Pitch

I pitched an idea to my group about how I wanted the opening scene to look. I suggested a horror theme, and I wanted us to use a scene which involves a shaky camera, as if it was a home video, with a family having a picnic. I would then want something more sinister to happen after the video has played for a bit, so it sets the tone for the rest of the film. I took this idea from the film Sinister, as I feel that this is effective, and it makes the film seem more realistic.

                                                                A home video scene from the film 'Sinister'.

Evaluation of Preliminary Task

The aims of our preliminary sequence of  ‘feed the fish’, we wanted to engage the audience and make is suspenseful. One of the strengths of our sequence was the shots of the girl running up the stairs, as we used match on action to show the different angles of her running. We did a close up of her shoes, and did some high and low angle shots. This was to highlight how fast the girl was going, which shows that she was in a rush for something. Another strength of our sequence was the lighting. When the character walks in to the office of the evil character, it is dark except for a dim red light. This was to highlight and show the audience that the character was evil. This same character was wearing a mask, which you could not see at when the girl first walks in the room, to create more suspense, and it is a mystery to the audience so they are asking questions. We had a close up of the back of her head, and when she turned around and revealed her ‘mask’, it was supposed to surprise the audience. In the last shot, we showed half of the girl’s face, with the evil masked character saying the final line of “I was just coming to that”, and facing the girl and the camera, which left the audience wanting to see more. If we were to do this sequence again, we would not have the fading in between the shots of the girl running up the stairs, and of the clock, as this implied that there was a time difference between the two scenes, when they were actually supposed to be happening at the same time. We would also use our organisation skills more effectively next time, as we lost some of our dialogue footage, which then ruined the flow and suspense of the sequence. Next time I would also like to add music to the sequence as this would create suspense and an atmosphere from the very start. From this task, I have learnt that continuity is very important as the audience stays engaged with the action that is happening on screen. I have also learnt you should only zoom when it is appropriate,  as this can ruin the effect of your sequence, or imply something about that certain object, place, or person that you do not want it to.

The Rock Exercise