The document summarizes the production process of a student film project. It describes how the students were inspired by the film District 13 and created an action film of their own about a pursuer and escapee. It discusses planning the story, filming techniques, editing in effects like slow motion, establishing shots, and targeting their film at a male audience aged 15-24 based on research. The students learned new skills in camera work, editing, and how to create suspense, tension, and realism through their shot selections.

1. By Emily Heseltine, Ayat
Rasool, Seamus Keating and
Hakeem Jeewoth

3. • Inspiration from watching the trailer ‘District 13’
• After draft planning and storyboarding, we came up with our new title and concept, we stuck to
the action genre but changed the storyline.
• Pursuit is an action film about two characters, one being the pursuer and one being the escapee.
• We decided as a group, step by step of the scenes we were going to include in our opening, how
it would start and how it would end.
• We were already thinking about the camera shots we wanted to include and how it would make
our film work and look its best.
• As a group, we then chose the roles that each person in our group was going to commit to.
• Then we decided the location we wanted the film to be based, and started filming.

4. • District 13 and the effects used in this film,
was what we based our film around.
• A French action film made in 2004 directed
by Pierre Morel.
• Known for its stunts sequences that many
were done without wires or use of computer
effects.
• Car park scene – was the scene that made
us want to use these sort of stunts in our
film.
• A challenging project to deliver.
• The camera shots used (look at photos to
right) motivated us on to apply similar shots
but made in our own way.

5. After research into our potential audience we decided to make our target audience 15 – 24 year olds we
did this because of the results taken from our questionnaire. The results of our questionnaire suggested
that our target audience was male dominated, the percentage of boys to girls who filled out
the questionnaire because they watched action movies was 73% boys 27% girls, and a mass of
the questionnaires filled out were of males aged 14 - 24 while the smaller percent were males in other
age categories or females.
More than 50% of people who did the questionnaire expected the opening of a action genre movie to open
with a Running or chase scene of some type, we addressed our audience by making this the basis of our
film.
Although secondary research suggested that the target audience for action movies were 15 – 40 year olds
we decided to follow our primary research since it was filled our by the same character profile as to who
we were going to be showing it to, therefore we needed to cater to their interests.

6. When we did our preliminary task we were fresh to the course, we had knowledge of few angles but were not
sure when to use them or how they effected areas of the story line e.g. a Low angle shot can make someone
appear high and mighty and an a long shot or wide shot can establish the location. We learned how to create
better continuity when filming a match on action scene, we have also become more familiar with effects and
features on final cut pro, e.g. how to edit a clip so that it is slow motion, how to add the REC effect so that it
looks like the camera is recording, how to edit and cut pieces of frame by frame to guarantee continuity. We have
edited a lot more on the main task than the preliminary task because the preliminary was short and didn't need
much editing.
We also learned that when filming, the camera person must keep a very close eye on the scene because as we
discovered after our 3rd filming session it is easy to break the 180 degree rule, we went back to correct this.

7. The editing was hard at first because none of us had actually worked with a mac or final cut express. We had to
go over the editing tools a couple of times before we could get the hang of it.
One of the main skills we learned is how to add the slow motion effect on a piece of footage.
The way we learned how to do this is we had to research and use another media source (YouTube) to figure out
how to add the slow motion effect.
This screen shot is of how we edited a piece of footage in order to make it
slow motion, in order to do this we had to isolate the clip and cut it into several layers
of video footage and then which each bit of footage we had to make it 0.5 seconds
slower than the last one and then when we got the mid point we had to speed it up
0.5 of a second, everybody in the group had a go at this.

8. As you can see in this screenshot shows the way in which we added effects to the opening to build suspense.
Here you can see that we used a cross dissolve between the first two shots to create suspense in the audience,
this effect makes the opening seem unsettling which creates curiosity and tension in the audience since they are
waiting for something to happen.

9. The extreme close up of this characters face was used
to make the audience uncomfortable and uneasy, since
an extreme closeup is an unnatural shot it can easily
create emotive sensitivity in the audience because it is so
intrusive that it takes the audience aback. We decided to
use the shot for this particular character because he is
meant to be working for the side of "evil" and by using
this shot we were able to make him look more menacing
and aggressive. This is also the only time you see
this charters eyes in the whole film clip, this creates a
sense of mystery. This particular credit was used to
introduce the character and also is in blue to connote that
there is perhaps an underlying side to this character
perhaps a frivolous side, blue connotes serenity and at
times can connote naivety, later on in the clip we see this
slight character twist from menacing to moronic, when he
tries to catch Hakeem and fails but decides to tell the
'boss' he is dealt with anyway.

10. In this shot we see the other character, it is not
an extreme closeup, only a closeup shot. We
decided to do this a closeup because it denotes
Hakeem as more innocent than Seamus and he
seems victimised as we can see his expression is
slightly weary as he looks back at Seamus. His
whole head is showing and in this way we can see
he is pulling away and walking away from the
action rather than the scene Seamus is in where
he looks intimidating and seems as though he is
instigating the action. Hakeem being the escapee
must always be able to get away, we decided the
backdrop would be a clear empty and open space
for this shot to denote that Hakeem can escape at
any point.

11. The screenshot here shows how we edited in the title
for the opening credits. When we were editing we
ralised that there was no connection between the
running in the city and the running in the grass. This
disrupted the continuity oif the film, which caused us
to think that putting the titale in the middle would act
as a leeway to the other scene.

12. We decided to use this shot
to exercise constructed realism, we decided
that the scene would look more realistic if
we showed the distance Hakeem and
Seamus were running and the distance
between them as they ran. This makes the
film more believable as now we created an
organised reality. For example if it was just
Hakeem and Seamus running through
locations it would not seem as though they
have been going very far, but by showing
the audience the distance they must run
they have a better idea of the length they
are running.

13. This shot was used as an establishing
shot. The shot shows the car park, the last
location in the clip. This shot makes the
audience aware of where the scene in
taking place. The car park is empty
and desolate builds tension and suspense
since there are no witnesses to the affairs
about to happen on the roof, and the
audience do not know what will happen
yet, so this scene keeps them in
suspense.

15. This shot is used to show the distance
between Seamus and Hakeem when he
escapes, we decided to leave the colour
for this scene to denote the emotions
Hakeem would be feeling such as
happiness and relief, the wall represents
safety for Hakeem as when he jumps
down he is no longer seen by Seamus
therefore he safe from any type of harm
or danger Seamus could inflict on him.