Past Students

Evaluation of the past students work has allowed me to understand what is expected of me, and the final product. Watching the opening scenes several times has made the mistakes noticeable. We were analysing, genre, editing, sound, mise – en – scene etc.. Using these characteristics to work out whether the group had used them correctly to make a worthwhile opening, doing this made the smallest of mistakes that would not be normally noticed seem apparent and could ruin the opening.

Root Cause – This was one of the better thriller openings that was evaluated. I gave the opening a level 4, this is one of the top grades. I chose this because it uses all the main characteristics with some success. They were able to follow the theme of Film Noir making the audience interested and build the tension up in the opening. Camera was used to establish the characters and the setting of the opening. This is was done well getting a good variety of shots allowing us to see the characters from up close to also seeing there clothing that fits Film Noir. There was a good start of the opening for 40seconds allowing the audience to get established with the settings. This is a good period of time as it gives the audience enough time to get to know the setting, characters etc. Good transaction between the shots allowing the opening to flow. There was good diegetic and non diegetic sounds creating the atmosphere of the opening. Mise – en - scene is crucial the group has used it very well, making the audience think they are watching something from the 50’s, where there was only black and white camera’s. Overall the group did very well in producing a good all round opening, also having only one or two mistakes like a continuity error.

Room To Breathe – Then we evaluated an opening that scored a level 3 this means that the group used the characteristics okay but not to there full extent or making some mistakes. Camera was used with not much variety, having the same shots, angles and frames. This made the opening seem very dull making It hard for the audience to become interested, also the panning was jerky showing poor camera skills. The editing has a duel narrative which was good, but the rest where all of the same scene lengths also making the opening seem dull and perhaps boring. Sound was used well with a sound bridge linking the scenes and shots together, this is good as it makes the opening flow however this was not used in the camera or editing. Mise – en – scene is used very well to set the scene. The opening overall is an okay one this is because it tries very hard to do more professional filming they were unable to pull it of producing mistakes which were made very apparent when evaluating.

Unrequited Love – On first view this opening looked very good, but once we began to evaluate it we realised that there were many mistakes made resulting in the opening getting around a level 2/3. This is because they did not keep to the genre of a thriller, making the opening have no purpose. There was a cliché used in the opening. Camera shots where repetitive, making the opening seem dull. Editing the transaction between shots were also repetitive so where the shot lengths this also added to the boring feel of the opening. The editing was very quick also with the typography where the audience was unable to read what was on screen. There was no real variety of sound or mise – en – scene used in the opening. Altogether this made the opening very dull and boring, also with a large amounts of mistakes producing a poor quality production.

From evaluating the past students work I realise that I am going to have to make sure I use all the characteristics well, but crucially make sure that camera, editing, sound and mise – en – scene is perfect throughout the opening. Furthermore I need to keep to the genre of a thriller but not use a cliché. The evaluation process has been very important to me because I now know what the standard is for my group, also what I should look out for when producing my final product.