Post Production: Part 2

 After taking a day to consider the music choice, we settled on Bach's "Cello Suite No.5 in C Minor, BWV 1011: V. Gavottes I & II". We felt that this fitted the mood of our opening sequence quite well as it was neither too dark or cheerful which we think has a nice effect as it keeps the audience guessing as to what will happen next. Initially, we decided to keep the music running throughout the whole sequence, and with the help of Matthew's music software we added bass drones to shift to a more sinister tone from the point where the man picks up the beaker and takes it into the room with the woman. However, we decided that it this point in the music it became a bit too melodic and so the soundtrack didn't fit quite as well with this part of this part of the sequence. Therefore, we decided to take a different approach. We decided to cut the music once the fizzing shot started and then shift to a new soundtrack made by Matthew using his software. To do this, Matthew first added an EQ to the soundtrack in order to boost bass frequencies. This helped to give it a more ominous tone. Since we decided to stop Bach's music when the fizzing started, we replaced it with a horror soundscape and added sub kick booms on  some key parts where the shot changes towards the end of the sequence, in which the man is poisoning the woman. At first the shift from fizzing to the new part of the soundtrack seemed a bit sudden and so we decided to fade out Bach's piece during the fizzing to resolve this issue. We are quite happy with how the soundtrack as we feel that the different elements it contains has enabled us to develop tension gradually throughout the sequence. 

Once the soundtrack was complete, we revisited the titles with fresh eyes. We decided to change the font as we thought that it made some of the letters slightly too curly. For example, the "y"s had curly ends that jutted into the letters below, which we didn't like the appearance of. Therefore, we changed the font to Bodoni 72 Oldstyle which avoided the things we disliked about the last font but still maintained a similar style. We chose to include only some of the titles that are typically displayed in an opening sequence. We wanted to have titles appearing until the end of the fizzing shot, as this is when the mood changes, which meant that we had to limit our titles and time them so that they would fit into this time. We included titles for the funding, production company, and director's film at the start of the sequence, using my name for the director's film given that my role on the shoot day had been director. We followed this with two actors' names which we came up with as a group, as well as Ezra Hjalmarsson and Susannah Robertson, the two actors who appeared in our opening sequence. We then included the editor, which we used Matthew's name for, followed by production designer, whom we gave the fictional name Vanessa Huld, Meadow as Director of Photography, another name of our own creation for the executive producer, followed by my name which appeared again for the director's title. We confirmed our choice for the name of the film, which we decided to name "The Will", encapsulating the link between the two characters which the audience would later find out during the rest of the film. We put the title of the film on a black screen after the lost shot with the sound of the coughing and choking continuing over the top of it as we felt that it created the effect of a lengthy torture, leaving the opening sequence on quite a dark and sinister note urging the audience to continue watching the film.

I feel that our target audience, which is both male and female and aged fifteen or older who enjoy films of the crime thriller would enjoy our film. We feel that we have edited the sequence in a way which makes the audience seem close to the antagonist which makes the audience feel uncomfortable once his dark intentions are brought to light. We also feel that the way in which the dark soundtrack complements the opening sequence fits in with the audience's expectations of dark subject matter. This makes the opening sequence quite dark, meaning it is suitable for a more mature audience. 

Lastly, today we worked on the colour grading. We made only a few minor techniques as most of the colours appeared as we hoped they would. We turned the exposure up to about 0.7 on the shot of the berries being laid out on the table and the man's face as he looks down on the chopping board. Overall, I am very pleased with how the opening sequence turned out. I feel that our opening sequence displays our camera work skills quite well. In particular, I am happy with how some of my pans turned out. I feel that our opening sequence is effective as it creates establishes characters and a plot, whilst also leaving a sense of mystery which leaves the audience wondering what might happen next. In terms of continuity, we did not face any issues which made it much easier for us to create seamless transitions from one shot to the next. I think we have worked well with the footage that we filmed on the day to create an opening sequence of the appropriate length. Personally, my favourite part of the sequence is the intense fizzing sound which is followed by the change in soundtrack as I think it has a very chilling effect, in-keeping with the theme of our genre.