One Minute Film Evaluation: The Imitation Game

One Minute Film

Inspiration

For our One Minute Film challenge, we decided to recreate an interrogation scene from a film of our choosing. Our first initial idea was to recreate a one minute version of "The Dark Knight" Joker interrogation scene but we opted instead to try out something narrative driven. So we that, we turned our attention to the interrogation scene of "Imitation Game" where Alan Turing was being questioned about his sexuality. We incorporated elements such as flashbacks and montages, directly from the film along with some cinematography from Dark Knight to recreate our own version of The Imitation Game.

Filming

To create our One Minute Film, we had only had a video camera, tripod and smartphone to work with. We used such locations such as a meeting room to film the actual interrogation and another, smaller, crowded office with lots of files in shelves for recreating certain moments in the film for the montage. In the meeting room, we had two actors sit opposite each other in an oval shaped table to create distance and the coldness of the interrogation scene. We positioned our camera, stacked on a tripod on the table itself to film low angle and close up shots of each actor during their conversation. In the smaller office, we had the camera stood outside for shots when someone entered and inside directly behind two actors at a desk with an over-the-shoulder shot.

To record our audio properly-since sound does not capture well on our camera-, we only had a smartphone to work with, therefore limiting opportunists for certain sound design choices. An example of this would be the inability of deepening our voices for some of the narration and to make line sound more serious as intended originally. I only wish we had more knowledge with the editing software so we would be able to manipulate sounds in order for it to nicely compliment the footage and also the ability to add tints to the footage-specifically Amber-to overall achieve the authentic feeling of the film. Although for the most part, we really had no major difficulties working with the shooting equipment we had.

Verdict

Working as a four man group has been quite efficient. Despite me being absent form many brainstorming sessions due to a very bad-timed cold, I was able to catch up with the group as they were helpful in getting me up to speed on current progress. We did things very democratically, coming up with different solutions and deciding by the majority. This enabled us to make quick, efficient choices, resulting in the imminent completion of filming, leaving us with plentiful time to edit.

Overall, to conclude our 1 minute remake of "The Imitation Game", I particularly found the background soundtrack and edited narration sequences to be quite fitting as they contribute to conveying an authentic 1940's era. However, I would have liked it if we experimented with even more camera angles, particularly more close-ups to build to tension as illustrated by the official trailer.