A Level Film Studies - Joanna Thompson

My film, Vendetta, although not being a huge success, did have its good points. I feel as though Vendetta contained some interesting themes and some well thought out shots, such as the pan of the graves and the pan along the medicine bottle. Key themes such as mental illness and death were included, although they could have been worked on. I felt my group lacked frequent communication, and our film suffered because of this. A lot of the shots were not81 as we planned in the story board because of a lack of resources, time and maybe even drive. If I had the chance to re do my film, I would make sure my group organised meet ups for filming, make sure every shot was to a certain standard and spend more time getting used to editing software and actually editing the film.

Shot list / Cinematography ideas shot 1- Tracking shot of an empty street - sets the scene shot 2- close up of persons shoe lying on floor - adds mystery and gives an idea of the genre shot 3- Pan across dead body, include face - shows audience a murder has happened, builds mystery shot 4- close up of eyes with tears - shows the characters emotions shot 5- close up of tear drops hitting ground - creates sympathy for the character crying shot 6- mid shot of bloody knife hitting the ground - shows audience the weapon used, idea of genre (build up of music as knife hits ground, when knife touches floor, quick transition to next shot) shot 7- Close up shot of main character (woman) - to introduce features of the character shot 8- Long shot of character (woman) - to introduce character completely shot 9- close up of kettle boiling -steam creates mist, adds to distortion and mystery shot 10- boiling water being poured into cup of tea - needs drink for medication shot 11- close ...

In sunny nunny, a small town near Birmingham filled with many troubled souls and a deserted town filled with youths and the elderly, a masked killer is on the loose, but the reason as to why is not clear, for a certain family of 3 there life is about to become torture, literally... But why? For what reason? This mysterious horror film will go through the journey of a single woman who may not be a part of the family, but has experienced everything they are going through before, after the death of her recent boyfriend. Leaving her widowed and distraught. After once trying to find the killer of her boyfriend and apparently coming out as un-successful as she told her family and friends, how will she cope with trying to help this family? Will she be able to solve the crime and report it to the correct authorities? Or is not everything as how it seems…?

The opening scene of Pan's Labyrinth starts with a shot of darkness this is then followed by the camera panning up to show Ofelia who is lay on the ground covered in blood, it shows her death which is filmed in reverse. This creates a sense of enigma for the audience and by showing the ending of the film in the opening scene, gives it a circular narrative. We then start to hear a narrative that gives us some information on what the storyline is about, at the same time, the camera zooms in on Ofelia's eye to cut to the next shot. The use of eyes  is  a recurring motif throughout this film to represent the type of world they live in – one where they see things but cannot say anything because of the fascist society . The next shot shows a dark fantasy world that the narrator is describing, the duration of this shot is very long because the camera pans to show the setting. The fantasy world that is shown is very different to what the audience would expect because it is a dark an...