First Edit – Audience Feedback

Key Points of the Feedback:

Question 1: What is your favourite and least favourite part of my sequence; why?

Positives: They are really happy with some of my quirky editing techniques especially the shots shown bellow. One person said that they ‘loved the entire sequence, it was funny and had a really nice flow.’ It’s really nice to hear this sort of general positive feedback from my target audience as I know that I have succeeded in creating something they will enjoy.

Negatives: They think that some of the audio is a little bit difficult to understand. 

Question 2: I am over the time limit for this project, what do you think I should cut out/ down and why?

Comments: Most of my focus group think that I should cut the shots that have no real purpose – some of the date 25 shots. They also think I should cut out the ‘date minus 3’ counter at the end as it’s confusing. 

Question 3: How well do you think my sequence conforms to an indie romantic comedy; can I make the genre more obvious?

Positives: Most people said they thought it was really funny, one person said they ‘wanted to see the rest of the film’ as they liked Mark’s awkward indie characteristics so much. They all got the ‘indie romance‘ side of my genre.

Negatives: One person made the comment that they would need more comedic scenes for the comedy aspect to come through. My response to that is this, considering that I was only allowed to do the first 2 minutes of the sequence it was difficult to make the it absolutely hilarious however I think that the quirkiness and light humor is still apparent through Mark’s awkward behavior. 

Question 4: I have made a date counter on the screen to help show that the sequence is not in chronological order, how can I improve it?

Comments: A lot of them didn’t actually notice the date counter and so want it to be easier to see. They also said that they saw how the counter flicked back and forth (on and off the screen) and didn’t like this as it didn’t look as professional and effected the flow.

Question 5: I used two types of titles, do you think this effects the flow of the sequence; how can I improve? (Prompt: Are they on the screen long enough so you can read them? Are they all of the same professional standard – including my film title 35 dates.)

Positives: They thought my titles were good and thought they were professional looking. They don’t think that the two types of titles effected the flow.

Negatives: They think that my film title doesn’t stand out enough as a few of them didn’t really take in that that was the film title. They therefore think that it should be on the screen for longer, be bigger and have something different about it to make it stand out from the other titles. 

Question 6: How well does the soundtrack fit with the video? (Prompt: Is the dialogue loud enough? do you like the music for a romantic comedy?)

Positives: They all really like my music choice and think it is appropriate for my genre. 

Negatives: As I said some people wanted the audio to be a little louder and clearer as at points they could not understand what Mark was saying. One person commented that they wanted there to still be an instrumental part of the music underneath the final section of speech however this is not really possible as I am not in contact with the musician and there are no instrumental parts of the song. 

Question 7: Any other comments you want to make? Any errors that you’ve seen that I haven’t asked about in the sequence? (Prompt: Editing/continuity/sound blips/ etc.)

They saw a continuity error which I too had noticed before. As Mark exits the pub he leaves his scarf behind. I have tried to cut this shot down so that you can’t see the scarf left on the seat as I was unable to re-film this shot. Another person made the comment that Mark has the same (or a very similar) bouquet of flowers on two separate dates. As I mention in my filming post this was because of budget constraints as the flowers were quite expensive considering my budget was non-existent. 

First Edit – Planning Audience Feedback

I asked a few members of my audience to watch my opening sequence and then answer 7 questions concerning improvements I could make for the final edit.

Question 1: What is your favourite and least favourite part of my sequence; why?

I asked this question to get them thinking about what they’ve just watched so basically as a warm up question as people can get a bit apprehensive if you open up with a difficult question. Also, if a lot of them say the same thing as their least favorite part there is obviously something I need to improve.

Question 2: I am over the time limit for this project, what do you think I should cut out/ down and why?

As I said I am quite considerably over the time limit so I need to cut down some things. If my audience is able to help me choose what it is I should cut this will be a weight off my mind as I don’t want to cut something that my audience actually really like. I assume they will suggest things that I am already planning on cutting but I will make sure to follow their advice.

Question 3: How well do you think my sequence conforms to an indie romantic comedy; can I make the genre more obvious?

Part of this project is adhering to genre conventions, something I think that I have done fairly well. however I want to know if the genre is obvious to non-media students and all importantly to my audience. Basically what I want to know here is is it funny enough? As ever any suggestions my audience have will be valued.

Question 4: I have made a date counter on the screen to help show that the sequence is not in chronological order, how can I improve it?

Since I made the date counter I have been a little worried about it; I’m not sure if it looks professional enough but the opinion that really matters is my audience. I think that the counter does need improvements but I’m not sure what to do so I hope my audience will make some suggestions that I can act on.

Question 5: I used two types of titles, do you think this effects the flow of the sequence; how can I improve? (Prompt: Are they on the screen long enough so you can read them? Are they all of the same professional standard – including my film title 35 dates.)

Throughout the process I’ve received some varied feedback from my tutors about my titles, I want to make sure that my audience’s opinion is the same as I think it is – that they like both types of titles. I’m also planning on changing how my title looks so if my audience have any ideas that would be great.

Question 6: How well does the soundtrack fit with the video? (Prompt: Is the dialogue loud enough? do you like the music for a romantic comedy?)

I have the option of using another recording of the dialogue to possibly improve the sound quality but I want to see if my audience think that is necessary. I also want to see if there are any continuity errors that I have missed.

Question 7: Any other comments you want to make? Any errors that you’ve seen that I haven’t asked about in the sequence? (Prompt: Editing/continuity/sound blips/ etc.)

This is the section for my audience to inform me of any other types of errors, like continuity errors, that I’ve made and I just haven’t seen. There might be something they’ve been wanting to say about it but I hadn’t asked the right questions.

First Edit – Peer and Tutor Feedback

Tutor Feedback:

Having watched my opening sequence my tutor gave me some verbal feedback:

As you know the sequence is over the time limit so you need to shorten it. Some of your cutaways to other dates seem unnecessary so you might want to cut some of these shots out. 

Peer Feedback:

This was a more structured feedback and I was peer assessed in four key areas – Titles, Cinematography/Editing, Introduction Of…, and sound. As well as comments these areas were each marked out of 25 giving a final mark out of 100. My score had an average of 93/100 which is not bad by any means. The constructive criticism I got was:

Titles:

1. The date counter should stay on screen in the corner throughout, rather than flicking back and forth.
2. Your main film title could be a little more interesting.

Cinematography/ Editing:

1. Some shots are a little wobbly / jittery so you might want to re-film those.
2. Your sequence could use a little more shot variation.
3. Some shots of your panning shots are a little too long and could cut earlier – this would also reduce your time.
4. There are some opportunities for some transitions.

Sound:

1. Mark’s monologue could be a little louder.

My Response to my feedback so far:

• I completely understand what my tutor is saying about a few shots being unnecessary, they make my sequence clunky and boring. The shot above is an example of one I am already planning on cutting as it is unnecessary and I originally included it because I was worried that my sequence might not be long enough. I will be cutting down/out some other shots but for now I’m waiting to see what my audience feedback will say.

• Since story boarding my sequence I’ve been a little worried that I didn’t have enough shot variation, in this feedback someone mentioned this issue. I think that although I haven’t shown every possible shot I could have used in my sequence, for example an over the shoulder shot which would have been filmed but due to the venue being closed was not,  I have used a variety of shots – CU, ECU, LS, WS, MS, TS, etc. And, I do have a variety of movement appropriate for the romantic comedy genre – pan, track etc. So unless this is a main point of criticism in my audience feedback I am going to leave the shot variation how it is.

• I agree that the counter should be on the screen all the time throughout the dates, having looked closer at it now it lacks professionalism and effects the flow of my sequence. I think that I know how I can make the counter stay on the screen and so as soon as I’ve had my audience feedback I will move on to reworking that area of my opening sequence.

• Mark’s monologue at the start should be a little louder to get the right levels. I never actually used the voice recordings from my phone so I think this is something I need to do, it will probably help with the clarity and get rid of the faint buzzing in the background.

Editing Session Six

I finished my first edit! And have uploaded it to Youtube – it will be in the next post where I talk about the feedback I have received. The final things I did today was to import my video into garage band, through the animatic production I had already constructed my soundtrack however I needed to make a few timing changes.

Editing Session Five

Today I finished everything that I need to for my first edit video to be moved onto garage band – I am 13 seconds over the time limit but I have a few ideas about how I will be able to cut this down, this will also be something that I can get feedback on. Some final finishing touches that I made were to move around the four videos on shot 26 as my tutor commented that there was too large a gap between them and that it looked a little unprofessional the way it was. I completely agreed, it was something that I had overlooked so I’ve now move it like this:

I have overlayed the date counter onto all of the dates – this was something that my audience said they wanted to make it clear that the footage was not supposed to be continuos, so I made sure not to forget about it. I’ve slightly changed the design so that the date counter actually moves which is how I had imagined it. I simply did this on final cut as after looking for a long time I found a good animation that worked for what I wanted. The date part of the title is still the same – folex girls font, which is the same as my title, and still white.

Editing Session Four

Today I was able to convert the remaining files into the types I needed to edit on final cut so that I can finish editing. There was a slight delay because I had to render my entire sequence so that I can see how it all looks together – this took about 20 minutes – however I was still able to get other things done.

I was experimenting with different ways to put together shot 26 (above) where Mark slumps down on his bed and I tried this putting them all on the screen at once, appearing slightly after each other going round in a clockwise motion. I think this really works and is appropriate to my genre as it’s fun and lighthearted, it also saves a little bit of time so that I’m not going too much over the brief.

I have finished all of my ‘overlayed’ titles and am fairly happy with them. They have turned out almost like I had had imagined, my problem is that the quality isn’t excellent and in order to get the title to fit in on the screen I had to make the actual footage smaller, I’m worried that my sequence might start to look a bit disjointed because of this, I will leave this for now and see what is said in my feedback. I now need to overlay the ‘date counter‘ titles.

Editing Session Three

Today I’ve started to create my ‘overlayed‘ titles using the text option in final cut. My font choice (girls have many secrets) is still in the system so I was able to use that quickly and move the title where I wanted it. I have also added a dip to colour dissolve so that these titles fade in and out like I the others do.

I’m happy with how the titles are looking at the moment and feel confident that a mix of both types of titles is what I and my audience want, however I will need to wait and see what my feedback says. The only thing that has been delaying me is that you can’t change the size of specific words so I have to make two different titles and overlay them to get the effect that is shown bellow. The job title is smaller than the name.

I would of been able to finish all of the basic part of editing today but unfortunately I found some files that has been missed out in the converting process (shot 25, 26 and 27) which means I will have to wait until I can get them converted.

 

Editing Session Two

I got quite a lot done today and am happy with my progress. Overall I think editing is going well and I’m pretty sure that I will easily be able to make the deadline on 6th February; if I get worried about finishing I will start to come in more outside of lesson times. The only thing that slowed me down was rendering times which is an inescapable factor of using final cut. Luckily I was able to edit most of todays shots without rendering so that it was slightly quicker.

When I was filming shot 8 (Mark spraying perfume on his neck – right) I really wasn’t able to get what I wanted from it so I filmed a few alternatives. The plan was to look at all of them in the sequence and see which I preferred. I think the funniest is Mark trying on his bow tie and then throwing it away (middle) so that’s the one I went for. I think that my sequence does need a little more humor to maintain the comedy aspect of my genre. I changed the speed of a few shots ever so slightly so that they don’t drag on too long – my actor for Mark moved a little slowly at times which means that I might end up going over the time limit. I sped up shot 7 and the new shot 8 by about 10% each, so really not much – just enough to make the shot fit into my time limit, but so fast that you can tell I’ve sped it up.

First Editing Session

I had to convert all of my footage into a different format but now I can finally start to edit.

Today I’ve been working to get everything together in the right order, deleting outtakes and takes that I’m not going to use. For now this is quite easy as I’m following my storyboard and script. I have gone back and reviewed what I’ve put together however but I want to get everything on the timeline before getting very ‘picky’ about things. I also want to see how close I am to the two minute brief so I know if I need to film more or cut some out.

I also started to edit the sound so that the voiceover was in place of the ambience in the park shots (2&3). This was quite easy and the timings that I had planned for each line to last (And therefore the video to be on screen for.) is actually rather accurate. I haven’t imported the voice recordings from my phone yet to see if they are better quality so I need to do that in my next editing session. I think that I might want to add a bit of background sound over those first shots as it’s a little empty and… depressing.

‘Pre-editing’ Work

I was unable to edit any of my footage today due to technical issues which I will hopefully be able to sort out very soon, however what I did do was update my production cards ready to put into my opening sequence with the new Panda Productions background.