AS Film Studies Evaluation - James

My role in the project was director, which meant it was my job to direct the actors on what to do, and oversee everything else (the props, cinematography, script). It also meant that I would be the main person responsible for the mise-en-scene. The film extract we created was initially going to be a mix between the horror and thriller genre. However, the further into the planning process we got, the more it became clear that we were creating a horror rather than a horror/thriller, so we stuck to that and decided to make a horror instead.

When it came around to planning, as a group we came together and brainstormed several ideas, putting them all on paper and deciding together which ideas we preferred. Throughout the planning process, it was clear to us that the fact that we were doing a horror film meant we needed to create a sequence that made the audience as helpless as the protagonist in the film. Originally, our sequence was going to contain two parts. The first part was a party, where the protagonists drink is spiked and she is abducted and the second part was where she is being held captive. This being our goal, we went out and started filming to meet it. We used few props in our sequence, in the party we used cups, straws and drink and the second half we just used fake blood and a knife. Our locations for both the party and the part where she is held captive were right next to each other, which meant that we could do the filming in one session, which meant more time for editing. However, when it came down to filming the parts of the extract, we realised that at least two lessons would be needed. So, we decided to film part two first.

After a long group discussion, Becky was elected the victim, and I was to play the murderer. This meant directing the actors, as well as acting which would be a challenge. However, as the scenes involving the victim/protagonist were mostly just her, it meant I could give my input throughout the filming. The performance I expected was a completely believable one, one where you would see the character and not think ‘It’s Becky’, but instead believe completely that this character is real and she is being held captive against her will. This meant that Becky had to be completely in character. After a couple of takes, the victim’s character started to emerge, and before long we were satisfied as a group with the shots.

It was time to film the final part of the sequence: The party scene. This would be the most difficult to perfect, as we had to invite others to be in the film to add to the realism of the scene. There were a total of 7 actors, including three members of our group including myself. Before we got started with the filming, I told everyone what kind of shots we were hoping to achieve and how we should go about achieving them: The scene is a small, but conventional party. The location of it is not specified, but it has to be realistic. Therefore, everyone needs to forget that they’re on camera and socialize like it’s a real party. This means using the props supplied, and simply talking quietly and off camera about something unrelated to the project.

After a few takes, everyone was focused and knew what they were doing. There were a variety of different shots from several different angles. However, none violated the 180 degree rule and all of them were shot correctly. However, when the editing process began, changes needed to be made. Firstly, there were shots that didn’t make all the much sense, some weren’t realistic and some just did not work. We used several different techniques to rectify this, including using old footage from the first takes to fill in the gaps. We also cut and rearranged a lot of shots. For example, instead of the victims drink being spiked in the party scene; we used flashbacks in the captive scene to the party to show what had happened.

A lot of the changes were made after we received feedback from other people. We added jump cuts in the sequence to make the audience feel like the victim (everything is strange, doesn’t make sense. What’s happened isn’t made clear to either the victim or the audience).

AS Film Sequence Evaluation

Our group for the Film Studies project consisted of myself, James, Chloe and Becky and we decided to base our sequence on the horror/thriller genre. The sequence is about a girl named Chelsey, who is drugged at a party and wakes up in a dark room, where she is then confronted by her kidnapper. Before deciding on our plot, we looked at other horror and thriller movies that would relate in some way to our original plan. We looked at Pierre Morel’s 2008 movie ‘Taken’, where a young girl goes on vacation with her friend, were both girls are kidnapped. Her father then sets out to find her, using his skill as a formal spy. The similarity between ‘Taken’ and our sequence is the kidnapping.

I was the cinematographer for our sequence. This was an important role because we used many different camera angles in our sequence to keep the viewer close to the character, what she is going through and her emotions as well. Because our genre is horror/thriller, the camera work had to be carefully considered for the audience to be entirely focused on the main character’s ordeal and not anything else. For instance at the party scene, close ups were used to focus on Chelsey when she was unknowingly drinking a spiked drink.

The camerawork was particularly important in developing the narrative because it was my job to ensure that the only things in the shot were things that were meant to be there so that the audience wouldn’t be distracted from the story while focusing on something that wasn’t supposed to be there. For example, while filming the part where Chelsey wakes up in a dark room, there was a single beam of light illuminating the spot where she was laying. After filming a few seconds of the shot, I realized the shadow of the camera and tripod were in the way of the lighting, which was essential for the audience to see Chelsey go through her emotions. It required a reposition of the shot to avoid the shadow.

As a group, we worked for quite a while to develop the narrative. For a while, we had considered creating a chase scene, but found that it would be difficult to do that and keep the camera steady, rather than shaking with the run. We had then chose to do our drugged scene in a bar cellar where Chloe works, however due to circumstances, we were unable to meet there, therefore we changed to using the college Media Studio for the dark room, as the windows were blocked with black paper, which also allowed us to create the beam of light on Chelsey. The character of Chelsey was touch to create. We couldn’t find any female extras willing to play the part for us, so we decided to use Becky, who agreed to take the role as she had done Drama at GCSE. The character was important in our development of the genre, because the audience needed to see her fear, which was done by Becky’s acting.

Our plans were changed quite a bit in the making of this sequence. As mentioned, we were unable to use a bar for the cellar scene, so we moved to the Media Studio. Likewise, we all lived too far apart to meet at a house for the party, so we recreated the party scene in a white room using extras in the background, including Chloe as Chelsey’s friend who she dances with. We had originally planned for there to be a lot more involvement with the kidnapper in the party scene, however we found that we couldn’t make it work, so we used flashbacks to involve the kidnapper instead, for instance in one flashback, after Chelsey passes out from the drugs, a mysterious man offers to take her home. While filming, we found that some of the camera angles we had planned didn’t quite work, so we had to slightly adjust the angles and focus point of the shots.

Within the camerawork, the intended response was for the audience to feel involved in what Chelsey is going through by keeping her in main focus, using close ups in the party scene and by having her alone for most of the dark room scene, until the murderer appeared. By keeping her in the main focus, the audience could see her emotions clearly, and see exactly what she was going through, rather than being distracted by anything in the background of the shot that didn’t need to be considered.

In conclusion, I feel that my individual input as the cinematographer helped the keep the sequence in the horror/thriller genre by keeping the focus where it is meant to be. My knowledge of Photography aided me in my input because it helped me to make decisions regarding the angles of the shots, and when appropriate to use close ups, mid shots, and over the shoulder shots too.

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film project evaluation

Film studies evaluation

In my group for our film studies project was James, Chloe, kit and me. Between us we choose to base our film on horror/thriller genre. Our film was about a girl called Chelseys, after splitting up with her boyfriend goes to a house party, where her drink was spiked. She is then kidnapped and wakes up to find herself at the mercy of her kidnapper. Our extract in particular is focused on her drink being spiked at the party and then the murder scene. But before we came up with this plot we looked at some other horror/thriller films to get inspiration. Films such Taken which was made in 2008, and directed by Pierre Morel, is about a young girl who goes on holiday with her friend, and gets abducted by a man. Her father, who is a former spy, sets out to find his daughter. And the film prom night, which is about young girl fighting to stay alive on her prom night as a former stalker, sets out to kill her. The similarities between these films and our film is it is about a young girl being kidnapped or killed and is in the horror/thriller genre convention, and also a slight similarity between the names, prom night. Taken and trapped, all are short, snappy titles.

My role in creating our film was to play the role of chelsey, and to be in charge of the microelement of sound, which was important in creating our sequence. Sound was first used in our sequence at the party scene. We wanted something up beat so that me and Chloe and our extras could dance along making the party seem more realistic. the song at first was diegetic. The song we choose for this was kick-start by example as its up beat and the sort of music you would expect at a typical house party. However when editing there was a problem with the music at the party. Certain clips from the footage were edited and cut meaning the music was no longer in sequence making it jumpy; also the music wasn’t particularly loud. What we did about this was that Chloe, Chloe being the editor and me used you tube converter to put the song in as non-diegetic sound into the footage this made the music consistent and not jumpy. We then also changed the volume of it so that it was loud enough but not too loud so you couldn’t hear what everyone else was saying. After a while of footage of the party and after the drink being spiked, we filmed the rest of the party from chelseys point of view with me holding the camera facing Chloe as it was from chelseys perspective, and kit doing close up realisation shots when chelsey realises something’s wrong. By using final cut chloe  added the blur effect when it was from chelseys perspective and made the footage  look blurry and distorted as she’s been spiked this creates suspense as now the audience definitely know something’s wrong and they start to fear for her.  After we did this I suggested we should also put in some effect to the music to add to the distorted effect, (which was still kick-start by example as it was still at the party scene ) What Chloe and me did to the sound was that when the footage from chelseys point of view gradually gets blurry  (when the drug kicks in) we put an echo effect on the music making it go with the blurry vision and showing how distorted she is by the drug put in her drink. While this is going on Chloe who is also playing chelseys friend in the film is asking if she’s ok at this point we lowered the volume so the audience could hear her concern for her. After this is when chelseys finally collapses and the music fades to show she’s passing out.

The next part of our sequence is the murder/kidnapping scene, the scene starts when chelsey wakes up covered in fake blood we used this as the audience would be asking and be curious is to why she’s covered in blood. Blood also fits into our horror/thriller genre.  This was set in a small dark room to create a intense and scary atmosphere.  This shot of chelseys waking up we did a few times as the lighting was too dark but after slightly opening the window we had enough light to get the footage but not too much as we wanted the scene t look as dark scary and creepy as it was a horror/thriller and this was the murder scene.  To begin with at this point the sound was originally going to be only her fast diegetic heavy breathing this was to show how scared she is (showing emotion) but after some editing we decided and by again using final cut to put in some faint party music in the background , by again using you tube converter and putting it into the footage on final cut  the song used was bodyrox Luciana yeah yeah (again party music) I thought this would be good for the sequence as it was to show the audience that somewhere close the party is still going on but no one knows what’s really happened to her, this is also frustrating for the audience and creates tension and suspense for the audience as people are so close but no one can hear her or comes to help which is stereotypical of a horror/thriller in creating this type of tension and suspense and making the audience fear for chelseys life. After chelseys wakes up I thought it would be good to again show her fear and emotions, so as I acted I shouted ‘hello’; hello’ a few times while pacing anxiously around the room as kit followed me with the camera as she was in charge of cinematography so that I was the main attention of the audience at this point. This is when James who was playing the kidnapper and was also the director stepped into the room and is carrying a knife. We used the knife as a prop so that the audience would anticipate what was going to happen and put them on edge.  As the door opened for sound me and Chloe suggested raising the bodyrox Luciana yeah yeah song (non diegetic sound) would be slightly louder as sound would realistically be like and also making It again seem that the party is continuing and no one knows what’s happening to her this again was done on final cut. Lastly towards the end of the sequence as James (the kidnapper) was approaching James (the director) thought me pleading with the kidnapper would again show fear emotion making the audience sympathise for Chelsea. After this the door slams shut. I thought this would be better than just closing it as it creates more of a dramatic impact. There is a short pause of silence to create tension, and then lastly we created a loud diegetic banging on the door sound showing Chelsea’s struggle and fear then a loud high pitch scream (diegetic), and the sequences ends. We ended it this way so the audience have an idea what happened to Chelsea but are not sure, leaving it as a cliff hanger.

In conclusion my individual contribution to the project was to be in charge of sound and to play the role of Chelsea. I used sound in this sequence that would fit into the stereotypical horror/thriller genre such as screams etc to create tension, suspence and fear in the audience. I also used sound at the party scene to show Chelsea disorientation when’s she was spiked by echoing the sound. This was so the audience can see what happening from Chelsea’s point of view and to make it more dramatic.

What we did today

Today we worked on getting together the special effects for the soundtrack.
We also started making an opening logo for our fictional company as our extract is the opening scene.

What we did today

We editing the first half of the extract - the part in the club.
We added effects such as radial blur, to make it look as if she's been drugged.
We also added echo to the music to again, make it sound like she's been drugged.
We had trouble with making one clip look as if it is shaking, but we sorted that out.

Plan for Wed 16/3/11

I think that today we should do a prop list, shot list and rough script for Friday's filming. The prop list should consists of thing we need to bring individually, that includes things we may have to buy so that it's fair.

Examples of horror/thriller films

Theatrical Poster

'28 Days Later' (Boyle, 2002, UK) is a british zombie horror film that depicts the end of civilisation as we know it after an outbreak of a highly contagious virus that evokes 'rage' in the victim. It is a fight for survival as a group head across England in search of a survivors camp ran by soldiers, but get much more than they bargain for...

 

 'Resident Evil' (Anderson, 2002, US) is an american film that is very similar in story to '28 Days Later', a highly contagious virus breaks out in an underground facility and it's down to the protagonist and her team to contain the outbreak.