Evaluation for 'The Slayer'

My media product, a short film called ‘The Slayer’, is a typical horror film. The beginning is at night when a young girl is brutally murdered.  This is portrayed very well, set in a deserted place where she wakes up after oversleeping on a bench, looking confused and worried.  When she heads for home the sinister music beat builds as she walks along the bridge and is chased and killed by a masked killer. Mis en scene is used effectively when the girl is walking home: she is seen through the bushes as though she is being watched, and there are a lot of cuts from different angles looking at her. Along with the music, this builds up tension leading to the murder. There is also the less noticeable swing movement in the background as she walks along the bridge, which again makes the place seem sinister and scary. The lighting is also done very well - it is filmed in a street where the street lamps shine on and highlight the characters but as the background is dark and not very public, it still gives the dark dangerous effect.  Even in the dark alley where the girl is murdered, the killer's face is lit up by the camera light.
      The second scene, in the office, is very short because of the time limit for the whole opening sequence. It gives a short introduction to the detectives and their mission to find out what happened to the missing girl, and catch the killer. The scene is very brief and simply shows the detectives come in and settle into their office, and before long they get a phone call which summons them to set out on an investigation. This scene is a good example of an aftermath of a crime, in this case a murder,
       The final scene in the video, where the killer prepares for another murder at night, is also dimly lit. In the shot outside the house there is just a solitary street light, and inside the house it is also dark, but the main objects, such as the knife, are clearly seen again with the camera light. There are some quite interesting shots in this scene such as the one of the murderer’s slow footsteps and the very frightening point of view shot of the murderer picking up his knife. These scenes are quite typical of a horror movie with use of the dark lit streets, the first person view shot, no other people in the murder scene, the detectives and of course the murder weapons and the blood. 

The main opening features for the film are of course the title and company logo. The first scene is very shocking and violent and gives a big introduction of crime and violence to the film genre, as well as making the audience ask questions. The opening scene would probably be the most exciting scene as it the main subject of the investigation which continues for the rest of the film. It does, however, instantly wake the audience up and keep them intrigued for the rest of the film. Also the second scene of the cold blooded killer shows him preparing for his next murder by agreeing to meet up with another teenage girl and then picking up a big knife.             




















 

Phantom of the Opera

The film 'The Phantom of the Opera' uses a variety of interesting colours and lighting. At the start of the opening, where the title is introduced, the screen is candle lit orange probably introducing the time this film is set in. This is then supported by the black and white footage shown after. From then on, the lighting is very subtle but it appears that the theatre lights are shining either directly or partly on the important people such as the auctioneer, the man holding the lot and the old man. Also the chandlierhas a very bright light shining on it, when it is covered by a sheet, which emphasises its value and makes it the centre of attention.

'Feed the fish' Evaluation

For our 'feed the fish' task, we filmed shots of Daniel walking into the school and then up to one of the art rooms where I was waiting. In the next scene, we did the whole dialogue where I asked him, "Have you fed the fish?"and he answered,
"Yes"and then I set him up for his next task.
Our film was quite successful: we came well prepared with the right costumes (suits) and followed all the right stages of the story. I believe the acting went quite well: Daniel in a rush was quite convincing and my posture and character was very boss-like. There were ,however, certain areas that could easily be improved such as the continuity as our filming time went over two days and on the first day, Daniel was wearing smart shoes and on the second day he was wearing trainers. In addition there were problems with the sound: some of the key pieces of dialogue could not be heard clearly as the microphone was not strong enough and the background noise drowned out some of the actor's speech. This could have been improved by either a better microphone or the actors being closer to the camera. There was also a minor slight problem with the wardrobe where my shirt was hanging out on one side giving the wrong impression of a crime boss.