Overall, I would say that our short film was as successful as how we wanted it to be. The aim of our short film was to show our audience the dangers of getting into unlicensed taxis. We used a factual scenario in our short film to show the audience the dangers. I feel that we portrayed our idea productively enough for the audience to understand our concept.
As a group, we felt that the planning stage of creating our short film was definitely important, to make our piece successful. Individually, I created the synopsis, Character profile, shot list and both myself and Shannon created the script together. I have learnt from this stage of creating our Short Film, that planning is important as our group stayed focused and organized when it came to filming sequences, organizing locations and actors. The shot list allowed us to have a rough idea of the shots we needed to film, at what stage of the short film we wanted them, and also the locations of each shot. The character profile allowed our actors to adapt to the type of characters we were looking for.
One of elements of our short film that works well is the simplistic shots of our character on the sofa. We wanted to keep our shots relatively simple and felt that this location would be a good idea. We made our actor wear white, blending in with both the color of the sofa and also the colour of the walls. Our aim was to show purity, contrasting with what had happened to Felicity the previous night. I feel that the colour scheme greatened the disgust in what had happened to her, as anyone who had been in a similar would feel dirty and unclean, hence the reason why we used a contrasting colour. I also feel that this clinical location allows the audience to focus on the character and her dialogue, rather then anything else. Although I felt that this part of the short film worked very well, I would say that if I had the opportunity to go back and change anything, I would have reduced the amount of shots of our main character on the sofa, and experimented with different locations. An example for this would be at the end of the short film. We could have used a shot of Felicity lying on the floor after the cab man had kicked her out of his car at some point during the middle of the night. I think that this would have made the ending more powerful, showing a short clip of what had actually happened to her straight after, with a voice over of Felicity's dialogue.
Another element that worked for use is having shots of both girls in the pub. This signified own of our aims of our short film, which is to be careful when going out at night time, as the girls were shown drinking too much alcohol and talking to random old men, not really taking much care of themselves. Our original idea was to film outside of a club in Croydon with a larger group of girls. The day we had planned to shoot our film, we had realized that not many people would be out as Croydon is usually busy on a Thursday night as it is student night. We also came to the conclusion that as we only had two girls, the best idea would be to go to a local pub and ask the manager if we could film for a while in their quietest area, and will not disturb the rest of the pub. The location of the pub was great as we filmed what we needed, had a few people that were willing to be in a few shots and the pub was also safe. One of the most effective shots of when the girls were in the pub was when they were conversating with the older man. This linked to what Felicity was saying in her voice over: 'There were loads of old men there, but they were a right laugh...I guess.' I do think that this shot could of been edited slightly better, as the sound of the group laughing, came in too loud compared to the previous dialogue from Felicity. If we were to go back and change this, I would change the levels in Final cut pro of this shot.
I would say that the shots of the cab driver work very well. We cut any diegetic sound out of the scene and used Felicity's dialogue as the voice over. This created a more intense feel to the scene and allowed the audience to get a better understanding of what had actually happened. One of the shots that worked most well of both Felicity and the cab driver, is the rear view mirror shot of when the cab driver is looking in the mirror at Felicity. This shot intensifies the mysteriousness of cab driver and also makes the audience feel 'uneasy,' enhancing our aim of the short film which is to show audience members the danger of getting into unlicensed cab's. When searching for short films based on cabs, I found on youtube which used this type of shot, which was the influence of this shot.
When writing the script for our short film, we wanted a 'hard hitting' script that would make the audience understand the trauma our character had been through. Our script was influenced by the short film 'About a girl,' where the young girl is seen to be happy in the first instance, until it gets to near the end of the film where the audience become surprised as to what has happened to her. The main character is seen walking along a canal speaking a monologue, breaking the fourth wall. Her character is seen as a bubbly, happy girl that enjoys life. We wanted to achieve a similar look, so by this, we created a script that sounded exactly the same as a 'happy go lucky' young adult would talk. Our script told the story from beginning to end, and it was one of the most important elements of our short film. Like 'About a girl,' we wanted the audience to think that she was a happy person, but become slightly confused with some of the things she was saying, therefore they have to carry on watching the film. This leaves the audience intrigued as to what’s going on. Our chosen actors also added their own piece to the script, making sure they felt comfortable with what they was saying, and also making sure their dialogue sounded realistic and flowed well together.
Another shot that worked well in the short film is when Felicity finds herself on Midholm road. We little movement and speech as possible, creating more mystery and tension on the scene. When the camera is behind Felicity and she is walking with no shoes on, I cut the shot in half and sped up the fast half, creating an effect where it looks like someone is following her. Then I slowed down the second half at the point where she turns around and looks behind her. The reason why I did this is because I wanted to show that the character was scared, and also show the audience that issues like assault and rape can have a long time effect on people. I felt that this shot showed this as it shows Felicity being paranoid and frightened being out in the open by her.
Overall, I would say that our piece turned out successful and many parts worked well. If I had the opportunity to go back, change and improve things, then I would. I would have liked to experiment with sound. Although the piece was seen as to be very effective without sound, I think that sound might have intensified the given effect on the audience. The most effective place for sound to have been added would be when Felicity is getting ready and also when the girls are seen drinking in the pub.
I would also change the fact that the majority of the shots are of Felicity sitting on the sofa. A wider variety of shots would have been more effective and also interesting. In the feedback received from the Year 12's, some students said that showing the attack would have been more effective, which I agree with. If I had the opportunity to go back and film some more footage, I would film felicity being pushed out of the cab forcefully by the cab driver, and have a shot of the cab driver looking down at her, wiping his mouth at the same time. Although the shots of Felicity did really work well with the piece, a few more shots on a different location would have also worked. This had already happened to our group after the first filming. We filmed the cab, pub and home scenes, but when we started editing the shots together, we then realized we needed to film more. So we then booked out another camera and filmed Felicity getting ready, and on Midholm Road.
As a group, I don't think we experimented enough with our editing. I would go back and experiment with the editing to make the piece more interesting and complex as I think our editing was quite simplistic. But in defense, this could be down to the fact that the content of both the script and film is seen as powerful enough.
When editing, we came across a problem with continuity. This was because we had filmed different shots of Felicity saying her monologue on the sofa, but we came across a problem when Felicity had changed the side of her hair parting. When we was editing we noticed this and tried coming up with a resolution, but the only thing that we could do was add a different shot of Felicity looking in the mirror, before cutting back to her talking on the sofa. The problem is not really noticeable to anyone else, but because we had watched the short film over and over again, we noticed it. If I was to go back and improve anything, I take continuity more seriously. Continuity also came up as a problem when we had filmed Felicity again when we booked the camera out the second time. The first time we filmed Felicity, her skin tone was browner. The second time we filmed her, the tan had died down which was noticeable. This meant that we couldn’t use this specific footage.
