Preliminary Task

Backstage

For our preliminary production, we were tasked with creating a short film, only around a minute long in the genre of a horror or  - with the general aim of creating discomfort/tension. I created this with 2 other members of my media class. 

Firstly, we had to find a location that we felt would create the appropriate feelings for the audience. This location ended up being behind our school stage, consequently, this inspired our films name - 'Backstage'. We then proceeded to build up our story around the location and it was very much a working progress, "thinking on the spot" style. Consequently, this means that the storyline of it is a little rushed together and quite generic.

The camerawork is pretty basic, as it is only handheld. This means that the audience is seeing what the character is - this works for the storyline that we developed as it is about friends who decide to scare each other when exploring a creepy setting, and so made it all more realistic. We didn't shoot it continuously, instead it is all individual - and this was largely due to the fact that we didn't have an set idea of what to shoot. After research, we also found that the handheld style was also a convention of the horror genre.

We used a range of techniques when filming. Examples of these are; whip pan - this was used to follow the characters eye line and tracking - to follow the characters movement. We also had to overcome problems with not being able to film and use props and consequently, in some shots the camera is on a tripod and then picked up again to give the illusion of it still being handheld. Once we had finished filming, we then had to edit all the different frames and bring it all together. When doing this, we put each frame into chronological order so it would make sense and flow together, and then proceeded to watch it through so we knew what to perfect. As a result, we found that our 'ghost' was not actually as visible on camera as it was in real life. This lead us to place a light green filter over each time she was present to make her more visible to the audience.  

Lastly, to finish the film, we placed sound over the top. Due to most of the sound coming for the dialogue, this wasn't a particularly long process. Sound was paired over the green frames to emphasise the 'ghosts' presence to the audience, and it also meant that they were almost directed on how they should feel. We also played around with silence, as it can create just as much tension, and paired this with a heartbeat that would cut quickly to the silence.

Was it effective?

The overall effect of the film is somewhat basic. It doesn't really create a huge amount of fear, but rather anticipation for what is going to happen. I think this is largely due to the fact that much of it was made up with no real sense of direction that we wanted it to go in. However, as we had never tried creating something like this before, it does tell the story well even though it is a relatively simple narrative. This is because we added small hints about backstories, but didn't go into them, so the audience were vaguely aware that something bad has happened before.  

I personally do not want to re - create this handheld story look for my own short film. This is because it can limit what can be done that would compliment that type of camerawork. Additionally, I ideally want to make a different kind of story altogether that falls into a different sub - genre, and so something with ghosts is not what I am aiming to make.