Evaluating The Preliminary Task

We were asked to film a scene were a character opens a door,crosses a room and sits down in a chair oposite another character, then there is a brief dialogue between them.

We prepared by putting all our ideas on a piece of paper. When we put together what we thought were the best ones we began to storyboard.

We decided on an horror/kidnapping scene with one actor as a bound victim and one as the evil torturer. As such we opted for some dark and mysterious opening shots. As such we used medium and close up shots. This gave the effect of creating an ambuguity about the film as when you watch it you wander who the villain is and why he has another man captive. Also the generall lighting was very dark and dingy, with an almost musty light. This created suspense and added to the horror. However in some cases it did seem too dark and had a negative effect on the picture.

My role in the film was to play the mysterious baddie. To capture the mystery of my character we used many close up shots but no full body shots. This meant that the identity of the villain remained a mystery throughout. I also helped with the lighting when i was not in the shot.

We positioned Redmir centrally in the opening shots. This was done deliberately as we wanted to draw the attention to him and nothing else. This was necessary for shots like the one were we see that Redmir is tied up as it makes the audience aware of his situation better. However in the shots of me i am almost always on one side of the screen and not the center. This is done in shots where my objective or intent needs to be displayed. For example there is a shot were my arm, which is clutching a weapon of some sort, is on the left hand side of the screen with Redmir just right of the center. We can deduce from this shot that i intend to use this weapon on Redmir as the only main items the audience can see is my arm, my weapon and the hostage (Redmir).

I was very pleased with our final result. We sucsesfully created a scene which could be developed into a good film. We created a storyline that could have been developed into a feature film as we still did not know the villains identity or motives and there was scope to turn it into any genre. It could become a psycologicical thriller, a mysterious horror film or even an action film with fights between the villain and cops or vigillantes of some sort. There were some scenes which were a bit dark but with some editing in imovie we rectified it to a more viewable standard so i don't view that as a problem.

I think the group worked well together. Everyone chipped in their bit, whether it was shooting, acting or editing which was great. The team as a whole was on the same wavelength and we came up with some great ideas and how to film them. Basically I don't think anyone let the team down.

I feel more confident with imovie and camerawork. I feel i can create lighting, sound and effects to a higher standard thatn i previously could. I also know several hotkeys now which is always good. I feel more confident with the camera because i feel that i can now judge, to a basic level, what shots will work well and which ones won't.