Editing and Product

Editing the project

We all have specific ideas about what we think looks good and have tried many different combinations of video effects to create an authentic 1950s feel. Our main problem with editing has been the projector video of the dancing burlesque girl. We at first had her filling the whole screen but realised this was pointless as you could not see anything we had shot originally. We then fiddled around with her opacity and found that if she was too light then you couldn’t really see her and she looked like a ghost and if she was too dark then you couldn’t see through her.

Whatever we tried, somehow she did not look right but then we started fiddling around with the size and placed her directly in front of the projector so it actually looked like a video was being projected onto a wall (as intended). The next problem we had to overcome was now, the projected video was in a white square, hiding the projector and looking like a solid block of white in the middle of the screen. Again we lowered the opacity so you could see the projector light shining through her and experimented with video effects to change the shape of the inner frame. We decided on soft-blur and oval so you could not see a distinct shape but just the girl’s projection.

Specifically, we are having problems with the flickering of the projection and even with the flicker filter on highest it does not look authentic. When we have finished on Final-Cut Pro, we are going to add extra flickers to the project to make it seem realistic and time-related to how moving pictures were at the time. The background colour of the projection is white, so at first we went against the typical thriller conventions of white writing on a black background and reversed it, but after making the girl smaller, we found it looked odd to cut to white so converted to the typical convention and found it looked a great deal better.

Rhythmic and Temporal relationships
We have gone for continuity editing as we wanted to create a narrative and we have employed hidden cuts to sow together time for the appearance of continuity.


Graphic relationships
We used lighting to create shadows and our titles mixed with the YouTube sequence, the patterns of light and dark of the image appear underneath the title like looking through a keyhole.



FINAL CUT OF 'REVUE'



AUDIENCE FEEDBACK


Archie: the continuity is very good. the sound really adds to the character and the sets the age very well. good use of costumes and props.

Greg: The long take really explores the magic of film. The camera points in one direction but infers loads of different things and creates different dimensions.

Tor: The costume and props in the mise-en-scene are effective in setting the time and creating an atmosphere. I liked the editing where the projector was superimposed onto the frame as it conveyed the idea of multiple places.

Tom: i liked the superimposing of the dancing girl. it worked very well and set the scene. it was interesting in the way that the camera never moves throught the sequence. i liked the use of the rule of thirds.

Gio: I think Revue has been one of the best sequences I've seen. This since the superimposing of the girl dancing was very well framed onto the screen. Also the sound bridge between the conversations on the background and the music worked extremeley well.


My Analyisis of Audience Feedback
I'm very happy with the audience feedback and glad that the long shot has been mentioned as that was one specific thing we set out to do, a long shot creates tension and enigma therefore adding to the feel of the piece. Also, the mention of the framing of the Youtube footage dancing girl was important as we worked hard to create the right opacity, position and shape of her. I wish someone had mentioned how seamless the editing was within the long shot but then again it is perhaps good they didn't as it was supposed to be unnoticed!
When creating a product you set out to make a believeable concept so it is good people have mentioned the mise-en-scene and the costumes as we wanted them to be as authentic as possible. Greg mentioned the way we created "different dimensions" and this is exactly the reading we wanted. We wanted to create a world where people were intrigued, scared and curious about what was going on behind the door. Overall, the audience feedback has been fantastic and our prefered reading has been achieved.