Rough Cut Analysis

We took the opportunity to film a rough cut of 'Paranoia', to see what we could improve on, to test out the location etc. The rough cut seems very short and dosen't have much impact, but when it comes around to the final cut, and credits and music are put in, the sequence will have alot more impact, especially at the end of the sequence when 'Paranoia' explodes onto the screen. Here is the rough cut which has been edited slightly to maintain continuity, and an evaluation of how we thought it went.

Location

King's St, Cambridge.
We thought the location was suitable as it was a dark, dingy area and fit conventions of the thriller genre. A dark alley way is a typical location for a thriller, however we did not feel that it was over-used. When seen it automatically suggests to the viewer that is belongs to a dark genre, and this in itself is effective. Also, the ground was damp, keeping the dark feel.

Shots / Camerawork

We are happy with most of the shots. To show imagination we used a range of shots; low angle shots, medium shots, high angle shots, long shots, etc, yet maintaining continuity. We feel that the hand held camera makes it seem more realistic, and also lets us empathize with the victim as he appears vulnerable. If the shots were held steady it would not have had the same effect as it would have looked too polished and finalized, so we are happy with the choice of using hand held shots.

Acting

One thing we concentrated on when filming was not allowing the actor(s) to look at the camera, as the cameraman was supposed to seem like a 'fly on the wall'. It also seems more professional if the actor does not look down the camera. The actor, Jon, appears to be in character and does not get distracted.

What We Could Improve On...

We are happy with this as it is only a rough cut and we think that we gave included appropriate conventions of the thriller genre, and kept continuity throughout. However, watching the rough cut we realise that we could improve on some things;

-> keep continuity whenever we can, by showing action from different angles
-> use a range of shots and make sure they are effective - not just using up time
-> possibly a change of soundtrack - towards the end more of an 'impact' is needed, as the action becomes more intense
-> we realised that the actor, Jon, looked at the camera a few times. Even with editing we could not exclude this from the rough cut without sacrificing continuity. We will keep an eye on this in the future.