Creative Film Project - Evaluation

During this task, we chose to create a horror film about a college student who becomes so overwhelmed with work and life in general, he goes on a killing spree. We showed this by having the first minute of the short film full of repetitive shots, such as the card being scanned to get into the college, the work piling up as the film progresses to show how much work he has to do and a shot of a tree blowing in the wind with the grey sky in the background. We thought this would be evident to the audience that life has become repetitive and boring for the main character, and thus he wants a dramatic change. We then showed the 'snap' of the main character by the use of a firework clip. This emphasises the idea that something inside his mind has 'snapped' and therefore both relates to the song perfectly and the title of the short film, 'Before You Snap'.

The rest of the short film was dedicated to showing the killing spree that the main character went on. We included medium shots from behind that followed the main character into classrooms that then showed the victim being killed, and close ups of the blood to indicate danger. I think the shots were very successful, especially the longest shot which was of the medium shot, emphasising the idea that the audience is right behind the killer, watching his every move. In addition, the ending is dramatic and disturbing, featuring a walk through the darkness and then ending with a close up of the mask with the brightness increasing so the audience can see the detail. 


The music worked extremely well too. The non-diegetic music that we used in the background was "Yonderboi - Before You Snap", which is where we got the title of the short film from. We edited it so that the lyrics of the song fit with the shot on the screen; an example of this could be the firework shot, where the character 'snaps'. The fireworks are placed on top of the lyrics "Before You Snap", which works well with the main character's mental stability. We also have done this at the ending too, which is the close up of the mask.

Overall, I'm really happy with how the short film has come out and I'm pleased with both the editing and the camera work. I think the non-diegetic music relates to the shots very well and the diegetic sound of the firework emphasises the 'snap'. I think there is, however, a couple things we could do better next time, which is that of the sound and the camerawork. I feel like there should have been more diegetic sound included into the short film, but with the song in the background I really wanted all the attention to be on the lyrics and I wanted the audience to be captivated into the main character's world. I am happy I included the diegetic sound of the firework however. As I mentioned before too, the scene where the camera follows the main character into the classroom and where he kills his first victim is too dark. I did try to lighten it, but it didn't work very well. It can be said that the scene before of the victim walking and then the killer walking   is a direct contrast of light and dark, so to some degree it does work, but if I could re-do the film again I would definitely try to fix it. 

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