Evaluating Film Openings from other Schools

Elizabeth's Diary:

They built tension really well throughout the scene and managed to do it all in one shot a very hard technique to pull off. The scene starts with a Steadicam low angle shot of the book that appears to turn pages on its own a shot that must have take a lot of attempts to finally get right. The camera then pans to the left to what appears to be three bloody cuddly toys this instantly makes you relate the story to children and then when you notice the blood you realise the horror nature to the film. The idea of children being an element of the story is reinforced when we see the pictures of fake babies maybe used by a young girl. Then we hear the creek of the door and the light appear on the babies face. the sound of the door is imported and the light artificially added rather than a natural effect. The camera then pans further upwards and the word Kill appear to be written in blood across this appears to be another victim this person is lining up. After further panning comes in my opinion the best section of the clip we see more bloody and batter child toys on the floor then over the sound soundtrack we hear a loud rocking which at first i believed to be a rocking horse which would tie in with the other toys we have seen so far. However, the rocking noise is actually coming from a stool. It is then clear that the person who is in this place has the intention of committing suicide. We then see the stool fall to the ground which demonstrates to us that the person has been successful with their motive. The clip leaves us asking who is this person what is there reasons for suicide and where are they??????

Although it was all taken in one shot so we should probably be quite forgiving the camera was quite
wobbly when panning up the wall. Overall, a really good production.

Score:  56/60



Simulacrum:
This is the story of how one man appears to take on an entire building have shoot ups and punch ups with every man he comes across. The film takes on a fast pace throughout after the initial shot was taken the man moves swiftly through the building until being smashed over the head with a butt of a gun. The shots of the man with the gun in hand and the facial shots are something that would be ideal to incorporate into our own task. We have gun shots commencing during our task so the way in which the shot was filmed is defiantly something we should consider when filming our task. Another point we can take from the clip is keeping a fast pace but still maintaining the audiences understanding, the clip is very fast with a lot of action but we still have an understanding of what is happening. Another successful element to the clip is the Enigma codes used, the audience are left asking:
Who is this man?
What is his purpose?
Who was the man he held at gunpoint but did not kill?

These are some of the questions the film makers of Simulacrum are asking us in the opening 2:13 minutes of their film. On the other hand the end to the clip is very poor and looks very amateurish. the man appears to fall before the actual blow is made which could be a result of poor editing or acting. Nevertheless, this demonstrates how accurate and precise one must be to maintain a professional look throughout the clip.