UPDATE: Soundtrack Second Draft

Today I received another update from Alex:

His message is shown left, where he describes how he attempted to synchronise the hand dropping with the piano note as we suggested. Below is the second draft video...















(https://youtu.be/Bgk1BCRlehU)

Tia and I think this version is a lot better; in particular we like how the style is more discordant, such as where the character Connor turns his head and the piano note is off-key and then has a distorted reverse effect. We can also see that he took our comment about the drums into account and are pleased with the result, although he says he wasn't concentrating on the montage part and the drums will be a lot more intense once he does. In short, we definitely prefer this version. However, some elements I would like to see improved upon and which I will bring up with him are that the montage drums again aren't quite strong enough and I feel that the synths/music during the montage and how they only last ten or so seconds before they're cut off for the voice-over's "Expect us" line make it a bit short-lived, so I'm wondering if it really fits. Additionally, I will suggest a reverberation effect similar to the one in the first second of the trailer when the Lionsgate logo appears because I think it sounds really ominous and would be a good way to fade out the trailer. Apart from this, we both love it and can't wait for the next update. 

UPDATE: Soundtrack First Draft

Today we received the first draft of our soundtrack from Alex:

His comment about the drums is regarding what we said about how we would like to keep a fast-paced drumming sound for the montage with each shot high-impact. We discussed style yesterday and he said his ideas so far were to involve piano and synths/drones, which we thought sounded great. Below is said first draft...









(https://youtu.be/S1tEPBKoikg)

Tia and I love the soundtrack so far: we think the tone is appropriate in that it is tense and dark, and the piano introduces an interesting dynamic that we hadn't thought of with our previous soundtrack choices. We are finding that being able to communicate in this way with the creator is a big benefit as we have a lot more input when it comes to how it fits, rather than our previous method of working around what we already had with pre-made music. A few issues we picked up on in the first draft are small, but nevertheless significant: currently the dialogue and voice-over are hard to hear (which we assume is due to how this is only a first draft). We also think that it could be more effective in terms of the timing of some piano chords: for the shot of the hand covered in blood, we would like the chord to be synchronised with when the hand drops to the ground, so it is more impactful. We'd like a similar effect for the shot of the character Connor in the woods - when he turns his head, we have suggested to Alex that there is a strong drum beat that builds up during the montage. Overall, we love the progress so far!

New Theatrical Poster

After reviewing my last theatrical poster and getting some feedback from others, I decided that it wasn't true to the film and didn't adequately communicate the theme to the audience. I therefore opted to make a completely new poster with a much different layout and extra elements (shown above). Below is a presentation on the process and thoughts behind the design choices I made:

Illicit Obsession: New Theatrical Poster - The Process from GeorginaGilbey

UPDATE: Soundtrack commission!

As the main issue people brought up in the audience feedback was the soundtrack, we decided we should go about finding a solution. For purposes of audience feedback, I had been browing the Reddit sub r/Filmmakers, when I came across this post by a composer looking for work:

I then commented that we had wanted a composer for our trailer before, and that the trailer was finished:

Luckily, Alex still expressed an interest in working with us, so we asked for a sample of his work and gave a link to our trailer so we could both see what we may be working with. Below is the sample he gave:
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1s&v=5qdFVpW-ccU&app=desktop)



My group mate, Tia Briers (Candidate 2015) and I both agreed that this was great work and loved the attention to detail, such as the Harry Potter motif at the end of the trailer, while Alex said: "I liked the [Illicit Obsession] trailer, I think it builds up nicely and would look great with some more dramatic music, especially at the end". We then concretely agreed to work with each other, after discussing how files could be exchanged, etc. The plan is that next Monday, when I have access to the original file, I will remove the soundtracks we added and send him the trailer with no soundtrack. We discussed a deadline of mid to late March, as this gives plenty of time to finalise the trailer. In terms of what he will get out of this commission, he has stated that he is looking to build his portfolio, and so we will provide him with a finished copy of the trailer for this purpose and credit him. If the soundtrack is somehow unsuccessful, we can keep our original final cut and try to improve it through a different method in editing. 

Audience Feedback (regarding 17.02.17 final cut)

Here is a presentation I made on the audience feedback I gathered, along with my thoughts on the comments I received and how they can be taken into account when next editing the trailer.

(http://www.slideshare.net/GeorginaGilbey/audience-feedback-1-72420476)

Audience Feedback 1 from GeorginaGilbey

Illicit Obsession: The Final Cut (17/02/17)

This is the final cut of our trailer as of 17/02/17. All of the errors I described in my last post have now been fixed: all audio tracks were separated and put on their own tracks, colour-coded accordingly so we could easily tell which clips were the voice-over etc. This also meant we could fix the volume problem where some soundtrack samples were louder than others, as now we could have a volume set for the entire track without it affecting any others. We fixed the overlap problem where a part of one of the character's lines was repeated in a cut by cutting out the audio for it and replacing the gap it caused with a section of the previous clip where there was no dialogue, so the cut we'd made wasn't noticeable. Alternatively, we could have cut out part of the whole video clip but we thought this would affect the synchronisation of the soundtrack, so we avoided changing the lengths of clips.
Finally, we had a similar overlap problem in the bloody hand shot. We tried adjusting where the second soundtrack came in and removing it entirely but neither of these solutions seemed to work very well and we needed to maintain the pacing of the trailer, so in the end we decided to move the shot to after the characters Alice and George talk about Eve's disappearance (as this shot is supposed to imply Eve's death).

(https://youtu.be/ClQB6v4XKMc)


As we now have these issues solved, we would like to gather some audience feedback to find out if there are any improvements we can make. I would like to conduct a survey aimed at the target audience of the trailer (ages 15+, either gender, as the trailer doesn't show explicit gore or extremely violent themes).

Illicit Obsession: The Final Cut (15/02/17)

This is the final cut of our trailer - by which, we mean that all footage has been integrated, it has a voice-over, soundtrack, and has been colour-graded and we are happy with the result. All that remains is a few last finishing touches (which will be outlined below) and possibly some audience feedback, in-case we can improve it even further.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6LXfvytLUw&feature=youtu.be)



Improvements to be made:

Footage audio error
When it cuts to the character Alice after the line "Not getting my usual rounds lately", you can hear the end of the word 'lately' being repeated. This can be fixed by muting the audio for the small segment where this happens, or cutting the clip down slightly to get rid of it.

Soundtrack 2 audio error
When the hand covered in blood drops, a similar effect to the one described above occurs, in that the sting we use repeats slightly. We can fix this by cutting it down, replacing it or removing it entirely for this shot.

Soundtrack 2 volume error
Some of the stings (where it isn't lowered for Anon's voice-overs) clash in that they aren't exactly the same volume. We can fix this by organising them clearly on the timeline (perhaps changing their colour so it isn't confusing) and making sure the volume is consistent for when Anon or another character isn't speaking, as at the moment it is a bit mis-matched. We will also need to perform these checks for Soundtrack 1 and make sure it's on a different audio track on Premiere Pro.

Audience feedback
After these issues have been fixed and my group and I are happy with the trailer, I'd like to show it to a select few target audience members to get their opinion on it and to see if there are any issues they can spot.