Evaluation

The plot of our film, The Following, was that a girl was being stalked by someone but her friend doesn’t believe her when she tells her. The genre we chose was horror and we made this obvious by our choice of music and camera angles.

The film starts with the title popping up in an eerie font and was red to resemble blood. We chose to play the ‘Psycho’ theme tune in the background because we thought it would set the mood as a horror. The first scene pops up and is of a long shot of the school sign. In the background there is the sound of a bell, which confirms that the clip is of a school. The clip the cuts to another clip of a corridor, and the shot is half way down the wall, as if someone is crouching. As the camera pans to the right, a pair of legs come into view walking past and the camera looks like it is following their movement until they walk out of the shot. While this is happening, the ‘Jaws’ theme is playing in the background. We chose this music because we thought it would add suspense to the shot and make it seem like a ‘predator stalking its prey’. The clip then changes to a tracking shot and comes up behind the person as they are walking down the corridor. We shot this clip by hand so that it gave the scene a more edgy feel and appear like it is another person that is following behind instead of just a steady cam. We get to the end of the corridor and to a set of glass double doors. The shot changes so that you are then on the other side of them and can see the character walking through them into the canteen. They walk up to the camera so you get a mid-shot of their body and can watch them looking for something or someone. As they see what they’re looking for they walk out of the shot. When the camera comes back into focus, you are looking at a table where another character is sat doing work. A long shot is used so you can see the original character sit down next to the other. The camera is moved behind the panels of the wall, so it seems like you are hiding behind them and spying on the people. The two girls start to have a conversation, and at this point, the camera is a mid-shot so that you can see the expressions clear enough. As each one talks the camera zooms in on just the speaker’s face so that you can focus on what they’re saying. Once the dialogue ends, the camera is back to a mid-shot of the two and the camera starts to shake up and down slightly. This is accompanied by an evil laugh in the background. This is to show that the stalker has been the camera the whole time, and is emphasized by the fact that all the shots have been personified so it’s like you have watched the whole scene through the stalkers eyes. As the credits come up the laugh is still playing and the words are in the same font and colour as the beginning title. This makes them continuous and reminds the audience of the eeriness.

What I liked in our film was that, in my opinion, our shots were cut well and the edits were smooth and continuous. This made the clips seem less jumpy when they changed and made the transfer from different locations easier. I think the music was well matched with what was going on in the scenes, for example; the ‘Psycho’ theme flowed nicely into the school bell so it didn’t make the audience confused at the different sounds. And the jaws theme got across the whole ‘predator vs. prey’ theme we were trying to display.

What I didn’t like in our film was that we had some continuity errors and had to make some changes so that they wouldn’t be noticeable. First of all, in the clip of the girl walking through the corridor (mid-shot), she was wearing a jacket. But then when she was walking up the corridor and we were following, she no longer was. This meant that we had to choose another clip of her walking past but without a jacket on. We had luckily shot some and chose the best one. Another error was that when she walks towards the doors, there is a girl stood to the right by reception. But when the camera reverses and you can see through the doors, she is no longer there. We could adjust this error and had to just hope that no one noticed it. I think these were the only continuity errors.

If we had to do it again, I would probably prefer to either shoot it in another location, or have better sound equipment. This is because the diegetic sound wasn’t good and you could barely hear the conversation that took place. The non-diegetic sound was really good and well matched but because of the clarity, it emphasized how bad the diegetic sound was. With the mise en scene, we tried to make it appear like the girl was just at school like any other day but we didn’t include a lot of people in the shots, but in the canteen you can hear them. I think next time we should either show them or cut the sound. Overall I like our film and think we made a good attempt at it.