1.) Camera Work
My film opens with some panning shots of the main character lying on the floor with her eyes shut. These shots introduce the character to the sudience and the amount of screen time she has shows that she must be a character with some status. The fact that the first couple of shots show her lying on the floor shows that she is very weak and vulnerable. It also suggests that she may have died or been killed as she doesnt move or breath at all. No blood or murder weapons can be seen which makes her apparent death more suspicious and creates enigma. The film contnues to show her falling over in reverse. This shto demonstrates a range of film techniques including slow motion filming at 120 frames per second and reverse speed filming.
Close-ups of key props-
I think that the use of a close-up of a prop in the thriller genre can highlight its significance and give the audience more information. For example, in "Inception", a close-up is often used on the protagonist's totem, this is because it is relevant and important to its narrative as it is the characters way of distinguishing a dream from reality. Similarly, "Memento", uses a close-up a polaroid picture in its opening sequence. The picture shows a man whoc has been shot in the head.
In my film I have also used close-ups of key props such as the smashed wine glass on the floor and the wine being poured into the glass. I think that the first cose-up of the wine glass being smashed conveys a sense of enigma as the audience is left wondering why it happened. The second close-up of the wine being poured is a key shot as it highlights the glasss which will later be smashed after the female charcters death and it also highlights the wine which ultimately leads to the characters daeth.
2.) Lighting
I had several issues when making my film regarding the lighting. Firstly, as I was filming in slow motion I had to get a camera that could shoot at a high enough frame rate. After I aqquired a Sony Z7 from my work experince mentor I realised that it could shoot at up to 10,000 frames per second which meant that it would be more than I would need to create the effect I was seeking. I put the setting on my camera on 300fps as my research stated that this was an ideal setting for slow motion in films. However when I tried to film on this I realised that the shot was too dark. After some more research I realised that shooting slow motion video requires a lot of light. Because I needed to record my film on a very high speed setting the light has less time to create a picture and because I was shooting my film at night inside my kitchen there was no natural light in the scene at all. This meant that I had to use a large amount of artificial light which included a vareity of lamps and lighting equipment that was availiable to me. After I did this I realised that my shot still wasn't light enough. To counter this I decided to use a lower fps setting in my next shot. By using 120fps I was able to get a shot with the right amount of light which still had a good standard of slow motion.
3.) Story and how the opening sets it up
The story is fairly unknown throughout this opening scene, even by the end the audience doesn't really know what is going to happen throughout the rest of the film. I believe that due to the fact that not much is given away in terms of narrative in this opening scene sequence creates more enigma. The smashing of the wine glass creates the idea that she may have been poisoned. This suggests that the characters murder must have been very well thought out and also possibly very high-profile. This also begs the question as to why anyone would want to kill her and who she is. The opening sequence is very open-ended which I believe creates a lot of enigma and i think that the rest of the film could show how and why the character was killed.
4.) Title of the film and the opening credits
The opening credits are in a font called Baskerville Old Face. I chose this font because I though that it was very sophisticated andI thought it represented the murderer in my film. This is because I think that due to the method that the possible murderer chose to kill the character was very clever. I think that this differs a lot from some other thrillers. An exaple of this would be the film "Se7en". "Se7en"'s opening titles are very rough compared to the titles of my film but I think that the murderer in "Se7en" uses much different methods of killing than the character in my film does and I believe that they are much more brutal and visceral than the murderer in my film.
Below is a shot from the film layer cake which shows the tile of the film on a door. I have decided to show this because I think that it is very similar to the director's title in my film.
When making my director's title I was very much inspired by the opening credits of "Layer Cake", where the title of the film is shown on the front door of the protagonist's house. In my film I wanted the director's title to stand out from the rest as it is a very important role within the filmmaking process, to do this I carefully place the tilte on the door if the female character's house.
5.) How are characters introduced
There is only one character shown in my opening sequence which shows could show that she has a very high status as a character. It also shows that the event that happens in the opening sequence must be quite substantial. As no other characters are shown during this sequence there isn't really much else I can say about the introduction of characters.However, I do believe that as my film is very open-ended it gives the oppurtunity for a wide range of characters to be introduced later on in the film.
6.) Genre
As my film shows a character dying I think that it is immediatley obvious that my film is a thriller and i think that due to the non-linear storyline and the reverse chronology in the opening sequence shows that it is a psychogical thriller and I also think that it is very similar to other opening sequences of the same genre such as the opeing sequence of "Memento" directed by Christopher Nolan.
Another film that I was inspired by when making my film was gone girl. I think that my film is quite similar to my film as they both centre around a leading female role being murdered. I also based my titles on the titles of gone girl as I thought that they were bold, mysterious and they possesed a sence of anominity which I found very appealing.
7.) Editing
I believe that the editing in my film really demonstrates how much I have learnt this year as a media studies student. I have learnt how to use reverse speed on all of the shots in my sequenece and I have also learnt how to film my whole film in slow motion. I believe that I chosen a sequence that is very hard to edit but I am happy with my finished product. Now that I have learnt so much about editng this year from making my film I feel that I have much more confidence in my filmmaking abilities especially in editing as this is the first time I have ever edited a film and I am proud of what I have acieved as I thought my intial idea was very optimistic.
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