Evaluative Report Section 3
After creating the first draft of our media production
we decided that we needed to re-film what we had, as after receiving feedback
from our fellow peers some key points were continuously mentioned; the scenes
we filmed only made up one and a half minutes out of the required three
minutes, the story line did not make sense, the camera work was sometimes not
stable and didn't have a variation of shots, also the scenes did not create the
excitement and suspense that is usually a key factor of psychological
thrillers. Therefore the group’s director, Zaki, made the decision to film the
production again, but also combine the ideas from the two films together.
Consequently this decision, in my opinion improved our project as we took into
consideration how to make the film longer and more suspenseful and so have made
a higher quality psychological thriller opening scene.
I now feel that our variation of camera angle/shot
types work effectively to broaden the visual position in which the audience
watches the film from, e.g. positioning the camera on the floor and high up in
crane view points, CCTV imitation, and canted
angles.
The establishing shot at the start of the film is effective as it shows the
Cambridge skyline where the film is based and also, the pace of the camera
panning from left to right creates a mood within the production and gives time
for the credits to appear.
Another element of our media production that I feel
was effective was the use of Foley sound; as it works well in some cases
throughout, e.g. when the camera blacks out and the audience can only hear
heavy breathing.
Looking back at the original production and the
feedback that we gained, there were a number of key factors that were not as
effective as they could be, such as: the sound, due to not having any Foley
sound and the background noise was too loud. The production was too much like a
trailer as it was so short and ended very abruptly.
Although there were problems with our first production,
the second project was much improved as it was longer, there was more variation
of shots and just looked much more professional. From the feedback that we were
given on our final production we could have made the storyline clearer, as the
audience had confusion in understanding who the protagonist and antagonist
were. Another point is that we could have used a larger selection of
soundtracks and sound effects throughout, due to pauses of silence at the end
of some scenes; this would have made the production much more ‘cutting edge’
and professional.
From looking at my own role in the group as the camera
man, I think I could have improved the production by using some more
professional camera shots like, canted angles, panning, and extreme close ups;
all of these could have created more disorientation and suspense.
Comparing
our psychological thriller production to the professional film, The Game, there
are some similarities and differences that can both scrutinise our production,
but also help improve it. Between the two, the audience for both films can
easily tell that they are thrillers due to the classic conventions being
displayed; dark, unsaturated colour, suspenseful soundtracks. I think that The
Game has a different target audience to our production, as it seems that I is
for an older audience due to the darkness that the scenes posses through the
lighting and storyline; whereas our media production is targeted for young
adults. Obviously from being a professional production it is a lot crisper due
to camera work, editing and acting so there always will be significant
differences between the two. I feel if we had the resources and time the group
could have made dialogue for our film and use actors to then really create a
hopefully near professional looking/sounding production.
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