Final Rough Cut (Without Titles)

With the shots we took a few weeks ago, the editing for final cut has now been done.  We have put together production titles (shown at the beginning of the opening) but are still to decide on titles such as actors etc.  However, we have a rough idea of what kind of titles they will be: similarly to 'Casino', we will have a basic text, but they will fade/fly in alongside the footsteps so that they are subtle and follow the flow of the film.  We have finally come up with a title for our film - 'Red and Black' - but still unsure of what font to use although we know we are going to put it to the side of the shot when the victim (George) is shot.


Editing, Cutting and Transitions:

Most of the cuts are straight cuts to create a sense of continuity to prevent confusion for the viewer.  However, the crosscutting between the two events (walking and the dining room scene) does not show great cohesion within the opening, but we feel that the audience are supposed to feel slightly disorientated to keep them intrigued and want to carry on watching the film in order to understand it.  I feel that we should change the transition from the production titles to the beginning footage as it lacks a flow and is not intended to be a jump cut; we could use fade to/from black to improve this.  Also, we'll need to flip some of the shots of the footsteps/walking as there is a lack continuity - they change direction!

Sound:

Looking at most American gangster films, they often have opera music or some kind of instrumental as a key part to the soundtrack of the film.  Therefore, we searched for operatic music which we felt fitted better than the slow-moving instrumental that we previously used.  Shaun found this piece of music and we felt it was appropriate and we cut it so that it became stronger as the opening went on and built up towards the shooting.  However, we liked the slow music after the gun shot that we used in the first edit, so decided to keep this in.  It was difficult editing the music to flow from one to the other without sounding disjointed - this led us to cutting out all sound when the gunshot goes off (which we found the sound effect for off of the internet also).  This allows the audience to adjust their emotions and approach to what they are viewing.

I think it would be good if we could put some kind of sound effect on the production titles also as most title have some sound effect which makes them more attractive (for exmaple, the bounce of the lampshade for Pixar).

I still feel that the voice overs seem too fake, however the original voices did not fit in with the 'Amercan Gangster' feel.  Also, as the voices are a different sound input, the sound continuity between the background music and the dialogue is broken and sounds amateur.

Lighting and Visual Effects

Before, we faced the problem of the outdoor walking shots looking like they were shot in the day (which they were!) when the opening is supposed to be set in the darkness of night.  After playing around with the editing visual effects like adjusting the contrast or highlighting the lighter parts of the image, we settled on the kind of darkness we felt looked best.  The appearance of darkness was also achieve through a grain-effect that came with Shaun's editing programme - it also made the footage look more vintage.  We also put a black and white filter over the image like before which we felt kept in tune with the old, 30's gangster style.  Shaun knew someone who could extract a particular colour to keep that in the image and he also looked into it himself.  Through this, he was able to keep the red of the high heels separate from the black and white filter we put on top.  However, this also meant that other red in the shot was highlight which is why a faint skin tone can also be apparent and occassionally the brick of houses in the background.  Earlier in our research and planning, we looked at 'Sin City' who did this effect.  In the film, they also highlight other colour appropriate to the shot which included some skin tones or things such as a woman's blonde hair.  Shaun therefore felt it was suitable to highlight the yellow in the opening which looks good for the road markings, but unfortunately also highlights the dandelions in the pavement!  We will look into whether we can stop this from happening.  Also, as a result of extracting colour, some blue has also been highlight (evident on the back of the woman's coat and in windows occassionally) but this could not be altered as it effected the colour of the red and yellow highlighted.