Hello and welcome to the day I'm sure we've all been waiting for, film review day! I showed our project to a number of different people, reaching out to individuals I’m not particularly close to, like my fellow classmates or other students I saw around me at lunch, to get completely honest reactions. In doing so, I was able to obtain a wide range of different opinions. I did ask my family and friends not to be biased and be brutally honest with me, but since that wasn't a guarantee, I did opt to ask other people for their thoughts. Before I begin, I would like to establish the fact that today was solely dedicated to receiving critiques and suggestions, meaning that I did not work on any editing and will focus on that specifically in an upcoming blog.
Alright, with that out of the way, I can start by working chronologically through the film. Many of the people I spoke to were in agreement that we should cut out the initial establishing shot since it doesn't really contribute much to the opening given that we never refer to anything outside of the subject's home in the opening again and because we are a couple of seconds over time. This suggestion is definitely something that we're currently taking into consideration proper to making a final decision, as are the rest of the propositions that I will highlight in this blog. On the topic of having a video that exceeds the given time limit, I did come across quite a few people who believed that I could shave off a few seconds from when our subject initially walks into the living room, since not much else, outside of the layout of the room, is revealed. If that were the case, we would likely cut straight to where he is already seated and just beginning to type at the table. When it came to the scene in which the apple was thrown into the trash can and the electrical bill was shown, I did get a few complaints that the clip was too short for them to really catch anything, so depending on how much time we have left over once we shorten a few of our other shots, I may need to refilm the shot and have it last longer. Additionally, when the subject was shown seated at the dining table, the embedded title on the laptop screen seemed to come in and out of focus, so that our audience had a difficult time seeing it, making it an issue that I will certainly address once I pick up editing again later this week.
In the scene that focuses on the stairs, a couple of people stated that they had trouble hearing the non-diegetic music I had input over the diegetic sound of the natural hum of life, that seemed to supersede it. With that being the case, I will likely lower the volume of just that clip specifically, or mute it entirely (a liberty bestowed upon me because of the fact that the shot contains absolutely no dialogue whatsoever), which I feel will be able to create a more ominous and suspenseful tone overall. Moreover, with regard to the fact that we are over time at the moment, I am considering shortening the clip of my own accord. Moving on from the stair clip, I did, like others that I asked, find fault with some of the transitions between shots, particularly in the closet and bedroom, such as when the subject "stepped over" the camera and it cut to a shot of them from outside of the closet, so I will need to go back over when I edit to make sure that all of the consistency between shots is down pat. Another thing people seemed to notice, which I picked up on rather quickly as well, was the fact that the speed of our second pan did not seem to match the pace at which our subject was moving, making it look very ill-fitting, so that's definitely something I'm going to work on fixing.
The last piece of criticism, or rather suggestion, that I received was related to the audio, where I was told that it might be a good idea to make the non-diegetic sound at the end gradually grow louder and almost silence the subject's cries for his mother, which I thought was quite interesting since it would act as a compromise to our original idea of overlaying older, copyright-free music that related to his lonely situation and could add to the creepiness we were already creating within the scene.
Aside from what's been mentioned as part of the review, I do still need to add in the voice-over of a news anchor (which will still be on the table so long as it does not drown out the non-diegetic music or the diegetic dialogue between characters) and the titles, before everything can be finally considered as being done. There were very minimal complaints about our subject's acting ability, aside from some very minor slip-ups that are easily missable (so I'm not worried about them), and being that most of our problems lie with the cuts, length, or flow of clips, I'm fairly confident that I will be able to resolve most, if not all of them during post-production editing. While I did receive quite a few critiques for our film, I do also accept a number of positive compliments about it as well, with everyone agreeing that our music choice was fitting, that the plot was understandable and easy to follow, and that they felt immersed and engaged in the storyline all throughout the opening.
I will say that as much as I appreciated the comments, I did also like the fact that I was able to receive unrestrained constructive criticism from people who I didn't know well enough to sugarcoat things for me. Likewise, I'm also grateful that the final task has given me the opportunity to learn how to accept the criticism I receive and use it to craft and plan out my next steps as I continue with editing, especially since one of the purposes as a filmmaker is to make things appeasing and understandable for the audience so that they can enjoy watching it as much as I did making it.
Since today was all about learning and seeking improvement, I thought Depeche Mode's song "Policy of Truth" was the best way to end things off, since I took all of the suggestions I received to heart and learned the importance of the "...policy of truth" (1990).
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