4 Hour Film Challenge

Task Brief and Planning

The criteria we were given for the 4 hour film challenge was as shown above (left). It gave us an outline of the basic features we had to include and from that we developed our ideas in the planning session and came up with our main theme/idea to base our film around. 

In total we spent about 30 minutes planning, 1 hour filming and 1 hour and 30 minutes to edit which brought our total of time spent on the task at around 3 hours/3 hours 3o minutes.  

On the right is the plan we put together to organise our ideas and decide what we wanted to achieve as a group. Our final concept was surrounding the use of windows to portray the theme of isolation and a sense of being trapped inside and observing the world from this perspective. We also played around with the idea that the "individual" behind the camera is a ghost who is stuck in the past, living through nostalgia and cannot move on from this state which will be reflected by our choice of music. 

In order to incorporate a range of camera and lighting techniques we will make sure to include examples of both high key and low key lighting to reflect the highs and lows of the individual as they reflect on their past.

Evaluation 

I think our film was relatively successful in sticking to the plan and reflecting the story we wanted to tell through the shots that we filmed. In particular I think we used good examples of both low key and high key lighting which represent the tone of the film and the themes of entrapment and the ups and downs an individual may experience in their own mind, as we wanted to be able to demonstrate the individual's entrapment both physically and mentally. 

The use of vintage/retro jazz music playing throughout the film a nostalgic feel to the film which could be interpreted in a number of ways such as that the film was filmed in the past or perhaps that the individual is more mature and therefore when they are reflecting on their memories this is the music that they associate it with. I think the vintage/retro feel of the music definitely reinforces the sense of reflection on something in the past whilst also adding an eerie tone because it is not necessarily a comforting sound to someone who isn't familiar with the song because they can't relate to it on a personal level like the individual in the film does. The use of windows is effective in this sense because it acts as a symbol of their inability to interact with the world around them and the isolation that comes with that realisation. 

To improve our film I believe we could have developed even further on the lines of entrapment for instance we could have shown a fist thumping on the window or pushing at the window to actually physically show the individual attempting to escape but being unable to. This would have further developed the reasoning behind why the individual is trapped if we are exposed to the force that is preventing them from being free. We could have even shown the individual through the use of shadows or even playing around with different angles such as low angle which would still keep the identity of the individual anonymous because I think the fact that the identity of the individual is not revealed keeps the film's eerie tone. 

Another thing that we could have improved on is the use of sound because there isn't any other sounds other than the music that is playing throughout the film. I think if we switched between diegetic and non-diegetic sounds it could have added an interesting element to the film through the use of sounds like footsteps or voices it would make it more difficult to distinguish what sounds are real and what sounds are not. 

During editing we did have to use the "warp stabiliser" tool as some of the footage was a bit shaky due to not having  access to a trip-pod on the day of filming. However, I don't think this affected the overall appearance of the film and the effects such as overlaying other clips and playing around with the opacity added a more interesting element to the appearance of the film. In the future we could also further our use of editing techniques to see what different techniques we could use to effectively illustrate camera and lighting techniques.