Location Shots

 This is where we began our film, I wanted to have it out in the open as to explain how the stalker in the film followed the girl home, showing he followed her from a public location. I also used this as the bench was very out in the open, making the girl in our story seem vulnerable and exposed whereas the stalker in the film was hidden away in a forested area. I also wanted to begin out in the open to set the time of day, as opposed to being in a house where the time is rather ambiguous.

 We had some quick cuts of the girl in the movie moving along different streets to depict her going somewhere but without wasting too much time.

 At the end of the sequence where the girl character is walking home, we held the shot longer to suggest the ending of movement and her arrival as she enter the house.

 The Character's bedroom in the film

 The Dining room where the main character rolled a cigarette, eats and stands by the window, where the stalker photographs her.

 The garden in the film was used to reconnect the girl and the boy in the film, the idea is that she comes out here for a cigarette and then forgets to lock the door, allowing the boy access into her house, which is what creates the climax of the film.

Used for the long over the shoulder shot of the stalker, a narrow hallway leading to the girl's bedroom.

Shutters

Connor Mitchell - Reflective analysis

 SHUTTER - REFLECTIVE ANALYSIS - CONNOR MITCHELL
Role(s): Director, Costume and Make-up, Risk Assessment, Location Scout, Producer.

Our film was called ‘Shutter’ it was called this to connect to the actions of one of the characters who is taking photos of another, and because we believed it sounded very ambiguous and unpleasant compared to our first title name ‘Infatuation’ which we thought was too direct. The film is a thriller, we chose this as we thought using camerawork to create suspense would be very interesting and show off what we had learnt within the classroom about directing techniques.

The plot of the movie follows a boy taking photographs of a girl who is smoking, before following her home, where she does her regular activities before going to bed, which is when he sneaks in and takes photographs of her. 

The titles in the movie are very blocky and wide with a French look to them, like the titles of the movie ‘Blue is the Warmest Colour’, which I took as inspiration since it is also shot like our movie. 

We wanted the movie to be speechless as to leave ambiguity, the boy who is photographing her isn’t given a motive which I think makes him much more frightening. We used an over the shoulder shot then pan round to the front of the boy as his introduction into the movie, so first shown from behind to depict his actions of taking photographs but then panning round to his front, showing his face and giving him an identity. 

 We used a high quality SLR camera to photograph the girl, so during the actual opening it would show the images he had taken of her, I took this idea from the television show ‘Skins’ which used this technique to change the interpretation of the photographs taken of her from perverted to artistic and pure, so I hoped to create that here and give the character some 3-dimensionability.

We used quick cuts in the movie to express the female characters movements as she walks home, instead of an awkward cut or a very long take; we just chopped up the footage of her walking to show how far she had gone. When she got home we tried to show her doing very regular things, like reading a comic book, watching a movie and eating. We rarely used a tripod in the movie; we did this to create the almost documentary feel created by directors like Darren Aronofsky. The ‘shaky-cam’ feels very real life so we wanted to implement that into our movie making. 

We had a short jump cut in the garden to represent that something wasn’t right when she was lighting her cigarette, after finishing it she goes inside and stretches, where the main character takes photographs of her. With inspiration from movies like Children of men we had a long following shot of the boy taking photographs of her then moving to the backdoor, entering and then going into her room and taking more photographs of her. The room had low key lighting not only since she was asleep but to represent the possible sinister intentions of the boy. As he takes photographs of her in her bedroom, but just before the movie ends, he moves the camera away from his face and looks down at her. I wanted the sort of ambiguous ending to create suspense and excitement for the next scenes in the movie, which is what the opening of a film should do, create excitement and intrigue. 

We used ambient sound in the movie to make the location more realistic in the field, with a couple recordings I did on site to give the film more realism, but the sound was always slightly reduced as to not be to overwhelming. We used the sounds of a shutter opening and closing on a camera on each photograph to represent that it was currently being taken there and then in the movie. 

In the end I was happy with the product. I believe both characters were realistic, having their own personality, the girl being the ‘every woman’ sort of thing and the boy having this complex infatuation with someone that he doesn’t even know. I think the camera features and sharp editing make the film feel very real and managed to put in the complete opening to a story without making it feel too grand or over the top. The one improvement I’d make would be the middle of the movie, when she is walking home I wish I used parallel editing to show him following her.

Word count: 760

Kieran Owens - Reflective Analysis

Kieran Owens

Role(s): Editor, Producer, Cinematographer and Sound and Music.

Reflective Analysis

The title of my filmed sequence is “ Shutter “ and the genre is thriller. This genre was chosen because we believed it would make for the most interesting plot if done right.  The plot is of a young girl who is unknowingly being followed by a stranger; the stranger is following her from bushes etc. and taking multiple pictures of her using his camera.  The film follows her home just as the strange camera-man does and shows him sneaking into her house, cutting off as he stands over her asleep leaving the ending of the short film ambiguous.

Our aim was to create a feeling of suspense and enigma using camerawork, editing and sound ; for example using the camera that the assailant is carrying allowed for us to use editing to have each picture he takes flash up on screen, it makes the audience wonder what the man is taking the pictures for, why he’s following her. It makes it clear his intention is not that of somebody who was hired to do such a thing by having her do mundane tasks (such as smoking, or just stretching her arms) to make the cameraman seem all the more creepy.

When it came to location, we wanted to use somewhere big and open but at the same time rural looking, this is why we used Hillyfields Park and Connors house for filming, whilst it was open on the field, there was still an urban area in the distance to make it clear she wasn’t out in the middle of nowhere, the reason we wished to make it clear she was in an urban area was to raise more suspense by making her look as average as we could, because it makes it feel as though it could happen to just about anybody, even those watching.

The first micro-feature we prioritized was the camerawork, we wanted to use interesting shots to put more into the shot (such as the shot that starts as an over-the-shoulder shot that slowly transitions to a medium shot from behind the woman, that then slowly pans around to her front.) this gives the audience an idea that the camera man is keeping his distance, and the slow pan around the woman shows him hiding behind her, in bushes.  It shows the woman is oblivious to his presence, raising the tension of the scene. Another use of camerawork used for this purpose is the close-up of the back of the camera-man’s head; the close-up follows the camera-man as he makes his way into an unlocked door of the one he was following, walking quietly through her house and into her room. The reason we used this long lasting shit was to raise the suspense of the scene, it allowed us to have a slow build up as he makes his way through, it makes the audience ask if he’ll be seen by somebody else in the house, if the one he’s following will catch her, until he finally enters her bedroom and makes it clear she’s at his mercy.

The other we tried to focus on was sound; we wanted to make the movie descent into darkness impactful and yet mysterious, leave as much as we could to the imagination allowing for the audience to come up with their own opinions on what was happing whilst using subtly to sway their thoughts to a darker conclusion. An example of this is the first part of the movie, the calm of the birds chirping and the soft winds don’t immediately make one think of danger, this allows people to let their guard down whilst the sequence as a whole slowly becomes darker, as the sun goes down the music becomes creepier and less sound effects are used until nothing but the slow creepy music is playing.

Overall, I think the sequence as a whole went rather well. We managed to meet our aims of using sound, editing and camerawork to create a suspenseful atmosphere that (hopefully) left the audience wanting to know what would come after the sequence. But if I could change one thing it’d be the equipment used, whilst the camera was fine the main issue was the lack of a steadicam, trying to move whilst holding the camera still was a difficult task and it meant multiple shots, trying to find one that wasn't too shaky, though these can be very expensive too.

Word Count: 754

Roles

Connor Mitchell

• Director
• Editor
• Make-up and set design
• Location Scout
• Risk Assessment
• Producer

Kieran Owens

• Co-Editor
• Producer
• Cinematogropher
• Sound and Music

Shutter - Pitch

Shutter 

The story will begin with the unnamed girl sitting on a park bench, smoking a cigarette, relaxing. Then in the distance, the infatuated boy will take photographs and watch her from afar. The story will then continue as the girl walks back home and starts to relax at home, so she does her normal activities, she eats, she reads, she has one more cigarette before getting ready for bed. But in the distance, looking at her whilst she stretches, is the aformentioned stalker. Since the girl forgot to lock the back door, he slowly comes into the house and into her room. He takes photographs of her asleep, and just before the film ends, moves the camera away from his face. 

I gained inspiration for this short opening from the Hitchcock movie 'Rear Window' and an episode of the teenage television drama; 'Skins'. 

 Both have the core element of the story, a man who is obsessed with a girl, and his expression of this is photography, in the beginning at least.

Initial Ideas

Shutter - Initial Ideas

We want to try and make a story revolving around two people and try and avoid dialogue, that I feel is important, since it is only an opening with a two minute running time, I feel like atmosphere and ambiguity will be a key feature to play off, rather than cramming the plot of a blockbuster into that amount of time.

So eventually I came up with the idea of following a day in the life of a girl and the boy who is so obsessed with a her that he follows her, takes photographs of her, then eventually breaks into her house. I want to try and document each character with fair running time and make the movie feel very realistic, like the story has no specific direction or goal as such, but the film is just a document of the two people's day.