Short film research: (Whittling Away/Mystery)

 The murder mystery, short film, we chose was called whittling away. This film features, a father, a grandmother, and a daughter. To start the scene, the daughter is shown at a deserted lake, which creates a suspenseful theme for the murder mystery. This is a great way to create engagement for the audience. The short film progresses to a snippet of the girl drawing blood into the lake. The girl despaired for almost the whole duration of the short film until the plot twist at the end. The use of diegetic sound creates an outside scene for the characters. Our film will also use diegetic sound to create a scene. As well as no diegetic sound for our credit scene. Just like the short film Party to Murder, “the whittling away” there is a plot twist. This strategy is a great example of the other ways how to execute one for our film. In the editing of this short film, it goes back and forth between the daughter's and father's points of view. If our group decided to do this for our film, we might take a split screen into consideration, to show both character's perspectives simultaneously. Another thing we noticed. The whittling-away short film does not focus enough on the build-up of the mystery, for example, the clues. While doing research I found that every successful murder mystery must include the clues that solve the mystery. These clues help incorporate the audience making them feel like they have a role in the plot. Our group looks forward to incorporating the suspense that the murder mystery genre has to offer. In our short film, we will focus on the build-up of suspense but always watch out to not overdo it, which can cause the audience to lose interest.