The Set Up Final Draft

Untitled from Sian Williams on Vimeo.

This is the final draft of our film; even though it's improved quite a bit from our first draft, I feel there are still many things I'd like to change/improve on in order to make it more effective. Something which I'm really pleased with is the effect of the intruder, which we created by using a handheld camera in order to intrigue the audience and build an intense atmosphere. The handheld camera was great in the way that it gave the shots a shaky effect and cautious edge, as if the intruder was trying to keep their presence unknown.
Another improvement is the sound- we decided to cut the sound from the beginning and instead start the crescendo when the intruder enters the house; this provokes the audience into feeling uneasy and is much more effective. Also, in the first draft a backing track was used throughout most of the piece to create an eerie atmosphere- by changing this and cutting the amount of sound down, the sound that is there is much more effective. Overall, the sound is much more subtler in moments of tension as before it distracted from the realness of the piece.
In my opinion, I don't think the storyline is as clear as we'd like- this makes the twist at the end much less shocking as it still leaves some questions unanswered. For example, the intruder grabbing the knife was in fact to cut the cake, and we intended to show this by having someone cutting the cake and zooming in to finish. However, with the way the party scene was set up, it was quite hard to achieve this and we missed it out. For the future though, I'd plan the signs and codes more efficiently in order to make sure they came across as we intended.
Something else I'd change is the ending- when the protagonist is grabbed there should have been more tension built before the surprise party is revealed. We could've achieved this by having a long blackout with just audio (maybe heavy breathing) or some sort of struggle scene- by building this up, the twist would've been a huge shock and the audience would've felt relieved.
Overall, we are quite pleased seeing as this is the first film we've ever had to script/plan/produce. The experience was completely different to anything I have ever done as there are so many things to consider and research. I really enjoyed creating this film and has given us so many ideas for the future as you are always thinking of ways to improve the final product. I have accepted that our film won't be exactly what we'd imagined due to our budget and experience- but it has given us a greater knowledge of what is required to take an idea and actually produce it.
According to Stuart Hall's theory of positioning, I think our audience would've gained a negotiated meaning of our film as some of the signs and codes aren't completely clear; however, this is all part of the process and allows us to improve in the future.