First Draft of Film Opening

With the first draft of my team’s film opening complete, this blog will discuss my contribution to the film opening, what was good about it, and what could have been done better or differently. To summarize, I have been the cameraman for most of the shots in the film, and a background character for some other shots.

https://youtu.be/eBuf74v4QW8 

To start with, the very first shot introduced two girls taking an afternoon jog in a park. My job was to apply my skills of camerawork to display a medium full shot (shot size) combined with a three shot (framing) at shoulder level (angle). The movement is a trucking shot because the camera follows the two runners in a straight line. What could have been better about this revolves around the movement of the camera. I should have been more stable with the camera, as shown in the video, I was shaking the camera too much. The second shot consists of an introduction to the third character, Kayla, and the names of the first two runners, Sarah (runner in blue) and Paige (runner in grey). The camera films and over the shoulder shot which was static, or still, with a three shot along with a medium full shot. This shot was decent, and I cannot see any way to better the way in which this shot was filmed/edited.

After the transition from the second shot to the text and black background, there lies another transition to the third shot. This shot includes the three girls having a conversation about things they like when Kayla mentions dissecting animals. The shot was also a medium full shot, at shoulder level, combined with a three shot, using a trucking movement. The shot cuts straight to the fourth shot, consisting of the same thing, only showing the runners faces instead of their backs, as Sarah and Paige swing their heads to look at Kayla. The trucking switches to static and then the fifth shot starts. When this shot starts, Sarah and Paige have switched positions on the filming set and look awfully confused and concerned. The shot sizes, angles and framing remain the same until Kayla mentions dissecting humans as well. The camera is now at a cowboy angle and the framing becomes a two shot as Sarah is behind Kayla due to the position of the camera. The next shot is a wide shot, an insert shot of a duck swimming in the nearby lake and a shoulder level shot as the camera pans from the duck to the three friends in the same position, where the shot size, angle and framing remain the same as previous shots. The next shot has Sarah saying she needs to use the bathroom at a shoulder level, medium close-up single shot and the following has Kayla saying she will go get water from her car with the same shot size, angle, and framing. The next shot has Paige stating that she will be sitting on a nearby bench whilst waiting for the two to come back, again, with the same elements. What could have been better was that Kayla’s actor would stop looking at the camera so many times, the reason for this is because the character breaks the fourth wall with no context or explanation.

After another transition from the previous shot to text, the film opening cuts to Kayla repeating the fact that she enjoys dissecting humans as she sneaks up on Paige, who is distracted and sitting with her back turned to the camera. The camera is at shoulder level, combined with a medium full two shot and a trucking movement. What was slightly unrealistic was that Paige would have heard Kayla repeating her sentence and sneaking up on her because of all the dry leaves. The final draft, I hope, will be more realistic. The next shot is the same, but Kayla stops walking and holds a knife to Paige’s neck. Paige lets out a gasp before the camera cuts to the next shot. This is where Sarah comes out of the bathroom only to find no one on said benches with a splatter of "blood" on the bench instead. The first shot was a single + medium close-up shot at eye level combined with a trucking shot. The next was a POV shot, obviously at eye level, and a wide shot combined with a trucking shot. The following shot is a continuation of the previous shot, but becomes an insert shot and during the recording, forms from a trucking POV shot to a static POV shot. In this shot, it was intended that I was to be a fourth character helping to find Paige and Kayla, but those shots were not properly loading into the editing software, so I just appeared as a background character of the insert shot with the blood on the bench. The next shot was also a single, medium full, shoulder-level trucking shot of Sarah calling out for her friends and the last shot I had recorded was of Kayla dragging Paige's body towards the body of water in which the ducks swam in, the lake. The shot was a two shot, at shoulder level with a medium full shot combined with a tilt.

The remaining shots of the film opening were recorded by someone who was helping Kayla's actor and was edited into the film. What should have been fixed was that the credits to the film opening should not have been at the end because it makes the opening looks like a short film. And the previous shot should have had the yelling cut out or edited to not have sound, with Sarah's voice actor doing a voiceover to recreate the sound in the shot. Apart from that, the film was decent and I hope that the final draft will be better.