I am a huge fan of Quentin Tarantino and hope that I will be able to study his work during this course.
29th April:
For this year's A2 film coursework I decided to work in a group with film students Nezi Dogansoy and Vicky Sheridan. We each have our individual roles within the production of the film which was the first thing we decided; Nezi we chose to be the director due to her organisation and preparation skills, Vicky was the editor because she is the most advanced with the editing softwares and is very talented with it, and I took on the role as being the cinematographer because it is an area I believe I am most good at.
When planning our film we first came up with a concept and the type of genre we wanted to execute; which became a horror. We felt that from our previous year of film studies where we looked at the codes and conventions of different horror genres this would help immensely with the understanding of horror iconography. We then began to think of our target audience and wrapped it around a suitable narrative which challenged some forms and conventions of traditional horror movies.
Our main film influence came from John Carpenter's 1978 'Halloween' from which we developed our storyline and characterization of individuals.
We initially thought of having a female character as the main protagonist much like Jamie Lee Curtis' character in 'Halloween' in order to present the final girl theory. However, due to complications with our chosen actress, finding the time to film her caused problems with our production. So instead we decided to use an all male cast to act the part, challenging some conventions of the horror genre by not having a 'hot girl' to look at on-screen.
Once we had our narrative we then thought about what different influences could tie in with the filmmaking. While preparing the bathroom scene we thought it would be a clever idea using Alfred Hitchcock's iconic scene from 'Psycho'. During this scene I pan away from the killing of Tom, and focus on the shadows in the bathtub. During editing we then used a fade out and then a fade back in showing blood trickling slowly down towards the drain. Everyone who has watched it have said that it clearly reminded them of 'Psycho', therefore we accomplished our main aim. By using this it identifies an aspect of our target audience having a wide knowledge of films and would know the classics.
Another influence that I mainly took on tole for being the cinematographer was looking at postmodern director Quentin Tarantino.
What most inspires me about Tarantino's style is his unique use of camerawork and shot composition. Tarantino explores the nature of using tracking shots, long shots for a long duration of time, awkward angles, framing of characters in doorways, close-up's etc. Due to these influences I ended up using most of them while filming 'Paul Road'. In a way it sort of challenges the codes and conventions of traditional horror movies due to the steady camerawork instead of shaky and handheld.
The Evaluation:
The scene I shot is the climax of our fictional horror film‘Paul Road’ Genre wise,it is a horror hybrid, a mix between Hitchcock thriller and conteporary horror. Out target audience are young me between the ages of 17-29, who enjoy the horror genre. Horror films deliberately explore the themes that make an audience uncomfortable; which is something we wanted to achieve throughout the making of our film. However, we also wanted to elicit an emotional response similar to the ideas expressed by the 'play theory’ to generate in our target audience a reaction of both excitement and a sense of adrenaline in anticipation of what they might see next.
The planning and production for ‘Paul Road’ was a group project; members inc: Vicky Sheridan, Nezi Dogansoy and Ellen Smithson. In order to make this group work and to give us all a particular area by which to be personally assessesed we each had our own specific role.
Nezi’s role was the director and making sure that everything was kept organised and that the set was planned effectively. Vicky’s role was as film editor and her contribution was important because she has the best experience in editing. I was the cinematographer; therefore I was responsible for the type of shots to use and the camera movement involved. Each role was allocated to build upon our exisiting strenghts and keep clear the boundaries between us.
Our film was very influenced by a number of director’s and other classic horror movies that fit into the same genre. Our main horror influence was John Carpenter’s 1978 film ‘Halloween’. This can be identified through the strikingly similar narrative involving a psycho killer lurking around houses killing off innocent young people, and also through the use of a villain’s soundtrack and the cinematography used. We wanted to challenge ourselves by looking at the classic horror cult films rather than modern day ones. There are certain aspects of ‘Halloween’ that can clearly be recognised in ‘Paul Road’, for example during the opening scene there is a close-up of a kitchen draw being opened showing a hand reaching for a large knife. This represents the personality of the killer character showing that their plan involves using household items. However, if anybody knew the film Halloween well, they would know that originally this scene was shot from the killer’s perspective, whereas in our film we make the audience question whose point of view they are watching from making them analyse the perspectives of the film and therefore adding to the suspense.
Being the cinematographer I wanted to explore my main filming influences and use them to their full advantage. This resulted into the technical features of our film being highly influenced by the post modern auteur Quentin Tarantino. This can be identified by the types of shots I have used and the duration of them i.e. a low angle long shot kept for a long time whilst two characters are conversing; which is a typical Tarantino trait. By using this style of filming I have challenged the codes and conventions of a traditional horror movie by replacing the shaky, fast cutting camerawork to long and steady shots. In my opinion I feel that this method would work more effectively with a horror film as it allows greater oppotunity for the cinematographer to build up the sensation of suspense and tension, amongst the audience. The iconic aspect sof the horror genre are typically conveyed in 'Paul Road' the use of camerawork and non-diegetic sound. Another typical Tarantino technique is his use of tracking shots and the framing of the characters in the shot whilst they’re in motion. Whilst filming ‘Paul Road’ I kept to my instincts and filmed the distinctive tracking shots in a Tarantino-like style. An example of this could be the scene when Harry finds Tom dead and begins to run and panic around the house and I keep at a long shot for a duration of time, while then approaching him slowly almost like he’s being stalked by the killer; fitting in with the genre codes and conventions.
During our bathroom scene I felt we were able to portry the intensisty of the violence without actually showing the violence by using this very Tarantino type of filming, a good example of my inspiration for this shot was taken from Reservoir Dogs’, specifically the ear cutting scene .
Our film shows the killer standing above his victim and just as it comes to the climax of the kill I pan away to show only the shadows on the bathtub and the diegetic sound of screaming. For the spectator it’s not the visual shock that makes this uncomfortable, but by the use of technical features to draw out shock.
A very recognisable influence for our bathroom scene is Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film ‘Psycho’. It has notably been credited as one of the greatest thriller films of all time, and my idea of re-creating blood travelling down a shower drain seemed to fit the nature of our genre well. The original sequence from ‘Psycho’ pans slowly from the body showing the blood trickling down, whereas in our film I held a steady close-up while the blood travelled into the shot and I zoomed in close to the drain. As part of the editing stage we then faded that clip out and faded in a similar shot panning up towards the dead body and zooming out to show its full view. This technique dramatises the situation and keeps the audience in suspense from the actions of the killer.
The film form has a linear narrative but with an unexpected twist at the end; also relating to the end scene in ‘Halloween’ where the suspected dead villain disappears and leaves the climax open to a sequel. Similarly I used a tracking shot of Harry walking around in distress then as he turns to get a glimpse of the body I capture his emotion in a close-up, then pan round to show his point of view that the killer is gone.
In conclusion I feel that this project has been a success due to our studying of horror films and looking at the key codes and conventions that need to be included, as well as challenging various areas and using specific technical features that seem to have worked effectively. The only improvements I would make about the project is to focus more on lighting as there are some clips where the lighting is quite poor, and in some places the cuts between clips are quite noticeable and the actions are different from previously. However, most of our feedback has been very positive, and some of our influences have been recognised. Overall I feel that ‘Paul Road’ is quite a compelling climatic scene and has helped us as a group to learn many new filming skills.
