Brief: The titles and opening if a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes
Chosen Genre: Horror
We first liked the idea of doing a Romantic Comedy but when we researched into it we realised that we would need to film in bright day light and because of the time we are filming in; December - February, we realised that the weather would be dull and dark and thought a horror would be the easiest to do in these weather conditions. Also in the short amount of time we have to show what genre the film is a horror film would be the easiest to portray. We also did a horror in the Preliminary Task so we know how to film it and we also know what things we would need to improve on.
The film my group did was called ‘The Following’ and was based on a horror film. It is about a girl getting followed and her best friend doesn’t believe her.
We used a variety of shots such as long shots, wide shots, close ups, mid shots, pan and track. We used long and wide shots to show where I was and my surroundings. We used tracking shots to show that I was getting followed. We used close up shots when me and Hayley were having a conversation to show the expressions on the girls faces.
Some of the pan shots we used, where we wanted it to be smooth, were difficult to do so turned out a little jolty. Most of our shots however weren’t meant to be steady as we were trying to give the impression of someone getting followed and being watched.
I was pleased with the non-diegetic sounds used. I think the ‘Jaws’ music fitted well with the type of film we were doing. It worked well as it gave the impression someone was getting followed just by the music. The final laughing sound used at the end of the film worked well as it showed the person following me had got away with it as no one believed me that it was actually happening.
Some of the diegetic sound from within the film wasn’t good as it was too noisy. We filmed in the school canteen which meant even though we asked people to be quiet it was still too noisy with people talking and with people working in the canteen were making noise. In our main task we would think of a more suitable place to film where we wouldn’t have noise in that we didn’t want and think of a quieter place to film.
The mise-en-scene was just of a school so we wanted to give the impression it was just going to be a normal day. The characters wore normal everyday clothes as it was just a normal day at school. We did have a slight problem as most of our shots for one part of the film was done where i was wearing a denim jacket and the rest of the film I wasn’t wearing one. Luckily we had a couple of shots for that particular part of me not wearing the jacket too and there was a good shot so we were able to solve the continuity problem.
The lighting was not really a problem but it was a bright sunny day and I think if the weather was darker and dull it would have fitted better with the horror type film.
The editing part didn’t take too long. We first of all had to upload the film onto the computer and then delete all of the shots we didn’t need. We then had to make sure all the shots flowed with each other and make sure our match on action worked well. Once all the clips flowed well together we added in a title and credits which we used a fade in and fade out effect for. Then we had to find the right music to use and import it onto the film and decided the best timings for the music to come in at.
The skills we had to use for this film were shot reverse shot, 180˚ degree rule and match on action. The shot reverse shot worked well and wasn’t too difficult to achieve. You can tell that both of the characters are talking to each other. We obeyed the 180˚ degree rule, everything looked fine and nothing seemed to look out of place or confusing. The match on action I was pleased with I thought we got all the timings right to make the film flow and look good and the filming from different angles to do this wasn’t too difficult to achieve.
Overall I was pleased with how out filmed turned out but for our main task I think we should think more about where to film our film and what genre on film to do depending on the weather on what might fit best to bring across what type of film we are doing.
