Screening Q & A

Feedback received:

Teacher feedback Joe: Darker skin tones generally excrete more oil than lighter tones therefore when the light bounces off it doesn't look as good. Therefore, use lighter skin tones in your films, or if using dark tones use good lighting and a diffuser.

I) Feedback by Nicholas: The cinematography was good, but there were some scenes where the shadow could have been emphasized more to make it clearer to the audience as to who she was; otherwise it has to be rewatched a few times.

II) Feedback by Simi: Also, the story was well displayed and it understanding, it had one of the best audio tracks within the group. It fit the brief of a psychological horror very well.

III) Feedback by Aisha: The script was pretty good but it could have been visually improved and since most of it was one shot. The concept wasn't very clear although the use of lighting worked well and it represented the genre quite well.

IV) Feedback by T'Rae: Overall, I quite like this film and think that the shot variety is good, you ensure that the camera is moving when she is dancing to fit this sense of a fast pace. I also quite like the close ups (haha) used to depict her emotions in the films. Very well edited, however, I think that the overall plot could use more horror elements in it. I understand that there is a ghost helping her to dance, but I feel as if you could have tried to make the ghost more ghostly, perhaps by using Visual Effects or by adding in a jump scare at the end.

My response:

I take all this feedback on board. The mention of darker skin tones I understand but disagree with it in the context of this film. I think the lighting reflects well of her skin tone especially in regards to makeup, the dance scene (for example) has good reflection, considering how it is hard to light up darker skin in Hollywood. Additionally, I agree that the cinematography was quite good too but there is still room for improvement, as well as the shadows, I also feel that my depth of field could have been more shallow too to emphasis her trance and her own world. I agree that the script was also quite well written to and that the next time I write a script, I will ensure that I take into account all of the script writing techniques so that my next film has a plot just as engaging. I also agree that it could have been slightly more scarier and of had greater horror elements and in some ways, I think that it can be unsuccessful for the slight disregard of the horror element. Overall though, I will use all of this feedback.