Reminiscence - Finished Version

Embedded underneath is the final version of our 2 minute film ready for submission as coursework.

The main differences between this and the second draft of our film are:

• An extended title sequence,with more varied shots and a climax that feels more natural.
• A shortened news scene.
• Addition of a non diagetic background track to the final scene.

Title Sequence Improvements

The title sequence became elongated in the final version due to the fact that viewers fealt the original sequence didn't provide enough information for them to understand what was going on. The secondary reason that we chose to extend this part of the opening was down to the fact that in the previous version the music didn't flow correctly towards the end and fealt like the jump of intensity was out of place.

By adding in several new shots and retiming some of the old ones we have been able to not only increase the amount of backstory our villain has but also managed to greater synchronize the on screen actions to the non diagetic musical score, with sudden crescendos rewarded with a sharp cut, or more subtle increases in intensity accompanied by softer fades.

Aside from retimings and new content, existing areas of the sequence were edited in other ways, the credits and calendar shots had to be revisited in order to tone down the amount of shaking these parts had, as in the previous version names and numbers became too difficult for the audience to read.

Shortened News Scene

The changes to the news scene were born out of necessity, extension of the title sequence meant that either or both of the news scene and final scene had to have shots trimmed or cut completely, even with the shot transitions in the final scene made smoother there was still about 6 seconds of footage that needed to be cut, and so segments of the news broadcast were cut, we tried to make the resulting broadcast look as seemless as possible and even without the cut elements the message is still conveyed well.

Final Scene Changes

When editing the final scene we knew that to improve it we would need to include some non diagetic background noise, if we did this we would add to the atmosphere of the shots and create tension within the audience. The two music clips used in this scene were both sourced from http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/ and serve to enhance the scene peaking at key points, the first clip used reaches a spike in volume just before Josh reveals he was only joking about being the killer.

As mentioned earlier when we revisited this scene we cleaned up the transitions getting rid of any unnecesary pauses to generate improved flow in the scene. We also noticed that in previous renditions of the scene we had not utilised the 180 degree rule and were able to rectify this mistake by horizontally flipping the shots of Josh on the phone.

Feedback

The feedback received from my friends family and peers upon publishing the opening to youtube and further linking it to my facebook profile was excellent. Many had seen the openings development from the raw footage to the final product, while others were just seeing it for the first time.

Comments from Facebook included:

AB "A Quality piece of work there young man! Very impressive!!"

JS   " That was quality Lew! The opening sequence is much better with the extra shots and less shaking, you get the Spolly seal of approval"

CR "This is awesome mate! loving the opening, very good editing and effects. Good work :)"

While a comment I received from a youtuber who'd followed the entire process said the following:

xxspollyxx "Quality mate, really well edited and the footage is superb! Especially like the new shots in the introduction with the DOLL"

Overall as the majority of feedback on these social mediums was received from members of the target audience I am happy that my film opening has achieved what it was supposed to of done to a high enough standard that the demographic I targeted would watch the feature length version.