Reflection on Stylistic Devices – Used in double identity

·     Lighting: comment on how it has been used to create atmosphere

-      Dark lighting and use of shadows on the  characters face and how he is   always turned away from the camera creates a sense of mystery about the man

-      Used lighting to direct us to the subject (car, sign)

-      Use of lighting makes the woman the focus point of the shot, how she is standing in front of bright lighting whilst shadowing is falling behind her and used to highlight the character

·     Characters:

-      Character ignores the road stop sign when driving in car which shows a sense of urgency and that the character might be in a rush or may not care about the law, which suggests he could be a criminal.

-      Character never uses left hand or arm which suggests something has happened to it

·     Narrative conventions:

-      Mysterious/suspicious man arrives at an old building and is sweating and appears injured as he never uses his right arm which suggests he has been shot.

-      The man admit to a murder and begins to tell a story to the audience

·     Other observations:

-      Intense/suspenseful music creates suspicion and mystery

-      Use of voice overs to show the audience what the character is thinking and explaining

Film Noir Task - The Eye of The Stranger

This term in media we have been assigned a task where we are to film a film noir style film. Below is our idea for our film:

Our story will focus on a woman who is feeling as if she is being followed/stalked everywhere she goes and constantly watched by a stranger. She eventually starts to receive threatening and black mailing letters. So in an attempt to try and protect herself she goes to visit one of her friends, who happens to be a detective, and explains her situation and asks him to help her out. She thinks she is getting help from the detective but little does she know that he is actually the one who has been stalking her because he wants to kill her. When she is telling the detective about being stalked and all the harrasing letters she has received, they are all going to be filmed as if they are flashbacks. She tells the detective that she has found a small button outside her house, obviously missing from the strangers coat. As she explains that she doesn't own any coats with those types of buttons. When she eventually walks out of the detectives office to return home, she walks away and the camera will be filmed to show a shot of the detectives jacket. Which will be missing a button. Revealing that he has been the mysterious stranger the whole time.

Names of the characters:

• Victoria Hastings
• Detective Montgomery/Stranger

Our Final Film

Year 10 Media Arts Short Film Production – Term 01 Self-reflection and evaluation:

Discuss your feelings about the production task: Please explain your responses:

·      Did you enjoy creating your short film?

I did enjoy creating my film, this is the first time I’d ever created a proper short film and I had fun whilst making it.

·      Are you satisfied with the final result?

I am satisfied with the final result, although I probably would have wanted to incorporate a few more different shot types into the film.

·      Did your film turn out as well as you pictured?

My film turned out better than I originally pictured.

·      Would like to change or improve any aspects of your final film (storyline, shots, editing etc.)?

I would have liked to change and add a few different shots and make them a bit more creative. Because most of our shots were very front on.

·      If you could start the project again, what would you do differently?

I would have changed our storyline so the film was a bit more intense and suspenseful.

As this task focused on mise-en-scene and cinematography, describe:

·      How you used specific shot types to convey the storyline without dialogue? 

            We used different shots such as close ups and long shots to show that our character was looking for something and to show that they were also sneaking around and didn’t want to be caught.

·      Whether the intended genre is depicted clearly or if this could be improved?

I don’t think our genre was as clear as it could be as our original genre idea was action although as we progressed our end film turned out more Adventure/Drama.

Reflecting upon your completed task, respond to the following points:

·      How did other people respond to your rough-edit? Did you use their feedback to make changes to the film?

Many people liked the general idea of our film but thought we needed to focus on the rule of thirds and framing and focusing our shots properly. They also thought that we should have made our film a bit more clearly in what it was about. Yes, we did use their feeback to make changes. We made sure that our second time filming that we focused more on framing the shots properly and keeping the camera steadier. We also decided to change our storyline, so that the situation happening was clearer.

·      Did your group use the planning and analysis tools effectively? (storyboards, shot lists, mise-en-scene evaluation).

I think Courtney and I did use our tools effectively, although we could have referred back to our shot list more often whilst filming.

·      Did shooting require more or less time than you thought? Why?

It required more time than I originally thought, at we ended up filming over 3 days.

·      Were there any problems or difficulties during filming and how did this affect your project. (Difficulties may include; shooting, technical, time-management, teamwork, absences or editing etc.);

We did have a few problems whilst shooting our scene where we filmed from the person’s perspective holding the gun. As we had trouble steadying the camera and lining it up properly.

·      Discuss whether you undertook adequate and detailed reflection to support your work? (Look at your blogs and consider if it looks like a terms worth of work);

I think I could have done a few more reflections after every day of filming and talked more about our difficulties filming.

Jurassic Park scene - Evaluation

How was sound used effectively used in the scene?

I heart sound affects of different animals such as lions, crocodiles, etc.

I also heard sound affects of a car crashes and glass shattering. Sound was used very effectively in this scene as all the different animal sound effects all came together to sound a T Rex roar.  The sound affects of a car crashing, glass shattering and people screaming added suspense and mood to the scene and built the intensity to the scene.

How editing was used to create rhythm:

The editing and thumping of the T Rex walking created intensity and added rhythm to the scene. During the beginning of the scene it started off quite slow and as the scene progressed it became faster and faster. The editing of the T Rex created rhythm as during the scene progressed the T Rex became more aggressive and it created more suspense.

Finishing Filming

Friday 26th of February

Today we finished filming the rest of the footage for our short film. We chose to add in a close up shot when our main character opens the draw to search for the keys. This was our 3rd time re-filming this scene as we couldn't quite decide on which angel was best. We had a bit of trouble whilst taking the shot of our main character when opening the door and aiming the gun. It was hard to steady the camera as we had to capture it from the main character's perspective, although we got it in the end. Courtney and I have also decided on our soundtrack for our film and it will feature the Pink Panther theme song.

Re-Filming Our Film

Wednesday 25th of February

Today we re-filmed almost all of our shots for our final submission of our short film. Today we made it our mission to be more creative with our video location and used different areas to shoot our film instead of the same area as we did in our draft film. We also made sure that this time filming that we were using the rule of thirds and lining each shot up. We also used different camera angels instead of always facing the camera front on and filming a medium/long shot. Courtney and I had decided to change our storyline, our original idea was having someone searching for their enemy in various locations. Although after we were given our feedback from the class and teacher, we thought it was best to change our story line So that our film was easier to understand. Our new idea for our film is about a girl who comes across a secret cupboard. Curious, she tries to open it, yet she then finds that you need a key to open it. Throughout the film she goes in search for the key, then comes across another girl who is busy at work on her computer. As she looks more closely, she spots a set of keys sitting on the desk in front of the girl. Determined to steal the keys, she sneaks inside the office and snatches the keys, shooting the girl in the process.