Evaluative Report- Section 3

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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