Wednesday 28 March 2012

Questionnaire

Evaluation Of Preliminary Task - Bussing Scene



Evaluation of preliminary task: Bussing scene

My group consisted of Jasleen (lead character/victim), Navneet (playing the friend), Ramarna (villain), Georgia (playing the friend) and myself – Asmaa (camera man). 

What did we do?

Our Preliminary task was located on school grounds for our first scenes; this helped us to display the narrative of school kids and innocence. At the start of the bussing scene, a dark figure is displayed on the screen, this raises the idea of that this person can initially be the villain as she has the back towards the audience which makes the audience question who is she? And what relevance does she have to the scene? The following scene starts with the antagonist (the dark figure) played by Ramarna talking on the phone, a close up shot is used to show her lips moving creating a tense and edgy atmosphere as the antagonist’s identity is still veiled. This is normally an ideology of structuralist horror films as the   antagonists identity remains unknown throughout the film until the end when it is exposed leaving the audience in questioning until the end.  Diegetic sound is used to for the antagonists dialogue “Get them” this makes the audience think something bad is going to occur as the scene progresses. In addition non diegetic sound is also used, this helps to increase the uneasy and tense feeling the audience are experiencing, further to this the music can be used to identify dark and dramatic atmosphere. As our bussing scene progresses the next location used is the woods, the woods are commonly known to be a secluded environment this therefore helps to increase the chilling ambience in the scene. The protagonist played by Jasleen is presented in the scene when she gets attacked by the antagonist but manages to free herself from the villains grip, we witness Jasleen running, this is the iconic chase scene we have managed to manufacture as a large majority of horror films consist of a chase scene therefore we decided to also use a chase scene to fit the ideology of a structuralist horror film.  The shot type we used for Jasleen running through the woods was a close up, low angle shot, this was manufactured this way to help the audience identify with the character, following to this scene the victim falls over, this is when the villain walks towards her and overshadows her frail body. We as a group concluded our bussing scene to end like this to keep the audience in apprehension as it was a good cliff hanger.  

What problems did we face and how did we overcome them?

Through the process of making our bussing scene we did face a few problems, the first problem we came across was that our group was an all female group, this was a problem as we needed a male antagonist, we as a group tackled this setback as we decided one of our group members had to play the role of the male antagonist which resulted to Ramarna playing the character. We used to a black hoodie to veil Ramarna’s identity to help her look like a male this therefore helped us overcome our problem. 

Another setback we faced through the process was the location of the school caused unwanted attention and also caused disturbance for us when we were recording as we filmed on the stairs and corridors’ this resulted to passers by being filmed in the scene this therefore meant we had to shoot the scenes numerous times to avoid the inconvenience of people while shooting. We overcame this problem by planning and organising our scenes so we could do it in one take and avoid stopping half way. The scene in the woods also caused some inconvenience for us as we had to stop filming due to the locals walking their dogs, to overcome this situation we decided to relocate to a different part of the woods to avoid disturbance. 

In our editing process it was difficult for our group to use the ‘First cut’ software on the apple Mac’s as for the majority of us it was a first time experience in using the advanced software. Therefore in order to overcome this problem, we acquired assistance from our media teacher to give us a demo of how to use it, after this we become more comfortable with using the software and the experience helped widen our knowledge of the software for our actual trailer in the future. 

Analysis of produce- sound, editing shots and mise-en- scene 

The editing process was quite difficult to start off with but we managed to get comfortable with it as time went by, we decided to keep the diegetic sound of the antagonist dialogue “get them” and the diegetic sound of the feet when the protagonist was running through the woods we came to this conclusion as it helped to create realism and a tense ambiance. Further to the sound, we also used non-diegetic  sound  in our bussing scene we found a music track which we thought was appropriate as it was quite sinister and  creepy which overall helped add sentiment to the scene. 

When putting the scene together we didn’t use a variation of video transitions as they didn’t look scary enough for the scenes, the main one we used to introduce the scenes onto the screen was the fade as this was quite simplistic and helped introduce the next scene very well and helped the shots look continued even though they were shot on different occasions. In addition we used a variation of jump cuts to disorientate the audience, this enabled for our scenes to look quicker and more effective.

The mise-en-scene was very important for our bussing scene as it was used it to transform Ramarna into a male villain, we used a black hoodie to keep her identity a mystery from the audience. As we filmed our bussing scene on two different days this meant that everyone had to wear the same clothes they wore on the previous occasion to keep the sequence looking continuous. Jasleen the protagonist wore a lanyard around her to display she was a college student.

What did others think?

The majority of people we showed our bussing scene stated that they understood the narrative of the story, the shot types which were used also helped tell the narrative better such as the low angle close up of Jasleen’s feet whilst she was running through the woods helped them to identify with her. On the other hand some people suggested we change our music track as it didn’t combine well with the scene as when the moment of dis-equilibrium was presented the music didn’t change according to the scenes as it wasn’t fast paced enough. 

What did I learn?

This preliminary task was very useful; this is because it has shown me the importance of planning before shooting as it makes whole the shooting process much simpler if people are assigned to specific roles. In addition I have also learnt the significance of having relatable audio therefore I will spend more time for my final trailer to find a relevant audio track to my trailer, as from the feedback it shows that sound is a very important aspect as it helps create realism and authenticity.