Feedback

I showed the semifinal version of the film opening to a few people and asked them to give me some impartial feedback about anything they found confusing or thought could be changed for the better, be it related to the editing, the colours, the sound, or anything.

One person pointed out that the motorcycle isn't on the same side of the road in all of the shots. Indeed, there is one shot in which it's driving on the right side of the road, while in all of the others it's driving on the left. This is because almost all of the shots had to be flipped so that the motorcycle would traverse the frame from left to right, because I wanted it to visually have a more natural flow. In all the shots, it needed to head in the same direction, because otherwise the flow of the whole sequence would be ruined, and the cuts would feel a lot more jarring. So in the end I decided to keep it as it is, because I think it's hardly noticeable that in one of the shots the motorcycle is driving on a different side of the road compared to the other shots.

Two people noticed that especially on a device with a smaller screen, like a phone, a certain part of the credits stays in frame for too short of a time to be easily readable, so I decided to change the shot it appears in, so that I could more easily make it stay onscreen longer, and move out of the frame slower. Regarding the credits, one person also told me that it would make more sense for the 'inspired by' to appear first thing after the title, and the 'directed by' and other technical credits to only appear afterwards. I agreed with this, and so I changed the order of the credits.

A few people also noticed that certain parts of the voiceover aren't really that audible or intelligible, so to help make it easier to understand, I turned the volume up for the voiceover in particular, so that the viewer would be able to hear it over the other sounds, and also added a subtitle to really avoid any confusion.

Lastly, one person said that it seemed a little like the ending of the film opening feels too final and that it gives the impression that the story also ends there, but I don't really think that, given what the voiceover explains. None of the other people I showed it to noticed this, so I decided to leave it unchanged. One thing I did change was to make the last scene last a tiny bit longer, so that the song wouldn't cut off so suddenly. I had already passed the two minute time, so I cut out a very short shot that didn't add much to the overall progression of the scene it was part of, and so I had a bit more time at the end.

With all the feedback in mind, I edited in the last changes, and made a final version of the film opening.