Peer Review

         
          Today, my group I started and finished peer reviewing another group's footage. This was quite helpful and insightful because it gave us something to compare our film to. This comparison gave us room for lots of improvement. For example, the transitioning presented in our peer's film was extremely smooth and realistic. We wanted to mimic these transitions and cuts in our film. We believe it will not only make our film run smoother, but it will make it more tolerable to fully watch. From watching our peer's film, we also concluded that we need to make the shots we are trying to include more clear. To be more specific, in the film we were reviewing tried to incorporate an eye-line match but it wasn't really made effective because the transitions were so fast. In order to fully emphasize what was being revealed, they could have zoomed in on it or let the shot run a little longer. This would have ensured that the audience was fully engaged in their film (this goes the other way too, meaning it applies to our group's film as well).
          From peer reviewing, I also learned that a strong and suitable introductory sound track is very important to an audience's perception of your film. In my peer's film, they introduced the characters in the beginning with this soothing music in the background. This made the beginning of the film appealing and therefore also made my group and I want to keep watching it. In order to make sure this same effect is created in our film, we have to decide upon a strong sound track. Since our film is thriller, we want to make sure the music we embed in our film evokes the fear and suspense that most thrillers create. Not only this but, our film starts off with a boy who is more than excited to see his biological mom (after 15 years). If we make a contrast between the music in the beginning of the film to when he finds out his mom is "dead", this could effectively create a tonal shift in our film. This will help build upon our genre because it will intensify our film's suspense. This contrast in music will also create two different feels to the movie. We want our audience to actually be engaged in our film (we don't want them watching it because they are simply forced to). Therefore, we will make sure we use these reflections to better improve our overall film.