Practise Film Sequence and Evaluation

In order to prepare for our coursework, we filmed sequences that ended in a murder, then looked at different areas where we could improve our work.

Planning and story boarding

My group and I used the story board as a basic guideline to what we were doing on film. We looked at it to plan our basic approach to filming but then abandoned it as what we had planned out would have been too difficult to film. Our film was supposed to end in a fatal fall from Rachel down the stairs, but obviously due to health and safety we couldn’t really fulfil the main aspect of the film, so instead we had to film Rachel stumbling backwards and then a black screen in hope the audience would use their imagination picture Rachel falling down the stairs. This does not mean that our film clip wasn’t effective, just that our basic plot was possibly too complicated to do.

Location

For the video clip I feel that the over location for it was actually quite effective. We chose to use some outdoor stairs for our key action as well as using a walkway between classrooms to stage the chase. The walk way was quite ideal as it was clear and narrow enough to be able to film a intimidating chase. We also managed to use synchronous sound as, as we were filming, there were other pupils in the study rooms allowing us to incorporate natural sound into our film clip which made it more believable as a story line.

Editing Decisions

Overall, I think our group made some very good editing decisions. We decided to split out group in two, splitting the film into the beginning and end. With this, my partner and I worked on the beginning of the story, attempting to use our computer skills to the max. My partner and I did find it hard to cut scenes and add new sections into the video without it looking slightly unprofessional. Yet at one specific part, my partner and I did successfully pull off a clean transition from one cut scene to another, which we both were quite happy with. At one part,  we were not happy with the speed the two actresses were running at so we decided to speed up that section of film, yet the downside to that was it ended up turning the little scream into a comical carton chipmunk sound making our ending less effective.

Use of the Camera/ Tripod

Whilst using the tripod we did find it difficult to adjust the camera to how we wanted it without the tripod being unstable. Due to that, we struggled changing the cameras position smoothly and it resulted in having shaky footage. On the whole though, for our real coursework, I think better practise with the camera is necessary as it was our first time using that equipment.

Use of sound

Our film clip didn’t have any added sounds which I think did work as the film itself was too serious to have music in the background. Even with non-diegetic sound it wouldn’t have flowed with the scenes as there was always dialogue and sometimes hard to hear because of the location we shot it in.

 Overall, I do believe our film clip was a good murder mystery as the audience followed the story watching one of the actresses being chases resulting in her falling down the stairs.  As a group I think we all worked well and voiced our views and opinions which were equally heard and taken onboard. For our coursework, I hope to be able to achieve a more professional finish to the final cut. In doing this, I wish to use more of the sound editing available as this can create a better feel for films and play with the audiences emotions.