1. As opening sequence evaluation By Abigail Fajobi

2. Strengths and weaknesses The amount of cutaway effects we added at the beginning were very excessive ,so after a while it became quite boring. This changed as we went into the opening sequence, so it wasn’t too bad. I really likes the credits that were going on throughout the opening sequence especially the one at the very beginning and very end because it’s more interesting and it keeps the audience intrigued. The software we used for those credits we were unable to use for the rest of the credits. I thought the ordinary credits still looked good because they maintained house style. I think the fact that we used an actual house as our setting made the sequence look more realistic; this also helped us fit the codes and conventions of a typical urban youth film. Some of the shots are quite jumpy. This is the fault of both editing and camera movement. I think next time I would make better use of the tripod because sometimes this piece of equipment wasn’t used. There were times when we tried to get some of our ideas across in the sequence e.g. the glass being half-full to represent her half-full life, but most members of the audience didn’t understand that. I think next time I will gather feedback during the storyboard stage in order to make sure our idea’s were easy enough to understand. I think that a weakness is that we actually recorded a lot more than 2 mins of film. Although we filmed everything on time, we wasted a lot of time that we could have saved if we realised we had too many shots during the storyboard process.

3. Technical aspects We could have found music for our opening sequence that worked better than the one we chose, but due to a lack of time and options we were unable to. I think if I did this again I would start thinking of what song to use at the very beginning, so that we don’t rush it at the end. I think the prop of the knife wasn’t shown very well. During feedback time many viewers didn’t know what it was. I think that next time I would plan on giving important props ect close-ups ect in order to make them more visible during the storyboard process and carry the shot out during production. At this point the camera movement was bad because it looks like the camera was almost dropped during panning. This is an example of one of the few glitches that I could detect every now and then.

4. Technical aspects 2 During the editing stage we decided to make the whole opening sequence in black and white in order for the miserable mood of the main character to be shown through editing. I like this idea, but it made it difficult for other people to recognise certain props that were black or white.

5. Key lessons learnt I’ve learnt that planning is a very important stage that we must make the most of. It’s very important to actually stick to the plan because if we change part of the plan it shows e.g. the knife shot wasn’t taken very well. I now know that things need to be broken down appropriately in order for the film to actually communicate with the audience well or else I doesn’t make sense and we loose marks. I’ve also learnt that music is a key factor for an opening sequence. If the music isn’t right it really detracts the realism away from the opening sequence.