Evaluation task 7

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 7
Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

In the time since the preliminary task I have learned a great deal about filming and editing especially. Although I do believe that one of our greatest achievements since completing the preliminary task was our effective use of the green screen. During the filming of the preliminary task I had only basic knowledge on how to film basic shots and edit them together in a sequence. Because of this it never even crossed my mind how much can actually be done to make a film more exciting, engaging and authentic. Especially now with the use of the green screen to swap backgrounds and fool audiences into believing the two locations are the same, an illusion I know is used constantly in the big Hollywood thrillers and nearly every other production. The reason for our illusion was because we couldn’t have our actor actually jumping off of the viaduct so we substituted it for a much smaller wall only a meter from the ground.

When watching the production it is quite difficult to tell that the green screen has actually been used which was one of things I was most proud of I am proud of how my skills have developed in a way that has allowed us as a team to create this effect that really adds to the drama and intensity of the psychological thriller.

One thing that this process has also taught me is that the smallest details are often the most effective, things like colour correction for example.

During the scenes where the two characters are together, the colours have been altered to appear happy and bright, this we know connotes optimism and innocence. The colours are not too bright however because even though we are trying to connote happy memories it is also supposed to be connoting the past which is usually associated with black and white although this does not particularly matter for ours as there is a distinct difference between the colours of the scenes connoting the past and the present.

It is clear to see in this screen shot a distinct difference in the colours compared to the last one. This is because this scene is set in the present when Joe is committing suicide and everything has gone wrong due to his involvement with a gang.  The colours have been corrected in a way to make the scene appear dark and depressing. This connotes Joe’s depressed mind-set at this point in the film.

Also something that I believe was a key feature in the effectiveness of ‘Sweet Revenge’ was the use of music to create mood and atmosphere. This was not used in the preliminary causing the film to all be on the same level, there was no depth to the preliminary task and there was nothing to engage the audience into wanting to watch on. For example during the romantic scenes between Kym and Joe in ‘Sweet Revenge’ the scenes are accompanied by soft piano and string (orchestral) music this was something that I noticed during our research of thriller conventions particularly in the opening of ‘Face/off’. During the scenes where Sean Archer is happily riding the carousel with his son the music is very soft, light and orchestral, this connotes the innocence and happiness of their father son relationship. When this is all shattered after an attempted assassination kills Archer’s son the music changes to more depressing sad music connoting Archer’s grief. This is the effect we tried to capture in our production as well. When the scene changes to ‘Two months later’ in Kym’s bedroom the music changes from soft and gentle to harsh and uncomfortable connoting Kym’s thirst for revenge.

Another thing that we learned was very important from the preliminary was continuity. During our preliminary task we had a very obvious continuity error which was that our characters were wearing different clothing at the production was filmed on two different days. 

To make sure that this kind of error did not happen in our production of ‘Sweet Revenge’ we completed all the filming within one day and made a note of what everybody was wearing and made sure they were still wearing the same thing in scenes where continuity is required.

One thing we do understand is very important, is the 180 degree rule. We applied this rule in our preliminary task and also in ‘Sweet Revenge’

Sticking to the 180 degree rule is one of the most important rules in film production as if broken; the film can become very disorientating for the viewer.  The 180 degree rule must be stuck to in order for the shots to make visual sense. We stuck to the rule when filming Joe and Kym together. We see a shot of Joe and Kym together from the left we then track around them with the camera to show them on the right, this is not breaking the rule because the audience has now seen the movement happen so it still makes sense in their heads.

The 180 degree rule diagram

 

One other thing we learned in our preliminary was how to use shot reverse shots effectively, we used shot reverse shots several times during the filming of ‘Sweet Revenge’ but especially in the scene inside Kym’s bedroom where we need to see bother her facial expressions as well as the things she is holding and looking at.

The name of our own production company is Songbird productions; the name was a group decision based on what we had observed from our research of current thrillers.  We noticed that many production company names included connotations of limitlessness and others with the sky and the name ‘Songbird productions seemed to feature both connotations. The actual logo features the name of the company ‘Songbird productions’ along with four animated birds that fly in to position over the title in turn. The animated logo is accompanied by the sounds of song birds tweeting to make the logo feel naturalistic and establish a brand to the company.