Film Evaluation

In our 2 minute sequence sequence of our Action/Thriller movie i have tried to use a varied amount of camera techniques and shots to emphasise and show the viewer the real thrill and adrenaline rush we want to portray through our film. Our sequence we3 chose to do would be near thye the climax of our film as Special agent Kurt Prancer has been captured by the terrorists and is being tortured and interagated. My role was To be in charge of camerawork out of the four jobs we were given to choose between. Our main inspirations for our film were Iron man, Syriana and Mission Impossible III, and as the camera man my inspiration for the different shots and techniques originated from these three films.














We got the ideas and influence from films such as Syriana Featuring George Clooney, the capture scene from Iron Man starring Robert Downey Jr. and lastly the torture scene from Mission Impossible III with lead man Tom Cruise.

I tried to use many close up shots of our captive Kurt Prancer and the terrorist to add mystery to our shot and also to not give to much away to the viewer to ensure the intensenous and the suspense lasts throughout the whole scene until the end.

For me personally our first shot is my favourite as we put a dustbin bag with holes that were cut out of it over the camera, this added a kind of trashed and rough effect to the shot, then we shone a bright light through the other side of the bag so it looked blinding and confusing to the viewer, this was a point of view ( P.O.V) shot of our captive Kurt Prancer This shot is really good for showing tension and really makes the audience uneasy because they have no idea where the actor is and they have no clue of what is happening, we then edited the heavy breathing into the scene to show the audience that the captive is breathless and struggling and possibly in trouble.

In many thriller movies there are close ups of different things in many scenes for example the SAW franchise there are many close ups of the tools and traps and peoples faces and reactions to add a more intense feel to the scene it also puts you closer to the scene in the way that you are closer to the action that is happening giving you a more tense feel this is what i tried to achieve with some of the shots i took.

Another shot im very pleased with is when the bag is pulled from his head and the camera is very effective in the way that it slowly afjusts to the lighting and with the shot still being a point of view shot it looks likle the captive is adjusting to the light, adding tension and mystery because you kind of get an idea now of where you are but its still blurred so your not fully sure of whats going on and whats happening.

The next few shots wre of our terrorist we didnt want to give much away on the image of our terrorist so i used the lighting to good effect to disguise the terrorist and to just portray the outline of him to add more mystery and tension to the scene, i used close ups on many of his shots mainly when he is sorting out out the tools to show you that this is a torture scene and torture is imminent for our captive.

Four our captive i tried to do as many close ups and reaction shots of independant features of
of his face for example when the terrorist is sorting ouyt the torture weapons, i used a close up on his eyes to show he's worried and tense, you can even just about see the terror in his eyes as he's struggling.

I also zoom into his hands which are tied up to show hes in a hostage situation we also shoot his P.O.V looking at his feet which are also tied up.I also showed a close up of his mouth that is taped over alos in this shot i show the blood thatt is on his face by now the audience shhould have a reasonable idea that its a hostage situation.


I used many P.O.V shots in our film sequence to put the viewer in the seat of our actor i used these shots to make the viewing experience more intense as you feel like your actually in the seat and not him.Our final P.O.V shot again from Kurts P.O.V looking at out terrorist gives you a good look at our villian this time as he turns around as he just goes to him Kurt the scene cuts this is to one, thrill the audience as it looks like their the ones who are going to be punched and two, to leave them guessing what happened next almost like a cliffhanger.

As my role of Camera man i treid to use a varied amount of shots to create tension and a uneasy feeling for the audience throughout our film to really keep in touch with the thriller conventions i think i achieved this and i think the people who watched ours also thought this as one comment of our feedback was ' A good wide variety of camera shots' which is what i was looking to do .

Evaluation of Movie Extract - Jack Cunningham

In this essay I will be evaluating my role, responsibilities and input into our group movie extract task. We were put into groups of four and were given the task to produce a two minute extract of a film that we would come up with ourselves. We had to pick a genre and then decide on a plot and story for it. We then decided on a two minute extract in which to film and perform. We set ourselves individual roles, a cinematographer, a director, editor and sound designer. My role was the sound designer. We decided our film was going to be following the genre of action/thriller. Our films narrative was that there was a special agent named Kurt Prancer who gets abducted and captured by Middle-Eastern Terrorists. Our character then manages to escape from captivity and back to safety. We chose to film our two minute extract from right in the middle of the narrative so during the capturing and in the torture sequence. We got the ideas and influence from films such as Syriana staring George Clooney, the capturing scene from Iron Man with Robert Downey Jr. and lastly the torture scene from Mission Impossible III starring Tom Cruise.








Before we started this task we had been studying horror genre films. This definitely had an effect on our film as we had studied all of the cinematography and use of sound such as soundtrack or special effects sounds in the horror films that because ours was an action/thriller we wanted it to have a bit of tension in it so we took a few techniques from the horror genre. Some of elements which were used were close ups, fast transitions between shots, point of view shots and also shots which there was nothing to see, shots of pure darkness except for a small light. This represented the captive being blindfolded or in this case having a sack over their head. This shot was effective because it meant the audience will focus on the sound. They cannot see and when one of the human senses is impaired or lost the others are emphasised so when all their can see is darkness, they are listening to all the noises in the background, listening to the soundtrack to establish what sort of setting this is, listening for anything which will give them a clue as to what is going on.
Our film consisted of mainly diegetic sound. There was footsteps, background noises, the sounds of the struggling captive trying to break the tape that forced his hands together, the heavy breathing, and the sound of the terrorist laying out all of the torture weapons. As well as diegetic sound we did enhance non-diegetic sound for example additional heavy breathing was added in, I wanted to add more breathing in because the diegetic breathing sounded a lot like wind so I needed something more noticeable as breathing. I created a very diegetic soundtrack with aspects such as road noice and a Turkish voice over with subtitles to create the feeling of a strange environment to the audience and busy roads for example around where our agent is being held. I also added a crash of lighting towards the end, although this is very stereotypical for a horror film, in our action/thriller I thought it might have a slightly different effect, it is subtle but still noticeable, and this creates a much tenser atmosphere for the audience. Originally I hadn’t planned to include a soundtrack but after seeing all the footage come together and listening to the sound we needed something which would set the scene for the audience and something which would build up the tension. I came up with a two minute piece of sound; using different effects and instruments I created a soundtrack which made the extract noticeable as a middle-eastern environment and which had a high and increasing tempo to build tension. All of our film extract was shot in a classroom so the original sound and background sound was very poor, this is why I felt that a lot more sound needed to be added in both diegetic and non-diegetic.

As a team our group worked well together, we all helped each other with our roles, made group decisions as well as individual and everything was shared with everyone. I worked a lot mainly with the editor because as he was changing bits around making them longer or shorter obviously the sound needed to be considered so I was always adding bits in or giving advice on where to put sound.
My favourite shot from our extract is when the sack is finally removed from the captives head. This is because we have it in a point of view shot and a close up shot. The diegetic sound which came with this shot also sounded better than we ever thought. It has a very loud and shard machine like tone which just adds more tension.

The film that we made would be classed as a Acton/political thriller. This is because the plot is about an agent working for the CIA on the hunt for terrorist organizations.The scene which we shot would be the climax of the film in which he is captured by terrorists and tortured for information. The genre has influenced the decisions i made as editor. Inspirations and influences came from a selection of other films. A film that influenced me was syriana, in this we see the torture scene. I wanted to include the odd angles at the start of the clip and also the close up shots.

I had to zoom in on many shots and darken them to make it believable as torture seen. This shot below was darkened and zoomed in left, so the shadow could be seen and only a part of the body. This makes the audience unaware to who it is and slightly uncomfortable as all they can see is the shadow.



Other influences included scenes from the borne identity in which the editing is quick and fast. i tried to create panic as this is a emotion Kurt is going through at this time.





In our first scene with have a shot of the agent with a bag over his head. This was deliberately done to make the audience intreaged and confused to who and what they are being shown. I thought it was a wise idea to edit the shot so it would last longer and repeat itself through out the clip. This gave a chance for more sound to be layered over to create suspense and give an idea of location. This i felt was a typical trait of a thriller to not only have the mis en scene to create tension but the sound as well.

when editing it was key to me to have shots of an eye for example but not give away the agents or the terrorist face, as our original footage did.I felt this was key to leave the audience confused and intreaged. When editing i put in subtitles which was a great way of making the clip seem more professional and typical of its genre.

Our group consisted of 4 members. We worked together and contributed well once we came up with our idea of a tutor scene. Once we decided it would be interesting to do a torture scene we then came up with the rest of the plot , we did this by brainstorming ideas down on paper then blogging them. We came up with the idea that involved an agent travelling to Iraq to hunt for terrorist organizations, as well as this he discovers the corruption involved in Iraq. A trip back to the United States and he is captured by terrorist hiding out there., we chose to shoot that scene as it could be interesting to do and was realistic we could do it. We all came up with the idea that he would escape and the resolution would involve him killing many of the terrorist and him quitting as an agent after seeing corruption and not being rescued by his own people. We named the lead character Kurt prance as it is a bold leading man name. After brainstorming ideas down we all came up with the idea to call the film operation red zone,

Our fist idea was to include the agent being held captive watching on a television screen his wife screaming being held by the same terrorist organization and then to have him bust out and kill the terrorist then, save his wife. This soon became more and more impossible to do, so we thought we would keep the idea but simplify it. We then chose to have the capture scene but use a classroom, were as before we were thinking to shoot outside.We thought we keep things simple by scrapping the idea of a television and him escaping in that scene. But to Just have him sitting there unaware of where he is and make the use of sound our main focus to create suspense and surrounding.

I feel the editing was successful, and the process we have undergone has allowed us to make progress as individuals.I wanted to make the audience feel uncomfortable at certain points in the acton, by making shots longer when there bag is over the camera to allow use of sound, and also making them put them selves in the position of the Kurt. All of this suggests Kurt is tied up. i wanted to make the audience as clueless as Kurt is. After having feedback , one quote was ' the cuts are surreal great use of subtitles'. This was an aim of mine, not only to make the cuts surreal but to have a good flow.

examples are when the camera is just over the bag and all you can hear is chinking tools, voices and the rustling of tape.

Film evaluation

In this essay i will be evaluating my role and Responsibilities, in our groups short film. Our group consisted of four people and we were given a task to produce a two minute extract that we had to create ideas for our self. Our group had to decide of a genre. After discussion we decided on an action thriller. There were for roles, Director, sound designer, editor and cineimatograther. My role was director. In this role the main aspects that i was involved in was Mise en scene, costume and performances. Furthermore as director of our group i overlooked the editing and the making of the soundtrack. However even though i was involved the sound track and the soundtrack was made to good quality sound they did not need much intavention. Additionally we made idea about what effects to use in the editing as a group. The main ideas for our film, were films such as Iron Man Staring Robert Downey Jr and directed by Jon Favreau, and Syrianna, Staring George Clooney. Additionally we got ideas from Mission Impossible III staring Tom Cruise.

Iron Man Trailer:

Syriana: interogation scene:

MIssion Impossible III Trailer:

Additionally these films that i have mentioned influenced our idea for the Mise en scene. Ideas Such as lighting and the different shot types and angles that we used. For this film we used big industrial lights to make the lighting give the effect of an deserted warehouse in an remote location, which is a traditional for captive scenes. The lights were extremely bright which showed the darkness of the setting behind the captive, this shows how alone the captive is and how Venerable and at risk the captive is to his terrorist captors.

Additionally the close-ups of the captives face showing his fear and the extreme close-up of the captives eye. We used these types of shots because in Syrianna and as a group we decided that this type of shot would work well in our film extract. However now looking back on the film i have come to the conclusion that the shot may of lasted to long. Furthermore the prop ideas that we used in our film, were taken from the film " Marathon Men" directed by John Schlesinger, (1976) ( see video below). This film gave us the idea of the close-up shot of the tools. This shot shows the audience that the captive is going to be tortured, in addition to this, this close up shot keeps the audience in suspense. In addition to these props we also used, "duck tape" to tie up the captives hands and feet. Furthermore we used a black plastic bin bag to place over the captives head to increase effect of our film. When looking at the final result i would say that these props made the film better. Another prop in which we used to good effect was fake blood, i believe that this gave are film greater authenticity . I believe that the fake blood was used to great effect was in the close ups of the captives hands and feet. In these shots i think that the fake blood works well with the duck tape which we also used.

\

In addition to the props, we also used costume. Our ideas of costume, for the captive we got the idea of the vest and the black suit trousers from the First Die Hard movie staring Bruce Willis. Additionally the terrorist costume which consisted of camouflaged army gear. I think that both of these costumes worked well in our film giving the film an greater effect, and giving the audience a more obvious view on the genre of our short film.

As director of our film, as part of my job i had to decide what the actor needed to perform, in different ways. In the majority of the shots and angels only showed certain parts of the actors body. Due to this the actor had to show different emotions in different shots. For example in the close up of our captives eyes, the actor had to show fear in those eyes to create the effect so that the audience sees the fear in the eyes of the captive.

The feedback that we got from our film was generally good, however there were some things that we could work on. For example one of the shots that our feedback sheet said we could improve was the close up of the captives eyes and face. The audience said that these close ups lasted to long and reduced the effect of the sporadic cuts. After re watching our film, the audiences feedback is true, the shots are to long and if we were to re shoot it i would reduce the amount of time that the shot lasts for.

Some of the parts of our film that i believe that worked well were the variation of shot types that we had used. These shots gave the film a greater effect, and showed the audience a greater understanding of the genre of our film. If we would re-do our film then there are a few things that i would change. At the beginning of our film i would use an establishing shot of an location that is remote to give an greater effect of the audience and a greater understanding what is happening in our film and the genre of our film.

lighting

movie shots for essay

Films for evaluatoin

In todays lesson we have been finshing the editing and special effects of our short film. Furthermore throughout todays lesson we have been creating and gettin ideas from other films that are with the same genre as ours to see what kind of soundtrack and sound effects these films use.
for example James Bond casino royale touture scene:



from this clip we s=designed our soundtrack.