The document provides an analysis of a student film project called "The Hidden". It discusses: 1) The original ideas for the project and how it evolved from its initial concept. 2) The production process, including challenges with camera work, sound, and adhering to the script. 3) An evaluation of the final film and trailer, noting successes with atmosphere but also areas for improvement.

1. The Hidden Evaluation
The original idea for The Hidden was a combination of two ideas. One was from me about a
group of schoolchildren who solve a murder and the other was from Jacob, which was that all the
characters in the drama would be inflicted with a mental disability, such as schizophrenia, split
personality, anger problems etc. The crime drama we produced only addresses one of these, since
only one of the characters is acknowledged as having any disability (schizophrenia, in this case). This
character was the one which I played.
The audience expectation would probably have been for the drama to be about exactly this
so it is very possible that it didn’t meet audience expectations, given that the original premise was
not followed exactly. This may have been because the script was in two halves, both written by
different people: the first half was written by me and the second by Jacob. It meant that the tone of
the film would have changed within only a moment of dialogue.
The camera work was good, since it was mostly operated by people who weren’t in the
scene, meaning that, instead of someone setting up the camera and leaving it, the cameraman could
work out where the focus should be while the scene is happening. It was clear what types of shots
would be used when. There is a part at the end of the first scene where there was supposed to be a
long shot which panned around to show the disappearance of a character. This was important
because it established a main character as a schizophrenic. Unfortunately, due to the spacing of the
room, the shot didn’t work, since it didn’t get the right position in shot. If we were to do it again, we
would probably have set the scene either in different positions or on a different set. The sound also
didn’t go well, since we didn’t have a microphone to record the sound. This meant that the
background noise occasionally drowned out the speech and was sometimes inconsistent with the
following clip. It had to be edited so that the sounds flowed into each other. When we were filming
inside, this was less of a problem, since we had no ambient noise to drown out the dialogue.
The style of the film is supposed to be dark and claustrophobic to give an air of dread around
the characters, one of which had lost his brother during the course of the film. This was achieved
well in the flashback scene with the murder through uses of sound in different ways, such as making
the audio go backwards at the point when my character was being beaten in the Geography block,
meaning that it was disorienting and scary to the viewer. Also, the emphasis on music at the point
when my character was murdered (through the silenced audio) meant that there was an ominous
feeling to the scene. However, for some of the same reasons, the film could be seen as humourous
in places, particularly in the scene involving Karne and Kieran’s characters, which was accompanied
by quirky, comic music, making the scene into comic relief for the viewer.
In our group was Karne, Kieran, Daniel, Jacob and me. In terms of team work, it worked well.
During pre-production, me and Jacob were writing the script while Karne and Kieran took location
pictures and started on the storyboard. Jacob and I were assigned to be writers and Karne, Kieran
and Jacob were responsible for the pictures and planning for the schedule and shots. Dan, being
absent for some of the pre-production, helped Kieran and Karne when he was here. Once into
shooting, Dan and I would alternate between who would be cameraman, since he was absent for
some of the lessons. Jacob, Kieran and Karne were on camera for most scenes, so they stayed as
actors for most of this part of the production. Dan was absent for some of the lessons so he had less
input in pre-production. However, quite often during shooting, he would be behind the camera,
making sure it was focused and positioned properly. In post-production, we all worked individually
for the editing, since we were all doing our own versions of the film.

2. While planning the episode, we had to take into account where everything would be filmed.
For the scene’s set at the murder scene, we had to choose somewhere next to a high building, since
the murdered person, in the script, was thrown out of a window first before being killed on the
ground. We chose the geography building because it not only was high enough to facilitate that part
of the story but also had quite a bit of open space next to it to allow for filming without interruption.
The first scene, however, was to take place at someone’s house. We chose Jacob’s because we
originally thought the lounge would be the right size. However we would probably have used a
different set instead, because of the aforementioned cinematography problem above.
Most of the shots used in the episode were long or medium shots at eye level. However,
exceptions were made in the case of the murder scene and one part of the investigation scenes. In
the case of the former, we used a low angle
POV shot to show what the victim could see
before being murdered. The shot also involved
sunlight obscuring our view of the murderer so
that we couldn’t see his face. This meant that
the mystery was kept for the remainder of the
episode. This technique was used all the way
through the scene, finding ways to obscure his
face, such as wearing a hood over his face and
always facing down. The latter also involved a
close-up of my character as he is told that his brother (also played by me) has been killed to put
more emphasis on the emotional impact on my character.
The trailer eventually involved using two images from a BBC trailer to make it seem more as
if it were an actual BBC production. These included the Original British Drama ident seen at the
beginning of most BBC drama trailers now. It also showed the BBC One ident at the end which had
the title imposed over it. This gave it a more authentic feel and meant that it would seem more real.
The research was important because it helped me
decide on what tone I wanted to strike for the show. Seeing
the difference between Castle and Sherlock meant that I
could decide on what style the show could be in. Life on Mars
was the closest comparison to the dark, foreboding style
which I tried to achieve and watching the case study was
helpful for this.
The storyboard had very little impact on what we
ended up doing for the shots, since we didn’t actually use it
during shooting. However, the script was helpful as being a
basis for what the shots should be like, since we would
usually read the script over and then decide the shots
on the day. The script also was written as more of a
basis for the dialogue than a hard copy of exactly what
was said. The schedule also wasn’t entirely stuck to
during shooting, simply because it wasn’t possible to
shoot the scenes in the order they were listed because

3. we didn’t have the locations for some of them. This meant that they were filmed out of order.
The shooting was mostly quick and easy, with only one take required for most scenes. This is
with the exception of the second scene, which was mainly due to either a technical problem or
someone forgetting their lines. We rectified this problem by using the script as a prop (a report on
the murder) and reading from that. As I said before, most of the angles and shots were decided on
the day, using the location we had and quickly working out the best place for all of the shots.
Editing was easy but time consuming, since we had to go through all the clips we had and
work out exactly what clips to use. I also had to edit the sound together so that all the ambient noise
flowed evenly, otherwise the cuts would be too obvious. In both the episode and the trailer, all the
music is original, composed specifically for this unit. It worked well for the most part, and probably
took the most planning. It also meant that once the music had been composed, I couldn’t make any
adjustments to the video afterwards otherwise it would be out of sync. With regards to the trailer
titles, the BBC One ident was edited to have the title over the top of the trailer which it was taken
from, without seeming to obvious that it had been edited.
I thought the outcome of the episode was good and it was in keeping with what I imagined
while in pre-production, with the music and sound effects having a good influence on the feeling and
atmosphere of the film. The trailer, I was less pleased with because I didn’t have as much time to do
it in, so it feels rushed and the music isn’t as interesting as the episode. In terms of my contribution, I
think it was good, since I wrote part of it and acted as two characters. It also felt like something I
would probably have watched if it was actually on television (if it had a larger budget, of course) and
I think the outcome was a good extrapolation of what was written in the script.
Peer feedback mainly praised the dramaticism of the trailer. It was noted that this was partly
down to the self-composed music. Teacher feedback highlighted the use of dialogue and camera
shots to illustrate the trailer’s goal but also gave a way to improve with sound, saying (correctly) that
the sound is occasionally uneven and this could result in confusion to the audience.