Editing The Preliminary Task

I was pleased with the final result after editing as i think our short film works really well for our genre and the situation given to us on the sheet. We used i-movie to splice our shots together, put them in order according to the storyboard and then remove the clips we did not want to include.

We discovered that our main problem with the shots was they were too dark and once we watched them on the i-mac it was hard to make the characters out. We changed the lighting and contrast on i-movie to make it clearer and now it is a lot easier to watch. We also added non-diegetic sound to increase the tension of the mysterious killer moving in which preoved very effective in establishing the sequence as a horror.

Filming The Preliminary Task

We were asked to film a sequence of scenes given to us and make a short film out of them. We were required to film and edit a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom they exchange a few lines of dialogue. The story we decided to film was a horror/kidnapping scene. To prepare for this task we created our detailed storyboard together, we also discussed where we should film it and decided on the music room as we could make it dark.

My role in the filming was to help Josh with the camera and lighting, as it was completely dark in the room we needed light on our characters. We used Close-up and medium shots along with the darkness to keep our scenes ambiguous and characters mysterious. We positioned Adam mainly on the edge of the screen to make it look like he was always moving in on the hostage. Redmir’s shots were mostly central to force the attention onto his struggles.

Film Research

Pan's Labyrinth, is a 2006 Spanish language fantasy film written and directed by the Mexican film-maker Guillermo del Toro. It was produced and distributed by the Mexican film company Esperanto Films.
Pan's Labyrinth takes place in Spain in May - June, 1944, after the Spanish Civil War, during the Franquist repression. Also present is the main character Ofelia's fantasy world which centers around an overgrown abandoned labyrinth. Ofelia's stepfather, the Falangist Captain Vidal, hunts the Spanish Maquis, guerrillas who fight against the Franco regime in the region whilst Ofelia's pregnant mother gets increasingly ill. Ofelia meets several strange, magical creatures who become central to her story and lead her through the trials of the old labyrinth garden. She meets a faun who says that he believes her to be Princess Moanna. He gives her three tasks to complete before the full moon to ensure that her "essence is intact" so that she can return to her father's realm where no mortal can.
Ofelia is played by Ivana Baquero Macías and was picked out of 1000 young actresses for the role. Guillermo Del Toro said that when he first saw her with her curly hair and deep dark eyes, he knew instantly that she was perfect for the role. The script was originally for an 8 year old but it was altered to accommodate her as she was 11 at the time.
The film is centered around Ofelia’s fairytale so there are a lot of fantasy themes in the film but they all have their twists which root it is a horror film.