Evaluation of the Murder Scene
Planning and Storyboarding
Our group rushed through the planning stage as we were eager to start filming. The plotline was simple and very vague – there was no dialogue planned and different camera shots and angles were mentioned four times at most. Naturally, it took longer to film as we had to think about how we should film it - what to say, how the characters have to act and what camera angle we should use for a certain scene. An improvement would be to have drawn out shot-by-shot breakdowns i.e., for one shot - it would consist of a rough sketch of the wanted shot; outline details such as what’s going to happen in the shot, camera angles that will be used, dialogues, sound effects, mise-en-scene etc.
Mise-en-scene
1. Setting/Location – our original plan was to use the backstage in the Hall as our primary location. Upon filming, we encountered an inevitable inconvenience; the Hall was being used for a PE lesson. We opted for the back of the DT workshops instead as it was considered by the group as ‘spooky’. The location didn’t work well because, the scene consists of a Drama student and teacher rehearsing lines and in any situation, those two people have no reason whatsoever to be in a place like that. An improvement would be to use an unused classroom as it would also be a suitable location for a scene like that.
2. Costume – we didn’t need any drastic costumes. Our uniforms were enough as the student and teacher but we acquired a hooded jumper to conceal the murderer’s identity.
3. Actors – we only needed 3 actors; the Drama student, the Drama teacher and the murderer.
4. Lighting – we were filming outdoors and it was sunny. It did not suit the terrifying atmosphere we were trying to create. On the other hand, the bright lighting with the dark atmosphere has created an ironic effect on death because usually, when death occurs outdoors, the skies are grey, the clouds roll in and it starts to rain. An improvement would have been to film indoors; bright artificial lighting gives off a harsher and colder atmosphere in contrast to natural lighting, which gives a warmer feeling.
5. Props – we were short of props when were filming. The props we had were a piece of paper and a chair. The chair was unnecessary because our location was somewhere devoid of chairs; it seems too random and too convenient for a chair to have appeared out of nowhere – deus ex machina. The most important prop we forgot to consider was the murder weapon – we picked out a large fallen branch from our location as our murder weapon and tried to make it look like it had a sharp edge at the end. A prop that would have been useful was a Drama textbook or a book of a play to make the scene more believable.
Camerawork
While filming, we experimented with what camera shots and angles worked best for a certain scene e.g., the duologue between the student and the teacher started off as a long shot, but was then decided to be a two-shot. Although we used an over the shoulder shot to portray the student looking at the teacher storming off, it wasn’t as effective as we had hoped – an improvement was to have shot the over the shoulder shot closer to the student’s shoulder. Another shot that could be improved is the scene where we see the murderer’s footsteps; instead of filming it from a high angle, it could have been on ground level, to make the footsteps appear bigger and the murderer seem like a powerful giant.
Another improvement was to have an establishing shot. Even though the location wasn’t ideal, it would still be helpful to introduce the audience to the location.
Editing
We had a lot of footage, but ended up using only a 1/3. During editing, we compared two similar footages and chose which one was better for the final cut. We only cut videos and spliced them together; we did not use any special effects or filters at all.
Improvements:
1. Use special effects such as slowing down when the murderer raises his weapon
2. Use a cool-coloured (i.e. blue) filter to eliminate some of the natural light to create a creepier atmosphere.
3. Use transitions such as fade in to start the film and fade to black to end it.
My editing partner and I used two pieces of music: one was a poignant piece for the emotional part when the student’s theatrical efforts were rejected and refused by the teacher and another was for when the murderer’s footsteps were followed by the camera – a sinister, drum-beating piece was used.
Improvements:
1. Use sound effects as well such as the wind, chatter of students in the background, scraping of the weapon etc.
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