AS Film Evaluation KIERON EDWARDS

In our group there were just two of us, which meant we had to theoretically split the four parts into two each . Although we did plan that I would cover cinematography and directing and Simon would cover sound and editing, we both contributed a lot to all four parts.
Firstly we had to roughly establish the genre of our film and we decided it would be a British Crime almost drama genre but it does touch on other genres, coming under the thriller category. For this we needed to pick the right destination and I chose the multiplex parking on Hills Road, where we could shoot us both meeting and partaking in the narrative yet still setting the scene for a British urban area that fitted our genre and narrative. The main reason for which I think this is that on the top floor of the parking (open roofed) we can see a building in the distance with graffiti on it and this also swayed my mind to further push this destination to be our main meeting for the proposed drug deal.
Although somewhere that looked more run down and vandalised would have been our first choice perhaps but we wanted originality with subtle hints of our genre being exposed through our setting. Another is how on the days of our shooting it would be less busy that at other times so no one could interfere with us. We could do it quicker and capture shots such as empty parking spaces on the top without cars obstructing our view of the building in the distance with the graffiti or the empty corridors leading to them and the lift.
As I wanted an urban looking male, I brought in my hat and jacket and I made Simon put a hat on and his hood over it to also show the urban look. I wanted to make it as gritty looking as possible that was available to us which I think we did.
I thought of the misé en scene of our characters and applied them. We had both decided that the main character was Jay, which I played and how this was his first “major” deal so this meant a lot to the character. We tried to apply the right soundtrack and editing to make this feel tense. . I made the character of Jay continuously almost paranoid and weary of the surroundings, Such as the first shot of Jay walking up the stairs getting into the elevator and having a quick peek around. Again, once Jay arrived, I tried to look around for other people, checking everywhere and then proceeding to the meeting point on the mid way point of the open car park . This set the character for jay being paranoid, always weary and I wanted this to be evident as soon as the sequence started. This would set the character for the whole sequence and I think the audience could try and relate to a character when he or she has specific aspects to their personality and within this storyline, paranoia I thought would fit the character well.
I wanted to use a variety of shots to capture the genre correctly, ranging from close ups, over the shoulder shots, trying to track different characters and long shots.
Firstly I wanted to capture the lift shot of me confirming the deal is on with the scene clearly being the lift in the background. I thought this would capture the gritty urban run down sort of look I was after. We meant this shot to be a sort of mid to close up just capturing my chest up but still including the phone in hand. I wanted to grab the audience and immediately set the scene for this urban look and using the metal plated lifts and my outfit I think captured this.

Another shot I wanted to use was the close up of the exchange of money. We chose this shot because this shot also included the lines of the car park floor and the metal mesh in the background also adding to that urban city effect. Again we tried to make this frame quite fast moving so the audience knows exactly what is going on as it is being shown, so the audience can get into it quite quickly. I wanted this frame in after clarification of how Simon wanted the deal.
One possible thing I have prepared more for was how I could have brought more money to shoot rather than just eight pounds in coins. It didn’t really suit the narrative of a high profile deal and it probably would have help the audience engage more within the film sequence.
Another area that could have been improved is my scene in the elevator. It looks like I was laughing a bit or some humour was being shown when actually, it is supposed to be a tense scene where this deal could make or break Jay’s career, so a bit more professional acting would have been better, as the audience would have taken the situation more seriously.
Perhaps another way in which we could have improved the sequence is by using more close ups and really capturing the characters emotion. Extra planning towards shots could really have made an extra difference and capturing the characters emotions more and actually seeing their facial expressions at some times could really have engaged the audience more and shown the true situation. As sometimes it just looks like we are happily going to meet each other when this is supposed to be a tense, risky deal where you can gain and lose everything.
I didn’t really take inspiration from other films cinematography and director wise but narrative wise perhaps sub consciously from films such as “Shifty” and “Kidulthood” and “Adulthood”, all coming under the similar British Grimey genre and settings.