5-10 Minute Drama

ALEX OVERTON, AMI-LEE GALLOWAY, COLTON HOLLAND, ROSS WALKER

What were our intentions?

The film is a continuation of our 2-minute project, set just under a decade later.

The emotion we wanted to get across was fear; particularly through paranoia.

We wanted to convey this primarily through cinematography, sound, and editing.

We would frequently use handheld close-ups and POV shots to create a sense of disorientation.

Sound would be used to accentuate the mood of each scene, but also to provide insight into the protagonist's psychology.

Fast-paced editing would be used to create a sense of panic.

Where did we shoot?

The scenes in the forest were all shot in Grindleford.

Tom’s shelter (seen bottom right) is a structure that had already been built into the face some rocks.

It proved to be a suitable location to shoot as it provided us with a variety of different areas that we needed for the film.

What were our roles? Alex Overton – Director/Sound Designer – Taking on the role of director meant that I was in creative control of the project and it gave me

the freedom to introduce my own filmmaking and storytelling methods. The key to creating this intense short film was the pacing and theoverwhelming sound, putting the viewer in the thick of what is happening onscreen alongside our protagonist so they can experience it all inthe same instance as them. I also did sound design which went hand-in-hand with what I wanted to do with the way we the told the story. As afirm believer that sound is just as significant as visuals, I am confident that the balance between the two is best suited for this particular film.

Ami-Lee Galloway – Editor/Sound Recordist – As I took on the role of editor and sound recordist it enabled me to be onset constantly.Personally what ever role I chose to take I like to be on the set at all times it helps me to build and add to the story more and more. Whilstfilming my role was Sound Recordist. Our film is strongly based on sound and no dialogue made the role even more important to me. Mysecond role was Editor. Which I feel is also a huge role to take on as I would have to be the one that created the emotion in the piece, with thethoughts and prospective of my fellow group members. As Emotion was our main focus I wanted to make sure I had portrayed it correctly withtheir advise. I feel that both of theses roles went well together as I took on 2 very creative roles and I feel recording the sound helped in theedit to how I would place and cut certain footage.

Colton Holland – Producer/Assistant Cinematographer – As producer, I needed to control the relationship with the cast and director bydiscussing which ideas and scenes had issues or problems to be solved. This being a key role in a film involving such explicit scenes withchildren and kidnapping, we needed to keep the fear element but acknowledge health and safety with the actors. This role has been made alot easier to cast and find location with from the help of Ami-Lee’s family and their respect towards the project. With a limited amount of rolesin our group I assisted cinematography which allowed myself and the cinematographer to explore creative ways In showing fear visually butmy job involved making sure of consistency and continuity.

Ross Walker – Cinematographer/Screenwriter – As cinematographer, I needed to design our shots in a way that would portray a sense offear and panic. Through research I found that visually, this was primarily done through handheld shots and close-ups, in combination with fast-paced editing. In terms of screenwriting, I attempted to convey the emotion of fear in a rather traditional narrative sense: a small vulnerablechild thrown into a frightening and dangerous world by a faceless, intimidating assailant.

Who were our actors?

Tom, our protagonist, was played in the forest scenes by Alex Dickenson(seen bottom right) who, while not a professional actor, has hadexperience acting through amateur play productions.

For the figure, we had originally intended to cast a woman to play themthroughout. But despite our efforts, we were unable to find anyone to takeup the role. Subsequently, we were forced to play the role of the figureourselves.

The younger Tom is played by Harvey Galloway, and his kidnapper isplayed by his father Paul Galloway.

Strengths of the Project

For the most part our pre-production processes, such as shot-lists,research, and location scouting were rather good. We were able to planahead for each of our shooting days with only a few minor issues along theway. Although it wasn’t perfect (see next slide).

Our collaboration between roles was also rather good, mostly as a result ofour Facebook and WhatsApp group chats that allowed us to share workand ideas more easily.

The camera shots and sounds we gathered were also of impressive qualityin places. We were especially pleased with the cinematic aesthetic thatsome of the shots had thanks to the effect of the Canon EF 100mm lens.

Weaknesses of the Project Our biggest weakness across the project was planning and preparation in terms of

actors, equipment, and weather.

Our first shoot was completely ground to a halt as a result of us not checking ourequipment before leaving to shoot, which meant that were arrived in Grindleford toshoot, only to find that our camera had not been supplied with any batteries; making thewhole trip pointless and causing us to miss out on a whole day of shooting.

Using Alex as our actor may not have been the best choice considering that he alsoattends University and is often unavailable as a result; severely limiting the days we wereable to film. Subsequently, we found ourselves short of time on multiple occasions, whichmay have considerably harmed the quality of the film.

For our final shoot, Alex was only available on the 10th of December; making this the onlyday we were able to film. An unfortunate case of bad luck meant that we were forced tofilm in snowy conditions, which unsurprisingly caused continuity errors within the film, aswell as affecting our ability to shoot effectively.