Post 4-min Workshop

The showing of our ~4min rough cut went over well and we received a bunch of good, specific suggestions that will surely improve what we have so far. It is essential to get multiple 'second opinions' on whatever it is you are working on. It is easy to get lost in your own little bubble and lose sight of what is actually working. One of the first suggestions was building upon our Scene 1 opening shot that I mentioned in my last post. Some class members felt that it seemed to appear as more of a POV shot than a slowly revealing tracking shot. In order to clear up this confusion it was suggested that instead of using a separate reveal to introduce Phillips character, we should utilize the POV feel of the opening shot to bring Phillip close to Jim without physically seeing his approach. We roughly cut this progression together... it clearly changes the scene but I think it works to our advantage by dragging out Phillips reveal and potentially adding some tension and creepiness by letting him linger just off screen. Not to mention, this will help cut down the length of our film (which will inevitably be an issue we will face down the road).

Getting back to what I mentioned before, a workshop is a great chance to get an outside impression on your work. And these fresh sets of eyes can help guide you through the essential phase of "killing your babies" as Pack refers to it. At first I was attached to the idea of seeing Phillip's looming approach down the hall but thanks to the well-intentioned opinions of the class it allowed Christina and I to see a different way to drag out the scene.

We still have some cleaning up to do in these opening few scenes but I am glad that we have some direction to head in and make effective and efficient alterations to our original cut. From here I am excited to progress into some of the more pivotal scenes and continue through the process of shaping the best possible film with the images we have (sound will come later, and that will be a nightmare... gonna need a foley pro!).