The brief that I was given was to create a thriller opening that lasted for a couple of minutes. Tom Jarvis and I toyed round with various ideas for a plot and eventually came up with the idea of the murder of a young woman. The storyline becomes more complex as we then show two young men hacking into the system of the police station and trying to cause chaos within. Enigma is created as the audience have no idea who the young woman is, the identity of her murderer and why the men are hacking into the police system.
For the production of this thriller opening we used a Sony Z5E camera to capture the footage and Final Cut software on an iMac to edit it.
The first scheduled day of filming had to be cancelled due to adverse weather conditions, so was postponed until the following week. Although the snow was still on the ground the following week we decided to film regardless and so set to work with filming the woodland scene with the young woman. For this we started with an establishing shot of the wood to set the scene. We did a panning shot with the camera on a tripod so that the footage would be nice and steady. As we pan, the body of a woman is seen lying on the ground and at this point the audience has no idea what is happening. An edit is then used to cut to two male policemen discussing a murder case they are desperate to resolve. Over the shoulder, close up, shot reverse shots were used to allow the audience to witness the conversation and see the frustration in the faces of the detectives. We had the camera on a tripod to get an over the shoulder shot of the police detectives having a discussion. We filmed them going though the script about four times, two at on angle on one of the police detectives and the other two on the other police detective. We used the tripod because we thought this would make the scene smooth and steady. We then cut to the production logo followed by a short clip of the hackers working on the computer. We used an over the shoulder shot to get a close, high angled view of the computer screen as this gives the audience a clue as to what they're doing. The shot then reverts to a two shot of both hackers followed by an edit where the viewer is returned to the two officers discussing the case again using 'shot reverse shot' technique. Another edit transports the audience back to the woods and a close up shot of the dead woman.
We used a tracking dolly to follow the path of the woman walking in the woods so that we could follow her smoothy without it shaking. The viewer does not witness the murder of the woman so we then cut to our actress lying dead on the ground. To do this we asked the actress to lie on a rock, which we thought symbolised a grave stone, with her back to the camera. We knew that this would be a good idea as it adds suspense and tension. We used a close up shot of her phone with the message on it. The clip of the young woman walking was edited so that it was black and white and this hopefully indicated to the audience that this was a flashback of the moments leading up to her murder.
Non-diagetic sound in the form of a soundtrack was added during certain scenes, e.g woodland and hackers. I found it on Youtube and chose it because I thought it added to the suspense and enigma whilst also giving an eerie feel to the film.
Upon completion of the film opening I conducted a questionnaire with a focus group of 6 people of different ages to gather together feedback on the technical and creative successes and to find out which areas of the film they liked and which could be improved.
All of my focus group enjoyed the film opening, liking the way it set the scene for the rest of the film. Everyone said that it was a very good choice of music which added to the tension and built up the suspense. Some of them felt that there was slightly too much of the plot given away during the conversation between the two police inspectors while other people were a bit confused about what was going on (however this is a thriller so that is probably part of the point).
Asked, how my film compares to professional films of the same genre, most of the group agreed that although it looked quite obviously done by two 18 year olds with limited experience and not a group of professionals, with a bit more time and effort put into it, it would start to look professional. However they thought that the scene in the woods looked fantastic and was the highlight of the opening, appearing very professional in terms of the camera control, the atmosphere and the music chosen. Most of them agreed that it was filmed well enough to cause tension and suspense like professional thrillers do.
The general consensus was that there was a lot of creativity in the production. Everyone
liked the panning across the woods and felt that this is controlled well and sets the scene of the murder, the tension and suspense that is to follow. Most of them liked the technique that I used of having the victim walking on the very edge of the camera frame in the woods. One member noted that they liked the use of younger and older cast members as it made the film more appealing to a wider audience and the fact that the right age of person was given the appropriate role that they would more likely have in real life.
In terms of parts that people felt could be improved, some of the group felt that the way the two hackers were being filmed was a little bit confusing because it was not obvious where they were and some people thought they were actually in the police station. People thought that it would be better to have filmed the hackers in a bedroom or basement, somewhere that looked like an obvious change of scene and more secretive.
It was also mentioned that some of the film work was a bit jumpy and amateur, particularly with the credits - suggestions were having 'Presents'....with A Crocodile Film' fading in. Other improvements suggested were the use of better final cuts techniques, for example, fade in and out for the credits got a big mention. One of the other errors was not editing out the sound of the light switch in the police scene. This made it seem like someone had just turned off the light rather than it being a strange loss of power due to the hackers. One final point made was that the girl's scream in the woods sounded too much like a comedy scream from a spoof of a horror movie and it would have been either better acted by the actress herself or changed to something else like the sound of heavy breathing. Everyone agreed that making these changes would in theory make it look much more professional, adding to the overall suspense and tension trying to be portrayed.
In terms of the team work involved to produce the film, I thought it took too long to get it started and felt a little frustrated at this. However once it started to come together I felt it went very well as we got to grips with what we were going to do with the film. Tom and I made sure that we discussed and agreed on everything that we did. I had to communicate and think very carefully about how we were going to make the film as close to reality as possible. Although we had a few hiccups along the way, this just made the process more like directing and producing a professional film. The acting was pretty good considering no one had any acting experience and were persuaded to get involved.
To conclude, I would say that I enjoy producing the film and working as a team as it helped me to understand that patience is required, planning is important and time management is essential in order to meet deadlines. I am pleased with the end result however I do realise that the film opening is not to the standard of a professional job. I have had very little experience in this type of production but feel that I did the best that I could. My confidence in this area has improved and I have a greater knowledge and understanding of the filming process.
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