Filming exercise

The Protector

Featuring: Billy Fagg, Rebecca Casey, Sophie Hawkins and Saana Kujala-John

Trouble strikes for students at Robert Clack when the gates are unbolted to welcome a mysterious guest on the search for their next victim. After hours of searching, the guest has their sights set on their prey and pursues them. Who will escape and who will be the unlucky one?

In order to ensure that the audience identifies the 'mysterious guest' (the villain), we used a long shot to show the complete frame which gradually swayed into a close-up. Doing this, allows time to make the character judgement- also, the tracking shot and close-up follow the character's movements to allow the audience to understand their intentions to some extent. The shot successfully remained smooth and steady because we used a dolly to track the character in substitution of rails. Notice how the face remained relatively concealed- this is to maintain the sense of mystery and suspense. However, we could have included an extreme close-up of a clenched fist or weapon to symbolise danger, as danger is what we wanted to audience to assume the character is bringing with them. In order to resolve this, we chose the shrill theme song of Insidious and motion blurring using key frames to make the shot fade in and out for a sense of uncertainty. As a viewer, you are made to feel unsure as to what the villain's motive is just yet.

The use of cross dissolve to fade into every new shot indicated time passing. The villain has entered the building and begins to approach a possible victim (a student) and the plot has been enforced. Again, a tracking shot is lightly used to follow the villain in order to ensure that the attention is mainly on them at all times. Nevertheless, I think that this shot should have involved more emphasised camera shots because the drama is building at that moment in time and so the element of danger should have increased. Perhaps including a point of view or over the shoulder shot of the villain would have accomplished this alongside a panning shot of the victim running to show urgency and with it, vulnerability. Additionally, in the right corner when the tracking shot occurs, a person appears in the background; if timing wasn't an issue, re-filming the action would have resolved the issue. Despite this, the positioning of the shot was effective in showing both characters; the possible victim is fleeing from the scene unaware of the villain who the audience can see, lurking in the darkness. By establishing the two characters, we can gain feelings of angst and empathy for the student who is oblivious to what is about to happen. Following this, we filmed a close up of another possible victim running away to simply show how there are multiple people the villain is able to pursue. The steadiness of the camera is purposely slightly erratic to represent the feel of tension and fear. A point of view shot of the villain would be ideal to include here in another cut to ensure that it is clear that the newly introduced character is also running away for the same reason as the previous character. This also applies to the next shot of a new character running down a flight of stairs. Or rather, the lack of the point of view shot could suggest that the villain is no longer chasing them- this is entirely down to interpretation, but overall, the use of a point of view shot would make it clearer to immediately understand. To display the power dynamics of the story-line, we used a high angle on this character to show that they are defenceless in the eyes of the superior villain.  

Our final shot was successful in representing the climax of the plot; the villain has chosen their victim and captures them in a room at the end of a long corridor. By shooting in a long, empty corridor with little space to escape naturally sets the feel of confinement which makes the audience feel anxious as to what will occur. On the other hand, you could assume that the spacious, unobstructed corridor symbolised escape in a positive light because climbing flights of stairs is clearly more strenuous than simply running. There was an attempt of an establishing shot to make sure that these judgements were in place; however this may have been cut short during editing. We initially blurred the image to reintroduce the sense of uncertainty, which then gradually focused when we came to the realisation that the villain has been lurking in the darkness yet again. By this time, the villain has begun to approach their chosen victim, closing the previous physical distance made by the escapees, limiting the space to just a room. A rolling shot is used when the villain appears which makes them even more indistinguishable than before, they are simply a dark silhouette which can only suggest danger- this is unnerving for the audience. This confinement alongside an awkward rolling shot, followed by a fade to black only suggests that the hunt is over. Shortly after, the title, “The Protector”, pops up on the screen with music that makes the audience jump which suggests that the villain has defeated the victims.

With regards to setting the story-line characters and setting, I think we have achieved an effective short film however many key camera techniques were missed out. These include, a crane shot, tilt, pan, low angle, over the shoulder, point of view (POV) and an extreme close-up. The crane and panning shot could have been used with the victims to emphasise their vulnerability and desperation to escape, whereas tilt, low angle, over the shoulder and POV shots would have worked in favour of the villain’s cunning plan and superiority. Particular areas which would need work include the second and third shots where the significance of them becomes slightly unclear because the characters were not being pursued by the villain, unlike in the first and last shots. Such techniques would have been executed in the shots if we had planned better beforehand and remained consistent with our plans throughout.