Question 1 Evaluation By Alex Barker

   The main task

In the beginning of our project we began our research by looking at other short films to understand the style, inspiration and what features are in a short film. We would look at the following: Lighting,Sound,Camera Work and what was used as Mise-en-scene. Once this was done I learnt that in order to achieve a successful short film it would have to consist of the following such as a strong beginning, avoiding repetition and making sure it did not exceed over 5 minutes.

After this, we planned our short films by listing ideas and then would storyboard each short such as camera angles organised by Kayla, Lighting organised by Claire and sound organised by myself and Luke. The purpose of the storyboard was to use as a guide for our film when it came to filming. Once we finish the storyboard I began to reach music. Throughout I knew I wanted to have the music play in background to be simple and give suspense to create the mood of the unknown to the audience. I looked at a variety which can be found on previous post of what I researched. They all consist of violin and classical piano as I believe these are instruments that can have an impact on creating the unknown. Once we decided on music we began to write a script for our film.

http://advancedportfolio201643.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/planning-6th-october.html

Once we finish planning we decided that our Film would be called “The Man in The Suit” it would consist of 2 characters Elsa an elderly woman played by herself and Death played by Alex Kennard. The reason it was called “The Man In The Suit” was because it gave a strong enigma to who this person is. The use of the suit made the audience aware that the character has a high status and has pride in his appearance. Furthermore we chose the colour black for the suit as it gives themes such as death and the unknown. We decided to also keep the narration of Death a limited to further create the suspicion who he is to the audience while with Elsa giving the majority of dialogue with the audience getting to know and understand her. When planning shots we would use medium shots to understand each of characters body language and facial expressions. To create the mystery of Alex’s character we made sure that he spoke in a calm manner while putting little emotion to not only create suspense but the give the mystery of him to the audience. Another criteria I learnt when studying Short films was that mise en scene plays a key and vital role in order for a short film to achieve. For our film we used mise en scene 2 of our charters Elsa and The man in the suit. For Costume of Elsa we chose a simple middle-class outfit for her costume which consisted of a coloured t shirt and a white cardigan. We chose this as it shows her simplicity of been an old woman to society and we thought it would be best to keep our actor in something that she would be comfortable to wear due to her been having to move around a lot.

The storyline of the film is about an old woman recollecting her life with death before he takes her. It begins with death ringing the doorbell with Elsa inviting him in. the audience do not know Alex’s character giving the enigma on who he is and why he is here. The whole film is set moments before she dies. We decided to end the film  with the idea was that the doorbell at the beginning isn’t death it’s her son who has come to check on her because of her illness but death has unfortunately beat him to it.

http://advancedportfolio201643.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/planning-6th-october.html

The genre of the film is difficult to define as the beginning of the film it appears as a personal drama but as the film progresses we learn that as Elsa is talking about her life to the man in the suit and it is later revealed that the man in the suit she is talking to is here to take her life. We based this idea as people have been known before their death to talk and see the whole of their lives and much like other characters that begin to death we use the idea that a shot of Elsa would have a flash to get the idea as their life flashes before their eyes.

Also when planning our short film we decided we wanted to use a sand timer as a key prop. We decided this because we saw that ta sand timer would represent Elsa’s life as the time decreases Elsa begins to suffer more until the sand timer is empty her life is gone. We used close up of the sand timer and Elsa back and worth to represent the connection between them.