Response to Preliminary Task

After reading through our comments, I felt that I agreed on the whole. For example, they suggested that the shot of the antagonistic figures was too long and could be clipped. I agreed with this as I feel we could have shortened this sequence to increase the tension and build excitement in the viewer. I was also glad that they noticed our use of lighting as this was one of the aspects that we were most proud of.

Overall, I feel this exercise has taught me a lot. We discovered that the flashing lighting we used really accentuated the eerie atmosphere that we were creating, while it also served to reflect the drug-user's state of mind. We did have one continuity error - the syringe changes hands - which could easily be avoided next time by filming these shots in sequence which would limit the chance of the actor changing what he's doing. Overall, I feel our group were well prepared as we were able to film as soon as we were ready and filming went very smoothly. Although, we did end up diverging from our original storyboard as we realised some shots would be hard to shoot, such as them walking up the stairs as there wasn't enough room, but this did help us to create an equally effective shot - when the antagonistic figures emerge from the room and walk past the camera, which reveals the drug-user who has also turned into one of 'them'.


In this task, we ensured that our film followed the 180-degree rule, during the dialogue between the drug-user and the 'other people'. This allowed the dialogue to be followed more easily and the audience understand what is going on as the characters always stay on the same side of the shot. Also during the dialogue, we used shot/reverse/shot. This meant the clip cut from a shot of the 'antagonistic figures' to a shot of the drug-user, and then back to a shot of the 'antagonistic figures'. This allowed the viewer to see both characters reactions. Finally, we used a match-on-action, when the drug-user drops his syringe. This helped the audience to understand the scared state of mind the drug-user is in as he has dropped his syringe in shock.