Analysis of Student Film 2

Genre

Horror
Thriller

Editing

Continuous editing is used. This makes the whole piece seem very mellifluous and flowing. It makes it easy to follow and makes everything seem in chronological order. This means it keeps things clear for the audience so that they don't get confused and muddled up with what's happening.

Sound

From the very beginning we can hear sound affects that accompany the titles. This adds an extra dimension that draws the attention of the audience. Besides this, there is no other sound other than dialogue. Dialogue is used to build tension and intrigue the audience into wanting to see more. I think to improve their piece they could have included some music in as well which if used effectively would have helped build tension and made the audience engage more as they have to use more of their senses.

Camera

At times the camera is blurry. For example when they zoom in on the pot of pills, it is out of focus momentarily which makes it look poor quality. However it does then come back into focus. This makes it look quite unprofessional. Another slight negative is that I thought some of the shots needed to be extended. For example, one of the shots was on a bag of tea which on it had a title. However, the shot moved on so quickly that I found it hard to actually read the title itself. More positively speaking, I felt as though they had considered shot angles and tried to use a variety of different shots to help make their piece interesting. Also I liked the way it flowed and went from one shot to another.

Blurry, out of focus shot.

Mise en scene

Very cleverly thought out opening piece. It is set in someone's house. As it progresses we see one main character who is obviously very dependent on someone else who has left him and not contacted him recently. This therefore sends him to get very angry and depressed. We see him talking directly to the camera and letting his feelings known. We see items such as pills, empty alcohol bottles along with day to day items such as newspapers. The empty alcohol bottles and the shot where we see him taking pills connote to us that he may be depressed which all link together when we connect his actions with his words and thoughts. Fairly low key lighting throughout, again confirming the loneliness he is feeling and going hand in hand with depression and sadness. 

Titles

They are very creative, they use everyday objects as titles by including cast and crew names on these items. By incorporating it in this way it makes it look realistic, or verisimilitude. By enhancing this it makes the audience feel very natural and aware of everything in the shot because they now look out for these titles on the household objects.

An example of a title. This one being the main film title.

My only negativity about this is that some of the names of the cast and crew are very hard to identify as they move on from one to another very quickly. Also some of them are out of focus to begin with, however I have spoke about this above in camera.

Characters

In this piece there is only one character. We see him doing day to day activities, and then he talks directly to the camera. I think he plays the role well and effectively makes the audience want to watch more. By not giving much away to the audience, he makes the audience want to see more of the film because they want to find out what is going to happen next and what he is actually talking about.

Positives of opening

• Institutional Logo looks very professional
• The use of natural titles on household objects (creative, unfortunately needed a bit more care to make look professional)
• Very clear, simple storyline, easy to follow.
• Builds tension well, makes you want to see the rest.

The groups Institutional logo.

Negatives of opening

• Camera work could be improved (ensuring shots are framed correctly and in focus)
• Could do with revealing a little more to the audience. Not much, just some to help them understand what's going on.
• Could do with making it clearer what the film title is.
• Consider lighting, could do with being slightly lower key at times to work in harmony with the storyline and what we can see is happening in the moving images we can see.