Feedback

Upon showing and asking some people our film opening, we were provided with impartial, unbiased feedback on what they thought of our work. Most reactions were positive and overall expressed their entertainment of the sequence - but we also received some useful comments about our work.

One observation was that in the second half of the opening, the visuals compared to the beginning of the sequence appeared much too bright for what message we wanted to portray - even though our main character is outside, that sense of disorientation should still be present. In further editing we can adapt this to be more fitting.

Segwaying from this, a common factor expressed by our shown audience was that the opening was, indeed, very sporadic and disorienting. They were confused as to what the premise is - something that we did try to portray. When we explained our character was running from himself, his mind, even, the viewers still seemed a bit confused - this is understandable, we were not able to express the end of the opening to the best of our ability.

A specific comment made by someone was that the shot in which our character is crouched behind the car stood out to them immensely - in terms of colour, at least. The majority of the sequence was monochrome, with tints of grey and dark green - while this shot was jarringly blue. This apparently caught the attention of said viewer very much; intrigued them and made them wonder the significance of this blue car. This was a very interesting comment, we could indeed tie this element into something larger, if this theoretical film continued, there could be a certain, plot-defining segment of this car that ties back to the opening.

Another interesting comment about the colour was when a viewer told us about how it would be interesting to include some black and white scenes or incorporate a more monochromatic look throughout the whole movie. This was because the changes in colours throughout the movie, along with the different chaotic locations, they felt that a less vivid colour scheme would be more suitable. Following this advice, we created a black and white version of the movie just out of curiosity of how it would look.

Another viewer mentioned that in most instances of film openings, we are introduced to the character and given a general idea and exposition of what might ensue later in the film. They continued saying that in our opening, however, we are just introduced to the character, but essentially what we portrayed was anti-exposition - challenging typical conventions and instead providing a disorienting introduction to the situation. This comment was especially well welcomed, we did indeed attempt to create this sort of atmosphere - intriguing the viewer into watching and attempting to make sense of the supposed plot. When explained to this viewer our character’s mentality; they further agreed that what we wanted to express was achieved.

We are overall very grateful for the feedback that we received and we will be sure to take this into consideration when adding any finishing touches to the opening. Even though we did get some feedback that was more critical, it was all very helpful to us and helped us to see our movie in a different light, and fully understand what we could have done better if we had the chance. The biggest factor was definitely lack of experience in producing movies as a team. For a first attempt it is pretty accomplished. However, if we were to do this again, applying everything that we've learned and realized, we would definitely have an even better final product.