Film Task - Creating and Developing our Film Ideas

For our main film, we have to make a 2-minute film opening from a genre of our own choice, containing the main conventions and editing styles used in the genre. In our small group we came up with a few Ideas, one being an action thriller where a main protagonist hijacks a gangs exchanging of a briefcase. Another idea was a horror, the main premise in this short film is a woman walks into a old mansion, which is filled with creepy dolls and lit candles, this would finish with the woman being haunted by a ghost and ending with a jump-scare at the end of the 2 minute start of the film.

In our group we decided that the action thriller would be a better opportunity to show our best skills, this would make the film 16+, even though the 2 minute introduction to the film won’t have much violence and profanity, the rest of the film if it was made would include quite a lot of violence.

Log Line 25-word summary - Two opposing gangs exchange a mysterious briefcase in a sketchy setting, but a stand-alone hero appears to have other ideas.

The main premise of the plot is that 2 people are getting ready in their bedroom/car, dressed in a suit, with sunglasses, the audience can presume that these 2 different people are from 2 different gangs, but this is kept a secret throughout the 2 minutes of the film, to end the film on a cliffhanger. after the scene of the people getting ready, the film cuts to a person receiving a text message of coordinates or an address, the second part of the film is the two people exchanging a briefcase in an empty car park, the audience still don't know who the people are or what is in the briefcase.

In the end part of the film opening, the person that receives the briefcase is walking away from the car park, however, the protagonist that received the message about the location intercepts the mission, and has a foot chase with the person holding the briefcase.

Evaluation of preliminary film

What is the purpose of the preliminary film?

The purpose of this first task was to help us, as students to understand the importance of continuity editing of short clips to make them fit well together, we understood that this has a great deal of effect when it comes to the enjoyment of the film. This task also helped us understand the key rules of match on action, the 180 degree rule, and shot reverse shot, using these helped us gather an understanding of how to use them.

What difficulties did you face?

We had difficulties slotting the shots together to create continuity as when we were filming, we didn't understand that the shots would look weird, if we had hoods up in one shot then down in another, so we had to film the shots multiple times to make sure they matched up in continuity with the other shots. The conversation shots had to be re-filmed because they didn't look right as we didn't follow the 180 degree rule. We also had an idea to show the character blinking in the POV shot, this was achieved but didn't look as good as we hoped, if we were to film and edit this sequence again we would develop this to try and make it look more professional.

How did you plan out the shots?

We spoke in a group about how we wanted the story line to go, we then developed this by writing a storyboard on how the camera angles would work and we considered the 180-Degree rule, match on match action and shot reverse shot. we then planned the dialogue of the film, which wasn't too complicated, this used over the shoulder shots, which we thought would be an effective way to make the audience feel involved in the film. After this, we discussed how we would make the film more emotive and thrilling by adding music and editing in post production. We also planned to take the shots more than once, so we could choose which one fitted better in continuity editing, and then eventually it would look better in the final stages and in the film its self.

What did you learn about continuity editing?

We learnt that all the shots had to flow smoothly for the film to look good in sequence, and for it to work properly, this is because if the film shows a hand on the door, then, a close up with the hand approaching the door again, this will look rubbish to the audience, which will make the film a lot worse immediately. You need to make the audience know that continuity editing was thought about when editing the film. we also learnt that one of the main problems of editing is trying to make the film to not look really choppy and not well edited.

What did you learn about the demands of filming a sequence?

You have to plan the shots on a storyboard to make sure you don't mess up and waste time filming the first set of shots for your film, it also helps to get the shots right the first time so you don't waste time filming the shots again with time you could be editing to get better continuity, this creates a time shortage, that you are racing against to get your film in on time, this can lead to panicking and losing quality in the editing of the shots, an example of this with our film is the blinks in the POV shot, for this we only had a short amount of time to achieve this in the editing, this meant that the quality of it was decreased

Hot Fuzz Film Opening analysis

Hot Fuzz is a 2007 British satirical action comedy directed by Edgar Wright, also written by Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg and starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. It had a budget of £12.2 Million and made £80.7 Million at the Box Office. The film is about 2 police officers, who try to investigate a series of murders, in a rural village in the middle of England called Stanford.

The silhouette walking towards the screen at the very start of the film creates an intense atmosphere, this is at the very start of the film, so it gets the audience ready for the rest of the film. The fact that the light is on the back of the characters head creates the effect that he has a halo, there for being the hero of the police force in London. When the character gets close to the camera, the silhouette fades to a coloured picture of the police constable, this image is very powerful as it is the first time you see the character close up, he has a straight face, you can connote from this that he cares about his job and is very serious. The snap close up shot of the police officer's badge, is very effective as it gives a variety of information about the character.


The background narrative from the character is effective as it gives a backstory to the film, and it shows what sort of a character the constable is. The monotone but sharp voice of the character gives him personality, but doesn't over accentuate his character.

The graphic match from the character in training to the character on the field as a riot control unit, this is very effective as is shows his progression from his training to the field and how he has grown as a person.

The sound match from the pen clicking and the camera flashing makes the film very fast paced and intense, this adds to the whip pan effect every time the scene changes or even during the scene, making a really fast paced and intense few minutes of the film, there are also very sudden pans which make the screen very busy, these pans look very good when switching from one shot to another.

The sound of the tyres screeching from the bike and the car shows that they are the same thing to him, and very easy, which he shows with the comedic face this is a change from the majority of the other clips from this scene, which are very serious, this contrast, shows the funny side of the film.

The quick pan for the special commendations is very effective as it shows how good the officer is at his job, and is proud to show off his medals and certificates.

The montage of close ups of the police officer getting arrests is very effective as it shows how good he is at his job. The way that the clips overlap is good as he gets so many arrests, that it is not possible to put them all in the same clip.