THE CHASE

OUR FILM

AGATA

For our first short film for this module, we had to create a non-dialogue video with one of the following titles - the chase, pickpocket and late again. When my group saw the first option we all immediately thought about the same thing - making a horror movie.

For that week I choose the role of the director and a scriptwriter. I also acted. Combining acting and directing was harder than I thought it would be, but somehow I managed to do both of those things.

I put a really big effort into preparing to film this movie - found a really nice costume for the scary doll, bought fake blood and some other props. Since it had to be a visual story, with the experience gained while making my final movie for introduction to media production module, I knew that creating a good storyboard before shooting had a crucial meaning to achieve a satisfying effect. Because how well prepared we were, shooting didn't take a lot of time and was a pretty clear and fun process.

The only thing that did not work out was filming in one location. This production had to be filmed in Parry Williams and we were planning to shot a murder scene in a big rehearsal room, found a perfect spot in there but while we were filming, drama and theater students had a workshop in that room. They were not only occupating the place we needed, but they were also playing really loud music, so a lot of time when we were filming in the room close to where they were or on the corridor, we had to wait till the tune was over.

We switched the place of the murder scene to the prop room. We weren't really happy with that location, it didn't really make sense, but since we were allowed to film in the Parry Williams we didn't have a lot of options.

Looking back, I wish we customize the room a little more - move some things, hide unnecessary props and this way add some creepy mood to our movie.

Overall, I liked this movie but I think there were a few things we could have done better. But since it was our first time working together so I think we made a really good job. 

                                       

HARRISON

For this film, I was the sound guy. Capturing sound for this film was not easy as a lot of background noise was captured. So, we fixed it by just muting the captured sound and added effects such as “creepy noises” to it. However, I do feel like this is what the film was lacking. In my opinion, the sound effects did not fit in, such as the music box playing throughout the whole film, and the weird distorted sound effect that was played after the protagonist got stabbed. So, what would I do to change this? This could be easily fixed with the element of horror. In most horror films, the most important aspects is sound. And what better to capture the audience’s attention is with silence. With this, silence adds or builds tension towards a scene, and this is what the film critically failed to do. Other criticisms include the colours that were not consistent throughout film. At the start, we have the scene overexposed and towards the end it just got darker and it did not fit the film. The actresses did an outstanding job in terms of acting, and the costume did fit the creepy girl’s personality and character. Location wise, it didn’t seem right either. It just didn’t make sense for someone being chased to enter a prop room. This is definitely a flaw in the plot. The plot also didn’t make sense in my opinion as it was all too coincidental.  It questions audience what if the protagonist never met her, or what is the creepy girl doing in that room doing in that room in the first place. I felt like the plot needed a lot more explaining to execute the film well. Cinematography wise, it felt like it was below average for me. While shooting the films, most of the time the camera was set on the tripod and it looked weird on screen. There was no shake and it felt off and weird to watch. I feel like shooting this handheld would have been a better way to go for most shots in this film as sometimes shakiness can cause depth and feel in a film. Furthermore, it also creates an element of chaos for the audience due to the unsteadiness. The film also has a hard time to match continuation from shot to shot. This might have been because of inconsistent acting or we just didn’t have better shots to use. That’s not to say all the shots were awful. There is a shot where the creepy girl comes out of the room and starts to chase the protagonist. In this shot, you see her body dimly lit and a single bulb flickering above her head. This was one the best shots I’ve seen in comparison to many of our films. Overall, I didn’t really like this film in its current state as I do feel like it could have done better.

                    Videos made while looking for the places to film in 

                 

                 

THOMAS

Overall, I was very pleased with how this film came out, being our first film, I had a few worries
about how our group would gel together and whether our dynamic behind the camera’s would
affect the outcome of this first film. However, the fact that the filming of this was so fun to do and went
so well on day in addition to how well the film came out meant that we had a massive jumping point
into the next films. This first film served well to assess where we all stood going forward into the
upcoming weeks.

For this film I had the role of the producer to fulfil, this meant that I had a heavy role in pre-production
and a lesser role on the day of filming. I filled out the risk assessment form and sent it off, this first risk
assessment gave us all contact information for each other and served as a template for the forms
across the weeks. Being a producer, I had to ensure that the other group members fulfilled their jobs
within pre-production such as the director filling out a shot list and the cinematographer created a
storyboard which was done a couple days before filming. Along with this I set up a meeting between
me, the director and the cinematographer to run through aspects of what we needed for the film and
to ensure they settled on a look for the film. On the day of filming I was mostly just a set hand,
I helped hold the boom in shots where it was needed and helped out where needed on set.

In the editing room we worked together as a unit to decide what worked well and what didn’t.
It took some time and debate on which pieces of non-diegetic sound we wanted added to the film.
This was for the best though as the end result would’ve most likely been worse had we
not collaborated together to decide.

       

DANFor a first film, I believe that the overall process went really well, and we ended up making a high-quality film out of it. The theme of this task was to have no dialogue, so essentially a silent film. The other theme was the movie was we had to pick three titles to base our film upon, with the title our group picked being “the chase”. We first began brainstorming ideas, and initially, the team took on my idea to make a horror film. The reason I came up with this idea was because horror is one of favourite genres, and no dialogue is a great method to add suspense, as silence can add layers of emotions if done correctly (one of the biggest examples being Lights Out.) Agata, who was directing this film, added upon the idea of having a living doll being the killer, as it was a simple concept that people would understand immediately. Together, along with the rest of the group, we worked together to create a story for the film, with myself being tasked to create a storyboard since I was cinematographer. I decided to add various shots and wanted the film to be fast paced and have a stressful tone, making the chase scene feel authentic to a horror film, complete with the victim looking back at the killer and the victim being trapped. During pre-production, we threw around the idea of having a security feed from above, almost like CCTV footage. This was ultimately scrapped as we decided it would be too much work to rig together and may not fully fit the tone of the movie. Agata and I also looked for locations within the parry Williams building (the area we were allowed to shoot in) in order to find areas that would feel appropriate for our horror film. We settled on the dressing room, as the mirrors and costumed seemed to be a great place for the killer doll to be, and the prop room, which worked well as the place as the victim would get killed along with looking uneasy with all the unusual props decorating the room. When it came to the actual shooting of the movie, I acted as cinematographer, working the camera whilst Harrison did the sound, Agata acted and Tom helped direct along with Agata. We first worked on the initial scenes with the killer doll in the dressing room, then moving on to the hallway chase scene, then doing the starting piano scene, then moving back to the prop room scene to end the filming. During the production, we tried around with some camera angles and thought of some shots on the spot, such as the scene where the killer doll rips off her dolls head and discards it. During post-production, I was present along with Agata and Tom as we edited the film into place. We decided on adding creepy children’s music for the doll scenes, as we felt it was appropriate and added to the creepiness of the scenes, as well as adding the piano music for the chase and the final sustaining piano note when the victim is stabbed in the back.