Section 12: Analysis of completed sequence

The title of our completed film is Restitution.
Analysis
Narrative structure
In the opening scene of our film, two young boys are seen running away from something or someone. This makes the audience ask why the characters are running. One character then disappears leaving the other character alone. The audience are then left in more suspense as one of the main characters has vanished. The one character that is left then continues to run on, but then discovers a young child alone on a playground. As he slowly approaches the child, and reaches out to touch her, she then disappears and the sequence cuts to black screen and the title of the film is shown. The spooky disappearance of the young girl makes the audience question was she a supernatural being or just a figment of imagination? The sudden cut off point at the end of the sequence also leaves the audience in suspense and wanting more. I think the effect of the young girl disappearing was successful and did create fear in the audience. We wanted to produce confusion and suspense from our opening scenes and I think we created this well.

Thriller codes and conventions
Our film is set in an anonymous setting. The opening sequence doesn't reveal a lot of information about the rest of the film so leaves the audience asking why, who and what. For example who are the boys that are running? Why are they running? And what are they running from?

Camera work
Most of the camera work in our sequence is handheld, following the two characters running. The jerky shots create confusion for the audience as at certain points in the film it is difficult to see exactly what is happening. The uneasy shot following the characters also gives the audience the impression that someone is chasing the two boys. I think the camera work we used was successful as is similar to the handheld camera work in the film Clover field as we wanted to create a similar effect.

Mise-en-scene
At the start of the sequence, faces remain anonymous. Shadowed figures are seen running frantically. This connotes uncertainty about the characters as their intentions are unclear and their personalities cannot be distinguished. All the scenes were shot in a isolated area in darkness. This creates an eerie, abandoned setting. The use of fast paced handheld camera is effective as some shots are unclear and distorted. This leaves the audience in suspense as confusion occurs about what is happening. Finally, we chose to show the characters running in silence but have slow background music to create a contrast.

Sound
We decided to obliterate the diegetic sound from the scenes we filmed so that the characters voices or movements could not be heard, keeping the characters anonymous. The non diegetic sound that we added over the scenes was slow, spooky, continual, high pitched music. This created a contrast between what was being seen and what was being heard. I think to improve our sequence we could have added more structure to the sound by including further non diegetic sound to create more tension, for example a loud drum sound at the end of the scene where the young girl vanishes, to startle the audience.

Editing
At the start of our sequence, the editing is short, quick and fast paced with a black screen following each of the shots, lasting about three seconds, this creates suspense. On the final shot of the young girl on the swing, we added a dissolving effect in between two shots; one with the girl and one without. This then made her appear to vanish into thin air. I think this was effective as it changed the audience’s perception of the film.

Graphics
The graphics used in our film were quite simple, to match the simple footage that was filmed. We decided to use white font over a black background. This created a professional look to the graphics. Also the white over black effect connotes a ghostly feel. I think the words "Based on a true story" that we used in our opening titles was effective as it created fear in the audience as the events in the film are said to be true.


Question 1

Still images taken from the film Cloverfield.

Still images taken from our film Restitution.







Our film has several related aspects to the film Cloverfeild. The first being the similar graphics; white simple lettering contrasted against a plain black background, this is a common theme to use in a thriller/horror film. The second similarity is the darkness created by low lighting. This creates mystery and suspense in both films as the audience's focus is concentrated on the characters because the background cannot be seen, this allows the audience to read and interpret the charcaters expressions and movements to understand what is happening in the story. A final similarity is the camerawork in the two films, both are handheld. Close ups of the character's facial expressions show how and what the character is feeling under the scenario they are in. This goes back to the enigma codes theory of making the audience feel more invloved in the film, and the idea of us as producers to make the audience wanting to answer the question exactly what is he looking at or what is his emotions right know being on his own. It makes the audience feel as if the direction of speech or action is asked them, meaning how the chracters are directly speaking to the camera, it ironically signifies that the characters are speaking to them.




Still images taken from the film The Blair Witch Project.

Still images taken from our film Restitution.

There is a similarity between the setting in The Blair Witch Project and the setting in our film Restitution. Both are set in an eerie, ghostly forrest. In our film we chose to keep the location annonymous, whereas in The Blair Witch Project the audience are aware of the exact location of the forrest as the film is based on a true story so information is given before the opening scene begins.

Question 2

Our film is aimed towards all teenage stereotyped groups, our film is not specifically aimed towards a particular group i.e. Chavs, Mosher’s, Emo’s. It averages out because ordinary teenagers are played as character’s with no specific role as a stereotyped teen. The use of language and nudity is forbidden in this film, the aim is to put a message across to young people not show them the entertainment of pornography. Even though this film is rated 15, the concept of the park is used to signify a child like scene, however the aim is for the elder viewers to understand the character’s point of view. The actors are 2 males and 1 female, this is to connote the idea of men being in the wrong in a women’s mind, also majority of male’s are aimed at being more superior or wrongly-minded. The young ghost girl is used to give the idea of sympathy and view the 2 male actors as selfish, aggressive male dominancy. Peer pressure is the significant key factor of our film. It does not attract particular groups i.e. rich/poor, old/young. However, the entertainment of our film significantly attracts men more than woman, as Thriller genre is modern more attracted to male viewers.


Question 3

http://www.thesmalls.com/
http://www.coffeeshorts.co.uk/
http://www.zeroland.co.nz/
http://www.openfilm.com/

Above are the links to the websites of particular film distribution companies who specialise in making low budget films, predominantly thriller and horror. Our film is a low budget British thriller film; it would fall under the categories featured on these particular websites.



Question 4

Our film would be targeted at a wide age range, however, it would not be suitable for children as it would not be suitable for under 15's due to risk in violence or gore. Saying this we have chosen a young girl as a character of a ghost, this was to emphasise the film to make it more eerie. The best age group would be 16 - 45, we believe it would allow majority of age groups to watch this film, as the story line is not confusing, however, it is interesting to understand the film; due to the start of the film being a flash back encounter of the rest of the film, as the first scene allows the audience to understand why and who is chasing them.




Question 5

We used our audience research to plan our film by analysing the data collected. We conducted a questionnaire containing questions about types of thrillers people enjoy watching, what type of characters are perferred and thriller settings. The questionnaire was given out to 16-18 year olds around college as this age range is our target audience.

Question 6

We created our sequence using Premiere Pro. Above is a screen shot of our film being manipulated. During the construction of our project, we learnt how to edit and manipulate our film in different ways. Using the cut tool, we cut our film to create short clips lasting about three seconds. We then put blackscreen inbetween each short clip, this also lasted for about three seconds. We also created a fade in fade out effect before and after each scene. We erased all diegetic sound from the original clips and replaced it with non diegetic sound. The non diegetic sound we added contrasted well with the sequence that could be seen; the music was slow, calming and monotoned whereas the sequenced was fast paced and created a sense of rush. In the final scene of our sequence we decided to dissolve two clips together. One clip was of a boy walking towards a young child on a swing, and then raising his hand and placing it on the child. The second clip was shot in the exact same location of a boy walking towards a swing, repeating the same action as the first shot but without the young child on the swing. We added a dissolving effect between these two clips which then made the young child appear to vanish.

Question 7

My audio analysis of the project.