Inital screening

Howdy mate!
    Welcome back to another blog of mine! We are truly coming to a close soon. I will miss you guys for reading my blogs. Today, I will discuss the feedback and constructive criticism my group has received on our film opener after presenting it to a few people.

The person we presented our film opener to was our friend Eric Jin, who is also in our AICE Media Class, but is working with another group.

I asked Eric three overall questions about our movie opener: How did it make you feel? What aspects of the film worked well and which did not? To what extent did the film meet or subvert your expectations?

How did the film make you feel?

Eric told me that our film made him feel really sad for the person who died. He said that he could sense the tragedy and grief the characters were facing, causing him to also feel a bit sad. He understood the characters (in terms of their different characteristics/traits), plot, and conflict really well.

What aspects of the film worked well and which did not?

As for the actual production of the film, Eric said the camera work and skills were good. The film was cinematic and aesthetically pleasing to watch. He further added that he could tell the plot was planned and thought out meticulously because he was able to understand the storyline completely without any confusion. However, he thought the film was not dramatic enough, considering that our film is under the drama genre. As a result, he felt that at certain times our opener was a little bit boring and too slow-paced. He continued to say that our soundtrack and overall sound choices were spectacular. He really liked the song that we incorporated throughout the whole opener (Ocean Eyes - Billie Eilish (cover) by Alice Kristiansen). He said that the lyrics of the song matched the mood we were trying to set, which was sadness and depression. An aspect that he thought did not work well in our film was the dialogue. He said that since our movie opener was intense and emotionally filled, there should not have been dialogue. In a way, the dialogue seem to "break" the tension and suspense we were trying to create.

To what extent did the film meet or subvert your expectations?

Before watching our film, Eric was expecting a super dramatic film because we told him that our genre was drama. He also thought that the plot was originally going to be about moving on from something, based on the title. As a result, he expected mainly sad music with melodramatic scenes. Likewise, since we incorporated many elements from the drama genre, a majority of his overall expectations on what the film was going to be were met. 

Feedback?

It is always important to ask for ways to improve when trying something new, such as creating a film opener. As a result, I decided to ask Eric what were some aspects we could do better on and fix. The first thing that he said we could improve on was our acting. He said that Raina had unnatural dialogue. In other words, my tone when saying "Oh my gosh!" did not match the depressive mood we were conveying and that it was too "high-pitched" for the scene. Another part that he said needed work was Ngoc's facial expression. He said that her facial expressions were too static, making her acting seem robot-like in a way. Lastly, one final thing he suggested was that we should have filmed at a different time for the beach scene. For instance, rather than filming at sunset, he thought that we should have filmed during sunrise since the lighting would have been dimmer and more suited to the fact that we were trying to portray grief and the aftermath of Jahzara's death.

Overall, I am extremely grateful for the input and feedback Eric gave after watching our film opener, especially since he is also in media studies and knows the expectations/requirements of the project.