BA Hons and FD Film
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Scene Analysis & evaluation – Graduation film
Scene analysis and Evaluation
Scene 1
The first scene of the film is green and sunny, happy and bright. Added purple tint for cheerfulness. The point of this is that it changes to be greyer in the scene as Slender is more present in the film to show his darkness.
The aspect ratio throughout the entire film is for greater cinematic quality and it also gives me the ability to adjust shots vertically to centre them just right into the frame. It’s all about letting the audience see only what needs to be seen.
The protagonist Kyle is dressed in black and white, the same as Slender to show the subtle connection of Kyle to him in the film. This also represents the opposites of dark and light that are both present in Slenderman and Kyle. When Slender appears I add a deep drum sound every time. Shortly into this scene the jump scare sound effect is present to break the calm silence of the beginning of the film. I use short, quick shots of the character’s faces etc to keep the tension high. Close up of faces are used to show the importance of the emotions.
I filmed quick, short shots of the Contact rifling through his paper to show the anxiety he is experiencing. When the Contact walks away he goes blurred, this is to represent how Kyle is trying to focus on what has just happened. Slenderman appears in the top right corner of the film in the very last shot – I wanted it to look like a tree and not be too obvious. He disappears when Kyle gets up – this keeps the mystery and tension going to the next scene.
This scene was filmed in about an hour with the other actor, and then about 10 seconds of facial expressions from myself were filmed the following day alone. We were the only crew on set at the time. I worked the camera myself through this entire scene while acting. He was very surprised at how fast and efficient I managed to get it all finished while it was just the two of us. Titles are scratchy writing to relate to the glitchiness of Slenderman. The titles zoom in to relate to Slenderman constantly in the distance. It draws Slenderman and adds its full form. The digital damage sounds relate to the glitches that Slenderman brings too. I’m overall happy with this scene and it worked out how I intended.
Scene 2
Another scene that was just filmed by myself. This scene has probably undergone the most reshoots. Originally, Kyle is typing on a laptop, but was later changed to be paper. Kyle writes on lined paper to relate it to the lined slender page that the Contact had given him. The lighting is kept neutral to keep it feeling as real as possible.
I show Kyle writing without thinking which fits into the high anxiety that he is experiencing. Camera focuses on what Kyle has written at the end of the scene to connect it to the beginning of the scene and to add a tense ending with mystery of danger.
When the phone call is taken the camera zooms on the mouth as the words are the most significant aspect.
Scene 3 & 4
The first scene that’s shot with a cameraman other than myself. Tunnel chosen for filming to use the lower lighting to make it feel creepy and to frame Slenderman at the end of it. The light and darkness contrasts with Slenderman.
The first attempt to shoot this film was completely cancelled after the first take because of many issues with the location, equipment and members of the public. I even nearly got a parking ticket. Going back the second time gave me time to change the scene slightly that it now starts bright and when I return from the woods, it’s dark to imply I’ve been there for a while. Originally, the entire tunnel scene was at night.
The colours and lighting are kept simple so the audience’s eyes don’t wander from the characters. I tried to obtain a strong contrast between light and dark, a kind of chiaroscuro. Glitches are placed on the Slenderman drawings to relate to the glitches in Slenderman. A metallic glean sound effect is used with the glitch to make it sound like it is broken. When Kyle is overcome by the energy from the picture a white light surrounds him to relate to death. Kyle then jumps into the woods scene to suggest the soul is jumping out of the body into another world.
The camera angle slightly looks up to Kyle when he sits next to the tree to show the bigger trees – this is done to show how small Kyle is in the woods. This is also done in a later shot at a more extreme angle. When Kyle gets up the filming of him walking is wobbly to demonstrate the uneasiness of Kyle. Creepy music starts as soon as Kyle stands up. Kyle gets distracted to look at the eclipse to signify the global effect of Slenderman’s presence. The camera zooms towards eclipse then cuts to Slenderman to connect the two.
Glitch sounds are used here to get the audience’s attention to look for Slenderman as he is partially covered by the tree. It’s so they know he is there somewhere. The page glows when Kyle’s hand moves nearer to it to show it is activated by Kyle’s presence only – signifies a portal.
I leave Slenderman out of the picture for a while to let the audience search for him. When Kyle runs the glitch sounds are present to show that Slenderman is chasing him. Each big glitch sound and distortion makes Kyle fall over.
An up angle shot of Kyle standing in the woods shows the trees towering over him and consuming him. The camera swings around in both directions to show confusion. The music is chosen for tense action.
The white bow on the tree is shown to provide a clue that this world is real and not a construct from Slenderman (as it is a symbol of the tree needing to be cut down). In this way Slenderman is claiming the human world woods as his own domain.
The forest scene is a homage to the game as it follows the exact scenario that the player experiences. I believe that this scene will be the most recognisable for Slenderman fans.
Once he is returned to the alley, it is now night and everything is distorted and hazy to represent his confusion and dizziness of what just happened. As he exits the tunnel, the contrasting shot of the football game in the distance is to represent Kyles loneliness in the world as he staggers out alone.
The shot of the dead tree by the lamppost is to represent the difference from the first scene where everything was so alive and colourful. The forest scene was filmed by another cameraman and we were accompanied by another person who carried bags for us.
Scene 5
Cuts to Kyle’s room. The posters on the walls throughout this scene have been digitally replaced over videogame posters to keep the realism of the character. I have also blurred and drained the colour from the background to detract the audience’s attention from wandering from the central character. It starts with quick short shots of the alcoholic drink with loud sounds of opening the bottle and cap thrown on the table to signify Kyle’s desperation for it.
There are no sounds added while Kyle looks at the page to get ready for the jump scene. When Kyle runs outside the camera angles change in different directions to show the confusion and disorientation of Kyle. When Kyle realises he needs to hunt for Slenderman the music sounds urgent and there are quick shots and fast movement to add to the urgency. Slenderman appears in the mirror to add a tense ending and cliffhanger. The final film of SLENDER doesn’t include this jump scare at all.
Overall I’m happy with the film and it’s already been praised by people who have seen it. I always ask if they’ve spotted Slenderman in a certain scene or not. If too many people spot him, I make him more hidden, and vice versa. If I made the film again I would try harder go get my hands on a better camera as the darker scenes really do struggle on the Canon 550D and getting rid of grain has been the real nightmare.
From the feedback that I received at the screening at the Arts Centre, I have taken into consideration that sometimes the music unnecessarily gives away the scare that Slenderman is coming for the audience. I also received suggestions on where to make him more subtle in the scene. Their favourite appearance of Slender was the very first where he’s hidden in the top right corner in the background.
When the full film is complete, I would very much like to make a sequel that is more subtle and really works on the fear of the unknown rather than revealing the monster so often. I would also get my hands on a better camera that can actually work with night conditions. I would also get a bigger crew so that I don’t find myself juggling everything at once.
Pictures below from final film which will be released for Halloween
Graduation Film ideas
Post Production Special Effects Research
Research – Looking at special effects and how they are created
Goal – To improve my skills in editing and creating special effects
Theme – Action
Target Audience – Youtubers – Aged between 15-27 – Mostly Male
Possible extension of R.E.D project if Directing goes well
Research – Looking further into directing films, looking at action film directing in particular
Goal – To have another aspect of filming on my CV at end of course
Theme – Action
Target Audience – Not yet decided
Funny Dubs
Research – Looking at why people like youtubing, what elements of it make it most interesting – human behaviour
Goal – To get a bigger name on youtube for promotion of my films
Theme – Comedy
Target Audience – Youtubers – Aged between 15-27 – Mostly Male
11’09’01 September 11
’11’09’01 September 11′ is a 2002 film composed of 11 short films from different countries and filmmakers, each from a different country. Each gave their own vision of the events in New York during the September 11th attacks in a short film of 11 minutes, 9 seconds, and one frame.
We watched only a few of the 11 short films. The first one interestingly enough is from Iran, and is directed by Samira Makhmalbaf. The short documentary of their lives starts with a group of very young or very old men and women trying to build a bomb shelter in anticipation of the US retaliation. There are no young men to be seen, as they are likely to all be forced to fight. These scenes show the humanity of Iran as they are simply normal people afraid of bombs, just like the US. The scene changes half way to a teacher trying to explain to very young children what has happened in the US. The children have no idea of what’s happening in the world outside of their close lives. Whether it be someone they know falling down a well and dying, they can still tell and laugh about it as they are more comfortable with death than any child should be. One of the final scenes in this film is looking up at a massive tower well, which shows relative cinematography to the Twin towers.
The second film we saw was a staged dramatization of the events filmed directly in New York, and is directed by Sean Penn. This film is a scripted narrative of a deaf lady whose boyfriend is a New York tour guide for other deaf people. He goes to work on the day of the bombings and she is left to her own silence. She has no idea of the bombings and her only clue is a slight momentary shaking before her boyfriend gets home covered in dust from the debris.
My Street Project – Production Diaries
Here is my production diary:
So I went to Tintagel with Connor on the first day of filming. I got a bus there at about 10am and got one home at about 5pm. We interviewed three different shop owners, asking them questions about their life and why they moved to Tintagel. Connor worked the camera and I took the audio. I’m also the editor.
I’m half way through editing it at the moment, and have noticed problems with the footage. The Canon 7D that we borrowed from college is faulty. In low light shots, intrusive scan lines are seen slowly moving down the screen. These weren’t visible during filming. Another issue I found was that parts of the external audio had mobile phone interference in the background, so the cameras audio had to be used instead. And finally the third interview could not be used, the background noise is far too loud. The interviewee who runs a café had the sounds of the kitchen as well as what sounds like someone using a blender in the background, making the interviewee inaudible. We didn’t think that these sounds would pick up so intrusively.
Besides that, I have plenty of cut-aways to work with that Connor recorded for me on his own. A slight error was that the white balance was totally off, making all the footage very blue. This was easily fixed with a few clicks during post.
I have some effect templates on my other laptop that I made a while ago that I plan to use as a filter over some of the footage. It will perk some low light shots up a bit and bring colour and brightness to dull footage.
Here is Connor’s production diary:
Production diary
On the first day of production having already come up with a very vague idea of what to do for the My Streets project, we decided to flesh out the ideas finally coming up with the plan to focus on the small village of Tintagel and why people come there are reasoning for this was that it’s a big tourist destination so it’s mostly obviously why they come there but what attracts the residents?
The next day I walked to Tintagel and started going into shops trying to gain interest and seeing who would be willing to although most where rude about not wanting to be on film a lot agreed but with some they were unwilling the be on film so I went with the approach of just recording their audio and using only the cut always that would have been used and not showing the person but they were also unwilling to do that.
Political Remix Video
Here is a pro Obama advert that Connor and I created. It shows Mitt Romney making stupid egocentric points that people won’t like. We used clips from youtube of Romneys campaigns for presidency. We watched them through a few times and chose out key words that could potentially be used for amusing purposes.
BA Hons and FD Film 