Lighting

We used both natural and ambient lighting in our film as we spent our time both indoors and out. We made use of the harsh natural lighting at the seaside and whilst we shot the kitchen scene, we drew the blinds which gave the room an orange tint making it look strange and dark. When shooting Joshua in the boot of my car, it was difficult to cut out all the natural light that was seeping in. I parked my car in the shade to try and rid the shot of some excess light but it still looked much too airy and open for a confined space. We wanted the shot of Joshua in the boot to look dark and scary with a claustrophobic feel so we darkened the scene artificially during editing.

Shots

During our film we have used a range of shot sizes from extreme close ups to extreme long shots. The emotions shown in the facial expressions of the characters were highlighted by the use of close-ups regularly throughout. For example, the close up used whilst I was driving the car was a good way of showing the anguish and awful thoughts going through the characters head at the time. We used an extreme long shot of the beach scene to show the location of the characters as well as the motions of the waves. We saved the extreme close up until the end of the short film in which we kept the camera tight on my eyes as the final thought crossed my mind. The film ended on my eyes shutting after looking out onto the sea contemplating. This created a cliff hanger for the audience as they never knew what I had decided to do after that point. As our film was a thriller we tried very hard to create tension throughout. We used a backward tracking shot when the girls were walking down the beach which leaves the audience wondering where they are heading. Tracking shots always add a sense of mystery to a scene and this is crucial in a thriller such as ours.

Costume Decisions

Our costume choice was directly linked to the characters personas. My character, Megan, suffers from mental illnesses (which are often associated with split personalities). To represent this I wore mix-matched clothing and clashing colours at the beginning of the film, and a black coat towards the end to represent a sinister presence. The Devil/Charlie (played by Jess Whight) wore a red top throughout, to represent evil and hatred as well as a black cardigan which carries the connotations of death and mystery. Jess Whight also used make-up in order to make her look like the typical femme fatale. With her blonde hair, black cat-like eye make up and bright red lips, she looks the epitome of bad news. Our Angel/Catherine wore a white top to imply an angelic quality teamed with a purple cardigan which is often associated with regality and honour. Below is a key clearly showcasing our costume decisions;

Role: Megan
Played by: Jazelle Johnson (me)
Costume: Traditional teenage clothing. Neutral colours.

Role: Katherine/Angel
Played by: Natasha Arculeo
Costume: White top to represent purity and a purple cardigan to convey regality.

Role: Charlie/Devil
Played by: Jess Whight
Costume: Red top to represent evil and the devil. Black top to convey mystery and death.

Creativity

Whilst making our short films we come across some things that limit our creativity. Below is a list of the possibilities that could limit our creativity;

Cast - Since this is an A-Level production, the level of acting ability available to us will be limited because we only have amateur actors that are willing to work for us.

Genre - In our case our genre is a psychological thriller. In order to fit into this category we have to follow certain codes and conventions to make it a believable thriller. This however, limits our creativity because we have to follow certain rules in order to make it work.

Time – We have only had six weeks to work on this project so we do have a time constraint on what we can do. We cannot involve scenes in our project that would take too long to achieve or waste any time on difficult complex ideas.

Our Group – This is not an individual project so we cannot have all our ideas put into one film. Since we are working in a group of three it is important to listen to the others and take in their ideas as well as your own because it is a joint effort. Since you have other people to work with, when discussing ideas, it may come down to casting a vote to see which idea the majority rules in favour of. This way it is fairer, but it does limit your own personal creativity because other members of your group may have a different opinion on it.

Money – This is an indie film funded solely by the members of the group so our ideas are limited to what we can afford to do. For example, the day we had to travel to our location (Felixstowe) my car was low on petrol so we had to all chip in to get there and back. If money was not an issue we could have driven to a further beach location such as Lowestoft for a better change of scenery.

Digital Technology – The camera’s we were given to film with were very small, compact ‘Flip cameras. Although this is very handy to take places due to its size, it was also very difficult to see what we had shot due to the size of the screen. If we had a bigger camera used for shooting movies for example, the quality of our shots would have been a lot better. This includes the zoom quality and sound quality.

Filming Diary

10:00 – (In the school car park) Film Joshua in the boot of my car. This includes a shot of me shutting the boot with Joshua inside and also a shot of Joshua inside the boot (which required me to lower the seats of my car to get the shot) This took several attempts and changes in location as the sun was shining into the boot and making the scene look less horrific/claustrophobic.

10:25 - Meet at Jess's house in order to film the kitchen scenes. Just Jess and I have arrived at this point.

10:30– Jess and I gather together all props and any additional costumes in order to film the scenes. Props included a duffel bag and kitchen supplies.

10:45 – Run through all the kitchen shots/scenes starring just 'Megan' (me) as our 'Angel' had yet to arrive. This included filming all shots 2 or 3 times from different angles each time.

11:15 – Shoot all the 'devils' (Jess) scenes that occur in the kitchen. Only scenes containing Jess only could be shot at this point as the 'Angel' had yet to arrive.

11:45 – Jess and I shot the scenes which involved using the car. This included; me shutting the boot of my car, getting into the car and shutting the door, some brief dialogue of me in the drivers seat, putting on my seatbelt, turning the key in the ignition, putting the car into reverse and filming the car backing out of the drive. These scenes were very time consuming as we were in a restricted space.

12:00 – Sophie and Natasha arrive at Jess' house ready to finish filming the kitchen scenes.

12:05 – Film all shots/scenes with both the Angel and Devil within the kitchen setting

12:30 – Get ready to drive to our next location of Felixstowe. We filmed a couple more scenes along the way including the Angel and Devil's dialogue in the back of the car and a short shot of me driving to the location.

12:50- Arrive at Felixstowe and set up camera and get props together etc.

1:00 – Start filming all the scenes with me (Megan) on my own including; me walking down by the seaside, eating alone on a bench and looking out to the sea.

1:20 – Film all the scenes involving all three characters; Megan, Katherine/Angel and Charlie/Devil. This also included the dialogue in all three scenes. This took some time as Felixstowe was very busy that day so we had to stop recording whenever someone passed by. We also had a lot of trouble with wind affecting the sound quality of all the scenes

2:00 – Finish filming and return back to school to upload the scenes onto the computer ready for editing.

Film Sources

Our film has a strong female cast who dominate the film and lead the narrative throughout. We also have a lack of male character within our film with the only male being shown for a brief second in one shot. From an audience’s perspective the main character Megan is an unlikely heroine for a film due to the narrative and context she is seen is. She may come across as an antagonist due to her criminal activities and will most likely be seen as a villain than as a good hearted character. It is unusual for films to have a singular female villain who is also the main character.

This has only been seen in a few blockbusters such as Adrian Lyne’s 1987 classic ‘Fatal Attraction’ starring Glenn Close and Robert Reiner’s 1990 thriller ‘Misery’ starring Kathy Bates.
We also kept to the generic codes and conventions of a psychological thriller by keeping the identity of our main character Megan somewhat of a secret until 2 minutes into the film. At the beginning of the film we often had shots that cut off some of Megan's head or only showed her in a profile position. This mystery kept the audience in suspense, as did the use of extreme close ups when Megan was packing the duffel bag. This left the audience wondering why she was packing the certain items and what she was planning on doing with them. This suspense was kept throughout the entire film in the hopes of the ending being a surprise to the audience.

Distribution

Our film would most likely be distributed at a Film Festival due to the artistic style of filming. This would be the best place to showcase our filming talents to an audience. However, since the aim of our film is to raise awareness on the topic of mental health, it could also be a good idea to distribute it over the internet on websites such as ‘Youtube’ to reach a wider audience.