Shooting and editing evaluation

The shooting was all planned out with shot lists and story board. So we were prepared for filming. But the first problem that occurred was that the camera lens was dirty so we couldn't film, as a result I biked to school to find a replacement video camera. In the mean time we couldn't progress as there was no way of filming.

As the court is being used to film in, they said we needed adult supervision at all times. I had to organise 5 different teachers to come and accompany us whilst we film but between lesson 1 and 2 the teach didn't turn up so Miss Sutton who was there lesson 1 offered to do a second hour to help out.

Then we started to film and there were no problems we took all the shots according to the plans, so we got off to a good start. But then we found out we had some props missing which needed printing off, so Jack went back to his to print off. Whilst this was happening the camera was being charged so we took actions before it was too late.

The lighting was a big problem as there was a big window in the court room as the day progressed the sunlight shines through more and more, so this would effect the quality of the camera shots. But we took 2 shots of the jury which was worst effected, both from different angles so we could choose which one works best at the editing stage.

While filming something that was achieved well was ensuring we didn't break to 180 degree rule, to ensure that the audience understand whats actually happening. Also the mise-en-scene came together really well with the costumes of the actors as it looked as though they were actual people in a real case. As a result an effect of realism has been achieved, so the audience could imagine themselves in there positions. The court would only let us film in there premises for the school time so we had to ensure we filmed within a deadline. We successfully recorded all the shots we needed and more before our time allocation had expired, i also think that all the scenery in the court we used to full capacity.

So I conclude that the day was very successful we achieved everything we set out to complete, with more footage than needed. This will make the editing part of the production easier as we can choose between a variation of shots of each part.

When editing we had no problems until we wanted to detach the sound completely from a frame and use this on its own, so the way round this problem was to place a black screen over the top of the clip. As a result we will still hear the noise but not where the shot was taken, as we had to do this we made it so it cut straight to the credits at the end.

Another problem which we stumbled upon whilst editing was when we needed to burn the finished product onto a DVD, we weren't sure how we had to do it. We tried first time and failed it didn't even start to burn onto a DVD. But the way of sorting this out was cleaning the disk and replacing it, me and Jack also came back in a free when students from the other media group were in there who showed us how to burn it. A small problem we stumbled upon whilst editing was because me and Jack were the only two people who did any editing, and all the filming on the filming day. We had limited time to ensure we met all the deadlines set, to make sure we did our own free time was spent on editing.

I conclude that the whole production of our thriller opening, including filming and editing was successful, the reason I say that is because we set out to make the film for the age certificate of 15 and over. From the research performed we ensured that all the typical thriller elements are present, whilst taking into consideration to what students want to watch.

Mise-en-scene

This shot is a good example of the mise-en-scene, as its been chosen to do a court case being able to use. As we will able to use all the facilities to the best of our ability. The basic setup of the court is already available. This makes the whole idea more realistic as to the audience this is the real thing with the court case being held.

I personally think that this is a very good shot to set the scene because it shows how important mise-en-scene is. This shows that the chair has been used for generations in the law industry. From the detail of this it implies that the authority of the personnel who is sitting there is of a high stature.



In this shot the mise-en-scene is excellent as both the defendant and the judge are wearing the appropriate costumes, so they fit in well with the surrounding court. This was always going to be a danger about securing the location, that the actors will need to be in the correct costumes to complete the mise-en-scene.




From all the screen shots that I have taken I believe that the mise-en-scene of the production has been achieved well with budget we had. Throughout the effect was supposed to look as though it was produced and edited in a professional manor. Apart from the occasional lighting problem I think it's been achieved to a high stadard.

Shot list

This is the shot list which we recorded by;

Shot of sign that reads "Court Room", zooms out to shows Defendant waiting for court to start. Date along the bottom.
Fade to Black
Shot of courtroom before court so it is empty.
Fade to Black
Zoom in of Defendants face.
Fade to White to show Defendant thinking
Over the shoulder shot of Judge saying "Guilty".
Slow-mo shot of Gaffle going down (In black and white)
Fade to White
Back to Defendants face looking nervous.
Low shot of Defendant being escorted in to the Dock.
Fade to Black
Shot of Judge's chair with emblem on it.
Fade to Black
Over the shoulder of Defendant with Judge in shot.
High shot looking down on Defendant which pans to Judge.
Low angled shot of Jury to show they have some power.
Judge off shot says "All Rise".
Shot can see Jury who all stand up.
Camera zooms in on one member of the Jury who says "We the Jury have come to the desicion, we find the Defendant-"
Shot jumps to Defendant and his Lawyer, "Guilty" is said from the previous shot and both characters look down.
Shot pans across books with the date changing to in the future.
Three shots of Defendant (After being released) walking up stairs and entering a door.
Shot from Defendants view of the Lawyer reading a book.
Lawyer looks up.
Fade to Black
Black screen with a scream as audio.
Credits.

Camera Shot Angles

This is the camera angle shots used to film the production

Shot 1 is a close up of the protagonist actor who is the murderer and a sign saying "court room" this sets the scene to the audience and lets them know what the narrative is already through the mise-en-scene.

Shot 2 is an establishing shot of the court room when empty which shows the how much it would echo when a decision is made, which emplies it will stay with him for a long time in his thoughts. This also sets the scene for the following sequence of events.

Shot 3 is back to the murderer showing him waiting in anticipation (extreme close up)
Shot 4 is of the hitting of the hammer on the table which shows the power given to the judge in the court (extreme close up)
Shot 5 is zooming back into the actor so its a way of representing that he was flash forwarding to the future (extreme close up)
Shot 6 is when the murderer and the assistant are walking in, this shows that the protagonist charactor is highly dangerous if he has to be assisted while walking into the court case (mid shot)
Shot 7 is a sceneary shot of the judges chair so that we are now representing the judge (mid shot)
Shot 8 is a point of view shot from the dock of the defendant looking towards the judge (long shot)
Shot 9 and 10 are both different angles of the jury this is important to show that there is as many people in the jury as possible so it looks like an important case (long shot)
Shot 11 is a high angled shot from the long distance panning round from the defendant to the judge
Shot 12 is of the bookcase in the solicitors room this is setting the scene for a new room (close up)
Shot 13 is of the murderer after his sentence walking up the stairs towards the solicitors office (long shot)
Shot 14 from the top of the stairs looking down upon the actor walking up (long shot)
Shot 15 is the final shot when he comes around the corner of the door to attack the solicitor (mid shot)

Final Task Planning

This is the story board of what we would like to happen whilst filming our thriller opening;

A brief outline on how the film is going to look as shown on the story board.

In shot 1 this will be of the murderer waiting in be wilderness, with the outline of the court room plaque. This will be a sloe up zooming in to show the emotion on the actors face resulting in an extreme close up. This is good because the audience know what the protagonist actor is before knowing the story line, this means the audience can think about the narrative on their own.

The 2nd shot is an establishing shot of the court room, this will be effective for the audience because they have an idea of where the opening is set. As they might be asking themselves questions from the first shot, which have been answered as a result of this establishing shot. Also this is where the whole future film could have been a changing point, so if i was to produce a whole film i may refer back to this later in that film.

The 3rd shot is back to the murderers face at this point he is sitting their with great thought rushing through his head and his eyes are rolling, this will be fast edits from the 2nd to the 3rd shot, which will increase tension. We will use non-diegetic sound at this point as well of a heart beat of the actor.

The 4th shot is a flash forward to when the sentence had been decided, and the judged say "guilty" which will ring in his head whilst sitting there. As we are supposed to be making a physchological thriller this could be seen as a convention the reason for that is because its showing the murderer is going mad. Which happens in some typical physchological films.

In the 5th shot we only see the murderers feet and a person escorting him to the dock. This is an interesting shot as it doesn't give away any emotions but also shows that's there is movement which shows a progression in the case.

For both shots 6 and 7 it is going to be of the jury which will make the decision to prosecute the defendant. The reason there is to shots of this is so that we could use less actors but still make it look as though it was full, as we had no money to spend on actors or props.

Then on shot 8 we will quickly edit from the 7th shot where the decision is being made to the dock where the defendant and his lawyer is sat. Which will show the reaction of these two as the news comes apparent that they lost the court case.

This would then end, but we later decided to add another bit to the end to make it more like a thriller genre. But this was the plan we had for filming so we changed our minds as we were filming.

When producing the production we had to ensure that we made a piece of work which is aimed at our target market. The questionnaire which I asked a sample of 6th formers to participate in, as this was the age group it was projected at.

They wanted the following and this is how I achieved this;

Fast editing - which was achieved when flashing from the court to the murderer

Protagonist charactor - which is the defendant (murderer) as the whole scene is set around him

Sound - this was added whilst zooming in on the murderer, with a heartbeat added to increase tension

No chase scene - the narrative could have been showing the crime being commited and then him running away, but decided against it through the research

My proposed thriller opening

My proposed thriller opening is of a court case of a murderer, and the decision for him to be sentenced to a jail term. This would be set out as follows;

First shot will be an establishing shot, of the court room completely empty so this will share an echoing silence. This will catch the attention of the audience because they will be thinking what will happen next.

Second shot would be to have the prosecuted murderer in the waiting room, waiting for his trial to be heard. Whilst zooming in on his face quickly change to a flashforward to the case in action. With the final decision made by the judge.

Third shot would be of the murderer in his dock, deep in thought with the camera panning round to where the judge is examining to finer details of the case. At this point we will use non-diegetic sounds which will build the tension.

Fourth shot will be of the jury sitting in and listening to this judges speech, then the judge will ask for the juries decision. The person who will say the decision is situated in the middle of the camera as its the most prominant actor, whilst he says the juries decision we will cut to the reaction of the lawyer and murderer in the dock together.

5th shot will be of the solictor the day when the murder has been realised from prison. He will be working on a new case, then he will hear a noise outside the door. Then the camera will flash to the murderer walking up the stairs towards the office. Then he walks round the corner and the solictor shouts, it will cut then to black to show its the end. Then the credits will role in after this.

Our chosen thriller opening

We chose the idea of the magestrates court, when the murderer is on trial for the sin he commited. The reason we chose this is because from my research i found out that people want suspense build via non-diegetic sounds aswell as diegetic, so there would be various chances for us to achieve this in this environment. Also the use of a protagonist character is present (the murder) and at the same time he is the villan, we also have to hero. The judge who sentences him to a jail sentence. But it's also left down to the audiences digerestion to who they think is the hero, they might think that the lawyer who represented him is because he lost the case for the murderer.

So the use of a protagonist and a hero and villan are some typical thriller conventions. Also the use of quick editing is used frequently in blockbuster of this genre. So when the murderer is in the waiting room the use of editing till flash forward to the decsion made, and straight back into his face deep in thought. The mise-en-scene of this will be good as we wil use the actual court in Bourne with the judges gown and wig from the law teacher at school, and the hammer from the local auction rooms. As we have this sorted the lighting will be needed for exact precision, as we will be filming throughout the day the sun will shine through windows at different stages.

The narrative will be made clear as the opening progresses as hints will be given, also via the mise-en-scene and the dialog the audience will be able easily follow the idea. Also I used intertextuality of "the run away jury", this is a film which is based around a jury who escape their juties. So this could be directly linked with part of that story, at the start when they are still in a court hearing.