Blood 'n' Bullets A2 Film project

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KXLshzezBrI

Remeber to change quality settings to highest possible and for some reason film is 5 mins long but actual footage is just over 3 mins

Abdul's Analysis

Reflective analysis

Abdul Khan

The film we created was a complex story about a terrorist carrying a bag in which there is a bomb. Several other organisations are sent in to stop him and retrieve his bag but end up facing off in an epic clash. Eventually one member is left and stops the terrorist.

The aim for this film was to build suspense and momentum in an action and thriller genre style. We did this by choosing the setting of the day at night to add to the mystique and the whole concept of all the different organisations being isolated from one another with different objectives. The use of darkness really added to the drama eeriness of this scene.

DIRECTOR (MAIN ROLE):

 My role as the director for this film was to visualize and direct the dramatic aspects within it. My role as director wasn’t in control fully of the direction of the film and more of the team I was working with doing their own thing. For the most part my vision was clear on characters location and story and the film worked out greatly.

 I wanted all the characters within this film to look unique so for this it was simple as each of the different organisations characters needed to look consistent for their look, as well as this the uniforms of these organisations all differ from one another as there are uses od DPM(disruptive pattern material) woodland camouflaged uniforms, MTP (multi terrain pattern) and solid black which all clearly represent different faction attire. The terrorist was dressed in more of a casual look which is what I suggested as modern day terrorists can be anyone and blend in well which makes wearing a hoody hard to convince for a terrorist.

The idea for taking the story to the woods was abstract but it worked very well as the woods itself can be looked at as a maze and contains its own eeriness. With the idea all characters have their own intentions and are isolated from one another boosts the thriller concept as they’re all trapped together in an unforgiving free for all. The location for this film was set in the woods as I mentioned earlier. This location was chosen as it pulls away from typical terrorist film scenes as how often do you see a terrorist in the woods. Furthermore bridging from the woods and the roads created more entanglement in which the characters were going to get into. By deciding this it gave us a unique selling point for our film.

It wasn’t my intention to have each all characters killed off until there was one less but I felt it wasn’t a good idea to begin with but in fact it built more concern about all characters in the film at how quick they were being killed off. Showing each member from different organisations can make the viewer take a side and instantly destroying that idea makes the viewing experience even stronger. To add to the realism of out guns we actually had to spray paint several of them as purchasing airsoft guns in this country requires them to be two tone blue unless you have a license. Infact one of the guns is actually a nerf gun sprayed black but you probably can’t tell due to the lighting concealing most of it.

My airsoft gun (I’m the brown guy wearing MTP with a pistol) had its own blowback mechanism which made the pistol cock back every time it was fire however others such as the terrorist didn’t, so we required for him to self-jerk the gun in recoil when he was meant to fire it. This meant during editing the muzzle flash could be timed and integrated in better. The setting was night time which made a lot of the shots hard to film; one way we countered this was by using multiple torches to highlight each members face. It worked especially well in close up shots as the highlights really drew out emotion on the faces. Examples of these were on Jack’s face (guy with full black outfit) as it showed how spooked he was plundering through the woods.

A lot of the shots we decided to use were repetitive in terms of being in exactly the same position but showing a new character, it was one of the decisions I regret now as the editor placed them soon after one another. Instead I think they would have worked better if each character entering the woods was done at a separate time period. By this I mean if one character enters, we see him progress for a few scenes the next enters and so forth however watching back it does seem rather dull and slows down the momentum.

Overall I was happy for the most part of our film as most of my vision was fulfilled. Slight areas could have been better but I think we hit our criteria on the story and visual look of our film. If I could have done things differently another time I would work more with the cinematographer and editor as it should have been me directing them rather than them doing their own thing. I definitely think that’s the part where my role as the director lacked but the film worked out in the end and for that I am grateful of my film squad/team.

Almost finished