This is my Evaluation

I chose to make my film a more serious film as previous projects have been too much of a
joke, and I feel like I haven’t taken them as seriously as I should’ve, since I felt that I used
comedy as a crutch, I chose to research into making a thriller film which involves serious
films. I analysed the Alfred Hitchcock film, Vertigo, where the director, Alfred Hitchcock,
used the colour of green to create an uneasy feel, this is likely because the colour of green is
commonly associated with vomit, which is often related to uneasiness and feeling
uncomfortable which is something I found in my research for colours. The film Vertigo
focuses on ideas of uneasiness and a fear of heights. Whilst my film is not about heights, it is
about sickness and uneasiness, so I chose to choose to light my shots with green lighting.

As you can see in my research above, I analysed the colours that were used in the film and
researched them in order to find out why they were used. I noted use of the context behind
why the colours were used in the scenes they were used in. I even considered using the
colour red as vertigo did so but decided against it due to the context of my film not
requiring it to be needed.

Originally, the film I made was meant to be about being locked inside a series of rooms,
loosely inspired by the old internet Horror Story ‘The Backrooms’. However, I wanted to
make a movie far more grounded in reality rather than spiritual mysticism. So, I created the
idea of our protagonist, who I named Sam due to the name’s ability to be gender neutral
and therefore able to cast anyone at any age, as a character getting lost in these rooms. I
liked the idea of these just being a normal series of rooms. I based the idea on a time when I
was eleven at my secondary school and I had become lost in the hallways after being
separated from my friends, and lost inside was born.

I decided to age up our protagonist into being an adult at a place of work rather than a child
at a new school since it worked more age appropriately for both my target audience and
cast, I incorporated themes of old vs young and experience vs inexperience. The film started
to feel a little empty, and so I decided to increase tension by adding an antagonistic
implication, a spirit of the company’s abusive founder, a caricature of nineteenth century
Victorian businessman, a man who wears a big trench coat and a top hat, a figure not unlike
Ebenezer Scrooge from Charles Dickens’ eighteen forty three classic, ‘A Christmas Carol’. A
cruel and long deceased man named James Hanner. However, the more I wrote this version,
it just sounded like a parody and lacked the serious nature of a final major production. I
wrote a film about the seriousness of getting lost, only to have our protagonist run around
being chased by an old man with a cane.

I researched about what claustrophobia caused and I found that hyperventilating was a
cocomon symptom, because of this, I guided my lead actress to act as though they were
hyperventilating and trapped inside the room and unable to get out.

I also found that claustrophobia was a fear of small confined spaces and so I decided to
choose to film in small confined spaces instead of using the large spacious unending rooms,
this added a claustrophobic feel to my film, making the film

I used shots that were close and trapping to make my audience feel claustrophobic and
trapped, I succeeded as people who answered my forms said that the film made them feel
claustrophobic.

I got told in a mini focus group that I should make it long enough to build tension but not
too long to lose attention, this made me decide to make my film a good length.

Planning

How effective was my planning?

I did not effectively plan my film as perhaps as well as I could have as I did a lot of planning
much later than many of my peers, which caused me to film much later than anyone else,
however I did a lot of late game scripting and changing, whilst it was late it improved a lot.

I mostly effectively filmed my film as I made lot of interesting angles and shots of boxes,
however some shots were blurry and possibly too dark. Some were also too colourful which
effected the tone. I avoided using shots I filmed which were too shaky and too unfocused,
using only ones that looked good.

My editing was superior to previous films as well due to the fact I was able to create a film
with a much better plot and I was able to use good shots together to show movements from
many angles, however my film was widely criticised for its length and it was widely
considered to be too long.

Overall my film was pretty good, whilst I didn’t end up fulfilling the original plot of a series
of rooms, I did end up making a longer film with a strong plot and emotional characters at
an explained location which was an important part of my project concept and proposal, and
what I set out to do. I feel that for the most part, I have fulfilled my ambitions and created a
story that could be better, however I may have gone too far with making it longer as people
criticised it for being too long. I struck emotional cords with my audience as they said it
made them feel claustrophobic and trapped watching it.