The export is exactly 22 seconds long. It contains a 2 second introduction, which is a black screen with the title 'A Messy Situation' fading in, in a scrawl-like, handwriting font, then cutting when the first sound is heard - a phone vibrate. I count the beginning of my film as this point, as that's when the sound starts. From here the film runs to use up the maximum amount of time we were allowed - 20 seconds.
I was generally feeling very confident about my film, with my only concern being that in some places it may have been cut a bit too quickly. E.g. from 9 seconds to around 12 seconds. There are a lot of shots within such a small amount of time, and things like the throwing of the make up in the book are on and off screen very, very quickly. I presented this concern to the class, and explained that in order for me to portray a sense of narrative I had to trade off the longer, establishing shots in the beginning with a lot sharper, snappier shots throughout. They responded saying that they didn't feel it was cut too quick, understood the narrative and felt it helped to portray a sense of panic.
The class liked my sound effects, particularly the use of the clock ticking and the heavy breathing throughout. Combined with the snappy edits they again felt it put across panic in a successful way.
Another positive comment was my range of shots. I explained how, due to my conclusions when researching, one of my aims was to have good cinematography through use of focus and camera angles, and I was complimented on this. Overall I had very positive feedback, and as a result I'm going to leave my film and submit it as it is. I could probably continue to edit and edit and edit...but that seems to always be the case with editing - you never feel completely finished.
Evaluation
I am happy with my film. I've created what I set out to achieve, and that is a film that fulfils the brief through having the correct amount of cuts, duration and is dynamic and interesting with successful sound effects. Throughout the process of making my film, I've developed it, and I've done this during both pre-production, production and post-production. When I started I wanted to simply wanted to have "someone tidying a room". I then developed it further, came up with a few shot ideas, settled on a storyline etc. Then whilst filming I realised how I had over complicated things. This forced me to reconsider what I was doing, take a step back and refocus my efforts on creating a balance on an interesting, obvious storyline that was not too complicated. I think I've achieved this.
As I mentioned above, the editing process turned into a bit of a toss up and a "give and take" between shots that had to be longer (eg. reading the reminder on the phone) and shots that I could afford to trim.
Above I have selected some shots in yellow. You can see that at the beginning and end there are two longer shots. These are shots that I felt I could not compromise on - they had to be a bit longer. The first shot, of the reminder on the phone, had to be long in order to allow ample time for it to be read - if it's not read then it leads to a misunderstanding of the film (e.g. why are they rushing?). The shot itself is only just under 1.5 seconds, but is quite dramatically longer compared to a lot of the other shots, as you can see. I felt I needed to keep the end shot quite long (in comparison) too, and this is because I wanted to avoid having an abrupt ending. I saw an opportunity within my shot of the hoover - where it comes right up to the camera.
When I saw this, I knew I wanted to create a quick dip to black, which would allow a nice fadeout to my film. This would allow me to end the film how I started it, too, with just sound. This portion of the film (the black screen) took up 3.8 seconds, though, which is a large chunk of time when I only had 20 seconds in the first place. This has again resulted in having to generously trim a lot of shots within my film, some of which I feel have suffered, and some I've had to cut out as it was becoming impossible to feature every piece of action within each shot.
Despite this give and take between shots, I've managed to include everything I felt was necessary and hit the requirements defined in the brief. If I had more time - even 1 more second! - I would extend those shorter shots I have highlighted above on the timeline. They play very, very quickly and I'm still not sure I like it. The sounds are still present and help the understanding of what's on screen, though.
What has benefited me when editing was my pre-production and how I planned to 'act' on screen. I have not really sped up any of my shots to try and trim time and increase the tempo of the film, instead I have stuck with the way I acted out the shots originally. I tried to be dramatic in my acting through over emphasising things (e.g. pressing a button, forcing shut a drawer) and I feel this has greatly benefited my film. It's made it feel more rushed and forceful, and has added to the sense of panic. This is something I feel has been successful in the creation of my film.
After I had a general edit of my film, I started to source and import sounds. I'd already planned what sort of sounds I wanted, it was just the sourcing of the sounds I found tricky. What didn't help was trying to decide whether I wanted to go the 'comedic' route or just have sounds that were more true to what was on screen. I went with the latter, as I liked a lot of the sounds that I recorded myself when timing. These felt a bit more organic and seemed to work well. If I would improve, I'd try to create a rhythm with the sound. I've seen this done before, e.g. the Lurpak advert, and I like the idea of it. It's very engaging, making someone want to continue watching because it's interesting and amusing. I found it tricky to create an 'environment' out of the sound I used, so I would definitely improve this.
I did use a "room tone" in my film. This is similar to ambient sound. It's the sound of a room when it's left alone, no other sounds/actions happening. The one I used has a very slight hum, but I used it over my entire film. This allowed me to mute clips that had sounds I didn't want in it, and avoid having moments of pure silence - instead, the room tone would be heard.
Overall, I'm impressed with how I have managed this product and I think it has resulted in a successful outcome. I have fulfilled the brief and created something I am proud of, even if there are ways I feel I could improve it. I've managed my time pretty well and come up with an idea that works well.
There are 33 cuts in my film.
There are 33 cuts in my film.
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