DI. PARADOX (Visual World)

Logline: INTENSE, FAST, FLASHBACKS. DI. Edgar is a reluctant hero, due to his past mistakes on the force, his goal is to finally close the case, that let a criminal walk free with no charges. 

Characters

Police (DI): DI. Edgar is a reluctant hero, due to his past mistakes in the years of experience in field of policing, he has been put on desk duty due to his actions in the field for public safety and wants to gain trust by bringing in a criminal on the run to help the case in court. 

Criminal: Mentally unstable, should be in a high security hospital for insanity reasons.

Hostage (Victim): Previous victim family member. 

In the first episode of 'Line of Duty', they use handheld POV camera shot, which creates the idea of immediacy and intimacy with the viewers. This would be useful in my short film, as this could engage the audience into the film. I was thinking I could use this technique before the backstory shots, where I would zoom into the gun and use a dip to white transition to form the transition into a flashback. 

BBC 2 Line of Duty ep 1: Stopping a suicide bomber (24.09.2025).

Story Outline

• Close up of the detective’s face before transitioning with a white flash showing the criminal at an unknown time sat in front of a computer reading an article about how an innocent man was accidentally shot by a detective in a shootout, the innocent man on a framed photo on his desk, implying a sort of connection.

• Goes back to the present, focusing on the criminal, showing his hand shaking pointed at the detective, the focus shifting revealing the name of his badge revealing he's the detective from the shootout.

• The detective subtly moves his finger over the trigger, in response the shooter tightens their grip on the hostage, moves their gun from pointing at the detective to hostage, in response the detective loses his cool for a second, almost shooting the shooter.

• Focusing on the detective’s face, his eyes darting around the room trying to think of a solution before flashing back again, showing the detective arriving at the college, taking his gun out the glovebox as the detective opens the glove box (badge shows) he takes out the gun, hesitating to take his badge before reluctantly taking it.

• Now back in the present, the camera resting above the detectives gun barrel, his finger twitching on the trigger. The shooter glaring at him full of hatred, now a close up of his face, his eyes twitching in anger.

• Rapids shots of their fingers on the trigger, pushing it closer and closer to firing.

• Suddenly the shooter points his gun at the detective, closeups of both slides on their guns bouncing back as they fire before the screen goes black, not revealing who gets shot.

Visuals:

A variety of fast cuts between different camera angles, mainly medium shots, close ups, extreme close ups and cowboy shots. The main scene, the camera is mainly on a tripod to keep it steady and doesn't move or shake, whereas the opening uses handheld style to show the intense theme and emotion. The flashbacks will use tracking shots and static shots to show the change in time, followed by a monochromatic theme. This is to be able to tell the flashbacks from the present. 

Tools Used:

BBC 2 Line of Duty ep 1: Stopping a suicide bomber (24.09.2025).

https://www.myiconstory.com/metropolitan-police-badge-1-png/ (Detective ID Badge: 23.09.2025).

https://www.qrcode-monkey.com/ (Detective ID Badge: 23.09.2025).

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/uk_gov_crest_symbol_used_in_cour (Detective ID Badge: 23.09.2025).

Production Diary

On the 25.09.2025 (Thursday), I booked out the radio studio, as that had a big enough room, where the stand off could happen and every other room was booked out, which was annoying as we wanted to use a specific room (VP 114). Another problem was waiting for actors and props to arrive, luckily I had Prime delivery. However, props kept breaking due to actors messing around, which made the production a lot longing then expected. Moving forward I will make sure I only give props, when we are about to film the scene. This would help keep the production on track and cost less money in future productions. We used two cameras both Canon 250D's. This allowed the production to be efficient and allow us to work on different scenes (flashbacks). When working on the flashbacks I worked on the toilet scene and Fynn worked on the car scene. I had inspiration off Edgar Wright, by wanting to separate the shots of loading a gun and taking it out of the bag, speeding up the process and shortening the film. This would also add suspense to the film to build up the stand off and tell us about the characters reasoning. Following this we used the two camera's in the radio room to get both perspectives at the same time of recording for the stand off. I created a fake ID badge for the detective, while Fynn worked on the fake news article to add to the flashbacks, so the audience learn about the reasoning behind their mind set. For the police badge, I want to do I low angle shot, zooming in. This is to create a scene change to the detectives flashback or police article. I also wanted to interpret a cowboy shot in the stand off scene to show the hierarchy and have a protagonist and antagonist.

Editing LOG

When editing my I first wanted to show the detective being dominant by having him in the first show, using a wide angle shot mixed with medium as he walks closer to the door. I then wanted to show the detective looking through the window, using a close up of the door windows. I did this because I wanted to convey the plot of the scene being a action and to act as a filler/doorway for the next shot of the backstory appearing on a computer, establishing the plot of the film and reason behind before breaking it down further to draw my viewers in. This because having quick short shots directs the viewers attention into the film and you would want to know what is happening next. After the closeup of the computer, I then show the detective looking around the room, using a medium shot, I would then show the door closing from the outside to symbolise the detective is going to close the case. I then used inspiration from Edgar Wright to have a quick, short montage of the detective getting his gun ready before kicking the door open to see the hostage in the criminal arms by the next. For the montage I used close ups to have a clear focus of the weapon to create zero interruptions for my intended demographic audience. After the detective kicks the door open (wide angle shot). I cut to the criminal eyes, using a extreme close up, moving down his arm, while zooming out. I did this because I wanted to show the criminal in a valuable state by having one long shot. I then used 'dip to white' transition to show flashbacks of the detective and criminal. I also used colour grading, in the lumetri panel to create the flashbacks black and white. I wanted to do this because I wanted to create a simple separation of the past and present, I also wanted to show it in black and white to show the past was dark and desperate times for the detective and criminal. I used a close up of the detective grabbing the badge, establishing his role further incase the viewers missed the detail from the first shot. I would then add the detective getting out his car, to show his desperation to get this case closed. I then show a close up of the side profile of the gun of the detective hesitantly placing his finger on the guns trigger. This is to build up the climax further and act as a filler to the next scene of a tracking show going from medium to close up to his eyes. I did this to act a gateway to the flashback, as the 'dip to white transition is quick. This flashback is to the criminal perspective where he would enter the toilets. I used close up for the toilet scene to get his facial expression of determination to get pay back against the detective. I then followed this by using the same type of short, quick montage, inspired by Edgar Wright to build a fanbase for the criminal too, as well as showing the criminal just for wants payback for the detective killing his father. I then used a close up of the badge as a transition to the next shot, as I would harshly swing the camera on a angle into the badge. This was to act as a transition to the detectives tracking shot to a close up of the eyes. I did this because I wanted to repeat what I did to the criminal to show they both have determination. I then used a wide shot on a side profile of the two guns pointing at each other before going black with a gun shot sound effect. I did this because I did not want to show who won the battle, as no body should have the right to kill, creating a educational silent film.

Final Reflection

After concluding with this production, I have learnt to book out room in advance, as rooms won't always be free, when we need them, especially if we need a room with no windows. I also feel I improved my confidence to be more director like to get my ideas across in a world full of directors. I feel I need to continue to work on using a more diverse approach to camera shots, as I keep resorting back to the same camera angles from production to production. My skills will continue to grow and help me get to my chosen career as working with different camera angles will help me with formatting a shot list and improve my camera knowledge. I feel I need to continue to improve my script and backstory writing for future projects as I feel we went off the shot list and freestyled. I will do this by increasing the time I  take when planning out the next film/production. This will help the indented audience get to know the characters more even in brief moments.