Angel Bird

Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Camerawork:

In comparison to our preliminary task, we used a much wider variety of angles, shots and movements.

During our preliminary task, we used mainly wide shots which made our sequence very limited in nature. This made the sequence look quite staggered and stopped it from flowing properly. We knew that in our final production we would need to change this so that the audience could become more involved in the narrative.

However the preliminary task was important as we got the idea of using point of view, which I believe was the most effective shot that we used. This gave my group the idea to film our whole main sequence in point of view, as we believe that it allowed the audience to connect to the characters more as they are forced to put themselves into the events of our narrative. In addition, when doing further research we found that this was an increasingly popular method of filming horror films as it makes the situation feel more real for the audience and therefore more frightening. It was important for us to make our production as realistic and chilling as possible as this is the strongest convention of the horror genre.

Within our point of view shots in our final production, we used some mid shots to show emotion on our victim’s face which illustrates her fear and terror at what is about to happen. We decided not to use close up shots, as within our narrative, the point of view is from the killer’s camera and therefore this would not appear realistic.

This shows one of the mid shots that we used within our final production…

… compared to the wide shots we used in our preliminary task.

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Within our preliminary task we tried to incorporate different angles, however as we were unable to keep the camera steady this was ineffective. Although, through looking at our preliminary task again we could see that if done properly high and low angle shots could tell the audience a lot about a character. By this point we had decided to film our sequence only in point of view, which made it more difficult to deliberately include any particular angles. However, we included a high angle shot when the killer moved the camera which connotated our victims lack of power in the situation as well as the great amount of power possessed by the figure behind the camera.

This is the high angle shot we used to connotate the power the killer has over our victim…

… compared to the high angle shot we used in our preliminary task.

As we actually had the cameraperson filming in the position of the killer, this made some of the camera movement shaky. However, we knew that unlike in our preliminary task this would add realism because an inexperienced person holding a camera would have no way of preventing it from moving around. This makes the audience feel more involved in the sequence as it appears to be more real to them. Whereas in our preliminary task the unsteadiness of the camerawork just looked unprofessional.

The framing within our final production improved as in the preliminary task the characters weren’t often centered in the frame. We later learned about the Rule of Thirds, which helped us to realise the significance of this. This meant that we had to improve framing within our final production as for the majority of the time, the audience only see one character. This was difficult as the cameraperson had to place the camera in the correct position on the floor of our set to frame the victim which connotated her importance to the audience.

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Editing:

In our preliminary task, we used editing techniques such as shot reverse shot to create a simple narrative. However, as we were inexperienced and the sequence of events in the preliminary task were very straight forward it was difficult to captivate the audience. As we wanted our final production to be more gripping we decided to add an unknown element to the sequence in the form of static jump cuts. We thought that this would captivate the audience as there is a sense of mystery as to what is going on between the events that they see.

This was a dramatic scene within our production that was interrupted by the introduction of static…

The shot then cuts back to the action, revealing a slight time lapse…

In our final production we used a camera template over our footage to add realism and highlight the fact a camera was being used by the killer to film these violent events. Not only did this affirm our storyline, but it added a disturbing insight into the mind of our killer. I believe that this shows the progress we made, as our preliminary task was very basic and so did not contain any kind of extra effects.

In addition, our template showed time passing as near the end of our sequence the words ‘low battery’ flash up on the screen. This helped us build a

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verisimilitude that the audience can get drawn into simply by adding small details.

Mise en Scene:

From the preliminary task to the final production, much progress was made in terms of mise en scene. However, this can be the most strongly demonstrated within the category of props.

Preliminary Task:

The main prop used within our preliminary task was a book to highlight the fact that our characters are in a school situation and emphasise the storyline.

Final Production:

Within our final production we used many more props to make the scene more realistic. For example, in this shot a cutting tool and blood can be seen to connotate violence to the audience, which is a convention of the horror genre. In addition, a ladder can also be seen in the background to highlight the nature of the location.