DepicT Video Textual Analysis

Depict Video Textual Analysis:

Camera Use:

This is our submission for the depict short film competition. This production is called "barking up the wrong tree", it is a complete POV production with many different camera techniques and angles. Although it is a production solely using POV, we made sure we still worked in some of the techniques and angles which we have learnt. In the first few seconds, we were originally going to have an establishing shot and then have it move onto the POV however, we thought we could use the POV as an establishing shot if we had the correct surroundings and sound effects. We decided to be walking past the sun shining through the leaves and trees. In the post editing, we used some sound effects such as birds tweeting and making noise along with other soothing and ambient sounds to set the mood. Throughout this production we had a mixture of different shot distances as there is movement and a lot of action going on in the one POV shot. The most part of the short film uses medium range to long range shots, however there are points where there are fight scenes which made it become a close up instead. Towards the end, we also changed the camera angle from a straight view to a canted angle in a worms eye view after the character is shot. This shows his weakness and also shows that the other character is superior and is in a position of more power to him. The movement in the single POV shot is multi linear as it has to make a lot of movement as it is used throughout the production and is used for fight and running scenes. We composited our camera work using the rule of thirds, we used a grid to line up our shots and make sure everything is centered so that nothing was missed out.

Editing:

For the production of our short film, we mainly used cuts as there was very few shots that needed to show that time had passed. We used a fade after the character is knocked out to show that he is waking up however, we used a custom fade which i made in after effects where there are two masked ellipses opening and closing slowly for a few key frames before they completely open to give the effect that the eyes were opening from being knocked out rather than just a usual fade. For this effect, we also used a cc force motion blur and black and white on after effects to create the effect that he is dazed. This fade worked a lot better in this production because it was all POV. Through the majority of the cuts we used a static bad reception transition so that it looked like it was corrupted footage.

Sound:

A problem we had with our sound was that the action cam we were recording with didn't record sound so all of the sound in this production was all added in the editing, post recording. The diagetic sound that we added in was mainly just rustling of the leaves that he was walking on in the forest and the rustling of the clothes. A few of the sounds we used were barely even noticeable such as; the birds flying away, the punching sounds and grunting. The gunshot sounds we added in were diagetic and were found on a free sounds website. The breathing, however, was recorded in the studio with a mic which we had borrowed from the college. The non diegetic sounds in this production were sounds and pieces of audio such as the music that slowly builds up towards the end which results in Luca being Shot. The only ambient sounds which were in this production was the ominous wind when my character wakes up after being tazed and the bird in the beginning. We added in the ominous wind to give and eerie and confusing effect to waking up in the middle of not knowing where. The birds tweeting were added into the establishing shot to set the mood of a relaxing walk. This relates to the end where the birds flutter and fly away, as the birds can be a metaphor for the main characters life. They are present at the start and throughout the birds aren't there as his life is slowly closing to an end. At the end, when the main character is shot, the bird fly away and this represents his life flying away as he dies.

Mise-en-scene and Lighting:

For our production, there were many props which were vital to the production. The main essential prop was the guns that were used throughout the short film. We used a gun throughout the production as it would make more sense with the script we had already used instead of a knife. Also, if we were to use a knife we would have to acquire fake blood and spare clothes so that our clothes were not ruined during the production. In the end we decided that if we used a gun we would not need to cover the weapon in blood as it can be a longer range kill and there wouldn't be any blood on the other characters other than the main character. This made it a lot easier for the production as instead of fake blood, we used adobe after effects and a video overlay to edit in the blood. For the masks and facial wear, we used a mask which the college already had, we also used kai's dads bandanna to wrap around his face during the production. These were fairly easy to acquire considering that we did not have a budget and had to make do with our own resources. In certain parts of the production where the mood and ambiance were important, we used both visual and audio to generate a mood. For the establishing shot we used the walking through the woods with the sun shining through the trees to show it was a calm and relaxing walk. The audio we added in of birds tweeting and some low volume vocals set the establishing shot before it became tense. After the main character wakes up confused at where he is, there is an ominous wind sound effect that shows it is no longer a nice mood and is instead tense.