Our interpretation of a modern British crime film has many influences from cult films of the past as well as current crime sub genres from the likes of ‘adulthood’ (Noel Clarke 2008) where youth crime plays the prominent part. My role as cinematographer meant I could collaborate a range of techniques through influential camera shots around the location we were filming at. Our ‘drug deal gone wrong’ situation was where I wanted to create tension and isolate the characters from the busy situations of modern society; this was why a desolate car park was a great setting for this scene.
I developed the narrative through my specific area of micro responsibility by using certain camera shots. Opening the film sequence with some establishing shots helps the audience get a real feel for the setting. The focus on the ‘drug dealer’s’ feet walking up the stairs shows the progression through the car park and builds up the tension between characters. The shot from over the customers shoulder was a direct influence from the 180-degree rule from western shootouts; I wanted to show the physical repulsion between the characters using past techniques in a modern situation.
Our group worked closely to discuss on where we should film and what props were vital, and example of this was the scarf that the drug dealer wore, we wanted to keep the dealers identity as hidden as possible I also tended to film from behind the ‘dealer’ to express this, this was often a following shot, the use of a hand held camera accomplished the rough gritty feel I wanted to impose on the audience shown by the shaky camera. I feel that this made the scene more thought provoking and consequently represented the secretive world the drug dealer lives. On the other hand the customer is the complete opposite of this and is very innocent in his actions.
The technical capabilities of the equipment we used made it easier to express our creative choices. The use of ‘final cut’ on the Mac’s meant we could use fades to skip time as shown when the drug dealer is walking through the car park, it saved having prolonged shots in which would of lost all the tension and made the film less fast paced. The most prominent use of this technique was where I chose to use a first person prospective shot, I wanted the viewing audience to see and feel what the ‘victim’ was endure; the use of fades gives the scene realism.
My overall aim with the camerawork was to build upon the tension and suspense throughout the piece until the fight scene occurred which I thought acted as the ‘trigger’ in which imposed the fast paced action on viewers.Although this was the case some technical difficulties led to limited amount of footage, the batteries in the camera were flat when we started filming as a consequence we had to travel back to college and collect some more, the duration of time to film was shortened but time was productively used.
Throughout the piece of work we had to adapt to certain changes in the setting we were working with, when we were drawing the storyboard we originally wanted to include some cars parked in the car park but it was later made obvious that this wasn’t possible so we filmed in an empty space which subsequently turned out to be better than the original idea.
The feedback I received as cinematographer had many good points “camerawork was good with some nice shots-water droplets” I was happy with the overall responses, some critical comments I received were “some more shots in the fight would have been good” this shows that the footage we currently have doesn’t show enough action and that the fight ends to quick, the excitement we wanted to entice on the audience clearly lacks here and is something we needed to improve on.
I chose to be cinematographer, as I believe I am very good at visualising shots in my mind and then representing into the production, I am also confident with how to use the video camera. However with some more practice with the camera I feel we could have got slightly better shots. I believe that the finished short film shows all the gritty, dangerous and exciting aspects of a British crime film, our indie film engages with the audience with its simplistic plot, and although maybe being too short in some places it proves to be an enjoyable watch.
For our film sequence we wanted to set the scene in an abandoned area or where there wasn’t many people around. We wanted to do this because then it makes the scene more mysterious and also gives the audience the feel that what is going on needs to be secretive. We then decided to film the scene in a car park when there where no people around, this created the atmosphere that we wanted and we felt that it would make the audience feel uneasy about what was going to happen.
When we were on location we decided to do some different shot type that weren’t on our storyboard this was because we thought we would have enough footage otherwise and there were also things at the location that we thought would be worth film such as the water coming down the wall. Also by doing more shot types we managed to set the scene more.
In our film sequence we wanted to build up suspense between the two people meeting together to do a drugs deal I feel we successfully did this by using appropriate music and thought the use of quick editing to show the two peoples point of view.
We didn’t have any costumes for our film instead we decided to use casual clothing this gave a sense of social realism but also so that the audience can relate to the situation more. However one of the people acting in our sequence dressed in all black clothing so stereotypically this shows that the person is going to be tuff, that they want to keep there identity hidden and that they are possibly thuggish/ aggressive (you sometimes dress in a way that you feel for example dark could mean your angry and aggressive.) This is shown in our sequence when the person in black gets in a fight with the other person.
My role in our film sequence was to create a piece of music that would fit in with our footage. My role was very important as the music had to set the right sort of mood and to create suspense as the film went on. To get an idea of the sort music I had to create I looked at a few films for example Kidulthood, Adulthood and Get Carter. From analyzing these films I found a scene in Adulthood that was relevant to our film. I then took this idea and created something similar on garage band. My overall feel is that the soundtrack went well but maybe I didn’t create enough suspense in the fight scene, Also there was a problem uploading the sound to our film footage this resulted in the sound being to loud when the two people are talking to each other.
Once we had finished our film sequence we then looked at the rest of the class’s films we then gave each other feed back. This was our feedback
The Mise-en-scene was good; people liked the clear car park representing isolation. Clothing was good and represented characters well. Character shouldn’t have slowed down on the stairs. Camerawork was good with some nice shots - water droplets. Filming was a bit shaky at times, wasn't clear if it was intentional or not. Some more shots for the fight would have been good. Sound was good, matched well with the sequence but the music should have gotten quieter during the dialogue. Editing was good, some shots were too long. Fight scene well edited
From this feedback we could see what people liked and disliked about our film. One of the things that they didn’t like was how the person was going up the stair which is fair enough but he couldn’t run up the stairs because then it looks like he’s running away from something showing fear which defeats the character profile of being tuff and a feared person, also I feel that when he’s going up the stairs it creates suspense, because of the slow pace keeping the audience wanting to know what’s going to happen next. Other negative feedback was on the fact that the music needed to get quieter around the talking which I realized I made a mistake on.
If I was to do this project again I would prefer if I wasn’t doing the sound because I don’t know how to use the Garageband software very well and I feel I would of produced a better piece of work if I had been doing either the filming or editing.
