PSYCHOSIS Coursework (latest and Final Version)

Here is the opening 2 minutes of 'Psychosis', a thriller. Before I post the video these are the people who worked on the piece:
Actors:
Catherine Dawson (Jane)
Ryan Griffiths (Roy/Murderer)
Brendan Read (Nicolas Johnson)
Matt Finch (DCI Howard)
Will Driver (Psychiatrist)


Director/Editor: Will Driver 
The music I found was from a royalty free website: http://www.incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/
To the best of my knowledge Kevin MacLeod wrote the piece within the video, named 'Interloper'. This is the completed video 

  

The music was found with a quick search for 'royalty free music'. The piece adds to the suspense of the scene' The opening titles are reminiscent of many recent films particularly thrillers, simply listing the director/creator, as well as possibly a major actor in it (Brendan Read). 
I imagined 'BlackJack Films' to be a British Indie film company, or a subsidiary of a major company such as Sony or Universal.
I decided to just have a voice-over during the credits, partly for effect, so that the audience is straight in with the flashback, but also for time reasons.
The flashback is firstly a midshot of Nicolas in an office, and gives the illusion that Nicolas is a high ranking officer (he wears formal attire rather than uniform which confirms this), and that he is busy doing paperwork (in fact his script). 
The Shot-Reverse-Shot between Nicolas and Jane had to be filmed in different locations of the same building. I had Jane stand beside a blank wall to cover any evidence we could be in a building other than a bank (although her place of work is only hinted at during the opening, as Roy is trying to steal money). The tone at the end of the conversation was originally meant to be a scream, but I felt it would be more dramatic to have the tone. 
The conversation between Nicolas and his superior DCI Howard is against a wall for a few reasons. Firstly, it is the same reason as having Jane behind a blank wall, we are not giving away that we aren't at a certain location, and secondly if I needed to cut between different takes and they had moved, it would be less noticeable as a continuity error.
I decided to stick with a two shot rather than use different editing effects like a shot reverse shot, partly because they were in the same location but also because having a showing a conversation like this means that the audience is more likely to be focussed on the dialogue. Unfortunately the seagull noise could not be edited out, and new audio could not be used without messing up the lip-sync or sounding like it was a separate recording. I use a zoom before cutting to Nicolas' conversation in order to show something is about to happen. As well as this, the music begins, building up the suspense.
We cut between Roy and Nicolas at this point and I use a shot reverse shot at this point to introduce the antagonist. We do not see Jane in the shot, because I felt that we needed to see how Roy reacts during the conversation, making him a more villainous character. 
I have the gunshots cut DCI Howard off as a sort of irony, that they are discovered as he is singing their praises. It also made more sense to have it during that part of the conversation, as otherwise it may not have been relevant.
The second conversation with Roy does little other than to show his character, and to prove that he was the one that killed them, not the officers apprehending him.
Originally the scenes in the present involved Nicolas reading a copy of the local paper, but this looked to faked, and the addition of a psychiatrist shows that the character has been affected by his loss, and sets up the quest (the disequilibrium being Jane's death).


Much of the feedback I have received is positive, with people citing that it was better than my original effort in terms of quality and narrative. One criticism I got was that some of the shots looked 'shaky' due to having no tripods available at time of filming, and the camera type I used (although it was admitted at this was probably not my fault, and that the quality is the same as what the person did at college)


Examples of feedback:

• "i liked it how if you like Cat put great effort into the role 

  i think everyone did well" James Parnell (layman feedback)

"yeah its good im liking the acting" Alexis Mitchell (layman feedback)



"i think its good! its for media im guessing? maybe next time use a tripod if the sixth forms got one because some of the shots are abit shaky and were told at college not to hold the cameras when were filming" Rebecca Randall expert feedback (film studies student at Suffolk college)
"Could do with better cameras and microphones but I imagine that's not your fault! Titles at start a bit quick.Bar that it looks almost exactly like the college stuff I made when I was 16/17 so you're on the right track, if you considerwhat I make these days to be where the track should end up!" @HarveyDjent now @RalphTrombone
on Twitter. Expert feedback (Studied BA (Hons) TV & Film Production at the University Of Portsmouth.)