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How we will make our short film look professional

There are some common errors that many amateur filmmakers make when shooting and editing their films which affects the overall quality. If the filmmaking process is not undergone in a professional, high-quality manner, our short film would look more like a video. Hence, we decided to research some ways that amateur film production can be made to look professional without purchasing expensive equipment.

The more focused shot on the right looks far more professional.

Focus

This is a vital technique for effective cinematography. Changing the depth of focus allows one part of a shot to be blurred while the rest is in focus, as seen in the picture on the right. This technique can have a variety of effects:

• It directs the viewer’s attention to a particular part of a shot. When something is strategically placed out of focus, the viewer doesn’t pay attention to them. Viewers focus on the part of the image that’s in focus.
• It reduces distraction in the background, which can be a significant issue. Thankfully, it can be controlled via use of depth of field.
• It allows a shot to look richer and more cinematic.

Colour Correction

This is a method of altering the colour of a shot to create a specific effect. For example, shot may be editing to have more of a blue tint to it, which creates a cold unfriendly atmosphere, whereas a slightly orange tint would usually have the opposite effect. Colour correction can also be used to salvage a shot that contained lighting errors. Hence, this will be invaluable for ensuring a professional feel to our film.

The top image shows the original shot, the bottom shows the same shot after colour correction has taken place.

Lighting

Lighting plays an important part in creating the atmosphere in a film. The amount of light and the direction of the light source can give meaning to the viewer of the film. For example, lighting is used to indicate the time of the day. There are 5 main types of lighting:

• Back Lighting - This is the main light source from behind a character or object. It is used to create a silhouette. The character can be made to look mysterious due to the effect of the shadows. It can create a sense of impending doom and is often used in horror movies.

• Key and Fill Lighting - This is often the main light source in a particular scene. It is usually directed onto the main character. Fill lighting can also be added to soften the effect of shadows.

• Under Lighting - The main light source from below the character. It is often used to disfigure the face, thus, it is common for horror films make use of this technique.

• Top Lighting - This is the main light source from above the character. It is used to remove shadows produced by the key lighting. It can also create the illusion of a bright, sunny day

• Side Lighting - The main light source comes from one side of the screen. It is used to light one side of the character’s face and produces shadows across the set, creating a sense of mystery.

Film lighting intro from Andy Wallis

Film lighting, light and colour part 2 from Andy Wallis

Locations

The first half of the short film will take place in a hospital setting. In order to replicate the appearance of a hospital, we will be filming within our college infirmary to create verisimilitude throughout the scenes. The setting includes hospital iconography such as plain white walls and medical equipment. It also includes props such as hospital beds and curtains; contributing to the realism of the film. Setting will also be established through the use of costume and props in regards to the Doctor. Through this setting the audience is automatically aware of the important fact that Lily has been hurt.

The Doctor's death within Lily's vision will occur in an office setting. To replicate this we will use an office within our college and ensure it is clear from  college newsletters and signs as this would cause the scene to look unrealistic and amateur. Props will also be added to strengthen the verisimilitude of the setting; mug, stationary,  hospital files. By adding props to the office setting it can be clearly defined as a Doctor's office within a hospital.

A short clip will focus on protagonist Lily travelling to her home with Brett. This will take place within a quiet street to avoid unwanted sounds. It will also feature shots of the characters entering the home. Setting is not key within this sequence as it will only be very short, elliptical editing will be used.

The left photo shows Lily and Brett's garden. The right shows the door to their house.

Following previous scenes the rest of the film will occur within a family home. The warm, domestic setting influences the audience to believe that the two characters were a content couple prior to Lily's accident and her psychological trouble. The homely setting also creates more tension within the audience as it reveals that danger and death can occur anywhere, no one is safe.

From left to right, these images show Lily and Brett's living room, settee, dining room, kitchen and knife holder.

The two images showing Lily and Brett's garden will only be seen briefly in the film itself. Specifically, they will be seen when the couple arrive home, with a shot from within the house showing the door open; the garden being visible only for a short interval. The living room setting will be used when Brett confronts Lily about her hysteria. She will be sat on the settee, with Brett stood in the doorway. The television may also be on. The above photos of the living room have rather cheery, high-key lighting (due to the flash from the camera), however in the film itself, it will be dark and sombre to reflect the mood of the aforementioned scene. The dining room and kitchen are connected together, and will be the most frequently used setting in the film (in that they will have the most screen time). The setting will be first seen when Lily and Brett are having breakfast, which is also when Lily hears the radio report that triggers her downward spiral into hysteria and delusion. In this same scene, Brett attempts to comfort Lily, resulting in the vision in which she sees herself killing him. The setting reappears again later in the film after Brett confronts Lily, and the latter then storms into the kitchen, only to attack the former with a knife from the knife rack before being calmed. It also appears on the final shot of the film, where the knife is either missing or replaced (depending on the ending we decide to use).

Influences on our film:

In order to establish a professional looking short, we researched into popular films. An example of this is Carrie (Director Kimberly Peirce, 2013):

Carrie follows the story of a telekinetic outcast.

The cinematography within Carrie provided inspiration in regards to our film. Within our plot the main protagonist Lily travels with her boyfriend from the hospital to home. Due to the fact our film is a short film we wanted to reduce the time taken to do this but still convey the travel clearly. 'Carrie' uses quick elliptical editing to portray Sue Snell, an ex bully to Carrie, travelling home.Graphic match is also used to ensure continuity is not broken and allow the elliptical editing to flow. The two scenes and settings cut together can be shown below:

 

The elliptical editing showing Sue's travel home.

We gained influence of iconography through the film Scream (Director Wes Craven, 1996):

Scream is a horror series featuring a mystery killer. 'Scream' features memorable iconography of a bloody knife used to determine the films main theme of death. This will be used similarly within 'Lily'.

Ghost face featuring the iconic knife.

The Dead Zone (1983) is a psychological thriller film based on Stephen King's novel of the same name.

It features the main protagonist Johnny Smith (Christopher Walken) waking from a coma following a car accident to realise that he has developed a new psychic ability: he can have visions of the past, present and future via physical contact with people or inanimate objects. Johnny uses his powers to help others, such as aiding the local sheriff George Bannerman (Tom Skerrit) in solving a series of grisly murders. He later learns that not only can he predict the future, he can also change it. The film's villain is a conniving populist politician named Greg Stillson (Martin Sheen). After shaking his hand, Johnny foresees him becoming the president and starting what is presumably World War 3. Johnny therefore attempts to use his ability to assassinate Stillson; as seen in the clip below. Johnny fails to assassinate Stillson, but is successful in ruining his chances in the election, shown when Johnny has a vision of Stillson committing suicide.

Lily's psychic abilities were inspired by that of Johnny Smith; the difference being that Johnny can see visions of the past, present at future, whereas Lily can only foresee people's deaths. Both Lily and Johnny begin to question their own sanity in their respective films, although Johnny arguably less so. While Johnny uses his powers to save lives (as he does so several times), Lily seems somewhat incapable of controlling her powers, and unlike Johnny, her powers seem to be more of a curse than a gift; resulting in nothing aside from misery and hysteria.


The main concept of the film is that following Lily’s accident, she has developed a psychic ability that allows her to foresee the death of anyone she touches. Given that her vision of Dr. Walker’s demise came true, she assumes that the same will apply to anyone else that she makes physical contact with. Hence, she starts to develop a fear of death, in that she begins to believe that she is bringing certain death upon anyone she touches. She remains practically doubtless that a death seen in her vision is a certainty of events to come; that the future cannot be changed despite her efforts. A film with a similar concept to this is “Final Destination” (2000), in which the film’s protagonist Alex (Devon Sawa) boards a plane with his classmates on a trip to Paris. While on the plane, he has a premonition that the plane will explode in mid-air, killing everyone on board (seen above). When the events from his vision begin to repeat themselves in reality, he panics and a fight breaks out, leading to a handful of passengers being left behind, namely Alex and his classmates. They then witness the plane exploding moments later. Afterwards, the survivors begin to die one by one through a series of bizarre accidents, Alex attempts to find a way to ‘cheat’ Death's plan before it's too late. Six months later, Alex, and two of his friends travel to Paris to celebrate their survival, believing they have finally cheated Death. However, after one of the trio is crushed by a giant neon sign, they realize that Death's plan is still in action. Hence, both films toy with the idea that death cannot be cheated; that it is inevitable, regardless of what is done to prevent it.

Questionnaire Results

Click here to see the results to our online audience questionnaire.

Analysis of Audience Questionnaire Results

Audience Questionnaire Results Analysis from RossWalker098

Title Sequence (Storyboard)

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