2. Narrative
Our film features a none linear narrative in many
different ways, for example, this can be seen in the
news report which is a flashback of a memory Nicola
had.
It is also open to interpretation which order the first 2
minutes are in, as the film is all about clones
infiltrating society. This is why when characters are
wearing different clothes after the news broadcast
flash back, it is open to weather or not they are the
same characters, or simply just clones of those
characters. In truth however, this was actually just a
continuity mistake, yet it still works with our plot. This
is also the same for the could be clone of Boris who
dies at the end, is it the same Boris or is it a clone?
Time skips are also used in our film, skipping a week
from the first shots of the characters entering the
underground parking garage. This was use3d to cut
out unnecessary time.
3. Genre
The genre of our film could be classed as many
different genres depending on what aspects of the
film are looked at. For example, it could be seen as
horror with the distorted clone visions and bleak
looking colours. Alternatively, it could be viewed as a
drama or thriller with the way the characters interact
with each other and the way the story is told and
from what the characters experience and remember.
Finally, the film is set in the near future and could be
seen as Sci-Fi with the themes of clones and DNA
becoming weaponised by the government.
Also, the film could be split into smaller sub genres
such as post apocalyptic or even a B movie with how
crappy some of the acting is and how cliché some of
the characters lines are.
4. Cinematography
The cinematography in our film is nothing special or
ground breaking, but for the most part it is risky,
creative and pretty decent looking. For example, the
shot of Boris being dragged away is a good shot as it
encapsulates all necessary areas needed, such as the
gate frame to show Boris clinging on for life and the
holes in the gate allow him to be seen being dragged
away. The wall right next to it also allows Boris’
attacker to not be seen, leaving it open for
interpretation and discussion as to who it is. Lots of
films now a days like to throw in these types of shots
to try and spice things up so it’s not that un typical of
the genre.
Lots of the shots are static apart from most of the
PoV shots which have movement to show how frantic
the characters are in those situations which is an
often used technique.
5. Continuity and Editing
The pacing of our film is quite strange as it starts off slow and
eerie with a PoV shot from an unknown character and then
jumps to fast paced action with characters running away from
something, presumably the unknown character. The rest of the
film is then of a similar slower pace and doesn’t really change all
too much. For the first 3 minutes of a film, this is a strange
choice as most other films usually have 1 strict pace that they
follow for then intro.
There are also quite a few strange edits such as the flashback to
the news report and the fade in from static, these are not really
typically seen the way that they are in our film as usually they
are displayed on a source, such as a TV, however, we didn’t have
one so we made it as though Nicola was remembering the news
report.
Finally, we had a few issues with continuity not matching up, in
the form of clothes and the cars being in different positions,
however, the cars are hard to notice for the average viewer but
the clothes are not. One explanation for this could be that some
characters are clones of others and thus look slightly different,
meaning the audience has to deduce who is the real version of
which character and who is a clone. Once again, you would not
see this in most movies as they are more professional, however,
we were not and thus we had this problem, which was not too
much of a problem due to plot convenience.
6. Sound and Music
The sound is something I’m quite proud of on this
project, especially the music. For the music, in the
intro, I knew I wanted something creepy and intense
which is why I contacted my friends Famous Breathers
who make that kind of music, I also used another
track of theirs, this time going by the name Interbella,
as the backing track to the talking and eventual
conflict between Jim and Boris. The other music used
was edited parts of a Jerry Paper song which he let
me use for the news intro, Nankhatai provided by
Homeshake as it has an unsettling and distorted vibe
to it much like the news report. The final song used
was On My Planet, once again by Jerry Paper which I
used as it is futuristic, unsettling and features the
lyrics “we’re so technologically advanced” in a very
other worldly and detached voice which gives it that
extra layer sadness and makes it more unsettling.
The sound was mainly all natural and what we had
recorded with the film was used as it was good
enough. Most of it did have to be boosted in order to
be properly heard though but that was not a
problem.
7. Mise En Scene
The clothes that the characters wear in our film were
specifically chosen and prepared before hand, when
continuity was not being messed up.
We made sure to wear old looking clothes such as T-
Shirts and coats. This is because it was dirty down
there in the parking garage and it fit with the post
apocalyptic look of the characters being down there
for a week or so.
The location was established on day one, being the
parking garage, however, early versions of the script
did call for other locations too but we wrote most of
that out. The garage was great as it was naturally dark
and dim looking which fit well with the themes we
were going for. Locations that look like this are often
used in films of these genres.
Finally, the props we had, such as the knife and torch
were used as they are good survival essentials which
show how the characters are struggling in the harsh
times.
8. Typography and Iconography
There are two fonts used for the title of the film (DNA-
Pocalypse), one is Aparajita and the other is the font Hectic. I
chose both of these as Aparajita looked classy and even
scientific to show the complexity of DNA and I chose Hectic as
it looks, exactly as it sounds, hectic, and shows how the
apocalypse has caused Earth to be hectic. This title came from
trying to make a pun on DNA and apocalypse and we just
naturally thought of this name. It is also quite reminiscent of
The Sickening, the fake movie from the 2015 show Master Of
None which has a similar plotline to our movie.
I chose the white and green throughout the titles as it shows
the transition from clean and pure, what Earth used to be, to
decaying and rotting, what Earth is now after the apocalypse.
The colours also look good together on a black background.
As for iconography, well, the colour grading is very reminiscent
of horror as everything has a blueish cyan tint to look bleak
and hopeless. An isolated location is used much like in films
like Alien and Halloween of the Sci-Fi/Horror genres. A key
character dying within the first few minutes is also quite typical
of these genres such as, again, in Halloween or
