Mark Scheme for Coursework

Izzi- Rationale

My intentions are to create a tense, start to what would be a terrifying horror film. I aim to instill a feeling uncertainty in the audience, leaving them on edge. I will use a range of depth of shots so that there will be little constancy. In The Haunting dead people are framed with canted angles to make the death look supernatural. I intend to replicate this. I intend to film Point Of View shots from the ghost to draw a relationship between the audience and the ghost; only the audience can see him.   94 words

Merry and Shannon final film

Marking of our final film

Merry's Comments:

I think my film deserves a grade of 5 because I think eventually the film worked well, and we have produced a good piece of work, however our planning was not as good as it should have been, therefore it was difficult for us to follow a shot list and script.

Mark for Merry as Editor: by Merry, I think as an editor, I would get a mark of 5 also because as I was acting in the film as well, i didn't have as much input into the shots as i should have and therefore it was more difficult for me to edit, however overall I think the editing looks good.

Mark for Shannon as Cinematographer:




Marking my role in relation to the mark scheme

Merry Editor- Total 29/30

A    Planning and Research       8/10
I think my planning was well carried out, I did a lot of research into films and looked at how they were edited and how the shot types worked with this. Examples of these films were the Orphanage and the Sixth Sense, I looked for many conventions of a horror films in these.  I also edited a practice ghost film to understand how the process worked.

C    Professional and Technical Skills    6/10
I think I made good use of the resources and technology which were available to me, however I think my organisational skills let me down. I do think that I made good use of the time I had to edit the film and used the programs effectively and to a good standard.

D   Effective Use of Film Language    8/10
I think because of the research we did before making our film, I knew how horror films are edited and what types of shots were commonly used (Lots of close ups, fast cuts), therefore I think that my use of film language is effective and good.

E    Originality and Creativity   7/10
I think that I knew the conventions of the horror film and therefore my originality was not as much as it would have been if perhaps I had challenged the conventions, however given the time frame I think we were sensible to stick to these conventions.



Merry's Rationale:

Film title is the portrayal of a young girl with an inquisitive mind; she enters a house and encounters a lot of mysterious and unexplainable things inside. The film's intent was to stick closely to the conventions of a ghost film and having done extensive research it was clear that a young, naive girl was necessary to achieve my intentions of continuing the traditional aspects of a horror film. Secondly, I have realized that editing has a huge impact on the pace and tension of a horror film; I made it my intention to achieve this through careful planning and imaginative shot types. 


Shannon's Rationale:

Film

 Rationale; The film follows an inquisitive young girl who enters a house in which strange things begin to happen. As cinematographer the idea was to stick rather strictly to the stereotypical conventions of a horror film and so we thought it would be best for the main character to be a young innocent looking girl. To follow this innocent look, as is seen in many horror films I intend to film some shots from a high angle to reinforce this innocence.

I think my film deserves a grade 5 as the overall result has worked well and we have produced a fairly good short film however, as it is a short film it is difficult to make the story line really interesting and so the whole film may not be that interesting to watch.

I think my role as cinematographer deserves a 5 or a 6 as most shots I believe are framed well and are from and angle or point of view to have the highest effect whether to bring us emotionally to the character or to make the audience scared. The composition and framing of most shots I think are also mostly quite well framed to show what we wanted to show and to hide what we wanted to hide. However, some of the shots could be shot so they were more interesting, from different angles or more close-ups.

Planning and Research. I think that I planned and researched well. In the lead up to making the film I studied a lot of films similar to the conventions we wanted to follow in our film such as the sixth sense and the orphanage. In these films I researched the different camera angles and which ones of these seemed most prominent and most effective in the films and tried to transfer these into our film. This picture shown below is an example of one of the shots I really liked in the film 'The Orphanage'. I really like the composition and framing in this shot as the use of the framing here includes the walls and emphasises the innocence of the little boy by making him look so small and helpless.

I also shot some scenes for another horror movie to practice the different hot types needed. 8/10

Professional and technical skills. I think I had quite good use of technical skills. I used the skills we had previously been taught as cinematographer, the different shots we can use with the camera, focusing the camera correctly, zooming in and focusing on aspects in the background the emphasis certain aspects of the shot. 7/10

Effective use of film language. I think as I researched a lot of horror movies before making our film I knew a lot of the shot types that were often used in horror films ( lots of close-ups and tightly framed shots) and so I think the film does have effective use of film language however it is not scary enough to have full use of film language. 7/10

Originality and creativity.

I think there are enough different shots that also stick to the conventions to make the film original. However, for the film to be more original the conventions of a horror film would need to be challenged more however I think with the time frame and resources the film is quite original with the use of different shots that hold the attention of the audience.8/10

Self Marking of Coursework Izzi

I would give the film probably a 5 because I think as a film it on the whole it works pretty well; the mise en scene is pretty good (mainly the house is a good location) and I think the little boy looks quite good. However the story line isn't particularly exciting, so I don't think it warrants more than a 5.

I would give my role as cinematographer about a 5 because I think the shots are generally quite well framed and there is definitely a variety of shots, however they good definitely be better framed and the lighting wasn't always that good. From time to time the camera also moved a bit.

Self evaluating in relation to the mark scheme


A Planning and research  7/10

I think that I did plan well, I took control over the lighting and the shot types; ensuring that all planning sheets were completed with lots of thought and consideration put into them. My main influences in shots were from The Haunting where I got inspiration for the shots of the house and the shots of the dead man. I tried to almost imitate the long corridor shots from  The Orphanage and the other shots of the child threat. However I don;t think that the is an example of excellent planning and research.

C Professional and technical skills 8/10

I think that my shots were actually quite shoot. They were interesting and there was quite a wide range of well framed shots. A variety of close ups, long shots and different angles. I used initiative in not using a dolly for tracking shots as it was just impractical in my setting. I made the most of my location in the was that there were good shots in mirrors, and through windows, made use of long corridors. However the lighting wasn't always great in the shots and the camera sometimes moved. sometimes body parts were chopped off.

D Effective use of film language 7/10

I think that it does look like a horror film on the whole, the house is large with lots of windows and angles which can give it quite a dark edge. The little boy with his blonde hair, blue eyes and in his school uniform i think looks really good in the role. However I think that it's not quite dark or scary enough to be a horror film.

E Originality and creativity 8/10

I think that in fact the shots do hold the attention of the audience, and although the film isn't exactly scary, the shots do create a lot of tension. The shots are diverse and original I think, however the originality is most definitely limited; it's not mind blowing.

overall 30/40

Izzi Final Film

This is my final film (without title sequences)

izzi-comments from others on film

the rest of the class commented on the first full edit of the film- the main thing that came up were some continuity problems and the whole film is too light. i will revise the shots that don't follow continuity, and i am going to darken to whole thing- i didn't want to shoot it too dark, so that's a good idea. 

izzi coursework update

So far I have shot the whole film (with the exception of the part that i filmed over) I have edited the first scene. when the camera zooms into the man, i will show his reaction with a face on shot which will involve the audience more than side profile.
In the next three weeks i will try to film the part i filmed over and continue with editing the second part that i more recently shot. I have learned a lot about continuity- making sure all the actors are wearing the right cloths, and not taping over. also shot lengths i am learning, that a variation is key. Also organisation is vital Involving the audience is best done from face on camera, but a range is important. I haven't yet started on the music.