T.G321
Preliminary Exercise
"Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule."
Preparation
The planning stage began on November the 3rd.
For this task, I am in a group with Thomas Walker and Kieran Shambler. We do not have distinct roles within our group, apart from Thomas being the main editor, as he has a lot of experience with Adobe Premier. On the other hand, Kieran is new to production, having not done GCSE Media Studies. We will give him advice on mise-en-scène, and he will take charge of controlling the lighting of our shots.
Our basic idea is to have a vulnerable female character looking around an area for a hiding place, with cross-cutting to a psychopathic male character walking towards the area. A non-diegetic soundtrack will be chosen for its capability of creating tension. Diegetic sound such as a heartbeat will also be used to create suspense. The psychopath will then enter the room and stand still. The female character will ask "Why are you doing this?", to which the psychopath will respond, before expressionlessly walking in the female character's direction and lunging towards her, to which the camera will quickly fade to black.
We have decided to use the area behind our school's stage as the location, because it has the potential for good mise-en-scène, i.e. the surrounding curtains mean that the area can easily be blacked-out, and there are lots of objects suitable for the genre.
This is a photograph of the area with artificial lighting, showing some of the objects available for us to use, to add verisimilitude via mise-en-scène:
We took some very simple test photographs at the location, so that we could visualise our shots more easily, and therefore improve them before the final shoot.
These pictures are to demonstrate basic camera angles and mise-en-scène, and to identify any problems with the location that we hadn't previously considered.
By analysing these photographs, we were able to confidently reorder some of the shots, such as delaying a shot of the antagonist coming down the stairs.
We decided that the shot of the victim looking behind the curtain should be more high-angled, and that there should be a successive shot from behind the curtain.
Furthermore, we resolved to redesign the shot of the antagonist after he enters the room, so that it is a very low-angle, thus giving him more power, and with the camera on his other side, as we realised it would be breaking the 180° rule to leave it as shown above.
Additionally, we discarded the shot from the antagonist's point of view, looking down at the victim, and replaced it with a shot from the victim's point of view, in an attempt to encourage the audience to feel more emphatic towards the victim, and alienated by the antagonist.
We decided to hide the antagonist's face throughout the sequence, to create a more equivocal aura.
Perhaps the most significant decision we made was to make the lighting much more low-key, in pursuance of further ambiguity.
Production
We filmed on November the 10th. Everything went to plan, but later on we realised that the microphone had not been turned on. This meant that we had to overdub with foley.
A Cannon 550D was used to film; editing was done with Adobe Premiere and After Effects.
This is the finished piece:
Evaluation
After showing showing the rest of the class our sequence, we received the following feedback:
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Not revealing the antagonist's full face is a positive element, as it introduces ambiguity.
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The use of cross-cutting is effective in conveying the development of the narrative.
The main soundtrack was well-received, as it adds suspense, and successfully changes the pace when it stops synchronously with the action. On the other hand, the overdubbed sound effects have various problems. Primarily, the dialogue's volume is inconsistent. Also, the antagonist's footsteps have the wrong timbre, and the sound of the coffin slamming is non-existent. Furthermore, one viewer thought that the heartbeat is too loud, however I disagree with this.
No comments were made about the mise-en-scène, which suggests that there are no obviously misplaced objects. However, the title sequence for the main production will definitely need to be more thought through, as the grammar and pixelated images appear to be very rushed and unprofessional.
The main problem with the piece is the unbalanced audio levels. Also, better actors will be needed for the main production.
The most successful aspects of the sequence are the camerawork, and the continuity. The rest of this page elucidates some of the thought behind the cinematography of the most efficacious shots.
The opening shot has a high-angle, showing the victim in a room with low-key lighting. This is successful in immediately establishing her as vulnerable. The canted angle implies that she is also disorientated.
This shot furthers the establishment of the danger of the girl's situation. The bold vertical and horizontal lines have connotations of prison bars, which helps the audience to identify this character as the antagonist. This shot is very successful in creating enigma.
The minute blur effect in this shot helps to increase the pace of the sequence, therefore enhancing the drama. The victim's light skin contrasts with the louring setting, which suggests that she does not belong there. Together with the high-angle, this continues to convey her vulnerability to the audience.
This shot is successful in representing the antagonist as physically superior. The action of coming down the stairs from high up signifies that he belongs in a position of power.
This shot continues to connote the superiority of the antagonist, as he is dominant in the shot, and blocks out the light from the door, symbolising him blocking his victim's escape.
In this shot, we see the antagonist's shadow projected onto the background, which emphasises his dominance. The framing helps to create a disparity between the two characters; the victim is marginalised, and in a weak position physically.
The preliminary exercise has given me valuable experience, and greatly increased my knowledge of film production. It also acts as a good basis for improvement for the main production, in terms of the four micro features of film: camerawork, editing, mise-en-scène, and sound.