Storyboard
Our preliminary task for a horror opening is - Show A entering a room from a corridor and opening the door. Inside the room B is sitting down. Without saying anything, A gives a piece of paper to B. B reads it and reacts. A displays some kind of emotion and leaves.
Our group (me, Abbie, Daryl and Luke) started planning and creating storyboards for this task.
We decided to set this in the corridors and rooms in school as the corridors were big enough to let footsteps echo and the doors were very old and made the creepy diegetic sounds we wanted. We used the desks in the classrooms for the two characters to interact between and we used many close ups and extreme close ups to create the codes and conventions of horror.
The video
Preliminary Task
The video
Preliminary Task
Evaluations
Once we had made our video, we evaluated it to help improve our work for the main task.
Our class suggested ways to improve our video and parts of the film they liked. They said the use of non-diegetic sound was very effective to build the tension and the slow motion was an effective way of making the audience aware of what is going on. The money was also suggested to be the powerful force, whoever had it had the dominance over the other person.
The colours we used also worked well, his blue shirt matched his blue eyes to emphasis his innocent look, they also thought when the camera shaked, which was not planned, it added to the thriller conventions.
To improve we needed to think about our surroundings, there were brightly coloured school posters that distracted the audiences eye, which meant we lost the tense atmosphere and having both diegetic and non diegetic sound throughout the piece also was a distraction, we need to think about getting the right balance of music in our real piece.
As well as evaluating our own piece we also watched the other groups pieces and looked at the good points and thing they can improve on for their main task.
As well as evaluating our own piece we also watched the other groups pieces and looked at the good points and thing they can improve on for their main task.
Amber, Ellie, George and Ben's group did a comedy film, they linked their non diegetic music to their piece very well, with comical silences to show the awkwardness between the two characters. The piece opened with a well filmed establishing shot of the school, they then filmed the male character in the school toilets, they used the diegetic sound of the hand dryers and taps with quick cuts between shots to help set the scene. I think the most effective shot in the piece is as the male character moves out of the toilet there is a medium shot of him leaving and the symbol for the toilet is also in the frame, we also see him smile.
The point of view shot of the girl is also very effective and as he sits down the two shot also shows their reactions to each other, to add to the comical effect. The editing is also very effective in these scenes, especially the dissolving shot with the heart it reinforces the romantic comedy genre.
Whilst they sit in the two shot the poster on the wall says 'living your dream' linking the story with the props around the characters. I also like the use of black and white which reminds me of the old romantic talkie films.
To improve i think the group should try and use a wider variety of shots and check for any continuity errors, the scene with the two shot has people in the background and then they are gone which could confuse the audience.
Emma, Akshay, Georgia and Catherine's group did a horror film. The scene starts with the girl walking down the corridor the pictures of eyes on the wall reinforces the point that someone is watching her the non diegetic music here sounds like a heart beat to build suspense. As she moves the lights turn on and off to scare the girl and the audience. The use of canted angles were also very effective to disorientate the audience. As the non diegetic sound continues it starts to sound like echoes to create that sinister atmosphere. The diegetic sound of the door and the bars on it reinforces that the girl is trapped, the red light saying 'keep out' also symbolises danger and death.
The cuts get quicker to build the tensions and the non diegetic music gets louder when we see Catherine's character, positioning her off centre and getting her to walk off from the camera puts the audience in an awkward position, the high shots at this point shows that Emma's character is vulnerable and losing control over the situation.
To improve their piece i think the scene through the door should be filmed on a canted angle not with the camera completely on its side as this makes the audience move their head to the side and it looses the hostile effect.
