AS Overview

The brief for our AS main task was as follows:

"Film the opening sequence of a new fiction film, including titles and soundtrack to last approximately two minutes."

Our synopsis was to have a district nurse doing a routine visit to the house of one of her patients where she would experience unusual and unnerving occurrences.

Our final piece was successful in many areas. The first way we were successful was with our wide range of camera shots and angles. We used lots of different examples of angles and shots such as close up's, over the shoulder shot's and low angles. This meant our piece flowed and kept the audience intrigued as they would become uninterested if the same shots and angles were used over and over multiple times.It also meant it looked more realistic.

Another success was our use of sound. This really gave our audience a sense of what was happening and we also used sound to build tension. We used sound effects well because they made the audience jump which was the desired effect in a horror film and our use of background music and dialogue made the viewer sit on the edge of their seat and also made them fear for the character as it had a spooky and creepy aspect to it.

We also edited our opening sequence successfully. We did this by making sure match on action was used to keep the continuity correct throughout the piece. We also made sure the 180 degree rule was applied so that it was clear to the audience the position of the character in her surroundings.

Although we had a lot of successes and strengths of our main task, we also had areas for improvement. One thing we could improve is our use of transitions. We only used one type of transition other than a simple jump cut which was a fade where we went the shot being out of focus to being in focus. We could have used more transitions like this to make our piece more interesting and give it more variety and tension.

A further area for improvement was a lack of camera movement. At the start of our final piece we did a pan and later on a zoom but other than that there wasn't a lot of camera movement. This could have been improved which would have again, given our opening sequence more variation and made it more interesting for the audience.

A final improvement we could have done is to include the titles more in the action. We were limited on the placement of our titles due to our lack of software which meant we put them in various places but they could have been more included in the scene. For example we could have made the titles on the wall of the building at the beginning move with the camera. This would make it more realistic and involved in the scene and the action.

We got lots of audience feedback for our opening sequence and it had mixed views. One piece of feedback we got was that our plot could have been more creative and not give away as much of the storyline as it did. I agree with this as I think if we were to make the whole film a large chunk of the plot would have already been told in the opening sequence. However, I disagree that the plot could have been more creative because I think it kept the audience on the edge of their seats which was the intention as it is a horror film so tension is vital.

In conclusion, our opening sequence was very successful despite its faults because of its interesting plot and use of sound both diegetic and non-diegetic.