Rough Cut

All my footage has been uploaded and edited, and my rough cut has been completed.

I showed my rough cut to the rest of my media group and got feedback from them all in order to improve my film.

The first question on my questionnaire (used for feedback) was 'Do you think that my film fits the thriller genre?'

Seven people answered 'yes', that it did. three people said that no it did not, and two of the people in this group said it was because the music did not help it reflect that it was a thriller. I may consider changing my audio because of this feedback, because I want it to be portrayed as a thriller to the best it can be.

My second question was 'What do you think was the best part of my movie?'

One person answered with 'the enigma' which is good, because it is one of the main conventions of a thriller.
Another person commented that their favourite part was the church scene, but they did not state why. Still, it is good to know somebody enjoyed one of my scenes!
Three people said that their favourite parts were the camera motions, when I walked with and panned the camera.
One of these people also stated that another favourite part of theirs was the colour changing, along with three other people commenting on my editing.
Two people said that the end scenes of my movie were the best bits, although they did not state why.

I will try to keep up the level of my audience's favourite parts so that I don't lower the standards of my product.

My third question asked my audience which parts of the movie they thought needed improving.
Two people left this section blank, which is a good sign.
Two people said that it did not seem like the opening to a movie, and that I should definitely work on this. I'll definitely do this because the whole aim of the project is to create an opening sequence so I want to make it seem like one.
Two people commented that my audio was a weak point. One person simply answered 'sound' whereas another one went into further detail, stating that the scream was slightly excessive. I agree with this person and definitely want to change the scream of my woman.
Four people said that I needed to make my storyline clearer. It definitely needs to be for my ideas to work, so I will work on this. I could add a voice over to make everything clearer for my audience?
One person said that my colour changing was a weak point, but a bigger group of people have previously stated that this was their favourite part, so I won't look into this one as much but to maybe make it clearer why they change.

My fourth question asked my audience if they thought that my editing helped portray my ideas well, and whether they thought my movie needed less or more of it.
One person said simply 'no', saying that they didn't think it helped portray my movie well, whereas another person said that it needed slightly less editing. Two people commented that they didn't understand the colour change editing, which I will have to work to make clearer. One person commented that they didn't like the ripple effect at the beginning and I will change this because it does look slightly too comical for a thriller.
Six people commented that my editing was good, and not to change it with varying comments like 'don't change the editing to more or less' and 'it is all very well done'.

My fifth question asked whether the audience thought that the audio fitted my movie well. I got mixed responses to this question.
Six people commented that 'yes', they liked it, whereas two people said that they did not like it because it didn't fit the genre and it didn't create suspense.
One person worried that it may be slightly repetitive, so maybe I could look for different audio or just maybe find some way to break the sound up, like a voice over would do. Another commented that my product looked slightly too much like a music video, so I will definitely have to work on making it look more like an opening sequence.

I then asked whether my audience thought that my product would do well with my target audience (teens to mid-twenties).
Whereas one person commented that my main character may be slightly too young to relate to my target audience, the rest of the answers were all yeses so I don't seem to have a problem here.

My final question asked if the audience had any additional comments, and some left me some.
Two people left comments saying 'good :)' and 'better than mine =)', and two commented that they thought it was good, especially my editing and when it came to the colour and blur.
One person left a comment saying 'It isn't an opening sequence though. Colours aren't necessary.' And I will definitely have to work on this. I definitely want to make my product more like an opening sequence, but the colours in it are necessary because it was one of my main ideas. I have had mixed reviews about the colour changes all the way through my feedback where people don't understand why they're there and don't seem to like them, so I will definitely try to make the point of why they're there come across in maybe a voice over. A voice over would also help the audience understand the storyline clearer, like showing that the young actress is supposed to be a boy and explaining why the deaths happen. It could also help it end on a cliff hanger to show that it is going to make it lead onto a movie, making it seem more like an opening sequence.

Filming

I've done some filming over the holidays (excluding the street scene, as I could not find a suitable date for all of my actors to come together for the scene). Unfortunately I completely forgot to bring my camera in despite leaving it right by the front door :-(.

I'll bring my footage in tomorrow and edit in my spare time, but until then I'm going to research some editing techniques for when I do :-).