The project was to write our own film, giving a basic outline of the story, then to create a two-minute sequence of the film. The film is called ‘The “Sympathetic” Gesture’; this is a name I had come up with because it is regarding a gesture (involving money) from one man to his best mate. The reason we have made the word ‘sympathetic’ into sarcasm is because it doesn’t turn out to be a sympathetic gesture at all, as one man, the lead character played by Tom our director, betrays his best friend just out of pure greed. The film is a crime/thriller. We aimed to make the whole film relate to influential movies such as: ‘Reservoir Dogs’ (Quentin Tarintino, 1992) and ‘The Bourne Identity’ (Doug Liman, 2002).

I was given the role of cinematographer and was to shoot the main scene of the film, which involved an on foot getaway from a bank robbery. I tried to film this in the style of “Death Proof” (Tarintino, 2007), mixed with “The Bourne Identity”(Liman, 2002) with the cinematography by Oliver Wood. The problem I found with this was that it was hard for me to use my abilities to full extent; this was because I had to shoot quick, rough running shots in many different, clear, narrow streets. Whereas, I would like to have chose a few areas where I would have complete control of where props/people are placed and angles are shot. Another problem was when shooting the second scene of the meeting of the two friends, I allowed my friend to record the music by himself only to discover that we had lost all this footage due to over recording. Although we were able to reproduce few shots, with time against us, it was clear we were not going to get back much of the second scene and would have to make do, the dilemma with this was that we were not going to be able to make clear sense of the whole second sequence. Another problem was the weather. Unfortunately, between shooting the same scene, it had snowed, therefore we would either film it all again that day or have to wait until a later date without snow. We chose the second option and this meant that again time was against us and were unable to pick up as much footage as we liked and needed. Furthermore, there was feedback, which stated the fact it was hard to understand what was going on. Although this is how we intended the film to be, for example reminiscent of the storyline of Pulp Fiction (Tarintino 1994), I think was also due to the fact we didn’t have enough footage to put together, therefore the editor (Caitlin) found it difficult to combine the footage we had, in a logical order.

I think the successes of this project were that for one we had managed to edit, direct and produce the sequence how we had wished in relation to our chosen influences. Moreover, I had managed to get the shots, which made it look more like a professional high budget film rather than a very low budget college piece. I also believe I managed to get the shots which created the right mood, a mood of suspense and high speed action which along with the music(created by Alec Mctaggert combined with the expertise of production by Adam our sound engineer) in-gropes you into an on the edge of your seat, unable to blink, thriller like reaction. I got all good feedback for my cinematography, which I am thrilled about and boosts my confidence for a future role in this microelement. In addition, I believe, although there was not much of it, the second sequence (walking scene) is a success with Anton Corbjin’s influential movie ‘Control’ in mind. The beginning scene of Corbjin’s film is what I had tried to focus my photography on for the second sequence.

Overall, I feel, considering the problems we have encountered, this project has been a success and also, I believe the small amount of cinematography on show within this minor sequence has showed enough potential to be stated as an accomplishment and the film in general should be looked upon as a triumphant achievement. If I was to do it again I would allow myself more time for shooting and make sure I have more than enough footage, just encase I was ever to have similar struggle again. However, what I will take form this scheme is the way I was able to produce lots of angles which demonstrated the integrity of the character(s) and his/there surroundings.