Depict: Production Evaluation

Hello,
Here is the video of our finished production followed by an evaluation of the camerawork, mise-en-scene, editing and soundwork.




The camerawork on the production is generally good and showcases a wide range of different shots such as medium, POV and over the shoulder shots. Our first scene features a close up shot of our detective's (Jade Medley) face with a blind effect over her face. This is to symbolise that she is trapped. She is holding a glass of whisky and looking out of the window. The soundtrack fades in. The soundtrack was created by myself and has an old film noir undertone featuring a plucked guitar bass mixed with a more modern bass made from a square wave layered with a skewed saw wave with three times chorus. All of the scenes are edited to make it look like an old film noir to do this we added a black and white effect followed by a colour correction to make the scene look more sepia and give it a slight brown tone, finally we added noise to the clips to add a grainy effect. The next scene shows a stack of papers in a close-up shot. This is the case she is stuck on. There is then a medium shot where the detective leans in to look at the stack of papers. There is a mise-en-scene which shows the detective's desk which has the stack of papers, an old-fashioned telephone and a small collection of empty bottles of different alcoholic drinks. Then a knocking sound effect is layered over the music and person/murderer 1 (Connor Jones) enters. The camera pans to the left with the person as they enter the detective's office and sit at the desk. There is a slight delay with the pan as the tripod we used has slight technical difficulties. There is then a cut to the next scene. This scene is taken as a medium shot showing the stack of papers and the bottles in the corner, almost off-scene. The person then hands a photo over to the detective. There is then another cut to an over the shoulder shot of the detective looking at the photo and then turning it over to reveal the location written on the back. The scene then fades to black and the music crossfades into the next OST.


The second and final scene is the forest scene. The camera fades from black to show a shot of the forest. The camera then pans up from a shot of the forest floor to a normal, standing view of the forest. The second OST fades in from the previous track. I made the second track by making a flute sounding lead and creating an eerie pattern. I then added a bongo roll with a panning effect over the top and a harsh clang which has a stereo-effect delay so that it repeats the clang quieter over and over until it is unheard whilst panning from ear to ear. Then in the background I added a scuttling effect to add some discomfort to the viewer. In the next shot we used a medium shot to capture the detective entering the forest from the innocent park. The symbolism is that there is something dark and evil in the innocence, that not even the innocence is safe. The detective then takes the photo from her pocket and looks at it, checking the location is correct. We then have a long shot of the detective walking into the forest. We had an in-camera sun flare effect which shows the viewer that it is sunny and it is day but because of the darkness added in the edit it makes it feel eerie. The scene then cuts to show the detective crouch down, when she moves slightly to the right it reveals a dead body. At this point the music starts to build up. The main four notes begin to repeat over and over at a faster rate fading from a low volume to a high volume. In the background of this are the scuttling noises and hard drum hits. The next shot is a point of view shot of the dead body (Stuart Fulcher). He was made up to look like a freshly killed corpse with make-up and fake blood by Poppy Browne, who also filmed the performance. The scene then cuts to show the detective throw her hands to her head in distress. Then the scene cuts and a rustling is heard in the bushes. The detective stands up and looks around, searching for the noise. There is then a point-of-view shot of murderer 2 (Stuart Fulcher) running through the trees. The detective, having seen, this then begins to run from the murderer through the forest. We decided to use a handheld camera for this shot as having the camera operator running with the camera following the detective gives the shot a lot more motion than if it were filmed on a tripod. The shot itself is a long shot. The next scene is of the camera quickly panning back and forth through the trees at a medium shot. This shot is to symbolise the detective looking, scared, through the trees for her attacker but seeing none. The scene after this ends the music build. The detective walks towards the exit to the woods and a masked assailant (Connor Jones) attacks her. When the hatchet is swung the build ends and a loud boom is heard. The shot is taken at a long distance to show the attacker jump out and the detective get hit. The next shot is of the detective with a wound, the wound also being done by Poppy Browne. The shot features a close-up of the detective's face as her expression goes blank and she falls to the ground, the camera stays steady, allowing the detective to fall out of the frame. The music has fully stopped and the only sound accompanying the final scene is a loud crash. The final shot shows the two murderers casually walking back into the forest. The shot is a long shot, showing the whole body of the murderers and the camera is static. Murderer 1 then turns and lifts the mask to reveal that they are also person 1, from the initial scene. This scene is accompanied by a subtle crash once the mask is removed.