RESEARCH - Comparison of 'Collateral' remake

Our group chose to remake Collateral. We done this by analysing the clip and then created a storyboard as a step-by-step guide to how we should remake the film. *Disclaimer: We aren't fully experienced/professionals in this department so therefore the end product isn't entirely fit for a king. Overall, we had fun creating it and it was an enjoyable experience. I think the remake came out a little below average seeing as this was our first attempt at something like this but it's not much of an issue as it was just a bit of practice anyways.

We found it quite tricky to replicate the clip precisely as factors such as location, camera-handling and props were an issue. For example, in the Collateral clip, we can see that the two characters are at an airport or train station and well this was obviously out of bounds so settled for Angel shopping centre as our setting. This turned out to be better than we originally thought as shoppers helped to make our remake similar to that of Collateral, making the shots appear busy.

Another issue that we had/I had was with filming. I hold my hands up to the terrible footage but that's only because I'm a rookie when it comes to cameras with more than one button. In the Collateral clip, the first few shots are very controlled and still, and aren't zooming in. However, the first shot in our remake is the first actual scene I filmed with the camera so therefore I was still getting used to its functions and the zoom button. Unfortunately, because time and light weren't on our side, we decided to quickly film each shot of the storyboard and then come back to the shots that were a bit.. amateurish.

But due to interruptions, distractions and other things, we simply forgot to re-shoot certain scenes and this is why the camera handling at the beginning of our remake is disgraceful. However it was only practice.

The length of the original sequence is 44 seconds whereas ours is 25 seconds. This is because when we were filming, many of our shots were no good due to slight mistakes on the actors behalf and on my behalf as the camera-woman so we had to cut and edit (using Final Cut Pro) the decent parts of the shots. Also some our shots were ruined due to shoppers getting in the view of the camera and blocking the actors.

Another issue we had was with the lack of props. In the original, the characters are fully suited and booted with suitcases and glasses whereas our costume is less formal. When we were creating the storyboard we had made plans on what props to bring such as: sunglasses, suitcases, suits etc. We were highly enthusiastic on remaking the original as best as we could however on the day, we forgot to bring them in which is why there is a lack of mise-en-scene in our remake. Nontheless we were still keen and eager in getting out and filming even without the props.

Overall, I think our final product isn't perfect but it definately is a learning curve as we made many errors which is great in a way as we will be able to refer back to these later when creating our actual thriller, and will be able to know what to do and what not to do and so forth. This has helped me learn a lot and develop new skills which I will be looking forward to using in the real thriller opening.

     ORIGINAL OPENING OF COLLATERAL

OUR REMAKE OF COLLATERAL