Past Students Work

Drained

The short pan of the road is the second 'establishing shot' in the opening sequence. This is good for establishing the suburban area in which the sequence is set. Also, the music is very appropriate, as it is almost a 'pathetic fallacy', because the sky is dark and grey.

 This shot helps establish the storyline somewhat. This Mise-En-Scene is very good as it's dark and connotes it is the morning and something wrong might be happening to the character. By this shot you can tell something wrong is going to be related to the time it is. As this is the first glimpse as the camera pans, this creates suspense as there is yet to be a person seen in the sequence, so it also gives the audience an idea of where the person is, connoting a bedroom setting, creating setting awareness.

 In this shot, this shows Chanel flipping her hair back and sighing as she is in a rush, and she woke up late. This shows the social struggle of the character in everyday life, as she sighs to tell the audience how she feels and how 'DRAINED' she is by everyday life, so a perfect depiction of British Social Realism.

 In this shot there is the 'down trodden woman' character type Chanel portrays, who is walking slowly to work with a sad look on her face. She's wearing a big puffy jacket, connoting the cold and she's wearing everyday clothes, which look like they can be bought on the high street. She also has a JD looking bag on her shoulder, which proves that she like generally decent / modern clothes. She lives in a poor area, and the trees make it look wintry and the weather reflects the characters mood. The spikes on the gate connote this may be a very troubled area of youths who go on to the railway lines, and graffiti and cause trouble.

This shows the boss portrayed by Joe is very angry. The lighting is natural and creates a very dark atmosphere, also pathetic fallacy. This connotes he is a very angry man, who may have significant anger issues, that the staff that work the laundry place encounter. The fact that we see him through the laundry bins hides up his pent up anger on his face, creating suspense for the audience. 

This two shot shows the boss grabbing the woman by her neck with a tight grip. This connotes Lateral violence in the workplace and clearly the staff morale is very unconventional in the company, no wonder why the woman didn't want to go to work. This is a clear representation of the British Social Realism genre, as generally, nobody is aware of what goes on behind closed doors of homes or the workplace.

This piece of work was given 58/60 by the exam board, and I gave it around 50, which both scores were a Level 4 on the exam board's mark scheme. I chose to evaluate this piece of work because it flowed all the way through and the editing was very good. But i do believe it took a while to get the story line and it was confusing at the start, but as the story progressed, it was very good and could lead to a very interesting movie idea. 

Bridges

In this establishing shot, there is a lot of walking without a meaning which means that the audience could be confused as to what is actually happening in the scene, and there are no narrative clues as to what the story line will entail. The music doesn't start straight away and the background noise is also very distracting which takes away from the mood of the sequence. Also, the graphics which come up with the cast names, are very small and transition very fast, and they seem to be lost within the scene. But there is a very good Match On Action, as Joe enters the shop.

In this over the shoulder shot, it is filmed as a track of Joe walking around the fabric shop. This track continues on for way too long, and the audience at this stage would get bored, as still, there is yet to be a narrative structure 30 seconds into the sequence. The editing of this scene is very shabby and the camera is not exactly straight. 




This production logo graphic is placed unconventionally in the middle of the sequence, as it looks very messy. This graphic should be at the beginning of the sequence, in order for it to be conventional of a title sequence and the British Social Realism genre. This graphic should be at the beginning with the Film 4 logo, also with a comment saying 'In Association with... Film 4' to make it look like a film especially made for Film 4. This may confuse some of the audience, because its made my two different companies, when in fact it was made by two in conjunction with each other.

In this two shot, the dialogue being spoken is very unclear and there is still yet for a story line to be established. There is more background noise of other customers than focusing on what the two are having a conversation about. Also, there is no other interactions with other 'stars' of the sequence yet. This was a good sequence as it was filmed on location, but they could have made a voice over, to sync to the actual dialogue recorded making sure it was actually clear what the two were having a conversation about.



This shot has a very bad use of the 180 Degree Rule, it has drastically been broken and now Joe is on the other side of the screen which could confuse the audience majorly. Yet again, the dialogue is very unclear, and without the dialogue, i feel the audience could be confused. The talking is fast and unclear which makes it harder to even understand the story line. The group could have used the voice over idea, but they should have positioned the camera closer to the actors to get the conversation and the 180 degree rule wouldn't have been broken. This could help the audience see more facial expressions as they are talking, helping to develop character identity. 



This shot is a perfect example of bad editing. They could have used a match on action shot to show where Joe stepped back and then when the shop worker grabbed him and turned him around out of the shop. The door then opened and he was just chucked out of the door and there was not even a reaction shot at the end to show the disappointment on Joe's face as he was ushered out the shop. This was the perfect opportunity for a close up / reaction shot.



This piece of work was given 29/60 by the exam board, and I gave it around 20, the exam board marked this piece of work as a mediocre level 2, and i marked it as a high level 1. I chose to evaluate this piece of work because it has really bad editing and a bad story line which doesn't flow at all. I am still unclear of what actually happened in this piece of work, and the story line is majorly confusing. One strength of this sequence is the part where Joe takes his headphones off and then the music stops, which is very effective.