April 27, 2009

During this single period, we spent our time importing our film from Henry's portal hard drive into the computer. 10 minutes long, our video took a long time to import; however we put this time to good use by watching our video a few times through to notice any last minute adjustments/improvements. From watching it through, we discovered a few things that could be rectified.

Joyce, who was our writer commented that the caption for the device's abilities were incorrect. Rather than "pushing the button and opening the door at the same time" it was "pushing the device first, then opening the door". Despite the fact that this caption for the instructions of the device lastly a few seconds, I think that she posed a valid point. Especially with a complicated device, it is important that we clearly establish the ramifications of the device, or else the audience will have a difficult time understanding the abilities of the device. The scenario that I most fear is that Justin would use the device and portal into another location with the audience clueless of what just happened. By clearly stating what the device is capable of doing, it will clear up any misunderstandings Justin's actions and subsequently the story of our film.

Another was to get rid of any "inside jokes". For instance, during the opening scene between Lucas (nerd) and Justin, he gets frustrated with the device and because our film is a silent movie, his annoyance is expressed as "angry gorilla sounds". Although this is humorous, at least to our group, Ms. Wong pointed out that this may not be the case of the audience. She then recommended that we change it to something which achieves the same effect (expressing what Justin is doing) and being humorous, but not necessarily using an inside joke. I think something like "&*(*#" would be slightly better, but a bit vulgar.

Overall, despite the this class being a single period and the fact that we spent most of it importing our movie, we still managed to be productive and utilize the time we had as well as possible. Today I exercised my ability to be a good "thinker" in terms of finding better ways to express our story and finding universal jokes and language to make it more suitable for the audience. Being "open minded" in terms of the techniques used and being a good "risk taker" in our choices. I'm really looking forward to the viewing session next lesson.