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.

Labels: Harry Sloan