Max Hall
For the preliminary exercise, I was put in a group with Ollie and Max. I didn't have a great deal of experience in media, having not taken the subject before. We were told by the exam board to film the opening 2 minutes to a thriller. The concept was that we would have several characters in the film, but that they would all be the same person (Max). We knew that this would be challenging to pull off, but that it would be a good oppurtunity to experiment with different shots. As it was my first time, I was responsible for the sound. Max was responsible for the acting as well as the storyboard, and Ollie was responsible for the filming and editing.
Max first suggested the idea, and we went outside to look around the school to get ideas on where we should film. We came up with the idea of this corridor shot. When we got feedback from the other groups, we were told that this was one of the best parts of the film. The idea was that there would be three people standing in the corridor, and when the camera would turn around to look at each of them, the audience would see that they are all the same person. This was done by cutting the clips when the camera went past the first character, getting Max to move to the position of the next person in line.
This was the next shot. In this scene Max is seen running down the corridor to the room. Feedback showed us that the lighting was particularly good in this shot, as it is fairly low key with the lights on the ceiling providing the majority of the light, making it seem eerie. The angle is also quite interesting, providing a low angle shot on Max making him seem powerful. One problem with this scene that was pointed out was the fact that Max dropped his blazer in the middle of the corridor. This was done purely to explain an error in the film which was that Max wasn't wearing a blazer in the room, and could have been solved if we had longer to film again.
After that scene, we see Max walk into a room and talk to another version of himself. This was achieved by using a series of shot reverse shots, in which Max stands at the far side with his face visible, and with me sitting the other side with my back to the camera to give the impression that both characters are Max. Whilst this was done well, the sound in this scene was poor with an awkward transition between the two shots. This could be improved by recording post-filming. The lighting in this room is also a little unusual, with a green tint. This could be solved by recording in a different suitable room.
One positive that could be found in this scene is the location. If the lighting issue was solved, then this room would be really useful to create an eerie feel to the film. The walls are blank without any posters, which gives the room a more clinical feeling. The table in the room is also really useful, as the distance between the two characters is quite large, showing that something isn't quite right, and that there may be some tension between the two characters.
