money. I am sure that with time, we will see these trends die off completely, possibly resurrected, and new ones will emerge.

Paranormal Activity poster from Paramount Pictures

Bohemian Rhapsody poster from 20th Century Pictures

For my assignment, I chose the theme of ‘light at the end of the tunnel’. When I was planning it out, I was thinking about ideas for where the pictures could be. I was thinking of all the places I could have as a background, when It hit me that the place that would be best, is home.

Originally, I had the idea of doing pictures of my house, perfectly organized and clean, but with no one in it. I got the idea from the current coronavirus pandemic going on in the world right now, what if the virus hit us and everyone had to leave their houses. “What would that look like?”.

But then as I was going down the hallway into the dark bedroom, and saw light at the end in just my room, I got the idea of light, and then thought of the phrase, “There is always light at the end of the tunnel.” Which then got me thinking about how I can translate that saying into my photography.

That’s how it all came to be. I then decided to add some form of objects blocking the light, as if to say you have to just get through one more obstacle before you complete your journey.

Benjamin Von Wong is a photographer, known for his environment art installations, mainly photos that incorporate Ocean Plastics, which he is an advocate against. He has managed to created a massive presence online through his art, but how?

He has created almost all his photos on Ocean Plastics, which is currently a huge issue to us and our environment. Not only is he making art through what he believes, but is also bringing awareness to the issue by creating creative photos and projects. He also makes blogs, in which he discusses several facts about the topics he is addressing in his photos, therefore people who want to learn more about the topic, can do so by going to his blog and reading it.

Lastly, his Instagram is another way he shares his artwork. Not only does he posts his projects, but he also has behind-the-scenes with all his work, that he shares with his 117,000 followers.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.