Prelim Task Final Cut!

Prelim Evaluation

The planning that we undertook was basic and could of been looked at better, we did a storyboard containing the bare shots necessary for the video, which is on my blog, under Preliminary Task label. We only knew how it was going to work when we went to the area of where we were going to shoot it, as we could then map out and asses our surroundings to make the best video we possible could.

So most of the planning was done on scene and in our heads, only the camera shots, layout and the basic movements the actors would take.

For this task it didn't feel like we needed to make large amounts of planning, as we only had a small amount of time before we would be shooting and it would only be a at max two minutes long.

We slightly changed from our planning, as it was basic, it left quite a bit of moving room. Most camera angles were the same, but a few would of been changed on set, to suit the actors and the environment best. Only minor changes took place for camera angles, for example, when Kaya walks in to the Pod, instead of moving to the right of the pod, the camera moves to left, as we found that it was the best shot for showing the actors emotions.

Camera skills I've developed, would be when moving with a camera to move slowly and smoothly as some movements turn into massive shakes on the camera, making it hard to see whats happening.

I feel that I was already confident with a camcorder, as me and my friends would often make small films in spare time, but I feel that I have developed my camera angles, for example tracking and worms eye shot, that is in the prelim task final cut, and ability to find the best camera angle for a certain scene.

When it came to editing though, I seemed to ended up taking a back seat, due to the fact that the other person seemed more able to it and when I did take over I lacked the necessary skills to be any use, though I did help when I came to finding parts of the film that was needed in the task.

Witness Murder Scene Analysis

The scene starts off with a young boy looking up at a statue. The opening shot is of the boy, the camera angle is low and close up shot, they used a low angle to make his emotions easily readable by the audience. It then shifts to over the shoulder and high angle from the view from the statue, showing the boy as insignificant person. It then goes to the boy again showing his emotions before his mother comes along to take him away.

Then it moves to a medium shot of the station, with him and his mother sitting down on empty rows of seats they then talk for a minute, before the mother lets her son go to the toilet, this shows her naivety towards the modern world, if she knew what would happen in an American city she would make sure at boy at his age wouldn't go to the toilet by himself.

We then see him walk away into the toilet. Theres one fluid motion into the toilet where we see a young man (man 1) having a wash at the sink, he then looks at the boy, who is also staring at the man, in awe possible showing his complete naivety towards modern world. He walks towards a cubicle and locks the door we see him as he closes the door from the outside of the cubicle, which may show he's hiding away from the outside world, locking himself away.

We then just see the man washing his face in the sink, we may only see the face of the man because the director wants to hold the suspence of what is going to come around the corner. We then see a blur of a  man walking past (man 2), still the man washes his face.


We then see one man at the far end of the toilet (man 3), this shot is a medium shot, so we can see his body language, and his emotions, he looks behind him and nods to man 2 possible giving us a hint that something is going to happen, but yet we don't know what. The camera then moves to a wide angle shot of man 1 washing his face and two other men either end, this is holding the suspense, as we now see all three of the men from where the boy in the cubicle was. 


The man 2 walks towards the door and passes man 1, holding his coat, the camera angle is from where man 2 was, giving us the best view of what might happen, putting all three of the men in picture. Man 2 then throws his coat over man 1, suffocating him, the camera goes to a close up of the man struggling to breathe, putting us in the middle of the action.
The camera then jumps to a shot of a knife, being held by man 3, giving us the impression that this incident is important and not just a gang grudge or something like that. By this time the boy has seen what is going on and is looking through the crack in the door, man 3 then runs over to the victim struggling to get to his neck and slits its open. The camera angle is from the boys view, showing his insignificance to this modern day action, its also low angle shot, making the three men seem powerful and showing us that these three men still are unaware of the little boy. 


After man 3 slits man 1's neck, it jumps to a close up of the boys eye through the crack in the door, then jumps back to watching the men dealing with their victim, through the crack in the door. The boy then closes the door slowly, we see this when the camera is on his eye, and slowly the door closes, possible showing how scared he is, how he wants to close himself off from this situation. The camera then goes to a shot in the cubicle and he steps back in shock. 


We then see man 3 stepping from the dead man on the floor, the camera angle is low and medium shot, we don't see his head, making it seem that the director doesn't want us to see his full identity. He moves around looking for somewhere to wash his hands and disposes of the knife. Man 2 is down by the victim, the angle is over the shoulder from man 2, we never see his face, meaning that his identity to us is a mystery and making it seem all the more menacing to us and the boy, still hiding in the cubicle.


Man 2 and 3 then have a hushed and rushed conversation, man 2 asks what man 3 is doing, telling him to be quick, man 3 is more laid back about it, telling him to chill out, this may mean that man 3 has done it before and isn't afraid of taking risks and killing people. The camera angle during the conversation is low angle, from the view point of man 2, maybe making it seem, again, that man 3 is the more dominant one and has done this more often, and is more experienced at this. Man 2 is flicking through man 1's possessions, taking his cash and what seems to be a police identity card, maybe, trying to make the murder seem like a mugging. 


The boy is leaning against the cubicle and lets out a gasp of shock, we see this inside the cubicle, medium shot. 
The shot then goes to a low angle of man 3, he hears this and and takes out his gun in one motion, putting up to his face, so we can see what he has done, he then moves to the start of the row of cubicles, and opening each door, and pointing his gun inside it, the camera angle is at the end of the row where the boy is. It shoots to the boy, at the same level of his face, seeing his shock.
We then see a shot of the open lock and the door shaking, this shot is simple but makes us realise that the boy will be found, and possible killed if he doesn't do anything soon. 


He goes to try and close it, but its stiff, and the camera goes to see man 3 opening each door getting closer to him, then back to him trying to lock the door, making us start thinking whether he will succeed in locking it, building the tension. 
Then two cubicles before the boys, he manages to lock it, and stands back, thinking of what to do.
The camera shot follows man 3, we see only his legs and feet, making it seem even more menacing, then we see the boys feet behinds man 3's feet, making us think that he's had it, and he will get captured. 
Then boy drops to his feet and slides under to the cubicle that man 3 has looked in, before this man 3 has got to the boys cubicle and starts shaking it, the camera angle is at the far end of the row of cubicle where it was to start with, seeing man 3's emotions, we see a spark of fear inside him, the first time in the film, he kicks down the door and the camera angle goes inside the cubicle, low angle, yet again, showing the man's superiority and power, after server seconds we see the boys feet standing on a toilet, the camera moves up his body, and we see his face, with his eyes wide, mouth open, showing his shock from this situation. 
His arms are on the cubicle sides, out at his sides, possible a reference to his religion. 
The camera then slowly zooms in to his face, man 3 then does a final look of where the boy was then moves away. 
It ends with the boys face in shot, looking white and in shock. 

Thriller ideas

At the begining our group came up with the idea of a group in the forest and seeing lights (see in thriller planning folder) but this was dismissed as the lighting would be too dark and is to complicated for a two minute opening to a thriller, we now have to come up with new ideas for our thriller.
Some ideas that I think would be suitable would be: 

• Victim being followed by "something" (person, animal, something else) and getting more and more agitated as time goes by. Climax at point of ending.
• Starts off with a news reporter standing outside a grave yard, talking about a group of teenagers who went missing, it then cuts to footage of the previous nights, where the camera is being held by one of the teenagers at the climax of the incident, the camera is moving quickly to confuse and disorientate the auidence. Noise of whats happening can be heard but not much can be seen. Maybe the heavy breathing can be heard of the person holding the camera. Its only a plan, I don't know how it could end, but would end with all teenagers possible all dead.
• Postman discovers a dead body in a house, camera would be on the perpective of someone hiding out, maybe the murder then follows the Postman into the house to kill him.
• Man in a scince lab, working on some cure for some illness or disease, the perpective of the camera is of someone there in the lab intending to not been seen, meaning the views of the sciencist would be of his back. The camera gets closer, with the person, who then goes to kill the sciencist and steals the chemcial being used for a cure, it then finishes.

These are thoughts of a thriller opening I have thought over and developed, hopefully one of these ideas can be incorporated into the final thriller opening in some way.