Evaluation activity 1 - screengrabs

The title of my film is presented on a black screen this is not uncommon for films but not necassarily the most used or most effective for the majority of films however, I feel that with the black background the audiences attention is not drawn to anything else, further attention is drawnto the title with the flash, with this the audience is drawn to that point which turns to the title, keeping their attention. I added a sonar ping at the point the flash turns to the title, I thought that this would be an effective method drawing attention to the title but also to what it says, the sonar suggest searching for something, but the title suggests it can't be found. My title contrasts with other films titles as they are often shown on an action screen over footage. The font of the title is nothing special, which is different to most films as the font can represent the genre, i did not put this in because i felt with the title being at the end, a fancy font would have taken the audiences mind off of the footage, looking back however i think the title could have looked better with a defferent font.

The setting for Untraceable had to be somewhere isolated but not a million miles from civilisation as this adds a large amount of tension as there is chances for the hitman to strike without getting caught or being seen doing it, but not too isolated that the body will never be found. This is similair to the scene in 'The Dark Knight' when Harvey Dent takes the officer and his family to the warehouse yard to kill him. Although this scene in Batman is near the end the whole of untraceable would not be filmed in a woodland area like this so it compares well.

Agent two is shown here, he has to look inconspicous so we had to make sure he would'nt stand out, dressing in a suit (like your typical hollywood agent) staring at the hitman would give him away. The aim was to make him look like some sort of labourer, this is similair to other films where there is undercover work going on as in those films, they also fit into the enviroment and look like a civilians or a worker of norm, probably the most used is the repair man. we had to follow this procedure for all characters, the Hitman couldn't look too out of the ordinary or blatant but still had to stand out a bit, this is why he was wearing fairly formal clothes opposed to a suit and a giant gun hanging out of his trousers.


This screengrab is an example of the camera angles we used in 'Untraceable', the high angle shot is used to show how vulnerable and helpless he is just as he says he's lost the target. This helped in highlighting the caliber of the Hitman and that it takes more than an undercover agent to stop him. We used numerous other effective camera shots and angles throughout as well as a variety of editing techniques.Whilst editing i had to cut the each clip so it fitted well and cut out unnecassary footage.

 

  The chase really lets the audince know that the film is an action, the fact the two are running unlike the first chase scene really compares to the chase scenes in films like 'The Transporter', the chase is fast paced and has fast, loud music over the top which really gets the audience in the mood for the chase. The loud, fast paced music and sprinting is the first real bit of action that resembles a hollywood film, and is the first bit of action that really introduces the audience to the genre.

(introduction of character) The villain is the first character introduced in 'untraceable', this is common in action films although they generally have a scene with the villain commiting a crime or hanging around with a large group of thugs, despite this there is still some similarities between the two. When the villain is first introduced we do not know that he is bad, but this is suggested when agent 1 comes up behind him and follows him, and also by the villains attire.We are quickly introduced tothe third and final character in the opening, agent 2, we get the idea that he may be an agent as he is spying on the villain and reporting to someone about him, letting him know that he is going to follow him. once agent 2 has said he is going to folllow the villain we know he is likely to be part of  abig operation and the person he is following is a criminal. The introduction is not very deep adn detailed like some action films but it leaves a sense of mystery to the villain which works well with the plot.

(special effects) the long fade near the end whilst looking down on agent 2 resembles the hitman blinking, the blink is slow and calm, this use of special effects makes the hitman either seem really proffesional and is calming himself, or is just really calm, he is not worried about the fact he is about to kill someone and is not bothered at all.

The opening scene may not be the most exciting chase scene ever but it sets the audience up for what is going to happen next and introduces the storyline, the fact one person is walking behind another completely differently dressed person suggests that one is following the other, this makes the audience ask questions like 'why is he being followed?' at this point in time it is not clear which one of the two is the bad guy which makes it that little bit more exciting. Now that the audience are interested they start to find out more about the story and start to realise the man infront is bad.through the different shots they would start to get the idea the man being followed is not a petty theif but a very dangerous person. The audience are given ideas of what the characters are like which introduces them to parts of the story and gets them ready to watch more.

The chase really lets the audince know that the film is an action, the fact the two are running unlike the first chase scene really compares to the chase scenes in films like 'The Transporter', the chase is fast paced and has fast, loud music over the top which really gets the audience in the mood for the chase. The loud, fast paced music and sprinting is the first real bit of action that resembles a hollywood film, and is the first bit of action that really introduces the audience to the genre.