Inspiration from BEACON

        

  

        Recently, a film creator and judge of various student film competitions took the privilege of coming by to our media studies class. He was very engaging, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable about the subject of film and how to develop an effective narrative especially for beginners and students. The information and examples he provided to our class was very helpful in letting us understand how to improve our film opening, make the process more efficient and make it the final product enjoyable for the audience. To be begin with, he showed the class a short film, called “The Mighty” in which a young girl who has aspirations of being a super hero gets shut down by her mom. This affects her personality as she becomes more sad and closed off. Nevertheless, she is a superhero even without a cape as she is a hero when she saves a dog from getting hit by a car. The Mighty was a great example of a student film as it hits all the 5 parts of a plot line, exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. We then later dissected this film opening and talked about the good and the bad of this short movie. 

          When we evaluated this short film, I was able to grasp a better understanding of how our project should be handled. As well as small details, shots, and other aspects that can be implemented to make a difference. This includes many factors such as, lighting. Lighting can make a big difference in film and especially in our case where we have a horror film opening, it is essential that we make sure to have dark lighting and frame only the key elements of the shot. I remember the Beacon guy telling us that everything that is in a shot is planned. Whether it is a prop like a vase on a table or any other thing, it is something that was planned and decided to be put. He emphasized the importance of having control over every aspect possible in each frame. Furthermore, he emphasized the usage of audio and sound. In The Mighty, there were significant uses of sound such as, the edited sounds of bells when the little girl dropped her bicycle, the dangling of the collar of the puppy, or the sound of the car speeding up. All of these sounds heighten the experience of the film opening and it made me think how our film opening should also edit in sounds for even small things like this to add to the overall viewing experience for the audience, like when the pills drop in our movie, or the ringtone of a call when Jaden calls his friend.