Evaluation

AS Unit F632 - Foundation Portfolio In Film (Evaluation)
Creative Artefact Evaluation 

My aim for the creative artefact was to produce a short horror film sequence with certain relations to my textual analysis in that it's key focus was the themes explored. The basic premise of the sequence is that of a known killer named Jigsaw begins killing of teenagers and as the body count begins, one girl is targeted upon and we witness her struggle for survival. She manages to escape from the hands of the killer, as the clip is left on a cliff hanger after a dramatic fight scene between the killer and the victim. 

To make the sequence as visibly pleasing as possible, I used a variety of shots in order to make the sequence as interesting and amusing as I could. From previous experience in learning about cinematography and camerawork I put theory work into practise. With practise in taking various shots me and my partner took this practise into the actual filming of our sequence, when operating the video camera to my advantage by examining different ways of conveying meaning through assorted camerawork I was able to take conventional shots such as point of view shots, high/low angle shots and long shots all of which are established in the films of both Stephen Chbosky and Peter Jackson.

In terms of use of key codes and conventions identified in the analysis, through the macro and micro elements, the majority of my shots in the sequence are shot on a tripod and handheld. My partner and me made the conscious decision to film the vast majority on a tripod; the advantage of using a tripod is that it enhanced the framing precision. However the included handheld camerawork increased the realism of the sequence and allowed us to get high angle shots.

Early on in pre production of my short film sequence my partner and me came to the conclusion that we wanted to include a conversation arrangement with an included detached figure – like Susie’s Salmons character in The Lovely Bones (Peter Jackson 2012) end scene. This was a form of a non-diegetic voiceover, as our detached figure was portraying the voice of a serial killer, we used an voice-converter app on my phone to get the desired affect of the tone of the killer so that their natural voice could not be recognised. Many ‘classic teen horror films’ of the 1990’s such as ‘Scream’ (1996) which we based our sequence around, follow a very conventional predictive storyline, in which a group of teenagers are killed off one by one by a mysterious unknown killer. Adding to this in ‘Scream’ initially the pretty girl is killed off instantly, this provided inspiration for our sequence where the girl survives a brief attack/fight scene with the killer.  

For the planning of my short film sequence I started by drawing out a storyboard that allowed me to arrange the microelements; camerawork, editing, Mise en scene and sound.  The advantage of using a storyboard for planning is during shooting on location I was able to keep track of the sequence. Alongside my storyboard sketches I had a shot list that was briefed down just to the number of shots that should be taken throughout the sequence.  Equal with my storyboard next to each sketch of the shot I described the type of shot, what was happening within the shot and a rough description of the sound.

The sequence opens with a long establishing shot of the setting in which the protagonist is introduced to the audience as the camera films her walking down the street towards her house: full of optimism and certainty. We then cut to a medium close up of the same character talking on her phone to the killer. At first she talks with ease as she believes the other caller is her friend, but as she realises this is no joke her facial expressions change to apprehension and fear. I intended for this to show how she feels and build up the anticipation about what is about to happen as she enters the house. We then cut to her inside the house - where the fight scene between her and the unknown killer breaks out. The handheld camera movement in this sequence summarises to the audience the physical struggle between the two characters. In 'The Perks Of Being a Wallflower' Chbosky similarly wants the audience to understand struggle rather than physical he shows mental struggle through the use of the editing technique flash cutting. I decided to follow Chbosky's idea by showing the physical struggle to the audience through hand holding the camera. 

From my point of view, despite various difficulties with organising the shoot, around actors' busy schedules and organising to take out cameras and tripods from college for home shoots, I feel that I was partially successful in achieving my aims. However when it came to editing we found that our storyline had moderately drifted off course from our storyboard due to various variables. Specifically due to problems with finding a male lead and timing we found that we no longer needed a another actor as we could easily just film our main actress and the build up to the fight scene between her and the killer, as this would take us up to the time limit on our short film. Another issue we came across when editing was that due to filming during the night in a few of the shots it was difficult to see the actress, so therefore had to overcome this problem by using editing techniques to brighten the shot and uses faded and dissolves to help the flow of the shots. Overall I feel that the sequence went significantly well, even though we found difficulty in the shooting process and did not get the specific scene we anticipated, however due to these errors I built up my editing skills to make the footage we had into an appropriate film sequence.