Changes from the Rough Cut to the Final Cut

After the rough screening of our Thriller Opening Sequence we constructed a questionnaire for audience feedback, which entailed:

• Gender and Age
• Opinions on Thrillers?
• How do you view Thrillers?
• Was the Soundtrack effective? If not, why?
• Did the opening sequence appeal to you and make you want to watch the movie further?
• Were the titles used effectively?
• Could you spot any continuity errors, if so where?
• Any improvements?

We gave the questionnaire to each member of each group in the class and gained valuable feedback in each area. The class all fall under our Target audience which the first question highlights, and so hopefully, for the Evaluation's sake, we would have wholly positive feedback with a few minor improvements, which we received. The majority of the class gave feedback with no improvements to make other than fine-tuning certain aspects, such as the Soundtrack, and making the last scene flow more. We found the audience were intrigued by the opening and would watch it more, but a few said that having the title at the end makes it seem like a trailer, and we should instead place it over an image.

With this feedback, we proceeded to change a few aspects of our thriller to the final cut. First, we moved the title text and transition at the end ("The Case of Charlotte Adams") so it appeared over the last shot of the Detective looking around the room with the notes on it. This also helped to create a link between what was in the room and the title, i.e. the Case, so the editing allowed for the meaning to be slightly more apparent to the audience. We then edited the final scene of the forest/chase segment, where the Detective is spinning. Our feedback and personal judgement resulted in us concluding the shot was too blurry and went on for too long to be effective, so instead we replicated the shot where he spins at first, with the two shades standing in a semi circle in front of him, and reversed it, so he spins one way and then spins back. Ellie added a transition here that resulted in the Shades being strecthed and distorted, to make them appear like entities. This could be considered similar to in our inspiration films, Shutter Island and Seven, where characters are envisioned and their appearances are distorted (i.e. the children in Shutter Island at the Concentration Camp), and also similar to the Dementors from Harry Potter that I mentioned in the character profile. Not only did this cut the overall time of the sequence by several seconds, it made it flow more and become more conventional.

My attention then turned to the Soundtrack. Beth and Ellie went into the Soundproof room to record a gasping sound effect for when the Detective wakes up (with the help of a member of another group, as it had to be a male) whilst I fine-tuned the Soundtrack around the action. This invovled getting the timings of the loud crashes to exactly match the Shades appearances in both the Street section (First Encounter) and then in the field (Final Encounter). I also made the section where the faster pace kicks in, after the Ribbon is picked up, much quieter. Not only does this emphasise the difference when the Shade appears, it builds suspense as the kicks in the pattern are subtle enough to be almost like a heartbeat, and adds to the dramatic effect of the sequence. I changed the tempo of various sections to ensure that timings were correct and also adjusted volume levels of small layers of the soundtrack, such as the piano note when the Ribbon is picked up. We then added the gasp effect in Final Cut, as after several attemps in Audacity, even though it was at the correct timing, the exported version had the gasp in an entirely different location. In Final Cut, we then reduced the volume to make it more realistic and sound as if the character is more startled rather than completely exaggerated and fake.

This was all we had to correct to reach a completed version that we were happy with, and as a group are very happy with the outcome.