watch Student Short horror advice

Hey,

I did a short film for university, and as it was the first film I've directed, I was wondering whether you could have a look at it... Maybe if possible give some feedback on what was good/ bad about it so I can improveon my future projects?

The link for the film is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfqBk9jTK-U

Looking forward to your responses

Sammi

Welcome. When the guy got his throat cut, was the murderer invisible. Cause from that angle we should have been able to see him??

Lighting, man! Horror is all about lighting.

In general, I would have liked to see a lot more fill lighting. You depended on ambient lighting (mostly practicals), rather than using good lights with fill or even simple bounce to create depth and dimensionality. Without fill, everything looks flat. And video needs adequate lighting, otherwise it just looks gloomy (and I do realize that YouTube's compression darkens up your work somewhat, but the lighting issue is still true). So some of your shots are just way too dark.

Also, recording audio in a "live" room where there's lots of echo requires lavaliers. No way around it. Some of your dialogue is either not crisp, or is simply lost in the audio mishmash.

That exterior shot at 4:54 is rushed, dark, and makes no sense. I see you're trying to make a passage of time, but it's very clunky.

There's no suspense around Den being the killer -- he's clearly crazy form the outset. What would have been a surprise is if he wasn't the killer. Ever hear of a "red herring"? What happened to the cops after they were called the first time? The ending is unsatisfying -- two people locked in the bathroom, one of whom has a phone to call for help. A fundamental horror rule these days is to figure out how to get rid of or disable characters' cell phones!

All this aside, you have a good sense of shot progression and editing, though you seem afraid of closeups -- the entire film is basically wides and mediums. Horror film also requires judicious use of closeups to create inner tension and for reveals.

A good first attempt. I can see you've learned a few things, but still have some lessons to gain through experience. Keep shooting!

thanks

Hey,

@DirtyPicturesTV thanks for the feedback about lighting and such! Our lecturer had mentioned that the lighting was a bit flat, but didnt really give us much info on how to change it, so this was really helpful, thank you!

A few people have mentioned that he was too obvious as the killer, and the intention was to make it a surprise, but I wasnt too sure how I could do this... I need to get more practice in the director ways in being a bit more creative me thinks

I never really thought about the phone thing, and as I'm planning a new film this advice has definitely made me more aware of removing any chance of contacting anyone else!

For framing with the close-ups, I totally understand what you mean... And will definitely use more close ups in the next film!! Thank you so much!!

@Murdock, I didnt really think about this before either... I suppose because I knew what it was in the script I understood where the character had come from originally, but didnt get this across in the film... He was supposed to come from his flat when the lights click off, but the angle isnt right! Thank you as well for your feedback

Sammi x

Sammi -- check out this website:

http://www.lowel.com/edu/

It's one of the most useful lighting tutorials I've seen online, because it has interactivity that lets you change the light positions to see their effects (especially the Foundations section). Check out, for example, Components of Interview Lighting to see how fill creates dimensionality, and note how the background is lit differently so that the foreground subject pops to create depth.

It has lots of other lighting examples to get you thinking about how best to use lights.