Production Report

For our cinematography piece, Sarah, Hannah, Alex, Emily and I will create a psychological thriller. We are all in favour of a dramatic narrative and this genre will allow us to experiment with various camera angles and editing techniques. For example, fast paced moving shots to connote fear in the character and edit the exposure of the shot to a specific colour tone; signifying the mood of the scene. I will discuss the technical elements of our film subject but as a general outline our film is based on a workplace where the colleagues are going missing one after another but others at the office see it as laziness rather than suspicious activity. The female lead is filmed having a conversation with another worker about the ‘absent’ women and the male lead is in the background of the frame eavesdropping; this is to make viewers question his role in the film.

The film opens with a mid-close up shot of the female lead, Jess’, hands typing on an office computer. The camera will only show her hands in the frame, which have purple nail varnish on and throughout the film viewers will see the colour purple as a repetitive motif for Jess. From research we found that the colour purple can signify mystery and we wanted to have a constant colour throughout the narrative as an enigma code.  In various other scenes Jess will wear some item of clothing, make up or jewellery that is purple, such as a blouse or eyeshadow. The next scene will appear more natural as it shows the conversation at work between Jess and a colleague discussing the absences of other workers. John will also be in the frame but unnoticed by the girls as they have their conversation. He will look mysterious as he overhears their conversation and this will invite the audience to anticipate the role of this character.

The next scene will show Jess walking home in bad weather/dark lighting conditions and John drives up beside her asking if she wants to have a lift home. Although he has an unusual persona, she agrees to the lift due to the conditions she is walking home in. During the sequence shot in the car, Jess is talking constantly but John will not say a word; emphasising his mysterious and uncomfortable character even further. We will explore with different points of view in this film, such as the opening scene with Jess typing and as John drives beside her walking home we will see the camera from his perspective looking at her through the window. This is to allow the audience to experience the film through each character’s eyes and may create an uncomfortable feeling for the audience; in a good way, as they see the antagonist’s point of view. During the sequence shot John gets restless with Jess’ constant conversation so he punches her and makes her unconscious. The next scene sees her wake up in a forest; an establishing shot in Grindleford wood, where she looks around dazed and confused. The shot will begin close up and unfocussed which then focusses as she regains consciousness and wonders where she is. The establishing shot will signify how isolated Jess is from the usual busy city life she is used to.

As she regains her energy and consciousness she begins to walk away but John tries to convince her to stay. The next scene is another establishing shot of the trees but this time Jess is nowhere to be seen. There will be no characters in the frame; only the trees but through the soundscape the audience will hear a female’s scream and then atmos sounds, such as streams running and leaves rustling. This is to create tension and shock yet due to no event being witnessed this causes viewers to create scenarios of what has happened.  The lighting for this shot will be made darker in the edit than the day that we film; this is to create a duller lighting in the wood and a more dramatic theme. Next, we see a close up shot of a female’s feet, presumably Jess’, swinging backwards and forward as if she has been hung. One of her shoes will not be on her foot; to signify weakness and remind audience when she tried to walk away/escape earlier and a shoe fell off. We will experiment with different lighting for this shot to create a dramatic and thrilling effect for example a black and white shot could make the scene even more effective and stand out to the viewers or an unfocussed shot may be just as effective.  We will also have John walk away in the background of the frame so the audience are invited to make connections between what they have just seen and the character’s role in the crime. These past two scenes are purposely meant to shock the audience and we will use various camera angles and editing techniques to carry this out.

In the next scene,  a similar frame to the beginning where two employers from the office are having a conversation about the absence of Jess. This repetition of scenery causes the audience to think about the previous events they have witness and remind them of the beginning of the narrative; working out the pattern of events. As with Jess wearing something purple throughout the film, as a repetitive motif, we will have one of the females in this scene also wearing a specific colour just as Jess did. This is a similar film idea that Hitchcock carried out in Vertigo; where the first female character wore red and then the second female who is meant to be similar to the first female (who caught the male lead’s attention) wears green clothing. The final scene sees one of the female characters walking home, in darkened conditions similarly to Jess at the beginning of the narrative,  and John drives up beside her as he did at the beginning. The film will close with the audience wondering whether  the absences of past employers at the company being due to John and if this next girl will be his next victim.