Practice short film - Daydream

Daydreamer from Bishop Walsh on Vimeo.

The narrative of my short film is a girl at her desk slips into a daydream where she mysteriously finds a man she knows hiding in a cupboard.
The camera shots I used were tracking shots and two shots. These were not very adventurous shots as I could of taken many shots on the journey to the cupboard from different angles, however i wanted to capture the setting of a school by tracking the back of the actor I manage to show the attitude of the actor in the way she walked giving off a school girl vibe.
The location matched the clothing of the actor as she was wearing smart clothes which would pass for a school uniform, in a school environment. The make up was very minimum as to keep up with the careless attitude of the actor, this creates a character identity.
The editing was simple as I used a filter on the last scene to make it apparent she was in a dream, The one transition I inserted was a wobble effect to establish he fact the scene was changing into a dream.
There was no non diagetic sound in this film, only the sound in the scene and dialogue from the actors. My actor was an 18 year old girl in my class who is very capable in getting her emotions across in her facial expressions which I found through my research is an integral part of a short film.

Using the camera

Using a canon handheld camera I found it hard to make the scenes look professional as the movement of the camera was amateur as it was unstable, so gave off the sense that someone was following the actor, not corresponding with the storyline. The twisting LCD screen improved my ability to select certain frames instead of having to download them all onto the computer, so my efficiency improved with this camera. 

I found the small screen hard to view to make sure the lighting and props where in the frame, so in my actual project I will use a camera or device with a bigger screen to see what I am actually filming in detail.  

Analysis 

The opening establishing shot employs the setting of an office or school environment with the inclusion of a computer and plain walls to signify the boring theme which compliments the actors facial and body language. The medium shot allows facial expressions to be focused upon whilst still being able to establish the setting. The lack of sound in this scene adds to the boring element of the story as the reason the actor is bored is apparent.

The flip transition to the next frame connects the feeling of continuous boredom with the audience and creating sympathy for the actor as time has passed and she is still bored with nothing to do. I used adobe elements effects to add the transition, this was simple however the choices are limited and generic.

The next frame the camera is still a medium shot however the angle covers the front of the actors face in order to capture more facial expressions to tell the story.

The next scene enters via a wobbling transition to signify that the actor has entered a dream and is dreaming this scene, this transition plays a significant role in directing the audience to follow the storyline of the film.

The movement of the camera is following/tracking the actress in the dream which on second thought could be better by using different angles positioned in different places infront and to the side of the actress. A pink filter is put onto the scene to further show the dream-like state and get it away from reality, i did this again by using adobe effects.

An over the shoulder shot is used to portray the conversation between the actress and actor, it shows the story from the actress's point of view which the audience has had time to connect with so will sympathise with more.

A two shot is the final shot used to end this short film to capture the conversation of the two actors, the film also ends on a cliff hanger to keep the audience hanging on till the next instalment of the film.

Improvements/looking back;

Looking back, I could of used a variety of camera shots like a low angle to capture the feet walking along the corridor to extent the tension. I could of  told the actress not to look into the camera and laugh to make my film more professional. It could of been longer by adding a further dis equilibrium and i could of solved it. I could of used music in the background to emphasis the sleepiness of the character for example a soft lullaby. 

Adobe Elements was the platform on which I constructed my practice film, I noticed the slow fluidity of the scenes and the lack of pixel quality, in my real production i will look for a new platform in which to construct my production on.