Question 7 - Preliminary to Final Product

International Audience Feedback

I received this feedback from a 40-year-old female in Japan. The feedback is very positive, and suggests that this genre, and my product specifically, can appeal to audiences in other cultures and countries.

Sound Recording

Unfortunately, there was an error with the audio on this video, but this is me creating the explosion sound with my guitars (part of the explosion sound, not all)...

Post-Production Process

Making the titles:



Motion tracking the titles:



Rotoscoping:



Creating the blowing leaves shot in After Effects:



Creating the empty road shot in Photoshop:





Masking in and out the first title:



Making the main title of the film:



Making the ruined park shot in Photoshop:

Sound Design

In terms of sound, in the first half, I want to have a low rumbling wind effect with a high bass level to build the tension. On top of that, I want slow violin music to be played on top of the wind sound in order to build the suspense. And finally, I want car horns for the first road shot, echoed children laughing for the swings shot, and other shot-specific sounds. I will not, however, be using any of the raw footage's sound.

Third Test Edit (First Half)

This is the third test edit of the first half of my film opening. I have "masked" out the rest of the shot behind the man in the second road shot, and I really like how smooth that transition looks now.

Audience Feedback

I "shared" my second test edit on Facebook and asked for feedback and suggestions for improvements, in order to stay in-touch with what audiences want to see. This is very easy to do nowadays due to the power of social media.

I received some feedback, and came to the conclusion that the scene cuts from the road to the park too suddenly. I already thought this to be so, but the feedback has made me sure of my decision to add another shot in-between those two shots. However, addressing the point about the shockwave hitting the camera too quickly, I will not change this because I intended for it to be fast in order to represent the speed at which the world as we know it is destroyed.

I agree with the scene needed a new shot in-between the dog jumping and the explosion shot, so I will probably add a shot of leaves blowing from a tree in order to slow the pace down again, and to represent the death of life (leaves falling from tree).

I will also be shortening the shot of the swings as I too now see that it lasts for too long. The current length of it brings one out of the scene and atmosphere as it makes it apparent that it is being filmed.

Second Test Edit (First Half)

I added the shot of the people walking by the road, and the one of the leaves blowing from the tree in the wind. I also shortened the shot of the children on the swings.

Although I like the scene much more now with the addition of these two new shots, I still want to furthermore enhance the smoothness of the transition from the cars and road shots to the park shots. To do this, I am going to make it so that as the man walks past the camera (foreground at the end of the second road shot), the next shot is revealed. I will create this effect by "masking" out the shot behind the man as he walks past, with the park shot as the below 'layer'. I imagine that this will work even better than it would if both shots were still shots as the park one quickly pans right at the start, and this is the direction the man is walking in.

Test Renders (Second Half)

The second half (post-apocalyptic half) of my film opening is by far the most time-comsuming to make. Each shot has a lot of visual effects on it. Here is the first set of test renders I have produced for them:


I created this scene by compiling parts of several different images together in Photoshop.



This shot of the road is not completed. I made a test render in order to see how the atmospherics looked with it. Those same atmospherics are not motion tracked to the shot in this render, but I am going to be tracking them now that I have decided to keep them in it as they add more movement to the shot.




Like the shot of the road, this one of the rubble is not finished. This test render was to see how slow the camera is moving after slowing it down, and to see how much time I have for the credits. I plan to add credits, atmospherics, and the main title into the eye part of the helmet at the end.

First Test Edit (First Half)

This is the first draft edit of the first half of my film opening.
 



After watching it play through, I felt as though there is something missing from it. I am going to capture some footage of a tree with leaves blowing off of it in a breeze and put that shot between the shots of the dog jumping and the children running. This tree shot will also be effective at showing the beauty of the world as it is before the apocalypse, and foreshadowing what is to come (the leaves blowing off).

I will also be making the swings shot shorter as it lasts too long and makes people realise that they are watching something that somebody filmed with a camera. I am also planning on filming a new shot to go between the shot of the cars, and the shot of the woman chasing after her dog.

Aside from these things, I am happy with the way it looks at the moment.