The first problem that we became aware of in our editing process was the quality of dialogue between the characters of Mike, Becky, and The Barman. In some instances we made the shots of some scenes too short or cut too much, which results in an overlap of dialogue, as shown in the scene where Mike and Becky first enter her apartment. Also, with the actual content of the dialogue, there is sometimes too much information given that we now realize has no significant importance to the narrative. In fixing these problems it will help the film flow better, be more time efficient, and engage the viewers more.
Similar to this, we realized there was a problem of the length and angle of some shots. Outside the pub, the closeup of Becky smiling is far too short for the viewer to understand her emotions and reaction towards her encounter with Mike. It needs to be lengthened in order for viewers to feel some sort of connection with her. The character needs to be understandable and sympathetic to the audience for the 'moment of realisation' to have its biggest impact. Futhermore, when the couple are inside her home, there is a headshot of Mike that is not framed in the centre. At the moment it looks awkward and not the level of quality that we are aiming for. To improve this, we will look through our footage and see if there is an alternate shot we can substitute this for. One shot that we feel is too long in length is after Mike pacing in the hallway after he has realised what he has done. Although this is good to portray Mike's psychological battle, it is overdone and loses its effect. Sometimes less is more. This needs to be cut down and be more snappy to heighten the dramatic realisation.
We realized that transitions between shots were very blunt and static. In the next edit we wish to include transitions between shots in order to help the story to unfold. For example when the location changes from the external pub scene to the street scene outside Becky's home, it is very abrupt. A transition, such as a fade to black, would work well here indicating a passage of time. Other transitions could support the narrative in showing the passage of time in moments such as when Mike passes out and the very end scene.
We think in our second edit we need to concentrate more on our editing which we didn't do as much on our first draft. Looking more into this feature could really inhance the qulity of our short film. For example in Becky's home the lighting is quite poor and the facial features a hardly visable. This needs to be lightnened up in the second cut by using post production special effects. Also to enhance the colour of this film we should look into colour grading to make the film more visually effective. We could experiment with colour by perhaps having flashback scenes in black and white and having present scens in colour, and experiment with lighting by having a black vignette, blink around the edges of the frame when Mike is about to pass out. This could be quite an effective cinematic tool.
Regarding sound the audio quality was affected by the envirement of the location, such as a plane flying overhead in the external pub scene and wind crackling the microphone on the street scene. We could have avoided this by reshooting, however this was not an option for us. At the pub we were working in timed restrictions and on the street the wind was forcasted throughout the day. Therefore, we will filter out these interuptions by editiing them out through splitting or subsitutuing the audios. Moreover we should consider the use of non diegetic sound to help the film become more engageing. We should consider the options of having an overarching soundtrack, or different music to accompany different emotional moments.
