Final edit: Soundtrack focus

As said in my previous post, the main amendments I need to make are to that of the music.  I am continuing with the making of my score, which I feel is almost complete.  

I have found a really haunting piece of music that I think works really well for the genre, as it is a subtle but at the same time noticeable. 

Later this week, my opening sequence final edit will be complete, as well as my audience feedback.  After that it's the evaluation, which I'm dreading! 21 minutes of me speaking....

Editing the final edit

After the peer and audience feedback, as well as some feedback from my teacher, I can now begin editing 'Withheld' for the final edit, which is due next friday.  
The main issue that I need to focus on is the choice of music for my opening sequence, as it cuts out rather suddenly and is very repetitive.  My teacher has suggested that I create a score - although it would be continuos, it would change tempo and pitch in accordance to the mood.  I really like this idea, and over the next couple of days this will be my main focus.  

Whilst beginning to refine some of my shots, I discovered that I could straighten them out and enlarge them using a wireframe.  I found this immensely helpful as, like demonstrated above, I was able to enhance certain parts of my footage.  I was able to take the phone from being at the side of the shot and a little small, to making it much bigger and in the middle of the shot.  I was also able to straighten up several shots, such as this one of a clock.  

Audience Feedback: First Edit

In class today we did some peer assessment on each others opening sequences, which I found really helpful.

These were the overall comments:

Positive feedback:

• "good position of titles"
• "love the story line"
• "titles are very creative"

Constructive criticism:

• "start music doesn't really suit the horror genre"
• "quite dark lighting in some places"
• "music stops very suddenly"/ "could fade out the music"
• "story line difficult to see- social realism at start?"
• "make the opening sequence clearer that it is horror"

Target audience feedback

As I asked very open questions in my questionnaire, I could not analyse the answers in as much details as I had in my previous audience research.  Despite this, I was still able to get some valuable comments and points of advice. 

The comments I received from my target audience were very similar to those I received in the peer assessment, but they were a bit more detailed. 

Positive feedback:

• "professional looking titles"
• "the titles are well spaced out and it makes the film easier to watch"
• "the suspense music is effective at creating and unnerving atmosphere"
• "I really like the title; it conjures up images of the unknown.  Very fitting for a horror movie"
• "the main character is clearly established; she is the main focus which let's the us know who is she is"

Constructive criticism:

• "the genre of horror is not made clear in the beginning, especially with the choice of music"
• "the music in the beginning doesn't fit in with the genre, it sounds too sad"
• "the music stops suddenly which makes it seem cheaply made"
• "the titles could be longer as you only just get to see the names after the effects have finished"
• "in the shot of the dress coming out of the wardrobe the lighting is a bit dark and you can't see her face"

From these points of criticism, it is clear that my choice of music is not effective and needs to change, as well making it clearer that the genre of the opening sequence is horror.  

None of these points have come as a shock to me, as I was expecting several comments about my choice of music.  I agree that it can confuse the genre of the film, as it would be more fitting to have a slightly more rock like song in a horror film.  We now have a week to edit our opening sequences further, and create the final copy.  

'Withheld' First Edit

Here it is! The first edit of my opening sequence 'Withheld' :




As well as completing my first edit, I have also created a questionnaire in order to get audience feed back for my opening sequence. 

 I decided to use open questions as opposed to close questions, as they allow me to great the greatest amount of detail from my target audience.  Through these questions, I hope that I will get constructive critism about things that need changing, and things that I am doing well. 

Editing completed! (for now at least)

After a lesson of solid editing, I have now finished the first edit of my opening sequence!
I will export the film tomorrow, so it will hopefully be on youtube tomorrow evening.  After this, I will blog about the audience feed back I receive.  This feed back from my target audience will allow me to improve my opening sequence, and make any changes necessary. 


I have added effects to all of my titles, and I think they look great :)


For the production company 'Light Feather Films' I wanted a feather effect or background to link in with the name.  Luckily, I found an effect on LiveType called 'float' which, as the name suggests, creates a floating effect as the words fall down.  I think this title looks more professional than it did before, and it was nice to play around with the effects.  

As the other production companies had effects and looked more advanced, I decided to do the same for 'Chat Noir Studios'.  Using LiveType again, I found an effect called 'Snake Charmer'.  I think this effect works really well, as it gives the title a little bit of excitement.   


Overall, I am really happy with my titles and think they enhance quality of my opening sequence. 

Guess What? More Editing!

Although no more footage has been edited, I have made a real change in terms of my titles.  As the production company titles looked a bit dull with just white on black, I decided to change the background.  

I think that this title now looks very effective and more professional looking.  The background now links in with the name of the production company, something that I feel has enhanced the quality of this title.  I plan to do the rest of the titles for the production companies in a similar way so that they are all of the same level and quality.  

There has also been a change in the name of the film.  After some consideration, and looking at all of the footage, I have changed the name to 'Withheld'.  I think it suits the opening sequence much better, as there are several shots of a phone receiving a call from a withheld number.  

In the next lesson, I plan to finish editing, and get the music track edited to fit in with the opening sequence.  Exciting stuff! :)

Editing, again!

After another session of editing, I have now edited 1:53 of my opening sequence! 

I am now in the closing stages of editing, but there are a few shots that I am unhappy with.

In this shot of the telephone ringing, I can see a shadow of the outside of my glasses in the top left-hand corner.  This has really irritated me, as apart from that fault, the shot is a good one - the text 'withheld' is clear and easily visible to the audience.  However, having asked several people in my class, they have said they cannot tell what it is a shadow is, and does not draw away from final effect of the shot.

This is another shot that I am unhappy with.  It is clear that it is not straight, and I do not feel that I can use it in my opening sequence.  I have two options on what I can do to fix this problem: 1) Either re-film this shot at the weekend or 2) see if I can make the opening sequence work without this shot.  It was not a crucial shot for the story-line, therefore I think I can alter the order of the shots and it not make a great difference.  

,

We have a couple of lessons left before the first edit has to be in, so I have to finish of the editing :)

Progression in Editing

After an after school session of editing today, I now have around 1 minutes 25 seconds of my opening sequence fully edited.  This is great for me, as I'm always worried about falling behind when it comes to the the computer side of things.  

I decided to snap this shot of what's going on so far, as I think it shows that I will (hopefully) be successful when it comes to using some of the continuity techniques effectively.  In the two shots here, I have the main character, 'Lola' looking into the mirror.  One shot in from the mirror's point of view, whilst the other is an over-the-shoulder shot.  I think these shots demonstrate well that I am always thinking about the continuity techniques and how I can include them in my work.  

:)

More Editing!

After two weeks of no blogging due to Christmas Break, it's good to be back!  Now that the holidays are over, the editing really begins.  The deadline for the first copy of the opening sequence is due January 21st, so it's important that I start to get my editing done.  
So far I have edited about 45 seconds of the final 2 minutes, so I am pleased I am making some progress.  
Below are a couple of screen shots of my up-to-date editing.

What's changed?
I've decided to order the shots slightly differently to what I had on my animatic for a couple of reasons:

• The story makes more sense in this order as the shots do not jump from one to another
• The titles fit in better and do not disrupt the flow of footage

I think with these changes, the final product will be of a higher quality and look better :)

Transitions

The main transition I have chosen to use in my opening sequence is one called 'Fade In Fade Out Dissolve' as I think it best shows the effect I was going for.  I use this effect after each title, as I did not want just a 'cut' from title to shot, as I think that's a little dull.  It's not a big transition, but I am happy knowing that it is slightly different from the rest of the footage.    It's a n easy transition to use, but there were several others that I also might use later in the opening sequence, just for a little bit of variation.  

In this screen shot, I am working on the wardrobe section of the opening sequence.  I am really please with how this part is progressing, as I have used quite a lot of match-on-action .