U-23 FILM EXTRACT: Film Evaluation

U-23 FILM EXTRACT: Film Evaluation - Lamo Jihu

Monday 2 March 2009

Film Evaluation - Lamo Jihu

For this project our group decided to choose the genre Thriller/Drama. We chose this because most of us were very familiar with the genre as we've already seen films such as: "Brick", "Run Lola Run" and "Get Carter" in class. By now our group had a good understanding of the genre and the general conventions that apply to Thriller/Drama films. With the chosen genre in mind our group wanted to do something realistic and engaging to the audience. We came up the idea to film something related drugs and gangs in relation to teenagers, which they are seen more realistically associated with and inflenced by in modern day films.

During the planning stage our group didn't find much problems in choosing props, location, pre-production and story boarding for the genre. This was because we wanted the film to look realistic and in films such as "kidulthood" gave us ideas on costumes. The cast's clothing in "Kidulthood" was mainly Hoodies and Jeans which is effective because it is made more realistic for the target audience which is teenagers. We also wanted to add the technique of shaky cam which gives the film sequence an ad-hoc feel. It suggests unrehearsed filming of reality in a situation where stable image techniques cannot be applied.

We tried to plan it out as carefully as we can beforehand, in order that we wouldn't have to make too many adjustments. Unfortunately some things weren't working out as expected so some very minor things had to be altered slightly, for example the drug dropping. It was originally going to be several separate bags and one of them would be left behind. But due to short notice, not all the props were available together. Instead of that, we used one smaller prop. However, except for that, it was planned out well, so that we didn't have to change many things.

My role in the group was the cinematographer. During the process of making a shot list, I wanted to use a lot of close ups during scenes with dialogue to show the actors expressions and emotions, which can create suspense and tension. Both of these are very important in genres like Drama and Thrillers. I also wanted to use the shot pan-ou For example the low angle close up of Vincent showed his facial expressions thus helping the audience to understand his emotions. We used a lot of low angle shots in the scenes with the killers because we wanted them to seem more superior. During the actual filming we didn't use all the shots originally planned, because one of the reasons were that we felt the shaky cam technique would be more appropriate for creating realism in some of the scenes rather then just close ups or low angle shots. We were also careful not to over use the shaky cam technique because it can distract the audience.

But the main drawbacks we had, was our group being unorganized and members of our group were unable to attend during the filming day we meant we had to cast another actor. Also our group wasn't well prepared which resulted in us having less time to shot a variety of different shots. We then came across the problem of the camera having low battery because it was left on while traveling to our shooting location. Therefore we didn't shot all the shots we would of liked, thus giving us less footage to use in the editing stage. We then also encoutered an problem, during the second half of filming it started to snow which ment we had to tolerate the circumstances as it was the last day of filming.

Overall I think our film could have been better in many ways. Our group had many concerns for being unorganized and inattentive with commitment. The pre-production stage early had gone well but post-production could have been much better had if all our members turned up for filming and lessons to finish editing. But I was still pleased with the overall outcome in relation to the varity of shots we had and a positive feedback. In the feedback, some of the things that were acknowledged we weren't so sure about, such as the camerwork, on which we received good comments. Also we were complimented on how the mise-en-scene worked well with the shots. I was very pleased with my cinematography skills used in the overall project.

Labels: Lamo

posted by AS Film Studies Students @ 03:35

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