Preliminary Task - Evaluation

For our preliminary task, we began with planning out the pre-production involved within creating the storyline of our opening scene. We needed to gather ideas on the type of film it’s going to be, what’s going to be involved, what the sets going to be, what the characters are going to be, what the storyline is going to be, etc. We began with choosing our genre which was crime and horror which we chose because we thought we could base a good storyline round a crime investigation while making it suspense and extra ordinary as a horror. We then created the storyline around this idea and completed a script and shot list. We the shot the film and begin post production which included editing and finalising our scene.

We came up with the story by basing it around the interrogation of a crime that was set up by someone and blamed on another person but we were showing the actual part of the crime. We wanted to develop it by adding a theme of horror towards the story so we decided that the detective who does the questioning of the investigation is actually some sort of ghost who is behind the set-up of the crime. We thought this twist to the story would be good as you wouldn’t expect it to happen therefore it makes the audience more intrigued. I think the story flows well but it’s quite hard to understand until the end when you realise that the detective is actually the criminal and you release he is a ghost. However this puts you in the position of the suspect because she doesn’t have any idea of what or who he is either and she doesn’t know what’s going on. The scene helps to introduce the detective’s character for the rest of the film and it shows you his personality and what he is capable of without giving away too much detail of what could happen in the rest of the story. The brief storyline we came up with during pre-production has kept the same but there have been just a few more shots added during the story and afterwards just to develop the scene slightly more. We didn’t remove anything from the initial story because everything we originally came up with was relevant. Character wise, we began with only having three but as we developed the story we included one more character as a small part looking through the window into the interrogation room to leave a sense mystery on who the person is and if they are behind the crime too or if it is just some police officer watching the interrogation. The story is based on a closed narrative storyline because it is meant to be for a film so it needs a beginning, middle and end.

The first shot which is a tracking shot worked well as the beginning because as you follow them into the interrogation room you begin following the story and you know nothing about what happened before the scene like what the crime the suspect was set up for and who the suspect even is.

 

One of our objectives was to include match on action which we did as the policeman and suspect walked through the door from one room to another. It flowed really well with the previous shot but I think it was just slightly out of proportion between the lengths of time it took for them to walk through the door in each shot. However I am pleased with how it turned out as it fitted in well with the storyline.

We used the 180 degree rule which was another objective we had to include which was portrayed throughout some of the questioning and a range of shot lengths which worked well and made it clear that they were in the same room and communicating to each other. Within this we used a shot reverse shot which was our final objective and it flowed nicely in the scene creating tension as the suspect wouldn’t respond to the detective’s questions. Throughout the filming we had to try and not make ourselves visible when we weren’t meant to be and we had trouble with this as the window would show or reflections but we managed to film by slightly rearranging the position of the camera. We used a tripod to keep the camera in position so it would be still and not shaky.

We also used the tripod in the way of a monopod to film the bird’s eye view shots. Another aspect we struggled with when filming was that the room we filmed in was quite small and the camera wouldn’t zoom out very far so we didn’t get the perfect shots we wanted. A shot that didn’t work so well was the long shot when the policeman had fallen to the ground after being shot. We planned to have the policeman visibly on the floor in the shot but we couldn’t fit him in when he was on the ground so we decided to make the suspect dramatically look down at the floor and gasp just to show that we was on the ground at that moment. We wanted to film it all on the same day so then the characters would be wearing the same clothes, so we spent around 2 hours filming. Overall it was quite hard to film in the location we were in but we managed to work ourselves around it while still making the story flow and having a good use of shot lengths and camera angles.

It took about 3-4 hours to edit the film and it turned out to be a length of 2 minutes. We included non-diegetic and diegetic sound throughout the scene. Examples of diegetic sound that’s involved are the voices of the characters, footsteps, opening the door and the policeman falling to the ground when he was shot. We overlapped the first line from the detective in two shots to make it more clear on who he is talking to as he says the suspects name as it shows her. Examples of non-diegetic sound that we included were buzzing noises of a fuse, a light switch, gun shots and music. When the lights were flickering we added in non-diegetic sound of a buzzing noise to create a more realistic impression to it as they weren’t flickering in real life. This helps to build up tension to the moment of the shooting. We added the non-diegetic sound of a light switch flicking to off so that when the lights go out it is more obvious that it meant to show the lighting turning off. However during filming we made a mistake as not actual lights or on during the interrogation and we are just using natural lighting so the lights weren’t on anyway so improve we need to consider the lighting a bit more whilst filming. We then had the non-diegetic sound of the gun shot in the dark when the policeman is killed and when the suspect is killed. The gunshot sounds were relevant to the film otherwise it would not make sense as to what’s happening as the policeman dies in the dark and the suspect gets shot by characters off camera. Finally we had the sinister music at the end to create a creepy atmosphere when you find out the detectives true identity and it acts as a theme tune for the detective as it represents him. Overall I found it quite easy to edit the film and I think having the storyline planned out helped us to organise the clips so we knew what order they went in and didn’t make any mistakes.

We used many editing techniques throughout the piece.  We used a transition at the beginning which was a fade in from black to slowly enter the audience into the film and to flow with the tracking shot. We used a transition that involved going straight to black multiple times to create the flickering of the lights as it wasn’t possible in the room we were in because there was too much natural lighting. The moment when the light actually turns off and stops flickering creates a very suspense moment as it is black and you don’t know who has been shot until the lights turn back on. The scene involves continuity editing because it only involved one story for the opening scene and nothing else outside of it need to happen for it to make sense. We used eye line match between the shots of the dead policeman and the detective because they are both equal to each other in a sense that they are both dead as the detective is a ghost but this happens before you find that out so it is a small hint to that occurrence at the end of the scene. The editing at the beginning is slightly fast paced to get straight into the action and during the questioning it is slower paced as they are in conversation and to build up tension with silence.

In terms of mise-en-scene we included props and costumes purposely to make the set of the story more suited to the story. The location we chose involved a window that we couldn’t see through which we purposely chose for that reason so it would look like an interrogation room.

We didn’t use handcuffs because they weren’t needed as it wasn’t important and we could just make it look like there were hand cuffs– the suspect just held her hands behind her back. We had the usual arrangement of a table and two chairs in the layout and on the table included a microphone and a brief case.

The microphone was included as a recording device which is what’s normally used to record the conversation and the brief case which is for the audience to decide what’s inside it or who it belongs to. It could contain weapons or samples from the crime scene or something else. The gun was originally going to be a knife but we couldn’t get that as a prop and we wanted to use the gun shot as a sound effect so we used a gun instead and it worked really well except that you can tell it’s just a toy gun.

The lighting we used was just natural lighting as we didn’t have much choice on doing anything with it in the location we were in but during the long shots in between the close ups of the gun as the detective takes it out of his pocket, the lighting looks a bit blue which wasn’t intended and we are not sure why that happened.

 

The group worked really well as we didn’t get distracted and managed to quickly finish the film in a short amount of time. We communicated well with organising the scenes and telling the actors what to do and how to act and got a good result from it. The characters all represent certain types of people in the film. We have the villain which is the detective who is the disruption in the story, the innocent suspect who has been set up as a criminal which creates as sad atmosphere when she dies at the end for no reason, the policeman who is also innocent and is on the good side but thinks opposite to the backgrounds of the detective who he thinks is good and the suspect who he thinks is bad, and finally the mysterious person who we have no idea about what position they are in the story.  We expect the characteristics of these characters to remain this way throughout the rest of the film as that is what part they represent in the story. We chose to have these types of characters to create mixed emotions throughout the scene of the innocent people (suspect & policeman) and the people we don’t quite understand of who and what they are (detective & person behind the window).

The film is aimed at mass audience because it’s not made for a specific group of people and a wide range of different people would watch this type of film and be interested in it. We chose to aim at this type of audience because we want a wide range of people to be interested in it and for everyone to be able to follow along and understand what is happening.

Overall with a few changes, the film went to plan and turned out quite successfully. Mostly everything worked out how I wanted it to except from the idea of having the police visible in the long shot when he was on the ground but we managed to work our way round it and still make it flow. Some of the decisions we changed worked out even better for the film for example like using a gun instead of a knife. We didn’t make many mistakes other than the lighting but it didn’t mess up the flow of the story so it wasn’t too much of a problem. We managed to meet all our objectives and expectations.

Preliminary Task - Video

Preliminary Task - Filming Our Piece

When filming our piece, we used a variety of shot lengths, angles and movements such as a tracking shot, panning shot, birds eye view, eye line match, etc. In the location we were in, it was quite difficult to film shots that involved long or medium shot lengths because we were limited to the amount of room we had and the camera didn't zoom out very far. However, we managed to work around that problem by slightly changing things up for example like we couldn't film the shot of the police on the ground and the suspect and detective still in their seats so we made it obvious he was on the ground by making one of the characters look down at him and act surprised and did a bird's eye view of him in the next shot. Overall it took about 2 hours to film and it was easy to organize the shots and we worked well with the group.