Final Post

My aims of the project were to improve my technical skills, learn to work better as a group member and to complete something i was proud of.

I definitely improved my technical skills, i can now use Adobe premiere competantly and know about many more tools than i did before. I have also improved my camerawork skills, i can hold a shot much steadier now and have learnt to be much more creative - mainly from the rest of my group.

With regards to become better at working in a group i think i achieved this to an extent, i can now compromise better and i did take other peoples opinions into account a lot more than our last group project. However, towards the end of the project i did take control a lot more, this did help the group though because it meant i organised a lot, but i was definitely quite hard to work with. Our group as a whole worked together quite well - partiuclarly at the beginning, but during the post production stage there were much more arguments, but we managed to resolve them all in the end.

I think i did achieve something i am proud of, my only regret is that our opening is a little irrelevant to the rest of the film (location wise etc), however, many other successful films do this as well. In general i am happy with our sequence.

Influences

I think the area which i was influenced more in was cinematography, particualrly by Shrooms and The Blair Witch Project.

Shrooms has a similiar theme of drugs in it (although they are recreational) and so the use of an effect called 'Shutter speed' gave my group 2 fantastic POV shots which they use on characters to show what state they are in. Shrooms also has an aerial shot in a forest which is so effective and gives so much impact that it made me/my group want to try it, so one of my group stood on a tree stump with the tripod and camera fully extended and the shot looked really great. In the end though due to continuity we couldn't use it - there were no trees in this aerial shot but where we shot the chase there were lots of trees either side. Shrooms also had some really effective side tracks from behind trees (i.e. the trees maskd the view of the characters sometimes) - which we also did and used in one shot which fades into a title as it goes behind the tree.

I loved the Blair Witch Project camerawork because it was jumpy and chaotic it mae the situation even more jumpy, our camera work was quite shakey because obviously we had to run with the camera but i think the effect is amazing. The diegetic sound in the Blair Witch Project is also brilliant, i rewatched the ending of it without the sound to understand what was going on (it was too scary with the sound) and it made so much less impact. The diegetic sound really does make the film, so i personally spent a lot of time trying to perfect our diegetic sound to give greater effect.

Compare + Contrast: Narc Opening

Narrative
Similarities
The majority of the opening to Narc is a flashback so just like my thriller it is used to give some background to the film. They both also include chase sequences which are full of suspense. In both openings the person who is chasing wins and the person being chased is killed.

Differences
Although the fact that Narc’s opening is a flashback is a difference as well because it means it is set in 2 different time frames. The people around them in Narcget dragged into what’s going on – including getting injured. In Narc it is the person being chased who is the evil one (he is drug user) where as in my film it is the innocent who is being chased.

Iconography
Similarities
They both use handheld camerawork and diegetic sound to create atmosphere and get the audience more involved and to help suspend their disbelief. They are bother set in the day time, and they have similar lighting and colour – lots of blue and grey tones showing coldness.

Differences
Narc is a lot ‘gory-er’ and violent than my film is, in Narc 2 people are killed and another is shot and you see all of it, where as in mine one person is killed and this is only implied. Narc is also in a much more public setting where as the Anaesthetist has a huge sense of isolation.

Character
Similarities
Much like with Scream and The Anaesthetist both of the people being chased are very determined about getting away. This is shown in my film through he fact that she is clearly intoxicated but still trying her best to get away, it is shown in Narc by the fact that the criminal killed someone in the hope that it would slow the policeman down.

Differences
The character’s reactions to the events are very different; in Narc the main character shows clear remorse for his actions (the stray bullet hitting the pregnant woman) as he is thinking back over it (the flashback). Where as in the Anaesthetist he has done it so many times it’s clear that he does it for enjoyment.

Themes
Similarities
Drugs
Corruption of Innocence
Chaser has a weapon
Police involvement
2 different locations

Differences
Realism – Narc
Drugs are recreational - Narc

Compare + Contrast: Scream Opening

Iconography

Similiarities

Both of the settings have the idea of isolation, there is one shot in scream which establishes that the house is close to a forest with no others around and in mine it is clear that no one else is around. The costumes of the characters are very similiar, they use black and white to connote innocence and evil/corrupt.

Differences

The camera work is used to different effects, in The Anaesthetist we used a wide variety of shots to make the woods look interesting and quite weird where as in Scream the camera merely shows what is going on it doesn't give any impressions. Scream is during the night time where as mine is during the day - making mine seem a little less isolated but the contrast makes the forest look more menacing. Scream also looks like a normal setting - i.e. a house - where as the contrast and shots used in mine make the woods seem very evil and not so indifferent.

Narrative

Similiarities
The main similarity between my opening sequence and Scream is the actual narrative events - this is the death of a false-heroine. In both the first girl we see is set up to be the heroine - blonde hair, white clothing - connoting innocence, and quite attractive yet they are both killed. This keeps the audience on their toes as they realise they must expect the unexpected (which is especially true of scream considering the maor plot twists at the end), it also gives the audience information on the murderer (i.e. his killing style). I think that this concept is always an effective opening as it is more interesting than going straight into slow starting background events tc.

Obviously they also both include a chase which is another large similarity, they are both used to create suspense and lots of action codes - e.g. she has fallen over will he catch her now? They both use the idea of something happening to you without your knowledge - i.e. someone watching you and planning something, they tap into society's current fears.

Differences
My opening sequence is very fast in starting and although it is filled with suspense i think it is more effective in scream when it is dragged out more by building up the suspense slower.
I think that Scream's opening gives a lot less information away than mine does, all it shows is the killer's costume, weapon - i.e. brutal killing style, where as mine gives away all of that and the news report which says quite a lot - the location, how many times he has killed before, the police are very involved etc.

The chase in Scream is incredibly physical with her escaping and him recapturing her numerous times where as in ours he grabs her once and clearly she doesn't escape. The Anaesthetist also doesn't show the murder like Scream does, i think that this is more effective because if we had shown the murder it would have looked incredibly amateur.

Character

Similarities

Both of the victim's are courageous and are trying to fight and get away despite obvious difficulty - both very determined. Both of the Villain's clearly like to be in control, in Scream he forces her to answer questions and play games and my villain has drugged her to keep her under control. The villain is male in both and the victim female, i think that we decided to be conventional with this because the only time a role reversal works is in films such as Elektra where the woman is an assassin - but we didn't like this idea at all.

Differences

In Scream the villain hides and is almost nervous, where as the Anaesthetist's villain is very confident and wuite clearly striding out in the day time. You find out very little about the characters in my opening as there is no speech where as we find out lots about Scream's - for exmaple that she has a boyfriend, personally i think that opening's have more impact when there is no speech. There are many more characters introduce din scream's opening - her parents and boyfriend where as the Anaesthetist only slightly introduces his new victim via a photo.

Themes

Similarities

Chasing
Innocence
Isolation
Following/Watching
Psychotic

Differences

The idea of playing games - Scream
Concealing identity - Scream
Brutal/Gorey murder - Scream
Previous victims - The Anaesthetist
Police/Authority involvement - The Anaesthetist
Other characters - Scream has her parents and boyfriend.

Applying Theory: My Opening Sequence

Binary Opposites - Claude Levi-Strauss

Good vs. Evil
Innocence vs. Corrupt
Sanity vs. Insanity
In control vs. Subservient
Drugged vs. Sober

Action + Enigma Codes - Roland Barthes

Action codes - Events leading to other events, the audience wonders what will happen next

She fell over - So, will he catch her now?
He has caught her - Will he kill?

Enigma codes - The audience asks the reason for an event

Why she on the floor
Why she is wearing a silk, white dress
Why she appears to be druggd


Narrative Structure - Tzvetan Todorov
It follows a different structure depending who you are viewing the situation from, red is the girl/rest of the world, blue is the villain.

Equilibrium - The film goes straight into the diruption

Disruption
- This young girl being captured - also outside of film time (happened before)
- Also the fact that she has obviously escaped

Recognition of disorder
- The police are looking for her (news report)
- The villain has come after her - he noticed she was gone

Attempt to repair
- She has escaped
- He recaptured her and then killed her

Continuity Techniques Achieved

Camera
Shot Order

180 degree rule
This was the one rule which we always made sure we followed, when creating or thinking of a new shot we always made sure that the camera was always to the left of our characters (i.e. to their left). And i think this definitely helped to keep continuity and to keep just the right amount of confusion without the audience being distracted from the action.

30 Degree rule
We also kept this rule in mind when shooting, this was partcicularly important for us because as we were moving, each bit of forest was only really covered by one type of shot (e.g. a MS track from behind) so it was important that when we were editing none of these created jump cuts.

Eyeline Match
This wasn't particularly important because our characters weren't shown to look at eachother very much but the one shot which was sort from his point of view (a track of her as she looked around) is on a slight high angle.

Match on Action
We had quite a few matches on action:

• When our female puts on her shoe
• When she spins around after he called her name
• As she gets up off the floor
• When she falls to the floor - POV - Getting up off the floor
• When she walks back and he captures her

We probably spent the most time editing these shots to make sure that the actions and gestures macthed, the main problem was with the final shot of her capture as our females arms were almost flailing in the air and it was hard to match them. So to check they were the same in the end we actually shot the action with 2 cameras to make sure we got exactly the same movements.

Shot, Reverse, Shot

We have one shot reverse shot which is when our female falls over, we see a shot of her fall, then her POV, then back to her getting up. I think this is a very successful and impactful shot.

Editing
Transitions

The main transitions we used to assure continuity was fades to black which are used to show the passing of time. We used them rather effectively in between her capture and her being dragged away, and in between ger being dragged away and him crossing her off his wall.

Sound
Diegetic

I personally thought that diegetic sound was incredibly important to make sure the audience suspende their belief and get lost in the diegetic world so i spent time finding sounds of feet walking on leaves for shots which didnt have approriate diegtic sound. I also made sure that where necessary there were panting or distressed sounds coming from our female character - this involved recording some extra sound on our school field.

Non-Diegetic

Our non-diegetic was perfect because it fitted with our clip at the beginning and the end (although ti would have been nice to have a proper climax when he catches her), the only slight problem was that it kept the same tempo after reaching this at around 10 seconds. Although i think this is kind of fitting because it implies that she is never going to get away and doesn't even have a hope of doing so it sort of forebodes/predicts her capture.

Sound bridge

I think these are really effective to aid the transition in and out of titles so sounds like panting and footsteps often run into our titles and then start before they finish.

Finished Sequence and Cover

Overall i'm really proud of our opening sequence, particularly our Mise-En-Scene and the interesting shot types we used that made the woods seem even more menacing and confusing. The only thing which i don't like about it is that fact that it's a little irrelevant to the rest of the film, even though scream has a similiar beginning - where the girl you expect to be the heroine is brutully slaughtered - at least she is in some way related to the rest of his victims as she is their friend.

Tagline: An overdose of desire

Blurb:With Strikeout Pictures’ most recent production, once more, we are not disappointed. Nominated for ‘Best Film', 'The Anaesthetist' follows a story of voyeurism, obsession and kidnap. Unbeknown to Naomi Lawson (Sian Williams) she is the latest fixation of ‘The Anaesthetist’ (Nicholas Green) – the systematic serial killer with a fetish for white silk, a scientist’s knowledge of euthanasia techniques and passion for autopsy.