Editing our film opening

We went into post production during late March and wrapping up in April for our film opening, which would prove to be a much greater challenge than anticipated. We edited an early version which followed the original storyboarded version almost exactly. This was completed fairly quickly after our last shoot since we had a clear image of what we wanted the film to look like, so we had filmed and edited the footage in the same chronological order and edited it piece by piece. We completed the first draft in late March and were originally satisfied with the results. However, we screened our film opening to others around the school and rewatched the film ourselves shortly afterwards before realising our narrative felt rushed. The test audiences could not follow or fully understand what was going on, so it was obvious we had to reconsider our opening entirely.

The results led to the two parts of our opening - the scenes at our character's home and those shot in New York - being swapped around with the film opening ending in New York. The voiceover was also changed with it slightly, and the dialogue was re-recorded. This took a long time to figure out how the film could still look effective and achieve its purpose: to attract its audience. We kept revising the footage and tried placing the footage into different places in our editing software, Adobe Premier, until it was in an order which looked more suitable and the narration was rescripted to match what was happening on the screen. In the end, the changes worked out to our advantage because our opening shot looked much more effective. The shot was of the alarm clock sounding with the animated 'Beep! Beep!' effect around it, which would create an impression instantly with the unexpected sound effect of the alarm clock, which "wakes up" the audience. I also personally liked the way our opening could now be continued to mean anything; the story could be sent in any direction which leaves the audience to wonder where the story would go from this point.
The final version of our opening was finished in late April to much greater acclaim from others around the school as well as family and friends. I would also agree that our film now makes more sense because we have improved our narration, so the post production process of our film opening has made us all aware of how important this is.