For
this module, we were asked to create a 5-10 minute film that focused on four
key elements we had learned and developed throughout our study. These were: the
use of colour within a narrative, lighting change as a narrative device, a
sequence shot and finally, a point of view sequence. Within this evaluation I
intend to reflect on the work given and completed throughout this module, how
it was scheduled and planned, the process of production of the main piece, what
I’ve learnt by completing this task.
Our
main piece follows a couple that decides to travel to the countryside to camp
out. James appears as the more enthusiastic character, where Ashlene appears to
not be as interested as her partner. The film starts with James taking photos
of Ashlene, trying to cheer her up. With an encouraging nudge, the couple
travel into the woodland area, taking pictures and taking in their
surroundings. We see the couple explore the area, Ashlene’s emotions mixed
throughout (she appears cheerful but still seems to lack interest. The couple
set up camp, and Ashlene walks off and wanders into the woods alone, and comes
across a dark figure and watches as he drags and kicks a corpse into a ditch.
Joe appears behind her, scaring her, and ensuring her that there was never
anyone there. The couple walks back down to the campsite to get some rest. The
night changes to day, and James wakes up to find Ashlene missing. James jumps
out of the tent and looks around the area, shouting after her and spots her in
the distance, tied up with a bag on her head. He rushes to her aid, only to be
told from her to hide. James hides behind the tree as we see the dark figure
from before approach Ashlene. James runs away as a distraction and the creep
chases after. As James escapes and hides under the bridge, the creep returns to
Ashlene, and we see James slowly follows him. As he reaches the top of the
hill, he trips over the corpse Ashlene spoke of earlier, and as he spots the
creep in the background, he sees the creep kill Ashlene.
We
decided to create quite a dark storyline because we wanted it to be a different
and creative approach to the project. We were enthusiastic with our idea and
were keen to accomplish our aims. For our four elements, we decided to plan
them so they would be subtle within the production. The use of colour within
the project was quite thought through. In regard to costume we wanted to set
the scene within the countryside, therefore gave the character James the
classic camper costume, however with Ashlene, I decided it would be an idea to
make her look slightly out of place, and this is because I wanted to portray
her feelings towards the trip – she doesn’t really want to go, and she’s
constantly feeling melancholy, and therefore adapted this to wearing quite dull
blue colours, minus the white hat. We wanted it to appear slightly colourful at
the beginning and slowly darken as the dark events occurred, starting with
Ashlene seeing the creep for the first time. I feel it does work symbolically
and is simply but creatively used. We didn’t want to overuse colour and make it
noticeable, but at the same time we wanted the mood of the film to change, and
for the audience to notice this change through the help of the colour adjustment.
For
the lighting element of the module, we took inspiration from the viewing of Matilda, were we see the light change
from night to day in her bedroom. It’s an explicit change and we thought it
would be a great way to transition time, as our next scene was the morning
after the previous scene. Using a Kino 200 and a Dedo lighting kit, we worked
together to create the effect of night turning to day, by dimming and raising
the lighting of the kits to create the illusion of sunrise, which in my opinion
appears to work very well. This technique was learnt within the first few
sessions of the module, as we explored lighting in more detail. The revision of
lighting allowed this shot to work and adapt the skills we learned into
practice. Our lighting change fits well with our colour design, as we want the
film to appear darker as it continues, which meant creating a darker atmosphere
with less light towards the end of the film. We wanted to create a darker light
set up around the creep character, and lighter set up around the couple when
they are happy.
Throughout
the film we used quite a few sequence shots, as our film focuses a lot on
travelling, we decided to film sequence shots of travelling through the
woodland, as we thought it would fit the brief and also be picturesque in the
process. I feel this was successful, because we managed to get a range of
sequence shots, for example one was an extreme long shot throughout, and
another where the characters approach the camera and continue to walk away.
For
the final element of point of view, we decided to explore this in many ways, we
decided to use this in general play, meaning a point of view between the couple
and take it further to introduce a point of view for the audience, as well as
the point of view of creep before the character is introduced. I feel that
these shots are effective throughout; the range of point of view allows the
audience to interact with characters and their location more intensely and more
emotionally and we feel this worked effectively in our film.
Our
inspirations throughout this film were explored through both pre-production and
production. We used our social group to research and share ideas of what we had
in mind (Fig 1 - Left), and how we could adapt these and take note from them to create
our own work. We also used a lot of inspiration from module
viewings, such as (mentioned above) the lighting change in Matilda. We also found colour inspiration from Patti Bellantoni’s ‘If It’s Purple, Someone’s Gonna Die’, as we learnt that colour can
be used to portray emotion:
‘This does not mean the colour itself has
that inherent emotional property. It means that it can elicit that physical and
emotional response from the audience.’ (Bellantoni, P, 2005)
We
also researched the idea of a ‘stalking’ sequence quite thoroughly and found
the ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ example (Fig 2 - Right), which features two characters, one
following the other. One of the them is aware and the other isn’t, which we
almost interpreted into ours, making one character know they were being
followed and the other being oblivious. It was an effective piece of research,
which contributed to the production of our own film.
During
the process, I believe the module learning was extremely helpful in the end
product. Throughout this module I was able to learn a range of new skills, for
example using more equipment such as dollies and lighting sets to understand
how to make a range of shots work. I believe the lighting session helped
greatly with our shoot, as it the technique we practiced and saw in viewings
holds a heavy contribution to our work.
We
started the production process of this project quite early into the semester;
however feel that we didn’t manage our time well. We started working on the
project, but due to having a two-week holiday break within the production set
date and deadline caused us all to lose concentration and connections with each
other. However, we worked on finding inspirations first of all, which was a
great idea and contributed well to our work. After finding ideas we were
interested in, we developed our story, with Tom, Luke and myself creating notes
and starting to create a plot line. Tom took the plot line and created a script
(Fig 3), and this is where the production properly started running. By using
the script, I decided to create a precise shot list (Fig 4) that would help us
schedule and structure our time management on shoots. After the complete script
and shot list were completed and approved by everyone within the group, we
decided to location scout to Grindleford. We decided to do this beforehand
because we wanted to find the best place for our film to work and look good to
the audience – because we wanted it to be secluded and slightly creepy. After
securing a location and our crew-actors we decided to shoot for two days at
this location. We captured a lot of footage within these two days and I feel it
was a successful amount of us to work with and show all the elements we needed.
We also did a pick up shoot a few days later to capture the lighting change scene,
as we needed to use electrics and a different lighting (night), we decided to
complete this within my village as we had an area we could place the tent.
After
the production process, Luke and I worked together to bridge the pieces
together into a narrative. With guidance from Tom, (who took on a directive
role throughout) we managed to get a finished piece. Another point is that we
decided not to record, due to difficulty and because we wanted to focus on the
shots rather than the sound design, and we didn’t want a bad sound design to be
distracting from the footage.
An
issue I had with the post-production was the time management. The time
management for the entire project was poor, as we only managed to film the week
before deadline, and were still editing until late the night before. I feel
that all of the group were preoccupied with other projects or not as interested
in this production, therefore it got pushed aside, however when it came to
creating the work, I feel we worked well together in regard to meetings,
researching and schedule and attending shoots, however I feel we could have
managed our time skills a lot better.
Another
downfall in our pre-production process was hiring actors. Before the two-week
break, we researched actors through the Call-Cast Pro but however didn’t run
into any luck. Therefore we approached the Drama society at university, and
found two people who were interested to play the couple, however, unfortunately
they both dropped out the day before our first shoot. We decided as a group
that as a back-up two of the crew members would be willing to star in some of
the scenes, so we weren’t completely stuck (like I’ve experienced in previous
productions) however it was a disadvantage as we weren’t always able to
contribute to every shot we wanted to.
My
individual contribution to this production was producting schedules and
pre-production documents, camera assisting on the shots I was absent from and
light assisting in the change. I would have to like to have been even more
involved with the camera work but due to bad time management I had to spend a
lot of time in front of the camera.
I
feel as a group, as a whole, we worked well together, we organized shoots and
got everything completed, however I feel that communications were sometimes
difficult, as some wouldn’t show up to meetings or contact other members of the
group, but overall the contributions of each member were helpful in make the
piece whole.
If
I were to repeat this module, I would definitely manage my time better, as this
would allow me to find proper actors, organize more locations and shots and problem-solve
without running into time constraints. I would also take the time to practice
skills before shoots, and run practice shoots beforehand to ensure things would
run smoothly.
Overall
I am happy with this project. I feel we have a successful outcome and have
learnt lessons along the way. It was an enjoyable experience, and allowed me to
gain more skills in teamwork and producer skills.
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Bibliography
Bellantoni, Patti, 2005, If It’s Purple, Someone’s Gonna Die, Focal Press
Webliography
Sequence
Shot Inspiration
Eyes
Wide Shut
Appendix
Fig
1: Social Group researching and discussing inspirations.
Fig
2: Eyes Wide Shut Screenshot example of inspiration
Fig
3: Script of Production
