EVALUATION OF

PRELIMINARY TASK
Connor Southwell

HOW DOES OUR FILM REPRESENT

SOCIAL GROUPS?

In terms of social groups, we decided to cast the Inspector as a women. This fights the social norm in which
men have more powerful and well paid roles, we have combated and challenged the norm in order to change
the attitude of women in society. In order to portray this successfully, the dialogue shared between the
characters puts the women in control, proving to the audience that gender is irrelevant in terms of occupation.
We used mid shots, to show how the detective was breaking the defendant in a controlled and concise manner.
She didnt need to break Marcus Greene with intensity, she's a cool character who doesnt require a lot of
emotion so close ups would be unnecessary which is why we made the decision to use mainly mid shots to
portray the inspector. This distances the audience from warming to her as a character just because she is
female, we, as a crew, made the creative decision to make her a cold and suspicious character, despite the good
she is doing the scene, the mid shots distance her from the audience.

HOW DID WE ATTRACT/ADDRESS YOUR

AUDIENCE?
Visual
Distress

In terms of attracting our audience, the narrative is highly in depth and engaging, it provides a clear beginning, middle
and end which involved a climax to keep the audience engaged. It was important to us that we managed to get actors
who studied A Level Theatre Studies to enhance the authenticity of our film and enhance the viewing for our audience.
We tell the story of Marcus Greenes interrogation following the murder of a young unnamed girl. At the beginning of our
film, Greene furiously denies any involvement with in the film, but as the film progresses, the cold inspector breaks
down Greene which is explored with close ups to show the emotion and distress on Greenes face. At the end of the film,
the narrative is left on a cliff-hanger as Greene appears to have confessed to the inspector his involvement in the young
women's death. Despite the Inspector visually putting Greene on the ropes, she concludes the interview. The audience
are left with their own conclusions as to if Greene killed her, or had some involvement, and are left with key questions
regarding the event.

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT

TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCESS OF
CONSTRUCTING THIS PRODUCT?

Technologically, our set was poorly lit, so we had to use non diegetic lighting of an external source. So we
used the three point lighting technique in order to light our scene creatively and in order to maximise the
effect from lighting that we wanted to have.
In terms of sound, at times, the dialogue and interaction between the characters is muffled at times, so to
combat this for our thriller, we could use microphones in order to make the dialogue have more clarity and
also to block white noise which is picked up just by the camera.
The film is filmed on iPhone 4K, which despite its quality of picture, a DSLR would make our film look of a
higher quality and more realistic as the iPhones picture is grainy and blurry at times. So for our thriller, we
will film using a digital camera or a DSLR to get the best quality and resolution to enhance the viewing
experience for the audience.
Where we set the film could be improved also, the room was very small, meaning it limited the amount of
camerawork we were able to do as the access we were able to do. To combat this for our thriller, we will
film in a more open location, as this would make the film more immersive for the audience and not limit us
to do shots we dont want, so this would enhance our film so we use a range of shots that allow us to
capture emotion, and improve characterisation further.

WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE

LEARNT FROM THE PROCESS?

I think our strengths are the narrative and acting, we worked together to produce a highly structured story line that
engaged and manipulated our audience to feel certain emotions at certain times, for example, the close up of the
Inspector (See screenshot) as she begins to break the suspect explores the thought process of her through the
emotions she shows on her face, we placed the camera at a slight angle to create this distance from the audience, so
they failed to see her as a heroic character due to this distance that's created through the use of angles. So I think
that is a strength.
In terms of weakness, I think the lack of range of shots within our film is disappointing. This is mostly due to the
underestimation of time we would need to shoot our thriller, due to finding a time everyone was available, I think
editing is clean and paced correctly, I would have liked to film more shots to further our film more.
For our thriller, I think we will allow ourselves a bigger period of time to film, and establish a clear plan for shot
types and how we want these to be shot, also, filming would take place on DSLR for a higher quality and authenticity
to enhance the viewing for our audience. Another thing we could improve upon is the script, we went more for the
narrative than showing our skills for film making, and I think less focus would be on the narrative, and more so on the
production and technical camera work for our film.
I think the planning process allowed us to formulate a plan of who we wanted where and why, the effect we were
creating on our audience was important to us and we put a lot of emphasis on this in the planning stage, as a group
its just about balancing our focuses on everything in stead of highlighting one area of importance and neglecting
other areas. I think a more detailed plan would have been useful, our main issue was time, and we needed to balance
and consider time more cautiously, and this could have been done through blocking and planning.

WHAT PLANNING DID YOU DO FOR YOUR

FILMING TASK, AND HOW DID THIS PLANNING
AID THE FILMING?

Different camera angles to portray the illusion the characters

were sat at different sides of the table, when its the same side.

We made a shooting schedule in which we assigned roles which made our jobs more clear, who was doing
what and what times, this made it easier because when we got to shooting our task, as we didnt muck
around asking who was doing what job, which made it easier for us as a production crew. We also made a
rough plan of what we wanted to achieve in terms of dramatic intention and what the topic of dialogue was
throughout the script and narrative, we allowed our actors to have freedom in terms of the character they
wanted to portray, however, we decided to cast them in certain ways, for example, the proxsemics between
the inspector and the camera symbolised the relationship between herself and the audience. The suspect we
didnt want to have an influence on whether the audience concluded that he was guilty, so we kept with the
mid shot to remain neutral, so planning wise, this gave us a solid foundation to build upon for our film.
We also planned costume and used continuity for full effect, for example, the suspect wears a black hoodie
throughout the interrogation, we had to ensure that the hoodie was the same colour and warn the same way
in the alternating shots we did. We also had to use shot reverse shot to full effect with in editing to create
the illusion the actors were sitting at opposite sides of the table, however, we actually used the same side of
the table but placed the camera slightly left or right to create the illusion to the audience that filming was
done from either side of the table.

WHAT IS THE 180 DEGREE RULE, AND HOW IS

THIS RULE IMPORTANT TO THE FILMING TASK?

The 180 rule is a cinematography guideline that states that two characters in a scene should
maintain the same left/right relationship to one another . When the camera passes over the
invisible axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line and the shot becomes what is
called a reverse angle.
Its important to the filming task as it avoids disorientation to the audience and also makes the film
easy to follow and understand. We considered this in our piece, and followed the rule, despite
creating an illusion that made it look like we had broken the rule, this was thought about during
planning for our film, which is why we considered another way of illustrating the fact the
characters are sat are opposite sides of the table, so planning was useful to take this matter into
consideration.

WHAT EDITING SKILLS HAVE YOU DEVELOPED?

HOW CONFIDENT ARE YOU WITH USING THE
EDITING PROGRAMME?

Premier Pro is editing software that at the beginning of the editing process, looked alien to me,
however, locking together clips with their sound and cutting clips and sound was something I became
competent with. I wouldnt describe myself as confident with the program, as there were times in
which I made mistakes that needed sorting, for example, cutting to much or cutting too little of the
clip I was focusing on, this is where having a good editor in Robert made things less pressurised and
easier to learn as I wasnt frightened to make mistakes as I had the knowledge that Robert could put
them right.
Areas I need to improve on is a general feeling for the program, how to J cut, how to use shot
reserve shot effectively. Strengths were definitely cutting clips and locking together sound and video
and moving them in order. In conclusion, I would still need assistance and further teaching of the
programme and all the available functions it contains.

WHAT SHOT TYPES AND CAMERA ANGLES DID

YOU USE IN YOUR FILMING TASK, AND TO
WHAT EFFECT?

The opening of the film is the Inspector

in a mid, wide shot which shows her
hands in an expression which expresses
control and dominance over the
interviewee. The mid shot allows the
audience to see the Inspector in full and
give the initial connotations of heroism
before dialogue begins, as she is in light
costume and bright lighting.

In this first shot of the interviewee, we

decided to use a mid shot, mainly because of
the silhouette on the left of the shadow. This
symbolises the other side of this suspect, the
anger, the regret, the side he cannot shake,
the murderer? The low key lighting used
shows the suspect as suspicious. We also
looked at hoodies and the stereotypical
character that the audience would see when
they first saw the shot. This was the creative
thought process in our piece.

We cut to a close up of the Inspector, this

is to do several things; the first of which
is to create tension to our audience, this
is the moment within our film that the
Inspector breaks the suspect, resulting in
a confession. Second, to explore the
proxsemics involved with the inspector.
Throughout the piece, their is a coldness
within the Inspector, something to make
the audience ask questions, what's her
past? Maybe this is an experience that is
close to her heart, it raises questions and
challenges original thoughts made by our
audience.

To end the film, a visually distressed Marcus

Greene is seen confessing his involvement in
the murder of this unnamed young woman, this
is a great shot from our point of view. If you
compare the silhouette seen at the beginning
of the film, at the end, after Greenes
confession, his complexion is paler and
silhouette less prominent, this shows he has let
his dark side been seen to the audience, and
the slight high shot is for the audience to look
down on Greene for his actions, they are
ashamed and disgusted at him from his
involvement and his web of lies he tells.