Practise Film Sequence

We were asked to put together short sequences ending in a muder from a thriller film to look at how to set up characters and atmosphere and to work on continuity editing. This is our sequence and our evaluation:

Evaluations of Murder Scenes-Conor, David, Harry and Amelia’s group

Planning and Storyboarding

I feel as though my group and I were quite good at getting our storyboard ideas together as, we came up with a rough outline for the story, with some camera angle suggestions. However, when we went out to film, we were unable to use some of our ideas from the storyboard as; we weren’t able to access the chapel on either of the days, due to there being a meditation so, I decided on another idea to replace our planned murder with.  The only criticism I’d have is that we didn’t plan all the aspects of the murder scene beforehand, e.g. the murder weapon.

Acting

I felt as though our acting was sufficient, although on some scenes like when I’m supposed to stumble, I couldn’t make a realistic stumble. Also, just before I get murdered, I don’t look that believable when I’m knocking on the door. Apart from that, I think our acting was quite good, especially the murder scene as, I thought that that was quite believable.

Selecting shots and Angles

I thought that some of our shots and angles were quite effective, such as the start when it’s a low angle of just our feet, also the one where you can see the killer’s body and weapon, without his head, just before he kills me. I do think that some of our shots could have been improved, such as the one, just after the island, which didn’t have the effect we thought it would. Also, I think we could have added a few more shots to set the scene so; the audience could get a feel of where we were and what we were doing.

Editing/Sound

I think that the editing was our weakest point as, it didn’t flow that naturally also, we weren’t able to insert much music or sound effects as, we didn’t have our desired amount of time to add these. I think that some parts, like when I get off the island, didn’t work well because; it just doesn’t flow or feel natural. However, parts like when David is coming close to me, work well as, there are a few shots which link in well, due to the good editing.

Mise-en-scene

I feel that our settings were good as they seemed as though we were chasing each other for quite a while as the locations are varied.  However, we wanted to use the chapel as the murder was to take place around that area, but we were unable to because there was a meditation taking place. The location of the murder was a dark dead end so it fitted in quite well. I would have liked it if we used some more realistic props as the only props we used were the murder weapon and a newspaper. The use of props is essential for letting the audience know what was going on. This is the same for costumes, I would have liked it if we could have used different costumes but this wouldn’t have been possible for this task.

Conor

 

Evaluations of Murder Scenes

Planning and storyboarding

We all agreed fairly quickly on what our story was going to be and also did this for our storyboard. We had decided on the roles we were going to play without much conflict. We had originally decided to place the murder scene by the chapel but we found out that there was a class in there and so we decided to change our setting to get as much filming done in the time period we were given. Although there were many disagreements on how the camera should be angled we did eventually decide what camera angle should be shot for each scene in order to give that horror and suspense effect. During the storyboard making, there were a lot of issues because no one in our group was particularly good at art so we were resorted into making stick men to show where our characters were going to be placed. We originally decided to do an aerial shot to give people a better understanding that this was in fact a chase and also to show the setting and the environment. But due to time issues we had to abandon this idea and go for a simpler shot.

Acting

Because of our lack of experience in acting there were a lot of scenes where we had to take more shots than needed. I found one of our actors was very stubborn and acted very unprofessional when it came to filming which resulted in us wasting precious filming time and also resulted in us losing editing time too. Conor and Harry were very good at playing their role for an amateur’s level. It was their first time being in a scene like this one and everyone was pleased with the way they acted.

Selecting shots and angles

Finding the right camera angle for a group of four people who have no experience with this whatsoever proved to be very difficult as we didn’t have enough knowledge about it. Also we found that we needed to take more than one shot in order to figure out what shot or angle would work best with the present scene. Also due to the battery of the camera we had to be quick with our decisions and filming. The scene where we had to a close up of Harry watching the chase proved to be quite difficult because we didn’t know how to really show a point of view shot. Another scene that proved to be difficult because of the camera angle was the close up shot for Conor. We needed this shot to show he was an important character and also the main character. Because this was a chase scene it was hard to get a steady close up on him as he was supposed to be running. We used simple angles because we didn’t have enough knowledge on how to use the more advanced angles. We did not reveal our murder’s identity because we wanted to create a mystery and hopefully get the audience thinking and grab their attention.

Working in groups

I was very happy with my group and was glad I was paired up with them. Although there were some arguments, everyone got along well and took it seriously. All of us wanted to try our best in this which is why we produced a piece of work which we were satisfied with. In our group everyone’s idea was welcomed no matter how unreasonable they were. The only reason why we had arguments was because we didn’t know what angles or shot should have been used. If we had a better understanding of those shots then we would have got on better. We had good cooperation when it came to both filming and editing. When we were editing we split up into two groups, one doing the first half of the whole scene and the other do the other half, this way we could save time and working more efficiently. When doing my real coursework I would like to have the same cooperation as I did with this group. But this time with complete understanding of camera angles, shots and many more things needed to provide good quality work.

Lighting

Lighting is very important to any scene especially in a murder one. However with the equipment we were provided we could not use it to its fullest effect as we did not know how to use it properly. Also because of our lack of knowledge we could not use much of the lighting effect. We could not use dark lighting at the end of our murder scene to show the uneasy feeling in the air as the main character was about to die. In order to fix this problem I suggest it would be best to scout an area where the lighting is fairly low and be good enough to use for a murder scene.  

David