Hello, my name is Erin Watson and I had many roles in my group's film opening. I helped direct, create, edit, and an act in the suspense mystery short film “run”. My group chose the genre murder/mystery because it was something that really spoke to all of us. We could not have agreed faster on a genre and once we did we jumped right into storyboarding. My group members and I are a very creative group of students so coming up with a plot was quite easy and more entertaining than a challenge. It was not until after we had finished our film that we came up with a title. The plot is Josh trying to escape from a murderer, and since Josh is running in the opening scene, and since he is trying to “run” away from the killer, the name fit the occasion. During our whole film, it is very obvious to the viewer that they are watching a suspense/horror movie. This is because of the elements my group and I used to create a suspenseful feeling. Some of these objects were physical, and some were not. The props which definitely let the viewer know that this was a horror/suspense film was the baseball bat and the empty car. These two props both seemed very dangerous and had a big part in the story. Some other elements which weren't exactly physical are the suspenseful music that gradually builds up throughout the film and the characters emotions. My emotion (the killer) throughout the film was very dark. I never showed my face, I was always wearing a hood and sunglasses, and I was also wearing all black which gave a sense of danger. Another element which also let the viewer know that this was a suspenseful/murder film opening was the editing techniques. Maddie added a blue tone and darkened our film so the setting had a more “cold” feel.
As I stated before, I was the killer in this film opening. By myself (a girl) being a killer, my group and I are challenging the male stereotype for always being the “villain”. In nearly every murder/mystery movie, the bad “guy” or the killer is always a man, more than likely to show a sense of masculinity. My group wanted to put those stereotypes aside and make the killer a woman. Our video not only challenger gender stereotypes but represents a cultural struggle. The main character getting chased in out the film, Josh, is an African American male. The fact that our main character Josh is struggling and is fighting for his life subconsciously represents the racial injustice in today's society.
Our film opening definitely engages with the audience by making the viewer empathize with the character. Since our film is not just murder but is also suspenseful, our viewer feels as if they are in the place of the main character which overall makes them more engaged in the film. Our film is also very open-ended. There are many things that may be confusing to the viewer, such as if the main character made it out alive, why the car is empty, or why is the suspenseful music playing, but it is all to grab the viewer attention and hook them in.
Our product engages with the audience by hooking them in on something they are interested in- suspense, but then reveals the underlying message that racism is still alive today. We want our viewers to be entertained, and be on the edge of their seats, but we also want them to learn a lesson. My group successfully did this by having a very suspenseful film opening, but by making the killer a white female, and the victim a black male.
Throughout this project, I was able to teach my group a lot about the production which also taught myself a great number of things. Last year, I took Television and Video production and was introduced to Adobe Premiere Pro and became very comfortable with the program. When it was time to edit out the video, Madison, our main editor, did not know how to use this program. From what I remembered from the previous year, I was able to teach Madison which ended up refreshing my memory, and as Madison and I were editing together, we learned new things from You-Tube tutorials and from the help of our teacher, Mrs. Henderson.
My group integrated technologies into this project by using Adobe Premiere Pro to edit our film opening. For the filming aspect of our project, my group used Lily’s iPhone X which has tremendous camera quality. Madison and I also used You-Tube to look up new editing techniques to use on PremierePro when editing our film opening.
