Murder Scene
Planning and storyboarding
Before we started making our storyboard we decided to discuss what we wanted to happen in our murder sequence. By this I mean that we decided to come up with a story behind the murder so that we could set the scene properly and work on the build-up to the murder. I was really happy that we did this because it then meant that we could all properly put similar ideas across. We all contributed to the planning of this task which meant when making it everyone was clear with what we were doing. After we had the story in our minds we created a storyboard. We were given post-it note to stick on A3 paper that we could draw on and then add captions to. None of us were any good at drawing and thought that if we did the captions first then we could get down what we wanted to and if we had time (which we didn’t) we could then draw in the pictures. Having the storyboard really helped when we were filming as we could look at it to make sure we were filming what we wanted. We used the storyboard the whole time when we were filming and we were lost when we did not have it with us or accidently left it somewhere. I didn’t mind doing this part of the task as it helped us a lot when we were filming.
Mise-en-scène
Before we started filming we had to think about the location and the setting of our scene. The reason for this was because we wanted to make use that we chose the right setting for our scene. As we were in school we had to think about where we could film that would be appropriate for our sequence. We decided that we should just use the school as the setting so that the murder would take place in school. The reason for this is so that we did not have to look for anywhere that would not look like a school for our scene. As we were using the school for our location and theme of our sequence so our costume was just our normal sixth form uniform. We did not do our casting necessarily as a normal casting would be done. This is because we just went and started filming and whoever was not filming was the cast in the scene. I think that with the people that were cast did fit the roles properly even though it wasn’t planned this way. We did not really use any lighting in our scene as we were filming outside and wanted to get the natural feel from the audience of the location of our scene. When making our sequence we did not really need that many props, in fact we only used two props and that was the sink at the beginning for our murderer to wash their hands in. The other prop that we used was the door when our murderer goes out to find the victim. In my opinion I think that we used parts of mise-en-scène really well and then other parts could have been used a lot better.
Sound
When thinking about sound in our sequence we decided that we wanted to have a voice over in our sequence. The reason for this is because in our storyline our murderer is being controlled by a man tells her that she needs to kill her victim. We did make voice overs of a male speaking but we unfortunately did not get a chance to put them in because not all of our videos got uploaded on to our system so therefore we did not get to finish it. These were the only other sounds that we wanted because we wanted to use silence because when we were planning this it seemed like the most dramatic sound for our sequence.
Editing decisions
I found the editing part of the task the hardest. The reason for this was because this was the first time that I had ever used a ‘MAC’ properly and the first time that I had edit a movie scene. When I started to get used to using Final Cut Express and learned where the tools were, I found it a lot easier. When actually editing I you had to keep watching the videos over and over again so that you could see where you had to put things in and where you had to cut the video up. I found this difficult as I had never done it before. Now that I know how to do it I will be able to do it again.
Camera Angles
When we were planning our story we did not think too much about our camera angles. When we started actually filming is when we thought about what angles we actually wanted to use. We thought about how we could incorporate the different camera angles with our story, so we thought that we could do quite a few point of view shots from the different characters. We also did some cross cutting at the beginning of the sequence using low angle shots. We however did not really think that hard about the type of camera angles that we used. I think that if we had tried harder with this then our sequence would be a lot more effective than what it actually was.
HanishaEvaluation of my murder scenes
Planning and story board
My group and I thought carefully about how our murder scenes were going to take place and started by putting all of our ideas together. We used the story board as a guideline for what we were going to do. We didn’t always follow the story board however because we had to make a few changes to our murder scenes because the timing wouldn’t have been right. It was the least fun part of the task because it didn’t involve any camera work or acting and I think the things sometimes plan out better if they’re spontaneous. However, my group and I all had the same type of ideas so it didn’t take that long to plan out what we were going to do.
Actors
In our murder scenes, we had two main actors; Shauna and Hanisha. This is because the story was between two school girls and they fitted the part well. There were technically three people involved in the sequence but the third person is purposely heard but not seen. Megan and I didn’t act in the murder sequence but instead we dealt with the camera work. I felt that the part where Shauna murders Hanisha, is particularly good acting because it looked very real and believable.
Selecting shots and angles
In my group’s murder sequence, we used quite a lot of different angles. Our first scene was of hands being washed. We had this as a POV shot because it was supposed to be from the Shauna’s (the murderer) point of view and a POV shot provides this feature. We also had low angle shots which we used for filming Shauna and Hanisha’s feet which was another effect that we added in and this built up tension and mystery of whose feet it was. We had a few two shots as well which always featured Shauna and Hanisha. We had some close up shots as well but we weren’t able to put them in because of a lack of time for editing.
Location
St. Joan of Arc school has a variety of different locations that would be perfect for a seedy murder scene because it has dark back alley type areas, the chapel and the derelict island. We decided to have our murder scenes start of in the bathroom because it was of Shauna washing her hands and we wanted it to be the type of thing where the programme starts with the present time and basically has a flash back of the recent events. The other location that we used was the back of the sixth form block. We felt that this was a good location because it was quite seedy and quiet and it was the perfect location for a murder scene. It’s also quite a dark area as well and that was a bonus effect.
Lighting
I think my groups lighting was quite good. we had the majority of our murder scenes next to the sixth form block which was quite dark anyways and that was the kind of look we were going for, we could have enhanced our lighting by maybe adding some different filters or angles so that is something that I will focus on next time.
Sound
In our murder scenes, we had some really good sounds and some bad sounds. The good sounds started in the beginning when we filmed the feet because we had the footsteps making noise which added effect and tension to the film. Another good part of our sound design was when Shauna was going to kill Hanisha because when she was opening the door, it made a creaking noise which is the type of thing that is effective in a murder scene. On the other hand, we didn’t have any creepy music or music whatsoever because we had a slight malfunction when putting the scenes onto the computer so this let us down on the sound part.
Editing decisions
Our editing decisions were like our sound. The good part of our editing was the walking feet. We were able to cross cut Shauna’s feet and Hanisha’s feet and shows how they were both going to the same place but from different destinations. We also slowed down one set of footsteps so that it was a sort of juxtaposition. On the other hand, we weren’t able to finish our editing because we ran out of time.
Shannon
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