Feedback from Peers

The feedback we recieved from our peers was helpful as it forced us to perhaps notice things that beforehand we may not have noticed. It was also a good experience to see what other people's opening sequences were like and how they could possibly help us to improve our own.

The positive comments we recieved is as follows:

1. Lighting very good
2. Shots very good
3. Daylight good - easy to see
4. Close up of eyes good
5. Good costume 
6. Good location 
7. Simple but effective
8. Good costumes/shots
9. Good mis-en-scene
10. Good acting and characters
11. Good quality 
12. Good range of shots 
13. Good cuts 
14. Close ups good
15. Narrative liked
16. Continuity good

However we did also recieve some more critical comments, most of which will be solved in the final edit before submitting our film:

1. Some bits jumpy - this is down to the fact that the editing is not yet compeleted. Once it has been it will be a lot clearer in my opinion.
2. Audio is confusing - the audio captured in the film shots is going to be muted completely hence why we aren't too bothered about it just yet.
3. Storyline a bit confusing - it was not explained how so we don't understand how it is confusing in order to modify it. 
4. Editing wasn't smooth - editing isn't finished.
5. Some shots out of focus - this was meant to happen as it creates a certain mysterious atmosphere around Anna.
6. Could be more suspensful (when Anna is following Lucy) - once again will be rectified in final editing. The shots are going to be made shorter, there will possibly be more shot reverse shots etc.
7. Sound could be used before Lucy is on the floor - is going to be added when we get to editing that last little bit; the kind of thing we had in mind was to do like a blackout when the title of the film appears, with a scream then you see the final shot with Lucy on the floor.
8. Add more shots whilst walking  - once again, a problem that will be solved during last edits.

Recieving Feedback

After having Ms Thrasher watch our film and give us feedback, we realised that in fact there was quite a lot we had left to do.
For examle, she said that some of the scenes of the Stalker following Mandy were too long and needed to be edited down and a shot reverse shot perhaps to be put in - immediately therefore, we began to cut those down and have already out a shot reverse shot into our sequence but that still needs some more work. Also, we were told that the paning shot from Mandy to the Stalker wasn't a good idea so we have now cut that out and made it into two shots.
Also, there is a scene in the kitchen with Ted and Mandy which we were told was quite confusing as he suddenly changes position (due to two shots being edited together) which we needed to somehow fix and have done by making the shot more specific. We simply shortened the first shot so that the viewer can tell what is going on before they enter the front room therefore it doesn't appear as though we were trying to match the two shots together but instead were more just shortening the narrative but not in such a way that would be confusing to the viewer.
Also we needed to fix the sound up but we decided to do that last as it could go wrong and we would need a lot of help. 

Audio/Sound for the opening

Obviously we understand that one of the main important things in a film is not just what the audience sees on the screen, but what they can hear.

As we want our opening to be simple and effective and not have too many things going on at once we have decided not to use speech in our scene. Although this is a risky decision we have decided to use only an audio track throughout the geration of the opening. Accordingly, our next important decision was which song would we use? Before a discussion of coming up with possible songs, we decided that because our opening is set in the 80's era, we wanted a song that went with the cheesy upbeat vibe of the 80's, therefore we have come to the decision of using the song 'Sussudio' by Phil Collins. We feel that this song would fit perfectly with the costumes and theme that we are going for.

Because our genre of film is thriller/mystery we understand that this song is not the obvious type that you would associate with this genre, but this is something we think will work to our advantage. Because the song will sharply contrast with the events happening on screen, we believe and hope this captures the audience and although may confuse them, their confusion will encourage them to continue to watch. Our inspiration for this is 'American Psycho' when this song is played it contrasts with the action on screen and adds to the stylishness of the film.

What we have left to do

1. Finish off editing on Final Cut Express - we need to add titles into the sequence and check that it all flows properly and is believable and doesn't confuse the audience in any way. We also need to add the music to our clip and mute all of the different images making it a silent piece. 
2. Create surveys for peer analysis - when we show our clip for the first time we need to have it analysed by people in our group to tell us whether they believe it and would want to see the rest of the movie; we need to think about what questions we are going to include in this questionaire.
3. Re-edit the film - after having the peer analysis questionaires back and looking at the criticisms we recieve the film will most probably need some tweaking. This will result in going back to Final Cut Express and changing different aspects of our opening sequence.

Editing our sequence.

To begin with, editing was really easy and didn't involve much work for me personally as I was just offering opinions to Anna and Lucy who were doing all the technical stuff. We got on really well as a group and didn't disagree at all on what we thought we needed to do and where different clips should go in order to make the film as good as we could. However, today I was the only one in and may have struggled a bit not only with the editing software but with not having other people's opinion on what I was doing as it isn't only my grade we're working for and I didn't want to let them down. Furthermore, I had never used Final Cut Express before and struggled a bit with all the different buttons and things that I had to use. I also somehow managed to put the first bit of text onto the sequence which was very difficult as I started off not having a clue with what to do even to move clips onto a timeline and so I felt very proud when I managed to add the text onto the end. Now all that is left to do is the final tweaks to the clips and putting titles on it - an aim I think very easily done when we come back from half term.