Download - Harrys film evalation
Film Evaluation. Harry Blair.
My job in this film was editing. This means I lead on the editing process. Editing is a major part of films as it is what the audience will see which makes it extremely important to be a good editor as editing can be the difference between an amazing film and a poor film.
Before we started thinking of ideas of genre for our film, we watched Enemy of the state, a film about corruption and a lawyer trying to do good, and this inspired us for the idea for my film, which is about three police detectives who are stuck on whether to risk their jobs by attempting to catch a serial killer whilst suspended. I feel the main theme of our film is to do good whenever you can.
I feel that the genre we ended up choosing, Crime Detective, influenced my decision in the editing process. For example, we wouldn’t of used split screen if we were doing a comedy, as the spilt screen increases the intensity of the film. Another example of this is the clock ticking. The clock ticking increases the speed of the footage, and keeps the audience on the edge of their seats as they wonder why is the clock ticking to twelve? Why does it stop at twelve? What happens?
I have helped develop the narrative through editing by using split screens and clever juxtapositions. Also, using colour correction helped create the narrative structure we wanted. For example, when the presumed serial killer made the phone call, the lighting was way to light, which gave the wrong mood and
atmosphere to me whilst watching it, so I used colour correction to make it much darker to give it a scarier, more suspicious feeling. I used some cuts whilst the detectives were talking so I could show the serial killer doing some research on his next victim but kept the sound of the detective talking, to give the idea that the serial killer knew that the detectives were pondering on what to do next.
Whilst filming, the group found out that there were some holes in our original idea, for example, we originally wanted to film in a quiet café, but realised this would be difficult as there are no quiet cafes in the centre of Cambridge, and without this mise en scene our idea had to go to scrap. So we put our heads together and worked out a new idea, which ended up being our final idea. During the filming, we had to change the script as we felt the script was not intense enough, so throughout the film there was many parts of improvisation from our actors.
I wanted the audience to react to my editing in a very exiting manor, I wanted the entire audience to be on the edge of their seats and want to see more and find out how the film ends. I feel with the amount of split screens and impressive editing I might achieve this.
The film starts with the three detectives arguing about the case they are currently inspecting, but as the conversation continues, we learn they have been suspended from misconduct through this case, and the three detectives are debating the pro’s and cons of further investigating the case, therefore risking their jobs. Throughout this conversation the footage cuts to who the audience assume to be the criminal the detectives are investigating. This is used frequently in other crime-‐based films, For example, in 24, there are lots of cuts to the person they are talking about, whilst they are talking about him. As the detectives agree to further investigate the case and risk their jobs, they are seen wondering about what to do next, but seconds later they receive a phone call from the man they assume to be the killer telling them that someone else is dead and they are too late.
This creates many enigmas for the audience. Who is the man on the other end of the phone? What are the detectives going to do next? How did this all start? This keeps the audience on the edge of their seat and forces them to want to watch the rest of the film as they want the answer to those questions. After the phone call is made, we see the main detectives reaction to the current situation, and his reaction is very cowardly, normally in crime films, as soon as the detectives hear about something that’s happened, they jump straight up to go do it, but our detectives reaction was different, he sat there with his mouth open, looking shocked. This gives the audience a different impression of the detective, maybe that phone call was one too much for the detectives.
I feel fro the feedback I have been given, I have done the job of editing well, and played my part in the making of this product to the best of my ability.s