25/09/09

Charlie from "Cold Cabin" (Suspense/Thriller) from james stonehouse on Vimeo.

I'm analysing a chapter from the short film 'Cold Cabin', a suspenseful thriller. The main story line is that there are a group of friends in a cabin somewhere isolated, only for a girl to wake up and find her boyfriend shot dead. This happens early on in the clip so there is a strong plot line throughout the film. The reactions to the death are very realistic so that you empathise more with the characters, and after everyone realises he's dead, another girls reaction is so intense you presume she is a relative. Then suspense is built when the group start to question who committed the crime, figuring it was someone staying in the cabin. The film is made in such a way that you can see the trust disappear between the friends, and it is very effective and realistic. They then assume the shot has been fired from the only firearm on the premises, but when that is proved otherwise they all get a new found sense of fear when they realise there must be somebody else there, until they think to search the people in the cabin. I thought this was a cleverly thought out story line and that the video itself was very well done, it had the right amount of suspense but kept the audience's attention throughout the film. The majority of the shots were medium shots, with no low angles or high angles. There were a few close up shots used, especially at the beginning where the character was first shot, for emphasise and effect.

18/09/09

For today we had to make three shots of the weather, using a Close up shot, Medium shot and Long shot. The Medium shot was meant to portray wind, where leaves were meant to fall down in front of the camera, as if being blown by wind. This didn't work out how was planned and wasn't very representative of the weather. This would probably have worked better if the weather had been more distinct or if the leaves had been dropped from higher up so the shot lasted longer. The Long shot was of a flower feature, which again didn't have much movement but a few birds flew behind what we were filming which was a nice touch. The Close up shot was of a tree branch with a lot of leaves, which had a calming effect because of the slight movement, but still didn't portray the weather very well. The Close up was also a low-angle shot so we could see the sky through the leaves, as intended.