A Stranger in Black

A short student film: 'A Stranger in Black'

BTEC Creative Media Production Level 3 Year 1 

The brief for this topic was to plan a short film and pitch it. This topic followed on from script writing. 

My idea for this was loosely based around a disappearance at a local historic sight. Out of 12 ideas, mine and 3 others got picked and I then had to direct my group in making it come to life. I used my own knowledge of the event and word of mouth, to help me look into it in more depth and know what to change creatively. I previously wrote a script about this idea and then modified it when the group got together. 

The challenges for this were mainly when we were out on location as it was a very steep hill and we were handling heavy and expensive equipment. I had someone come out to help with my dog who was in the film and that was also challenging trying to control him with treats to do what was planned for him. 

In post production, we used a lot of royalty free sounds, especially wind, as our own recordings did not sound as high quality as we would have liked. We also filmed a time-lapse recorded on an iPhone 6. But looking back on it, it didn't work out or look as good as we originally thought, and therefore if I was to re-edit it, I would scrap that scene completely. 

'A Stranger in Black' is the first short film that I have done and I am pleased with the outcome. 

Filmed on: Canon 700D, 600D and iPhone 6. 

Edited on: Adobe Premiere