At this stage of the course, my group is focusing on a new short film production called Broken. Overall the short film has to last 3-4 minutes and can be on anything. We had to individually write scripts and pick the best one out of our group, the group decided to pick mine and it a story about a girl that is 16 years old that has been involved in a long abusive relationship with someone 5 years older than her. How well have you created your script? I believe that I created the script very well, as I followed my tutors instructions on how to layout a script and where to put dialogue and a parenthetical. What can be improved? Overall I believe there is room for improvement, such as the way some of the transitions are placed other than that I don't think there is any improving that needs to be done. Does your script communicate a story? My script does communicate a story about a girl that is 16 years old that is involved in an abusive relationship.
Don't look back is a short film about a girl being chased by an anonymous person. The title is called don't look back because if she does look back she might encounter a frightening experience.
How well did you use the camera? Focus/ shot sizes?
I believe I used the camera very effectively. Whilst shooting the short film we included varying types of shots such as a close-up, far away, high angle shots and a tilted angle when our actress walks from the lockers. I believe that our movie did have shots that were out of focus such as the close up on our actresses face, but this was done intentionally and was merely done to create a mysterious effect on her face. Other than that they were no scenes that were out of focus.
Did you work well in your group? What was your role?
My role was the camerawoman; my tasks included shooting majority of the scenes. Overall, I feel as though we worked really well together. We were able to use our time effectively and wisely.
Did you name your shots correctly?
I believe that all the shots that I stated were the shots that were presented in our short film.
Does your music work with your edit?
The music I used in my edit worked really well together. It created a dramatic feel, especially during the close-up shot. Also, when our actress was running, I believe, the music aided to make the scene very intense.
Was the lighting effective?
The lighting was very effective as it made the film appear better in quality, however for myself it didn't concern me too much, as my own edit was going to be produced in a black and white filter, but overall without the black and white effect the lighting was very effective for some of the other people in my group.
How could you improve your editing? Did you use transitions? Effects? Good use of cutting?
When it came to editing my part of the film, I used quite a few transitions and effects to my advantage. I made sure that my piece was in black and white to add a chilling and creepy atmosphere. I also made smooth transitions between the clips so they were combined seamlessly and weren’t presented as clips that have no connection. I made good use of cutting and cropping the clips so they weren’t presented as unprofessional or where you could hear our directions to the actress. The editing was really good and I believe I did a good job, especially in the elevator scene, making the camera footage look like a surveillance camera.
Overall, I believe I could have possibly improved on my editing and perhaps tried to explore more effects and filters and not be restricted to a black and white filter, but in my next project I’ll be sure to explore more.
Upon starting the course we were given a practical. The brief was to produce and create a short film with the duration of only one short minute. In the practical we were put into groups of four.
Details about the short film:
The scenario of our short film had to be about a person being chased or stalked. When the filming part of the practical was completed our group individually and simultaneously edited the movie, adding our own effects and transitions toward it.
When it came to my editing I wanted to give the movie a dramatic and intense atmosphere, thus I made it black and white.
A scene I edited to make the elevator footage mimic the look of a CCTV camera.
We decided to call our movie "Don't look back" based on the fact that if the character does indeed look back she perhaps may endure a frightening experience.
Here are our takes of our actress Brenda who plays the part of the girl being chased. In this video, we have directed her to turn around flip her hair to add a dramatic effect.
Overall, my experience producing this movie was very beneficial as it taught me how to work and shoot in a team and in a busy environment!
