Jack Fisher
Evaluation
In the sequence I have produced , from my imagined film ‘Murder Creek’, I aimed to use cinematography to create a feeling of tension amongst the spectators and to establish the narrative for the film after the sequence I have produced. I have done this by using shots, such as panning shots in the opening scene, point of view shots in the shot-reverse-shot sequences and over the shoulder shots in the murder sequence. Having watched sequences from films of the teen-slasher genre, I have identified that these types of the teen-slasher genre I have seen that these types of shots were used previously to create tension within the spectators, as I seen on my blog, where I drew inspiration from a sequence from the film ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’. I also drew inspiration from other films of this genre, such as the opening sequence from ‘Scream’ and a compilation of murder scenes from the film ‘Nightmare On Elm Street’. I also used certain shots which might not have been typical of the genre teen-slasher, however I had learned when studying spectatorship in film that these shots can be used to create tension amongst the spectators. The target audience of the teen-slasher genre is a mainstream audience, aged between sixteen and twenty-four. Having shown my film to a select audience, the general reception is that the cinematography I used was effective in creating meaning, however I could have used certain other types of shots and incorporated more mise-en-scene in order to make the use of cinematography more effective, as seen in a video clip from ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’, which is uploaded on my blog, in which a set of metal bars are used to show the helplessness of my victim, I intended to use a sequence like this, however I was unable to at the time of filming. A further issue concerning cinematography is that of the location in which I filmed, as I was unable to film in the location which I had originally intended, I was forced to switch location, therefore I had to alter the cinematography I was going to use in order to not reveal this to the audience. There is a line in the film in which one of the characters points out how beautiful the water is, however in reality they aren’t actually near any water.
I also aimed to create meaning and tension in my sequence through the use of sound, initially I intended to use non-diagetic sound to do this, however after watching the film ‘Funny Games’ I opted for not using non-diagetic sound, in order to give the sequence a more ‘real’ feel. Admittedly ‘Funny Games’ isn’t of the genre teen-slasher, however I drew inspiration from a certain sequence as it was effective in creating tension, which was well received by the audience I showed it to, noticing the lack of non-diagetic sound. The sound in the sequence I have produced is all natural sound, which was in the background at the time I was filming, this makes the sequence feel more realistic to the spectator. I also aimed to use simple dialogue, in order to make the film easier to follow, however due to the times at which I filmed and the locations (which were essential to the narrative) there were some issues with sound in the background, however the dialogue isn’t essential to the narrative as it was cited in my aims and context that dialogue would be kept to a minimum in order to make the film ‘high-concept’, therefore these complications didn’t cause too much of a problem in my production. A further issue I occurred, in terms of sound, was the fact that as the parts inside the car were shot on different occasions there was different music on the radio at the time. I thought this wouldn’t be noticeable at the time as the radio was on quietly, however in the process of editing I realised it is actually quite noticeable and could not be remedied as there was dialogue over the top, although it could be argued that the two different songs could be seen to mirror the characters, revealing the differences in the characters, having the music playing reflecting their personality.
In terms of editing, which was one of the features I focused less on, I have used several dissolve edits in order to show a jump in time, between college and the location of the murder, these were used effectively to distort time. However it was pointed out by the audience that watched my film that there were too many jumps and edits, which appeared to distort the idea of continuity and appeared to break the 180-degree rule. Other than these issues the editing is reasonable, as I have used a mix of straight cuts, jump cuts and dissolves in order to create effect, with intention to create tension among the viewers.
Taking into account the mise-en-scene used I came across the issue of an actor in my film who forgot to wear the correct costume on one occasion of filming. This is was a worry at the time of filming, however it was remedied by the types of shots I used around him, in order to make it less noticeable, this has worked as it was only noticeable at one point in the film, very briefly, other than that the issue wasn’t noticeable and was remedied by the use of point of view shots in favour of other shots which would make this more obvious, such as the initial over the shoulder shot which I intended to use. Another issue concerning mise-en-scene is the colouring of the actors clothing, as there isn’t a lot to indicate the danger which the characters are in and so on, this isn’t a major issue though, as the main focus of my project was to create meaning and establish the narrative for my film through the use of cinematography and sound, rather than the use of mise-en-scene. A further issue concerning mise-en-scene is that of the location, as the film is called ‘Murder Creek’, however I was unable to actually shoot the footage at the location which I had intended, due to problems with accessibility, therefore the footage was actually shot down a country road.
In the course of completing my FM3 project, I have gained new knowledge and experience, mainly in the form of ability to edit footage effectively, as I needed to stitch together many pieces of footage that were filmed at different times. This is seen a sequence of my film which is inside a car and I used a shot-reverse-shot between the two characters, who both recorded their parts on separate occasions. This is also seen at the end of my sequence, when The male character is murdered, which was filmed on a completely separate occasion to the rest of the footage, however through the editing process I have managed to keep continuity (to a degree as one of the actors was wearing a different costume).
Further to this actually using a camera myself and shooting footage has furthered my understanding of the use of cinematography in film, as I have seen first hand and through my research exactly how use of clever camera angles and certain shots can give meaning to a sequence and ultimately provoke emotion among the audience, which is seen in the sequence from ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ on my blog and my
use of point of view shots at the end of my sequence, when the male character in my film is murdered. This is a clear example of me learning through putting theory into practice, which I have found really useful.
In addition to this I have also learned how a good sound track can help to provoke emotion in the audience, or in my case no sound track at all, as I opted for using no non-diagetic sound in order to give the sequence a feeling of reality, which can also be seen in, for which I drew inspiration from ‘The Blair Witch Project’ and ‘Funny Games’. Also I have learned over the course of this project just how important time management can be, as I hadn’t left a lot of time for filming some shots of the sequence and therefore the film was somewhat shorter than was intended and some of the shots I used appeared to be hurried. In hindsight, this could have been avoided by better planning and time management, which would have allowed me more time to get all the footage I needed for a successful sequence, as I would have known to start filming at an earlier date, th8us allowing me more time to complete filming. Also having had better planning I would have had the foresight to remind the actors I was using of the costume they would need for the shooting of the film, which would have avoided the aforementioned continuity errors in my sequence. I would also say I have learned the difficulties of sticking to a storyboard, as due to the change of location in my filming, I have (to an extent) had to change the types of shots I was using for my sequence. Further to this I had to change the location of the opening part of my sequence, due to the level of noise in the originally intended area of filming, which would have disrupted the dialogue further.
Word count: 1,587 words.
Word count: 1,587 words.
