First Cut and Feedback
On the 13th December we had to produce a first final cut to show the class, we orgianlly had doubts about our opening being able to work properly when put together, however Dan and Beth spent their time after school editing the rest of the shots so that we had a final cut to show. Dan also found a non copy right sound track of a voice of a women reporter speaking about a number of murders which had gone on which he then edited into our production where we had the TV playing at the start. Previously we had thought about getting rid of the shots with the TV because we were unable to find a way to represent a news report, and having the TV on a random channel made it irrelevant to our production, but by having Dan record this sound we found that the shots then work once again meaning we were going to keep these shots.
When showing our final cut we already knew that it wasn't totally finished for a number of reasons, for example we hadn't yet inserted our titles which were going to go at the end of the scenes inside the house, so there was a break in our piece where they are going to go. We also need to take a few more shots of the house to get some establishing shots to make sure we set the scene in our opening sequence.
Feedback
After watching our first final cut we recieved a number of feedback about how we could improve our work. Firstly it was noted that the thriller music which came in each time the killer appeared (twice) came in to strong, and sounding a little unprofessional, to change this we are going to try and find a more understated thriller music with a lower tone to it as this will create a build up in our production and also build tension.
Next some people commented on our use of POV shots for the killer. The feedback suggested that we did use the shots well, however we let them run for too long, to adapt this we are going to cut down these POV shots so they are of a shorter length, because at the moment they perhaps seem like too much at the time they run for. Another comment was that we should add in some establishing shots to show the audience the kind of setting and genre of the film, as at the moment it goes straight into her storyline. We had already noted that we wanted to do this so we were aware that we needed to do this. We have thought about having shots which show the killer walking towards the house so that we see the location and also the time of day etc. which will all combine to create successful establishing shots. Our missing titles were brought up in our feedback which again we were already aware of. Another suggestion made to us was the fact that would go potentially increased intense moments to build suspense in our opening. This could be done either in the river shots or when the girl is going up her stairs etc. Lastly it was said that we perhaps should either cut down the river shots as some of the shots don't actually need to be there and instead just make the section drag on for too long, mostly the shots which show Dan running after Beth as we did a number of these and combined them all together. Although, as a team we have thought about getting rid of the running scene altogether as it shows Dan again which can be too much after already seeing him killing a girl at the start and will look to repetitive, and possibly replacing it with a montage of shots showing newspaper clippings about girls he has killed, which would mean less dialogue and more shots which set the scene.
To Do:
- Change music to a less intense track
- Add in film titles
- Cut down POV shots
- Add in establishing shots
- Increase intense moments
