Creative Critical Reflection #1 - Conventions

   Our film used a good mixture of both using and challenging conventions within the film industry. A convention we used for the camera work within our film was the use of mostly wide-shots during the chase scenes. This helps establish both Dan as a character by allowing the audience to see him, his costume, and his range of motions during the chase and the environment he is in. The film that we took inspiration from was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. This is inspiration comes wide-shots within the scene giving more of a description of the location and the characters involved. In Harry Potter that does use a lot of mid-shots within that scene, but that was to create a hectic atmosphere because the characters in that story were already established. We chose to use wide-shots because we understood that the audience would not know where or who Dan was, and by giving them a little more information on the environment and his body movement it would allow for them to understand that he is being chased through a somewhat unknown environment.

   An example of a challenge to conventions is seen in close-up on Dan’s foot as he runs by the camera. This is unconventional as most close-ups are on a person’s face and not their foot unless it was an important part of the plot (which it isn’t). Some would argue that this shot is actually an insert, but the point of the shot is to introduce Dan and not show an object. This scene was included because we wanted an interesting open for Dan and allow it to be somewhat startling as well.

   An example of a convention within editing is the use of the short takes. Most shots within the actual chasing are considered short takes with only two takes being more than five seconds. This was to create a sense of speed. These frequent cuts allowed Dan to travel from one area to the next to establish that Dan is faster than he is really running. Another reason for the short takes to slowly introduce the terrorists in the background. The goal was to have the presence of the masked individuals continue to increase until the end. The examples of short take chase scenes we were inspired by were from Inception, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, and 28 Weeks Later.

   An example of the challenging of conventions within our editing is the Steadicam tracking long take. This takes breaks the use of stationary short takes for the following camera shot that lasts nearly twenty seconds. The reason for this shot was to slow the pace of the chase a little bit and show that Dan was getting tired. This change in Dan’s stamina gives a sense of realism as Dan slowly starts to lose. The point of the loss of stamina it to give the audience the impression that Dan is going to lose.

   An example of conventional sound usage is the sound effects at the end of the scene. At the end of the scene, we see the terrorists shoot Dan with a cut to black and birds screeching. The point of this was to establish a sense of realism as nature would be disturbed by the loud noise. When finding a sound effect for the gun we wanted to use one that had a lot of echoing. We felt like it allowed for the gun shoot to set in for the audience and when pair with birds to help give a sense that Dan was dead. An example of this can be seen in Breaking Bad when Hank is shot in the desert the noise from the gun echoes to establish his death.

   An example of challenging the conventional use of sound is that there is no incidental music during the chase. Most chase scenes, on-foot or in a car, have incidental music playing to help increase the intensity of the chase. We decided to leave the music out of the scene to help give a sense of what Dan was going through in the scene. The sounds of nature and Dan running are what we tried using to build tension for the audience.

   An example of the conventional use of mise-en-scene is seen in the costuming for the terrorist. Our goal was to make the terrorist stand out from Dan, even though he is wearing the same outfit. The masks are supposed to intrigue the audience and differentiate the terrorist from Dan. This is seen in most films to help the audience understand a fight. In Harry Potter, the Snatchers are wearing torn clothes and in Breaking Bad the White Supremacists are wearing leather and slicked-back hair. These are to help determine Harry and his friends and Hank and his partner from the rest of the characters.

   An example of challenging the conventions of mise-en-scene was by not controlling the lighting. In different scenes, there are different amounts of light and this was done to show a passage of time. This shows that Dan had been running for a while as the Sun went from the bright dawn to the morning light, to the sun being perfect at noon. This was done mistakenly, but we realized how it worked perfectly for us. Normally, when filming this would be done on purpose or would be controlled to have the chase be all at the same time, but we decided that it was possible for us to control it and it ended up being a really detail part of our film.
   Our film represents two social groups; people and terrorists. In our film, we wanted to make a clear divide between the people as represented by Dan and the terrorists who are the actors wearing gas masks. Within the scene the only actor that the demographics can be taken from is Dan. Dan is supposed to play the early twenties, white, male, investigative report that had joined the cult-like terrorist organization to uncover the truth behind their masks.