Evaluation for One-Shot (not yet finished)

DP1 One Shot Evaluation

Introduction: For the first task I came across in design practice one, I had to work together in a group to create a short film that would have to abide by a rule which had been set in place. The rule was that the tripod that the camera was mounted on was not to be moved throughout the course the shot. The positive that came from having this rule was that it allowed me to focus more heavily on audience engagement and techniques used to keep the spectator interested considering the restrictions we had.


Working as a group: I found the thought of working in a group quite daunting at first as I felt problems could easily arise should any of us have conflicting ideas however, there is always a challenge when working with others and I thought that we dealt with everything fairly and got along very well with each other which made the project all the more manageable and enjoyable from that standpoint. We started off by listening to each other’s ideas and then trying to pick out the best features of each whilst simultaneously bearing in mind the practicalities of fulfilling each idea in the time we had and the resources available to us. The strength or conducting ourselves in this way was that we would come up with an idea which was both interesting and logical. The only weakness of this may have been that due to the time span and the recourses we had in terms of costumes, settings and props, we were perhaps a little less adventurous than we may have been. We improvised however and often found a way around any problems.


The Design Process: Although the vast majority of the multimedia course involves working on computers, I decided to make a series of illustrations of possible scenarios for our one-shot film that would be plausible considering the rule that had been given. Later I would scan these into the computer since they were relevant in the design process of the task. My scenarios included a shop keeper scene where an altercation between them and a particularly difficult customer would arise. I felt that the shop situation would be ideal to create a strong dialogue and considering that the camera would not be moving all over the place, compensated well. One of the strengths if this was that we could have people walking in and out of the shop and into the film to make it more interesting and create a constant flow throughout the film which would create more movement on screen.

Another idea was to have someone simply make a sandwich, however this person would have some sort of mental disability and thus, find a mundane task all the more difficult. I would try to make a comedic feel about the situation however, rather than create a potentially offending and upsetting scene. I imagined it being something similar to one of Rowan Atkinson’s Mr. Bean episodes, where he too, is faced with many everyday tasks that usually go wayward, to the amusement of the audience; however at the same time, his mental issues endear them rather than make the spectator feel any unease. The strength of this idea was that we could use a lot of light humour, which is a powerful tool, especially in short-films and episodes; however we eventually opted for a more serious idea.

My final idea which didn’t get taken further was to have a bus stop setting, which two characters as the focal point. One of the characters would have some form of A.S. which caused him to be very robotic and unaware of many common human emotions, and the other being a friendly old lady. The idea would be that a great sense of awkwardness and tension would be garnered as the frustrations of the A.S. sufferer would become apparent during this predominantly one sided conversation between the two, eventually leading to him simply getting up and walking away. The strength of this style of short film making would be that it would help the audience try and get a feel into how the mind of a character works and perhaps empathise with them on certain levels, or maybe even find is bizarre behaviour. The weakness of this however was that it was very difficult to find a sheltered bus stop in a location where we would be allowed to film, both in terms of safety due to roads and the fact that the general public would be walking around the area. Problems such as traffic noise and the positioning camera equipment also posed as large obstacles.

The idea that got the go ahead was a hospital scenario in which the primary feature would be to have the camera representing a real life person, in this case the patient. I’ve seen films before where this first person shot is used and often it creates quite an unusual, disorientating