Today in class, we had the opportunity to present our peers and the teaching staff with a screening of our rough cuts for our films. Although it felt like a huge rush to get a rough cut together, and ours was a very ‘rough’ cut, it was an extremely great opportunity for us to guage the instinctual reactions of those watching (whether they laughed or not at scenes that we thought were funny) and to seek feedback from them about what they thought worked well and what could be improved.
While watching the film, looking around the faces of those watching it and listening to at which points in the film people laughed, we were immediately able to determine which bits of the film were ‘dead weight’.
The Feedback that was given to us included:
- Each characters scene drags on for too long and becomes boring. Therefore, we should try to intercut between each character rather then just allowing them their designated screen time in sections. This would establish a greater relationship between the characters and provide needed change for the viewer.
- The film needs more reaction shots from other characters while each character is delivering their lines. Again this works to establish a greater relationship between the characters.
- To make the ending scene where the Colonel gets out of his wheelchair more epic, by showing more shots of this process and including epic sounding music.
- The narrator (Karl) was a very popular character amongst the teachers and students viewing the film – as he has very defined features and a Werner Hertzog sounding voice. Paul would like to see more onscreen time of Karl, would have been good to have Karls physical presence onscreen throughout the film…narrating while the other characters are in the background. Unfortunately, as we’re already shot the film, we can’t go back and do this..but it’s a really good idea.
- Daan suggested that we cut down the amount of dialog from Smiddy, particularly in the scenes where he is listing and lusting over all the Hollywood actresses that he’s in love with – this scene drags on for far too long.
We’ll certainly take this advice on-board, as it all made perfect sense and I think if take this advice on board we can cut down alot of our footage. Our main problem at the moment is that the film goes for way too long, so we need to get our the scissors and get busy.
