A Reworked Shot of the feet as the actress gets out of bed

At first we found that this shot was quite effective and gave us a good feel of the surroundings. But something was wrong as it did not look right, the lighting was a little dark and the way Steph puts her feet on the ground looks really posed in the way that someone in her situation wouldn’t normally get out of bed like that. This shot would have emphasized her movement out of bed and also show the audience the state of the room she is in, it creates suspense as you are not quite sure what the purpose of the shot is for.

I t was interesting to see what we finally shot after our planning as it differed quite a bit. We made the lighting a bit darker so its more apparent that it is night time and made her feet touch the floor in a more unplanned way. We felt that this shot was also a good waypoint to start our slightly more upbeat sequence of music as it would match her pattern of movement after getting out of bed. This worked well as it really helped to build up tension leading to the next shots. There was no camera movement involved as the shot was to plainly focus on the movement of the actress.

I think in the end we created a very effective shot which helped to hold the shots in one sequence very nicely, its purpose was for continuity and it worked well in making the sequence more enjoyable to watch.

Zen

Audience Feedback

As a group we organised a screening of Retribution in order to gain some audience feedback which would help us to analyse the effectiveness of our opening in portraying the plot, the characters & their relationships, the institutional identity and the themes.

Below is a summary of the feedback we recieved from twenty people.

Age:
The age of the people who gave us feedback ranged from 11-17

Gender:
Male: 7
Female: 13

Where do you think the film opening was made?
America: 0 Britain: 20 Europe: 0

Do you think this film is made by a more commercial company or an independent company and why?
Independent: 14 'looks low budget' 'less commercial themes'
Commercial: 3 'looks well filmed' 'musics, angles and light make it look more professional'
No answer/didn't know: 3

Who do you think it’s suitable for/ targeted at (age, gender, tastes, interests etc)?
Answers ranged from 15-25
Majority was both genders
Tastes and interests didn't seem to really matter

What genre do you think this film is and what leads you to this decision? E.g. Action Adventure, Comedy etc.
Thriller: 14 'the music' 'cliffhanger at end' 'tension' 'dark'
Horror: 2 'it looks like the girl will die' 'tension' 'dark'
Mystery: 2 'the music and you can't see much of the guy' 'tension'
Action: 2 'the girl is smoking and seems rebellious'


Can you identify the characters you have seen (who they are, the role they play, the relationship between them etc)
'Main female - damsel in distress'
'Both know each other'
'He is a Stalker'
'He is following the girl for revenge'
'He is a Killer'

Please describe what happens in the sequence
'Girl comes home from a party, has a cigarette after being woken up, there is a guy in her house who waits for her until she goes to the bathroom'
'drunk woman goes home, leaves the door open and the guy gets in'
'a woman comes home drunk, there is a man in her house'
'woman goes home, leaves the door open, goes to bed, gets woken up by friend needing help, goes to wash face, but doesn't get out of bathroom due to killer'

What do you think this film is actually about? What themes does it include? E.g. revenge, stalking, gang violence etc
revenge, stalking, murder, love, kidnap, voyeurism, gang violence

Do you think the opening sequence works in introducing the characters, the genre, the story?
'introduces the victim well'
'yes all'
yes, cliffhanger, but still informative'
'yes, gives a good insight without giving away too much of the characters'
'not introducing the characters but everything else'
'story behind why he is following her could be clearer'

What, in your opinion, works particularly well in this opening?
'music is timed perfectly for tension'
'the variation in shots and angles is good'
'the camera work from the killers point of view'
'the man being hidden'
'the colour balances'
'flash of man when he enters house'

What, in your opinion, could be improved?
'cliffhanger was a bit of an anti-climax'
'less movement of the camera would be more dramatic'
'could be lighter'

Would you want to watch the rest of the film, based on what you’ve seen so far? And why?
'yes it sets up the story well and gets the audience interested'
'yes to find out about their relationship'
'no, i don't feel any empathy for the character'
'yes due to the suspense created'

Can you rate this opening sequence out of 10?
We took an average of all of the marks out of 10 and this is our overall mark: 8.5

Stephanie

An example of a shot that needed reworking: The pan on the stairs

Originally we planned to have the camera in the corner of the stairwell and have a pan beginning on the open door and moving up looking through the banisters of the stairs, with the girl walking along the landing and the pan stopping on the bathroom door as the girl walks into the bathroom. This shot was going to re-iterate the fact that the front door was left open and create suspense.

During the test shot the shot worked (you can see a clip of this below). However when we got to the actual shoot, we had changed our idea slightly and decided to include the fact that you see a close-up of the girl dropping her keys and you see the front door open again. We felt that it was too obvious to go again to the front door and that this shot would detract from suspense and make it a bit too obvious that something was going to happen. We also had added shots of footsteps on the stairs and the man's hand on the banisters, so we decided to edit the shot slightly to have it starting already on the floor level through the banisters (to create a frame within a frame) which would center the audience's attention on the footsteps and also create tension. The camera would then pan from right to left following the girls movement until she went into the bathroom.

Test Shot:


Final Shot Used:



We were pleased with how the shot turned out in the actual shoot and definitely within the sequence this edited version of the shoot looks much more effective. It also didn't take very long to take the changed shot as it was basically a cropped version of the previous shot which was longer.

Stephanie

DVD Cover-- Evaluation and Production Process

Initial Ideas:

First: as a group majority it seemed we were definately leaning towards this one.

Set in a street at night:

Long shot, low angle of a man standing...

In front of a car, headlights on..




...Silhouetted against the lights.



Pros of this idea: If carried off successfully, it has the potential to be really striking and appropriate to the themes and genre of the 'film' as a whole, divulging some of these themes to the target audience while maintaining a strong sense of enigma. Questions the audience may be asking at this point are; who is this man? what does he do/what part does he play in this film?

Cons of this idea: It could be very tricky to produce this cover shot successfully as we would have to organise someone with a car to remain stationary in the road while we shoot, and even then the connotations associated with the type and appearance of the car could adverselyaffect the overall impression given to our target audience about our film through our DVD cover. A people carrier would have completely different connotations to a Jaguar, for example.
Finding a street that looked appropriate to be found in a thriller- one that has a sense of danger, or emptyness or even a clean-cut 'ideal' suburban street, perhaps? Even the clothes and stature of the man, though he is sillhouetted, would help to contribute to the huge quantity and range of factors that we would need to carefully consider for this shot, and could make the shot look really amateur if they go wrong.


Idea 2: I thought that perhaps this idea was quite ambituous, and although it would be amazing if it went exactly as we planned, there were too many factors to think about for it to be successful and in a reasonably short time frame. I thought that if this shot didn't appear realistic then perhaps a simple close up shot of a man's face, maybe smoking a cigarette, with his face heavily shadowed could be effective.

[WE PICKED THIS IDEA]

Shoot: Steph held the pag light with the windows narrowed so that the light was very low key, and I worked the camera, and we converted it to greyscale using photoshop afterwards.



--------------------------------



Here's the finished DVD cover again:




Positive:

• The text of the title is very strong and helps to set up the identity and genre of the film.


• I think the two main images, particularly the one on the front, are quite strong. The shadows and enigma (especially the way the shot is cropped to conceal his eyes) of this shot are in line with typical thriller conventions and themes.


• I think that the simpicity of this cover is very effective, and it looks rather classic and striking.

Negative:

• The text of the blurb is cramped vertically, and some of the text is slightly overlapping, which looks a little messy.


• Although it is somewhat enigmatic, simple and striking, I believe it is a little too plain. It was not our original intention (see below) to have only one shot on the front cover and so much space above it. The originally idea of having two shots on the front cover, if we had pulled it off succesfully, may have been more effective.


• Also, as this is now the only picture on the front cover, it could be setting up false expectations for the audience. I think it now could connote a more ganster-thriller than we intended it to, due to the typical 'mafia boss smoking with shadows on his face' iconography.
  

-Angela x

Example shots that needed to be re-worked

We originally planned to do this:
The first shot set inside the girl's room (the pan from the glass of ater to the open sachet of Alka-seltzers) was originally intended to be a long, smooth opening [scene-setting] pan/track, with the camera moving from the glass to the Alka-seltzers, and then tracking smoothly forward to the framing seen in the actual following shot (of the cigarette packet in the foreground).

However, this happened during the test shot:
We tried to achieve this by mounting the tripod on a skateboard, sliding the skateboard along the floor. However, as moving it in a 'curvy' direction in order to manoevre around the table and towards the bedside cabinet was difficult and compromised the smoothness of the shot, we decided to instead use a pan from the glass of water to the Alka-seltzers [the camera being mounted on the skateboard and stationary at this point], and then to move the skateboard forward in a straight line towards the cigarette packet, and finally keep the camera stationary with the cigarette packet in the foreground of the shot and have her dragging it out of shot.

We also tried to use a 'DIY steadycam'; the camera was mounted on the tripod and we held the tripod at the top and bottom [in a similar way to a boom mike] and moved the camera free-hand, in order to create a somewhat smooth motion through the weight of the tripod. This didn't work, however, as I think the camera was too close to/the framing was too tight on the 3 foreground items [glass, Alka-seltzer packet and cigarette packet], and so any small jerking or shaking movements showed up very clearly and made the shot actually look handheld; not what we intended.


Was this successful?
This worked better, but took a long time to set up and practise. Also, on being able to more closely review the shots during the capturing process we discovered that no takes of this shot were smooth throughout that also had the correct framing.



For the final sequence we did this:
As you can see we decided to put the beginning of one take and the end of another take of the same shot together. We also used a dissolve to give the impression that she had been on the phone for some period of time and emphasise the slow pace of this scene. It was also effective at preventing the cut between the shots look like such a jump.

Angela x

Finished Opening Sequence for Retribution

Below is our finished opening sequence for Retribution. Any feedback would be much appreciated.



Stephanie

Final Cover and Blurb for Retribution

This is the final version of our DVD cover for our opening sequence. I hope you like it. Any feedback would be much appreciated. Just leave a comment.




Blurb:
‘Retribution’ is one of the most exciting British thrillers of recent times. Directed by Angela Yaz it tells the tale of Zak Hayton (Joshua Dean – ‘Archie’), released from prison after being framed for the murder of the wife of Detective Trent (introducing Henry Carter). In a bid to avenge the past, Zak begins his dark and chilling venture to force his enemy to face the repercussions of his actions. As events move towards a violent climax, Evie (Stephanie Miller – ‘Starling Manor’), Trent’s daughter - a troubled young woman already touched by tragedy, becomes a pawn in their game, and Zak finds his feelings towards her are compromised when he unwittingly gets too close. We follow Zak along this journey of regret, uncertainty and ultimately redemption, climaxing in an electrifying twist which will make you re-evaluate the power of human weakness.

Stephanie