Unit 8 – Final Major Project

For my last, most important, unit of this course I have been asked to create a visual
production which meets professional standards and does not include reference to drugs,
swearing, or nudity. I chose to produce a short film called 'The Mind of a Kidnapper'. I
wished to both entertain my audience with the psychological scare factor of this piece while
also educating them on the risks all around us, what kidnappers lookout for, and therefore
what precautions they should take day to day to not end up in a bad situation similar to the
one I am showcasing. As well as the guidelines that my college had set, I made sure I
followed the ones given my Aesthetica Short Film Festival (ASFF) as I plan to enter my
piece in their competition under the category ‘Thriller – Short Film’.

My short film is set in an office building which is Jessica’s, the victim, workplace where she
feels safe. The kidnapping is conducted by the security guard, Christopher, who works there
too; he hasn’t been treated well by Jess as she believes she is better than him due to her larger
salary. This film is Chris’ mission to get her money, payback. The location’s I filmed at,
other than the public car park, were provided to me for free due to my family’s business and
my two actors were my parents. As a student this was extremely cost effective for me whilst
also being COVID-19 safe – even if restrictions were to change I could always be in an
indoor area with them and have access to the offices. I have featured my parents in previous
productions of mine and so I was also certain they were cut out for the job.

(how research developed my idea & did I do my topic justice) Prior to looking into my topic I
didn’t actually know masses about the in-depth theory behind it, although it meant I needed
to do more research it shows that there is not enough education on this topic despite how
relevant it is. My topic research was hugely effective in educating me on the subject, I used
this when writing the script – specifically how my characters were portrayed, Chris’ actions
toward Jess before the kidnapping, and Chris’ narration throughout the short film but mostly
the kidnapping scene. It is more likely that you will be kidnapped by someone you know
rather than someone you don’t, and often kidnappers come across as charming to the public
eye; with this information I decided to have Chris and Jess working in the same building and
Chris be very helpful and polite during the interaction between the pair before the
kidnapping. Another example where I used the topic research is the narrative quotes Chris
makes during the last scene, “Those shoes are going to make it hard to run” for example. I
found extensive lists of basic movements and outfit choices which present you as vulnerable
to an abductor. One of them being wearing high heels, which were shown in the clip of
Jessica that the narration mentioned was being played over.

(what I could have done better topic wise) The facts surrounding kidnapping that I
implemented into my production were all correct and relevant. I believe the only way my
short film could be improved in this category would simply be if I was to incorporate more
examples. As my production was only seven minutes long I felt that including any more
during the timeframe would cause each to lose their effect a bit. If I was to remake this
production I would elongate it in order to be able to include more of the subject matter.
Despite this, I am concluding that I completely did the topic of kidnapping justice and am
very proud of the education which will come from my short film. My topic is sadly so
relevant within the world, during the early stages of this unit a really unfortunate case of a
kidnapping began circling the internet, many articles and news reports were made and posted
about it however I did not see any films being produced. I am adding another type of media
the public has access to in order to be informed.
Looking into my characters in more depth, do they suit my story? Christopher Jones, the
kidnapper, is an underpaid security guard who works at Skyline Property. Chris is treated
badly by those above him but especially by Jess. He appears lovely to those around him, he is
very helpful and polite, whereas in reality he has a very dark inner persona. Being extremely
clever and organised, he stays calm throughout the process of the kidnapping which is
unnerving to oversee. Jessica Smith, the victim, is an overpaid business woman who works at
Skyline Property. Jess is very full of herself and expects to have everything handed to her
without giving anything in return. For example, during her interactions with Chris she barely
shows him basic respect.

I feel I have achieved multiple different things with my characters – fitting with my genre and
topic, and added a twist that my Aesthetica Short Film Festival will enjoy. The twisted nature
of Chris’ character coming across innocent and sweet meanwhile on the inside he is the
opposite connects well with my psychological thriller genre. A good comparison to Chris is
Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, in certain scenes he comes across as so
charming toward Clarice that the audience temporarily forget why he is in the solitary
confinement. You are more likely to be kidnapped by someone you know and kidnappers
often appear normal to those around them. These are examples of my topic research that I
have inputted into my characters, ensuring that therefore they are factually correct and thus
more impacting for my audience. Lastly, due to Jessica’s nasty behaviour some of my
audience may deem both of my characters as the victim. As much as this doesn’t fit in with
the real world it adds layers to my production, not many kidnapping stories include a similar
twist, it’s a “bold story that is told differently” (a quote from ASFF stating what they look for
in the productions entered to their competitions).

The survey I sent out has concluded that my target audience also believe my characters were
developed well. In order to make my characters as relatable as possible and therefore my
story as hard hitting as possible, they have to be shown as ‘normal’. Some measures I took to
generalise my characters were picking names for them amongst the most popular in the UK,
and their jobs being in an office as that’s the most popular within my target audience’s job
roles. I believe this comment shows the layers to my production, there’s lots of depth to think
about. This fits my story quite well, throughout there are a lot of ideas that can be formed but
no certainties – for example, what happens to Jess in the end. Many thought provoking
conversations to be had, Chris’ unnerving tranquillity and Jessica’s mean nature, bringing
karma upon herself being two about my characters.

(Comparison paragraph) My storyline was greatly influenced by productions under the

psychological thriller or similar genres. A few weeks before beginning this project I watched
‘American Psycho’ and found Patrick Bateman’s narration, and thus personality, fascinating.
Receiving the unfiltered view of the villain, rather than the victim, is something I hadn’t
previously seen and I found this much more gripping. When brainstorming ideas right at the
beginning of this unit, looking back on American Psycho is what formed ‘The Mind of a
Kidnapper’ in my head. The narration throughout American Psycho has been filmed and
inserted really effectively, sounding like an inner-thought rather than normal dialogue. I
aspired for my narration to have the same effect – I didn’t want it to sound out-of-place in
terms of audio change, I aimed for it to run smoothly. Considering this was the first time I
have attempted such an effect, I strongly believe the result I finished with was a success. To
create the inner-thought effect I added a slight echo to each audio clip via Adobe Audition. I
found it less easy to make the a smooth transition between the normal clip audio and the
narration audio. I decided to remove the audio from the clip that the narration was being
played over which was somewhat successful in showing that the overlayed audio was an
internal monologue, not being spoken aloud. With practice, I believe I would be able to insert
‘conscience narrations’ into my future productions to the professional standard that appeared
in ‘American Psycho’.

At the beginning of the genre research I executed to help further my idea, I watched ‘The
Silence of the Lambs’. I had previously looked at a scene in this film in the codes and
conventions research section in the Be Creative unit, looking at the high and low camera
angles used during Hannibal and Clarice’s encounters. I looked at the whole of the film this
time and found that high and low camera angle use came out on top as the most effective
technique. I have used high and low camera angles in my productions plenty of times to show
who is superior and who is inferior in a scene and so I know how to produce this effect to a
really good standard. An example of where I have used it in this production is the first scene
of Chris and Jess during their working day where Chris has been shown from a low angle and
Jess has been shown from a high angle; Chris is cancelling Jess’ hair appointment to ensure
the company won’t realise she is missing when she doesn’t turn up, here he majorly has the
upper hand with his extensive planning he has put into this kidnapping to practically make it
fool proof. Directly comparing this to the scene I analysed in ‘The Silence of the Lambs’, I
give myself credit that the two are at the same standard.

Another production I touched on was ‘Psycho’ by Alfred Hitchcock, I only looked at the
shower scene in this film however it both inspired and reassured me greatly. For my ending
scene in my production I did not want to show any actual violence as I didn’t deem it as
necessary nor did I feel comfortable with it; this scene showed me that it is possible to
produce a thrilling scene without having to record or show anything horrible. I mentioned in
my research that I was going to change shot frequently to slightly disorientate my audience, I
did do this however not at the level that Hitchcock did - my scene had far less shot changes
than the shower scene. In that sense, my production is slightly less good. But on the other
hand, I believe I brought the standard back up a lot by having the last clip very distorted and
frantic. I ended up with the same effect outcome as in the shower scene just using a slightly
different method.

The category I am entering in the Aesthetica Short Film festival is 'Thriller (Short Film)' ,
there's no specific guidelines for this choice and so I simply had to stick to the small list of
general guidelines - therefore, I could let my creativity flow without many worries of going
outside of the rules. The guidelines are as follows: If you are entering the short film category
your production can be no more than 30 minutes, the regular submission deadline is the 31st
of May, and your piece must have been completed within two years prior to the competition.

As I was able to follow all of those requirements easily I focussed on a sentence they said on
their about us page, “We are looking for bold stories that are told differently and inspire
conversations”. As I would like the best possible chance of winning their competition it is
important for me to go the extra mile in order to stand out. Firstly, receiving the kidnappers
unfiltered thoughts and not much on the victim is not commonly shown, kidnapping stories
are usually told mainly including how the victim feels throughout the stages. Secondly, the
genre of my short film is bold – psychological thrillers are not a casual, easy watch for most
people. Due to the education factor of my short film it is likely to start conversations between
friends and family trying to share what they picked up from my production. Lastly, kind of
covering everything, during Jess and Chris’ interactions Jess does not come across as the
lovely victim you’d expect, she isn’t very nice at all. I firmly believe my story covers
everything they are interested in seeing.

Throughout this production I was lucky enough to not face many problems, due to my
forethought planning I did not have to change planned filming dates, locations, or actors to fit
COVID-19 regulations. The problems I did face were lack of research data, uncontrollable
lighting, and background noise. When writing my anticipated problems I mentioned that I
was worried I would not find enough information on kidnappers – how they choose their
victim, their motives, their personalities, etc. However, the actual research problem I faced
was in the target audience section. As I had a very specific, and I can see now uncommon,
audience range there was not much secondary data to be found directly on 16-34 year olds.
To tackle this problem, I made sure I took on board all of my useful secondary research
findings and primary research results.

A lighting problem I faced was the light shining through the large window in Chris’ office
and therefore obstructing what I wanted to show in the scene. In order to solve this I decided
to move the camera position I was filming from to the side rather than straight front view. I
ended up preferring this position and so in a way this worked to my favour. Another lighting
problem I occurred filming the scene of Jess and Chris entering their workplace it was
midday and there were no clouds in the sky – the lighting was intensely bright. So much so
that I found the footage I was receiving was very low quality and could not be used in my
production due to the high standard of work I wished to achieve. Prior to this, when I was
choosing my filming dates I made sure each I picked gave me a long time on set and thus
room for things to go wrong. This meant that I was able to film that scene later in the day
when the sun rays weren’t as strong. Fortunately, both of these issues were just small hiccups
that I managed to solve easily and quickly.

Following on from having a lighting issue during the filming process of the arrival scene, I
also had to deal with having excessive background noise. I was filming on the side of a busy
road where there was rarely no cars going past, I took multiple retakes in hopes one would
have less noise than another but unfortunately they all had some sort of obstructive sound in
them. This scene had to be filmed in daylight, of course, and so waiting till the roads were
less busy at night was not a problem with me. I decided that editing was my best option, I
imported the audio clips into Adobe Audition and used the auto heal effect. I found that
because the audio distortion was throughout the whole clip rather than just one small section,
the healing effect ended up making this issue worse as it just ruined the sound all together.
The solution I found in the end was to cut up the audio and lower the audio gain when there
was not someone talking. The sound still isn’t ideal but I am happy that I managed to
improve it somehow.

I feel I have seen an improvement in my skills right from the start of this unit. The idea
generation did producing three separate storyline ideas was relatively easy, I was able to
produce three strong ideas without struggling and seeking help; “lockdown romance”, “secret
life of parents”, “the thought process of a kidnapper”. The ideas themselves covered three
different genres which gave a wide range of styles to choose from and each idea was really
relevant right now thus giving me a big audience no matter which I chose. As I would have
really liked to produce any of the ideas the choice was completely up to those who replied to
my survey. Being passionate about each idea is a really good situation to be in, no matter
which I created I’d still thoroughly enjoy the process. Focussing more on the idea that I
chose, I have made sure it is unique within its topic. Focussing more on the kidnappers
thoughts and feelings over the victims is new and exciting and portraying my victim as not
very nice rather than a sweetheart is bold and thought provoking.

Another example of my progression is how I have become familiar with new professional and
elaborate editing techniques. Rather than placing text on the screen all at the same time I
generated a typewriter style transition so that each number/letter appeared on the screen one
by one. Similarly, rather than having the credits flash onto the screen all at once I applied
rolling credits to the end of my production. Both of these techniques were new to me and I
have retained them for my future pieces, they are the little details that really make the
difference in a production being at a amateur versus professional standard. At which, I now
fall into the professional category. In my opinion, the most impressive new effect I utilised in
my short film was adapting my normal footage to look like I had filmed it on a CCTV
camera. I did not have access to a security camera to film with during the production stages
and so I had to get creative, it was important to me that the clips were clearly CCTV images
and so I tried really hard to produce this. In order to generate this edit I layered a lot of
different changes to my footage, being: black and white, posterize time, timecode, venetian
blinds, and a wave warp. Each added to the overall presentation and the time it took was
100% worth it, the outcome was so much better than I had hoped and I am extremely proud
of myself.

Lastly, my organisational and time management skills, weaknesses that I have had in every
other unit, have massively improved. This unit I found lists being an absolute saviour, to do
lists made the amount of tasks I had feel more manageable as I just wrote small bullet points
for each. Also, I planned my weekly blogs and this evaluation in bullet point lists before
properly writing them which made things a lot clearer in my head and therefore the writing
flow better. Proof of this process getting me ahead is in my production schedule, the three
days leading up to the 14th of May edit submission deadline I was just working through
feedback adding minute adjustments to my short film to make sure it was absolutely the best
standard I could achieve. This was a much better position than I have been in before and I am
so happy that was the case for my final piece, despite the importance of it the final stages
were fairly stress free and I did not have to rush.