Final Cut Reflection

Above is the final cut of our film opener.

In this shot I wanted to introduce the lamp as something to take note of, as it's not only her single light source, but it's also relevant later on when it breaks. So to do that, I gave the lamp and the girl equal space in the frame, roughly half to the girl and her diary, and the other half to the lamp. The lighting in this scene is meant to be very dark, except for the girl, the diary and the lamp, which as you can see, everything beyond those few objects is pitch black. It's meant to represent her hopelessness and the dark situation she faces.

In this shot, I wanted to create a harsh contrast between this shot and each of the shots that came before this. So to accomplish this, I faced the camera upwards to the trees, as if it was looking up towards a more hopeful future, and captured a very bright scene with the sun as the light source. In opposition to this, many of the shots preceding this one were dark and facing down towards the diary, with the lamp as the light source. These binary oppositions of hope vs. hopelessness, light vs. dark, and nature vs. technology help create a large contrast between the park and inside the garage.

This shot is meant to emphasize the kidnapper's looming presence throughout the opener, and leave a lasting impression on the viewer. It's meant to leave the viewer asking the questions, "Who is he?" and "What is he going to do next?." To accomplish this, the final shot is a silhouette, leaving him anonymous, and emphasizing his stance and power, rather than his clothes or facial expression. He stands in the center of the frame, reinforcing that he is the most important thing in the shot.

From storyboard to final cut, the opener didn't change all that much. However, many of the shots in the first garage scene had to be adjusted, as in the storyboard the lamp is on the girl's left, where in the final cut the lamp is on the girl's right. This is because once we had everything laid out in real life, it just wouldn't make sense for her to knock over the lamp with the hand that she wasn't writing with, which was her right. These adjustments also meant that some shots that didn't include the lamp before, now included the lamp, which actually worked in our favor, as I think it looked better with the lamp in frame more of the time, as it helps establish its significance in the scene.

Additionally, the shots in that same scene are much tighter and zoomed in than planned out in the storyboard. This is because when we were filming, the shot looked awkward and empty when the camera was so far away from her. Also, the tighter shot helped create the anxious and tense environment we were hoping for.

Personally, I think the strongest element from the opener is the lighting work we did. The lamp worked really well in only illuminating what we wanted to in the scene, and lighting it up very well. Even though the original plan was for the RGB light we rented to do most of the heavy lifting lighting-wise, the lamp pulled through and created the harsh lighting we needed. Also, the RGB light helped a lot with the ambient lighting once the lamp broke. For this shot in particular, I really like how the cool dim light from the RGB light helps illuminate Mia's face just enough so you can see her expression, but still reads as if the room were pitch-black.

The first thing I'd do if I had a Hollywood budget is get some better makeup for Mia. We didn't really have the budget for a fake bruise kit, so we had to improvise with eyeshadow to give her a black eye, which in the final cut looks a little poorly done.