Location Shots

The location we have decided to use for our opening is a littered field in a suburban area, We have chose this location because it is very gritty and under the bridge is a realistic place for a murder to take place. This fits in with are location idea for are main task plot.

Main Task Shot List.

This is the shot list for our main task, each shot will be between 3-5 seconds in length.

First Sequence

-Establishing shot of area.
-Long shot of the man standing over the dead girl.
- High-angled and overhead shot over the man next to the girl’s body.
-Close up on man’s face.
-Eye line match on the girls face
-Close up on man’s face.
-Insert on girls shoes.
-Long shot of the girl running (flashback - side View).
-Medium shot of girl running (flashback – Front View).
-Close up on man’s face.
-Zoom insert of the girls bag
-Medium shot of the girl running and dropping bag (Flashback-front View)
-Close-up of the bag falling on the floor.
-Close up on man’s face.
-Insert on cut on girls knee.
-Medium shot of girl running (flashback – Side View).
- Hand held camera – her point of view shot. (Flashback)
-Medium shot of girl tripping (Flashback – side view).
-Close up on girl hitting the floor. (Flashback – front view)
-Birds eye view on girl lying on floor.
-Close up on man’s face.
-Medium shot of man standing up and walking off camera.
-Medium shot of him from behind, looking back at her.
-Shot of her full body
- Title

Second Sequence

- ‘Seven days previous’ title
-medium shot of male character in bed, then sitting up.
-Close up of his feet as he steps on the floor, getting out of bed
-Over the shoulder and mid shot of the male character
-Close up of him washing his face
-Over the shoulder and mid shot of the male character walking out of the room
-Over the shoulder shot of male character on laptop
- Close up of the laptop screen
- Over the shoulder shot of him answering the phone
-Close up of laptop screen

Main Task Outline

For our main task we are producing the opening two minuets of a thriller/detective film. The opening centres around a man staring over a dead body of a teenage girl with giving details as to how she died using a voice over during cuts between the present scene and her final moments, it remains ambiguous as to if he is the detective or the killer.
We plan to shoot this in a Run down suburban area to give it a gritty realistic feel.

Brick opening analysis

The opening begins with close up shots of the scene, panning across the area. The camera then comes to a male character, starting at a close up of his shoes as he kneels at the edge of a tunnel. There is a blue hue throughout the opening to imply sadness in the scene. There is an extreme close up of the male characters face, which is out of focus at first then fades into focus, this shows the viewer that he is confused and sets the plot of the film as a murder mystery as there is a full establishing shot of the tunnel, the male character and a females body.
There are more close ups in the sequence, from the male character to parts of the females body to show she is lifeless and that it is his point of view of what he is looking at. These shots continue as shot/reverse shots on his face and different parts of the females body, such as her legs and her covered face, which does not allow the viewer to know what she looks like, adding to the mystery of her death. The close up of her arm and the blue bangles she is wearing is shown in the next scene, we know it is before the opening because she is alive and places a note in a locker. The sound of a school bell runs through both of these scenes as a sound bridge.
There is a blackout as a simple title screen is shown with the word ‘Brick’ on it in black and white. There is a subtitle on the screen as the camera shows the male characters shoes again walking to the same locker, it also starts out of focus so that the viewer focuses on the title; ‘Two days previous.’ We see the note she placed in the locker fall out, he picks it up and a close up shows the note which says where he should go. The note sets the next scene where the male character waits by the road until a telephone nearby him rings – we know it is the female character who died in the opening of the sequence due to the key props used. We know little about the characters in the opening sequence, although we know that it is a murder mystery and that the two characters know each other.

'The Usual Suspects' opening seqeuence

The Usual Suspect is a thriller genre film that appears to be detective investigation of a murder. This is shown in the scene as a character is killed.
The credits consists of a pan of the camera going over water, this is often associated with murder as frequently murders hide body's in water areas. The time of day is clear as the water is dark and lights can be seen reflecting off the surface.
After the credits we see a lighter with a close-up of a lighter which then cuts into a mid show and moves upwards as he lights his cigarette allowing us to see his facial features and clothing. He appears to be expecting someone to kill him as he is calm and relaxed when the appears on the scene later in the sequence.
We then see a key prop of a leaking barrel which appears to be leaking petrol or some other flammable material this fore shadows and explosion or major event. After the victim attempts to light a trail of the oil the camera tracks it's progress before it is stopped by the villain.
The camera at this point is at a low angle and gradually moves upwards to look at a man standing above the trail. This makes him seem powerful and he is later shown moving down the stairs by a still shot of a shadow moving downwards. This is typical of a thriller genre as it doesn't show who the is or what he looks like.
The next shot is an close up on his feet moving along the deck of the ship before it cuts to an mid-shot of his body but is still careful not to reveal the facial features of the character. He is shown to be wearing full black clothing and a trench coat. This gives the impression that he is about to commit the murder and this is later when he pulls out a pistol from his coat.
The victim seems relaxed and calm, this gives us the impression that he was expecting to be killed.
After this the camera cuts to two still shots of parts of the ship as gun shots can be heard in the distance (diegetic sound). This confirms that there has been a murder.

Evaluation of preliminary task

In the production of our preliminary task we learnt how to set the cameras up in different angles for effective shots including the use of tripods to hold the camera in place and maintain a steady shot, we also learnt how to use the different features of the editing software such as importing video, edit the shots together continuously and how to add titles and transitions such as fades.
During the filming and editing process of our Preliminary task what worked well was that we filmed more than we needed per take so that the editing process was made much easier, and as we continued to experiment more with different camera angles and edits we gained more confidence in our ability’s and learnt skills we hope to carry into the main task. We also planned in advance by making a detailed shot list and rough storyboard so when we came to filming we wouldn’t be stuck for ideas, however the final video was slightly different to the shot-list because they were too difficult to shoot correctly.
On the other hand things we could have improved on were the continuity of our piece, for example before the character entered the room at 00:26 he is seen wearing a bag, but when he enters the room he is not wearing the bag. This continuity error can be avoided when we complete the main task by paying more attention to the props and costume of our characters.
We also had some issues with the camera positioning during shooting, for example during the over the shoulder shot at 00:34 the Teacher character goes out of shot when she turns around.
This could have been improved on by being more careful with out positioning of the tripods.
Our preliminary task uses different elements of camera and editing techniques to make it look effective.
There is a shot/ reverse shot sequence when the teacher and the student talk, starting on her shoulder, cutting to over his shoulder, an insert to her picking up the book, then cutting back to his shoulder. This shows that the two characters are interacting with each other and shows their reactions.
We also used Matched cuts during the editing process to make the editing look smooth and continuous. We managed to achieve this by filming more than we needed to during each take so we could edit the shots together more fluently An example of this is when the student is seen walking down the corridor from 2 different angles then as he reaches out for the handle it cuts to his hand reaching it and opening it, then a shot of him coming through the door on the other side. The smooth editing helps to keep the audience involved in the text because they are not distracted by poor editing.
We also made sure we did not break the 180 degree rule by keeping the camera on one side of the action at all times so as to not disorientate the viewer, however during the shot reverse shot sequence we accidentally shot over the wrong shoulder of the student, slightly breaking the 180 degree rule. We now know to be more careful during shot /reverse shot sections when shooting our main task.

Preliminary Task: Running Late