Critical Reflection

Final Film

The introduction to the psychological thriller 1323. A young sociopathic monster has destroyed his household.

Editing

Editing  is so much fun!!! I am so mad because my dads laptop does not have the old version of Imovie so I had to pay for it. But it is awesome what I have been able to accomplish through editing. I think it is coming out very well. I am a bit worried about the sound. I am not sure it if a better idea to keep it silent and quiet or add some music. I've searched around but I can't seem to find sounds that fit perfectly. We have too much footage and sadly I am unable to fit it all into the two minute time span. This has led me to use only small parts of different scenes with fast cuts. I like it even better it adds to the intensity and the anxiety!

Day 3 CONTINUE TO FILM

Fabiana's house is perfect I am so glad things worked out the way they did. It is a great setting. The stairs are seen right when the door is open so it facilitates it all. The house was completely alone so there was an uncomfortable silence which really adds to the suspense and anxiety. Fabiana's mother ended up becoming the mother character and she was an amazing actor. I am really proud of both Nico and her mother; at first I was quite skeptical about the boy because he is our age and that defeats the plot of the young boy. With mise-en-scene however we have made him look way younger than he actually is. Fabiana's camera also did magic. We got some great focus pulls, zooms, and high definition shots in close ups and extreme close ups. We got all of the film footage we needed and it is time for me to take it back home and edit away!

Filming day 2

We got some great shots today! Nico is perfect. Not only does he look young but he loves acting and is surprisingly very good at it! It was a shame that we were not able to have a younger character. We were going to have Fabiana'ss eight year old brother play the part but after a couple of shots we realized that he wasn't going to satisfy our vision. Nico is seventeen years old and it is obviously much easier for him to comprehend what we need his to do exactly. Although we got the perfect character we were only able to shoot the scenes where Nico was alone because the other two characters could not come last minute. This was a bit stressful. This backed us up a bit. But we got the main shots done which is great. I took a tracking long shot of the neighborhood, of the house, Nico serving the tea, and awesome shots of the stairs.

Opening scene...the stairs.

After reading my blog critiques I have came to the realization that I have in fact not been clear with my idea so here it goes. The film will start off with a simple long shot of a calming suburb. Too calming that it causes curiosity and a bit of uncomfort. The camera will slowly pull up towards the main setting, the two story home. I will make it clear that this is a key element by focusing the camera directly towards the house. I will proceed with a cut and a tracking shot of a young boy age (8-12) at a close up of his feet or body at a low angle to make him look superior and frighning. He is followed up the stairs closely but not too closely to  make the viewer feel as if they were right behind him. Another close up will be used to show the feet walking over what appears to be a dead woman on the floor. He simply walks over her without any remorse while clearly recognizing the body. A cut will lead to the next shot of the boy pushing over the open bottle of pills onto the woman's face. They will drop onto her visage and he will walk away.

After visiting several locations in order to find the ideal home we have decided that Fabiana's house is the perfect house. In order to make the film capture that creepy vibe color is key. The house must be dark but not just dark it must have that horrific atmosphere.