Having finished shooting and editing our film, I believe that it clearly promotes our ability to hold shots steady with the use of a tripod. Using a tripod provided by the college allowed us to gain access to smooth shots, adding a professional edge to our film. However, in places the re-creation had shots where the camera work was extremely shaky and therefore in shots the camera was handheld.
We successfully used many differing shot types including long shots, mid shots, close ups and extreme close ups. We also included separate angles during our filming such as low, high and canted. The combination of such cinematography allows the audience to interperate the actor’s feelings and therefore receive a greater audience reaction.
Considering our composition techinques, we as a group managed to successfully use the rule of thirds, whilst maintaining our main objects (often the actress) on the golden mean. However at a certain point I am aware we exceeded the 180 degree rule, which although may confuse the audience further contributes to the horror genre, intentionally leaving them slightly confused and bewildered. It was important for us to make sure the background of our shots were not interferring with the foreground; for example bags and the public. We spent much time waiting for appropriate time to shoot our scenes.
I’m extremely pleased with our use of editing, the continuity flows well resulting in a professional finish and a true resemblence of the previous film created. The shots don’t jump, which was sometimes hard to prevent, however having cropped certain clips we eventually managed to gain a great outcome. Thankfully we managed to create the majority of this without the use of transitions. Although the option of using transitions was there, we figured that creating a more naturalistic flow between scenes would highlight the horror genre further. We felt that with a break between shots, whether it be transitions such as ‘fade’ or ‘dissolve’ they would detract from the hopeful realism of the film, and therefore it’d become less scary.
When deciding upon our mise en scene, it was obvious that the final decision was ‘average’ – having a high content of costume and make up would subtract original horror value away from the story. When considering the plot also, anything other than what appears to be a simple human being wouldn’t fit, and would just confuse the viewer. However the one prop we did use was a necklace attached to an earring – used as an improvisation reflecting the prop used in the previous film made. This is the most important object in the film so it was important for it to stand in the foreground, another reason we requested our actress dressed simply and wore minimal make-up.
One of our group members decided upon our actress as she was close friends with her and had previously mentioned in lesson that she once did drama. We decided to accept her offer, and met her shortly before we filmed. This could have been an issue but thankfully wasn’t, perhaps next time it would be wise to use an actress we were all familiar with.
The location we used to shoot couldn’t have been more perfect, as it was the same location used in the previous film. However there was one slight issue with the setting, and that was a reconstruction fault. A bench used in the original was no longer at the location and we therefore had to switch the side of the filming. This altered the background of our films, however it proved to not cause too much trouble.
My personal contributions to the film included the planning prior to the recording, such as choosing location, drawing up storyboards and highlighting key props that needed to be present on the day of shooting. When actually recording I used the camera equipment on regular occasions, and shot some of the handheld scenes. Following the recording I looked after the tape, making sure it was safe and nothing was to be re-recorded over. The editing process required my help, and being my strongest area I was able to successfully contribute to the continuity editing, sound and lighting editing and the overall adjustments including credits, titles and exporting.
The main improvement I believe could take place is increasing the similarity between our film and the original. Some of the shots are recorded from opposing sides of the actor/actress and therefore doesn’t appear exactly the same, however our overall outcome was really pleasing. Also the day we filmed was extremely sunny and many sun spots show up on the recording, I’d like to have removed these if possible during the editing process.
If I was to do this again I’d try and record on a duller day – ultimately more fitting to the appropriate genre, and I’d perhaps try to become more organised within the group. Although we all managed to take turns, during one persons job, the others were often left with nothing to do. If constant jobs were assigned we’d perhaps finish quicker, and gain more experience.
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