Rough Edit From Test Shoot - Video and Reflections

Good Points

• The montage in the first minute is quite interesting and introduces the story and character well
• The song used in the montage creates a suitable atmosphere and isn't copyrighted (because we recorded it)
• While it needs simplifying, the story is clear and fairly interesting
• The continuity was (mostly) very good and the shots flow nicely together
• We have a variety of shot types and lots of camera movement, making the sequence interesting technically

Problems

• We did not record atmos (background sound) so there are some points where the background sound changes
• We took longer than expected to get all of the shots that we needed
• We did not include many titles
• We didn't have any institutional logos at the start of the film
• The acting is not very convincing
• The dialogue is unnatural and the conversation doesn't flow that well
• We tried to cram too much into the two minutes
• We never included the film's title at the end as we couldn't figure out a good way to put it in
• We did not grade it at all so it doesn't look as good as it can
• We never decided on a font so the one used for titles is not what we will be using in the final edit
• The conversation was not very funny
• The sequence was longer than two minutes
• The editing was only rough to avoid wasting time, meaning it doesn't look very professional

Solutions

• Record and use atmos in the final edit
• Organise the shot list better and prepare the set for the shoot in advance
• Include more titles and include the logos for institutions at the start
• Make the script more natural so that the acting doesn't seem forced or awkward
• Simplify the sequence so that it doesn't last longer than two minutes
• Edit the sequence well (i.e. grade it and make the editing in the montage more clean)

What We Have Learnt and Will Change

From this, we decided to keep the main idea of our chosen genre and audience, but potentially make a completely different film opening sequence, because we feel that this one does not reflect what we want.
To do this, we will have to make a new storyboard and devise a new script.
From this we will have to think about the style, camerawork and new actors we will be bringing in because of it.