[16/12/2013] Contextual Studies: Individual Report.

My group finally completed the whole film, the only thing left is combining ALL the scenes into one and exporting it out so the audience can view it tomorrow at the film screening. Now I have to write an individual report on my video.

After watching the completed video, I feel like we succeeded in making the whole narrative work throughout the whole film. How everything goes smoothly with each other, the message we're trying to put out gave everyone the suspense at the end. No one expected that Elle (Eka) was the one that murdered Adauza (Fauza) and Zara (Farah) this whole time. We even asked the audience during the film screening that if they knew who killed the 2 of them before we showed the real killer and they all thought it was either me or Eka. So we pretty much received a lot of positive reviews from them. My members were really worried that they were gonna get bored of it since the first few minutes of our films are just basically us talking with the suspense being at the end. One thing I was proud was how the editing skills. We were bunch of students who doesn't know how to edit a video and became bunch of students that's able to call video editing our own personal skills.

So first of all here's our poster.

Through this poster people can tell that it's about cannibal because of the message being sent trough the choice of image. 

You can see that someone (because of the human fingers) eating another human hand. Hence, the meaning behind cannibal itself-- Human eating human flesh.

The quote "They're after you; They're after us all" relates to the cult we put in the film. "The Butcher" is the cult in our film. So this cult is basically trying to take over the human society.

and why we chose "SILENT MURDERS" as our movie title is because how the murder is so silent that no one suspect that their own group of people that's been killing people.

Taken from my group mate, Annabel. I'm gonna talk about the few components we used for this film.

1. The character portrayed by the actresses.
- All 5 members in this group has their own character to act out.

1. Eka -- She's known as Elle in the film. She's a physiologist. She get's along with everyone and with her charming personality everybody wants to be friends with her. Her friendly and social status with everyone totally blindsides the fact that deep down Elle has a different alter ego that may be the biggest plot twist in the story.
2. Fauza -- She's known as Adauza in the film. She's a neurologist. She was brought to the team by her cousin. Alex. She's the nicest and sweetest of the group and also noble and kind. Adauza's shocking and gruesome tragedy really hit everyone hard as she was the least expected person for the tragedy to occur.
3. Farah -- She's known as Zara in the film. She's a pathologist. She was the one who has always dreamt all her life to bring the dead back to life. Her interests and passion bought the team together and the tragedy that occurred to her will remain an unsolved mystery within her colleagues.
4. Ching Hsin -- She's known as Serena in the film. She is Alex's secretary. She's the only person that has gained Alex's trust as they have worked together for a long time. Her naive and bubbly personality brings a sense of comedy to the film as she is oblivious to what is actually happening.
5. Annabel -- She's known as Alex in the film. She's an Electrical Engineer. She's the main character in the film. Alex may look mysterious with a quiet and dark personality but deep down she just wants to make sure all her colleagues are safe and will try to solve the murders one clue at a time

Everyone did a great job at acting out their characters. To be frank, even in real life, some of us has those type of personality. Maybe that's why it was easier for us to act it out hehe.

2. Audio/Soundtracks.
- For audio/soundtracks, we don't just simply choose any audio to put in the film but we actually search for it to make sure it fits with the genre of our film.

- Audio/soundtracks are as important as cinematography. As I quote "Matching songs to a film shouldn‘t merely be a matter of plundering the latest indie pop tracks, says David Jenkins. Successful soundtracks are eclectic and avoid clichés" I realize how it is important, too. It gives you the vibe of the film itself. It tells you how the scene is going to turn out like. It gives you the atmosphere of the scene.

- Here are some that were amazing and suitable for our film.

Brian Eno - An Ending (Ascent)



We used a few from the band "The Weeknd" because the song they produce somehow fit in our film.

The Weeknd - Wicked Games (Instrumental)



The Weeknd - High For This (Instrumental)



The Weeknd - The Morning (Instrumental)



3. Lighting and Environment. (Cinematography)
- The common thread of film noir lighting is low key lighting – a style called Chiaroscuro in the art world.  emphasized shadows and harsh lighting to create a sense of depth and volume/ trying to overcome the bland flatness that bright black and white film could have if there’s not much contrast. 

- Therefore, we focused a lot in lighting to create a contrast. Can be seen through a few scenes like this. Where we only 1 or 2 source of light.









4. Composition

- Composition are definitely important for filming.
- We focused a lot on composition throughout the whole film. Finding the perfect angles to film and such.
- One of my favourite angle were this.



- We got the reference from this



- This was a talking scene. I noticed how most dramas (Koreans) filmed their talking scene. They were mostly like this, like how they focused on the face of the person talking while the one listening were blurred out or sometimes they focused on the face of the person listening to film their expression while the one talking is blurred out and they'll do it over and over again but smoothly.

Overall, I think we definitely achieved our goal. We had a hard time throughout the semester trying to finish this film nicely. Our hardwork has payed off by the positive reviews from the audience and the "critic" himself. We are definitely not a professional film makers but we definitely did a good job in making one! Our goal was to make the audience have a suspense feeling while watching our film, and they really did! So we definitely achieved our goal.

I had a great time creating this film with my group mates and thank you Mr. Charles for everything!

References:

1. David Jenkins, 2013. How important is a film's soundtrack?. [online] Available at: <http://www.timeout.com/london/film/how-important-is-a-films-soundtrack>
2. filmmakeriq, 2013. THE BASICS OF LIGHTING FOR FILM NOIR. [online] Available at: <http://filmmakeriq.com/lessons/the-basics-of-lighting-for-film-noir/>

F.