Garage Door - ID# 190
Maine West
Dramatic Narrative
Entry Description
This is a short horror film based off a childhood nightmare.
Copyright Info
Recent Teacher Comments
- 4/28 12:28 pm - What works: Well edited – suspenseful, really pulled me in. The story is well written. I often ask students to challenge themselves to include dialogue, but this really didn't need it. What needs work: I understand garages are dark, but it would have made a big difference to add lights to your garage shots (especially from 1:19-1:26) You can always darken it in post. Overall, the sound was pretty good, but focusing on J and L cuts more would have cleaned it up. The shot at 1:48 was slightly over exposed. Final thoughts: I love how it hinges on a somewhat irrational fear that so many have growing up. My fear was someone following me up the stairs!
- 4/28 9:24 am - Works Well - Good shots and audio of the rain. Good repetition of visuals to build tension. Cool shot of person under car creeping out. Needs Work - The overall story and source of fear is not completely clear, which leads to the horror aspect of the film not quite working. Sound design of final scene is confusing. “Based on a childhood fear” is not really necessary, and feels like an apology for why it’s not very scary. Let the horror speak for itself.
- 4/27 12:36 pm - You have some really great shots in your opening sequence. One thing to keep in mind is focus. I’m not sure if you wanted the basketball in focus here, but it is out of focus. You have a few other shots throughout your piece that are out of focus. Always double check that what you want to be in focus is actually in focus! Your opening sequence also has harsh sound cuts between clips. I would suggest using J and L cuts. You layer/stagger your audio over your previous clip. This helps make it sound less drastic of a change in audio noise. Your editing has great pacing and you have some nice sequences. One thing I would work on is lighting. Some of your shots are lit better! If it is too dark and you are limited on resources, take a normal lamp and take the lamp shade off of it. That may provide a little more light than you already had. You can get very creative with lighting in many ways! Overall, you have a great story! Please see feedback below: 0:06 - The basketball hoop here is out of focus. 0:21 - Not sure if this was intentional, but the camera here seems to be crooked. I think at this point of the film, the audience still does not know what is going on, so it would be good to have the camera straight on a tripod. Sometimes, tripods may have little bubbles that tell you if the tripod is level. Otherwise your camera may have some indicators as to whether or not the camera is level. 0:31 to 0:33 - In the previous clip we see the character already put his hand up to his head. What we want to do here is called “match action”. This is where you match the action to the next shot. So in the clip at 0:31, you probably want to have a cut right before the audience sees the character’s arm go right up to their head. Then the next clip can start with the matching action (arm going up to the character’s head). 1:14 - Great use of SFX here! 1:45 to 1:50 - Here is another moment where we want to match the action from the previous clip. At 1:45 we already see the character pass the trash can, so in the next shot we wouldn’t see the trash can. 1:57 to 1:59 - Another match action needed here. In the previous clip we see the character press the garage button, but then the close up is of the hand touching the button. The previous clip needs to end right before the character touches the button. 2:15 - I would reframe this shot to a close up. We want to see that emotion that the character shows, and that can be conveyed through a close up. This shot also lingers a bit, so it can be cut by a few seconds. 2:32 - Great use of SFX here! Really adds to the suspense.
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