EVALUATION activity 1. - Charlotte Woodward

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)


Here is a 9 frame grid of my project, "Number Withheld":

Frame 1:
This shot is the second shot which appears (excluding production logos) portraying that it is the scene that builds up the atmosphere, as the phone call shows its relevance to the first two minutes. The audience may be wondering what relevance the phone call has, and why it is shot from a mid-shot angle. It also reveals her costume - easy wear lounging around the house clothes, so the audience knows she's not going out anywhere. 


Frame 2:
This shot suggests the location of where the project is set. It shows that it is a detached house, its in the evening on a dull nights, no lights are on other than the porch light, suggesting that she is home alone. 


Frame 3:
This is the shot that reveals the first image of the stalker. As you can see, she is unaware that he is peering through the window behind her. At this point, she assumes it is her friend/boyfriend Josh on the other end of the phone, when it's not. As he comes into the shot, we see that he is on the phone, suggesting that it is him that is calling her.


Frame 4:
This shot is one of my favorites. This is a tracking shot, filmed from the field behind my garden. I filmed this from behind the fence to portray the stalker watching her. She is looking out the door window to see if anyone is there, yet she cannot see him watching her. 


Frame 5:
This shot is when she is locking the back door. This is right after the scene before when she is looking outside. As she gets suspicious she locks the door. This is filmed through a close-up shot. This way, the audience can see that something is going to/or has happened that has made the character lock the door. In this shot we can also see that it is a dark night.


Frame 6:
This is another close-up shot of the girl. This is due to the suspicious noise that she hears. She hears the sound of a door closing, and her facial expression shows this - shocked and scared. Her reaction shows the audience that something big has happened which has made her react like this. Immediately, we know that this is not a easy film to watch.


Frame 7:
This shot shows that she is looking up the stairs to see anything. This is right after she moves into the hall due to the loud door closing sound she hears. Timidly, she walks slowly into the hall and looks up to see something rather disturbing, and ultimately, threatening to her. To show her looking up suggests that she is going to see something, making the audience want to know what is there.


Frame 8:
This shot shows the legs of the stalker, and also half of his chest. The position he is standing at is a way of exposing himself fully to her. Now the audience are aware of what this film is all about. The fact that his face isn't exposed, leaves the audience on edge of what it is like. We see his face briefly in the window at earlier scenes, but we have never seen him fully. Now that there are no other filming scenes, makes the audience wonder what is going to happen next. 


Frame 9:
This final frame shows where my main titles come in. This is the title of the film, "Number Withheld", i used a simple font to enable the viewer to read it clearly, yet I used a title effect to that the words merge together separately, then descend out again once the titles display for around 4 seconds. This is shown alongside of a dial tone that is played to emphasize the title of a number, withheld.