Graveyard
Productions
Harvey Gough - AS Media
Evaluation of Preliminary Project
Despite the short time frame we were given, in which to complete our preliminary project, I feel that the extract has turned out quite well. However, there are a few sections which needed a little more time, in order to make it as good as it could have been. I am particularly proud of the first section with the character approaching the music room, to the tune of 'Gary Jules - Mad World' on the piano. This gave the piece a calm, yet tense atmosphere, which was emphasised by the cross-cutting to the piano player, who is given a mysterious persona, with no singe shot of his face.
However, I am not so happy with the way the piece ends. There are a number of problems here, including the sudden stopping of the piano music, which we included to show how the piano player quickly stops playing, upon the arrival of the other character. The last 10 seconds seem very rushed to an outside viewer and it could have been slightly extended, to make it more ominous and provide some dramatic tension. There are also a few shots which are slightly out of focus. Whereas the first shot, which is out of focus, was a conscious decision on our part, there is at least one more out of focus shot, which was a mistake on our part. This is clearly something we will have to work on in our final piece, in order to make it as professional as possible.
There are a number of shots within our extract which I am particularly proud of. This shot on the right is one of my favourite shots in the piece. It works really well to emphasise the hurry this character is in, as well as bringing out the tension in the extract. We achieved this bird's eye view by placing the camera on a tripod at the top of a set of stairs, which passes over this set of doors. Whereas, originally the group was unsure about how the shot would turn out when George (Our cameraman) began filming, however the shot is possibly the most professional in the sequence.
This is another shot which I particularly like. This is a shadowy figure (Played by me), playing the piano, which acts as the non-diagetic sound to go with the other clips of the character walking towards the piano. This is a high-angle shot from behind, with specific emphasis on the low-key lighting. This was just one of a number of shots we used to tease the character to the audience, without showing his face. This, along with the other shots we used for the piano man, two of which are featured at the bottom of the page, were very effective in my opinion. However, the reveal of the character's face at the end did seem a bit underhwhelming and sudden. We could have slowed down this reveal, in order to add tension to the scene.
On the whole, I think this piece was fairly successful, and created tension through camera effects as well as editing and mise-en-scene. I do think it ended fairly abruptly and the sound effects could be more finely tuned. However, I hope these issues will not be present in the final extract, due to a longer time frame, in which to create it. Overall, this acted as a good taster of what's to come and allowed us to practice with different techniques, in order to prepare for our final piece.