Practice Video Analysis

Innocent Intentions

Idea: the idea my group and I had for my practice video was that of victim being stalked through an alley and then attacked. We chose this idea as it was not only simple but also gave us the opportunity to experiment with different camera angles in order to break the clip up.
Location: The location we chose was a large alley by our school, which was spacious enough for us to be able to film the clip from different angles without the use of any high tech equipment, but was still identifiable as an alley. The connotation of the alley being that it is a potentially dangerous and hard to escape from, and thus this added to the mood to the scene, as our audience could predict something drastic would occur, but they were not certain of what.
Sound : within the clip we do not have an diagetic sound, this is because we believed it took tension away from what was happening on scene, we did however employ a strong us of non-diagetic sound, in the way of the theme that was playing throughout the clip, which was the soundtrack from the film “jaws”. We used this music as the tune is universally known for the way that it builds up tension within the film of its origin. This ensured that when our clip was played the audience they understood that we were building up the tension in order for a dramatic climax. The music was also in sync with the cuts within the clip.
By creating this clip we were given the oppurtunity to identify a variation of shots and camera angles, and the gain experience practising and using this, with the potential of utilising these at a later date, when it comes to creating our actual media piece.

Feedback: we presented our clip to the class in order to receive a constructive feedback of what we done well, and what we could have improved upon. In order to do this we constructed a questionnaire which we delivered to the class when they watched our clip, and then they answered the questions after the screening.
Questionnaire:
1. What was your overall opinion of the clip?
2. Could you see the themes we were trying to portray in our clip?
3. Do you think the music we used went with the flow of the video?
4. Do you think our use of camera angles was effective?
5. What do you think we could have improved?

1) Overall we had a good reception from the clip, as our class understood the difficulties with creating your first clip, and it was opinionated to be an entertaining watch. Despite this, criticisms were made about the actual walking substance of the clip, which was largely considered boring and an unnecessary length of time.
2) Our class responded to this question in a positive manner, as they could clearly denote from the sound, as well as the content of the film, that we were aiming to portray tension and suspense which then led to the final climax.
3) There were mixed opinions within our class when it came to the sound of our clip, as we didn’t have any diagetic sound, which many of the class thought was a poor point, as it took some of the realism away from the clip but at the same time others in the class believed that this lack of “real sound” helped to build up the mystery and tension of our clip. The non-diagetic music we used for our clip was the unmistakable theme from the blockbuster film “jaws”. From this our audience immediately knew we were building up tension and suspense, leading to the final climax. They agreed that this was successful, but some fellow students would have liked to see a more original soundtrack from us.
4) The main area of our video that was applauded was the use of camera angles, notably the side shots that we used to split up the long shots we had of the alley way. The final point of view shot where we see the assailant attacking the unsuspecting victim, was also credited, as it portrays our clips climax as well. We were however criticised on the length of our long shots, as they dragged on and dimmed the suspense that we were building up.
5) Overall we received a good response from our clip, but we asked for constructive criticism so we had a substantial idea of what we needed to improve for our final piece. The main elements of the feedback we received were to make use of diagetic sound in the clip, with the possibility of finding a less used soundtrack to the same effect as our current theme. More content was also recommended, as they found the large segment of our trailer, dedicated to the alley, was boring.