Depict Evaluation

The task was to create a short film for DepicT about absolutely anything we wanted as long as it fitted the criteria. Which is a short film that is 90 seconds long. It is free to enter short films into DepicT and it allows anyone to enter a short film. Our short film was a little skit called 'The Coffee Shop' which is a play on the action and western genre. The short is  90 seconds long so therefore it meets the main criteria.

In 'The Coffee Shop' the camerawork is very stylized. I took influence from directors Martin Scorsese and Sergio Leone on how it was shot and framed. It had essences of Leone through its framing of Extreme long shots and extreme close ups. I think the use of Extreme Long Shots and close ups help the short as it is Western inspired.

Extreme close up of Blondie's eyes from The Good, The Bad & The Ugly-Sergio Leone 1966

Extreme Long Shot from The Good, The Bad & The Ugly-Sergio Leone 1966

And it has essences of Scorsese through the use of the tracking shot which mine in 'The Coffee Shop' was inspired by the famous tracking shot in 'Goodfellas'.

Tracking shot from Goodfellas-Martin Scorsese 1990

Overall the camerawork is great. Its yellow and red colour pallet give the short film an appealing beauty. Like a painting of sorts. Only problem I have with the camera work is that at times when I have tried to stabilize it in editing the images can sometimes look unusual. And at times there is some digital noise in some editing because of me bumping up the ISO.

For the 'Mise-En-Scene of 'The Coffee Shop' I wanted it to be as natural as possible. All of the lighting being natural. That being the bright yellow lights in the Cafeteria to the slightly white skyline of the outside of the cafeteria.

I wanted the costumes to be normal everyday costumes as it would contrast the highly stylized tone and as there was a lot of people in the cafeteria it would have been hard to have organised a certain kind of costumes for extras.

A few shots are a tad over-saturated and could be cooled and the extras were a bit uncontrollable. Apart from that the Mise-En-Scene isn't bad.

The editing and continuity is great in 'The Coffee Shop' even with uncontrollable people in the background the continuity was still consistent. There was minimal continuity errors in 'The Coffee Shop' and the editing was very smooth.

There was only a few continuity errors in between shots.The most notable being when Dean was a few steps further then he should have been. It wasn't too noticeable and didn't break the flow. Any other continuity errors were just background extras who were or weren't in shots, which we couldn't control. 

The sound in 'The Coffee Shop' is just music.  There is no diegetic sound throughout the short. But the music fits all the elements really well. And it keeps up with the fast pace. And it changes pace halfway through which and it gets even faster. The base guitar in the background beautifully partners with the shots on screen.

Only con of the sound however is that the last 15-20 seconds don't have any sound which is because we didn't have time to finish the sound. But apart from that the sound is great.

Overall I am happy with 'The Coffee Shop'. It has a few flaws but for a shoot which was a run and gun shoot with hard to control extras it all turned out great. There is minimal continuity errors and everything flows together well from the cinematography to the soundtrack.