Rough Cut

Above is the video of my rough cut. I have all the audio within this video, but not all the visuals, the focus of the piece is the audio and the story the narration takes the viewer/listener on, so I decided that instead of cutting out what I don't have visuals for yet I would keep the audio as it was and simply have a blank screen whilst the audio continued until the next drawn up part of the film.

I think that doing this helps the spectator follow the plot of the piece, and join the different visuals together. I'm pleased with the overall look of my film, I think that the style is appropriate for the era and story, I chose sepia colours to make the drawings and animation feel aged, but not black and white as I thought that it would be too uninteresting for an audience to watch a film made entirely of plain desaturated sketches, the chosen colours make it appear more stylised. The fact that the old photographs are mostly black and white works with this colour scheme as they stand out more.

For my final cut I will be adding in more visuals to match the audio to make a more complete film. I will also hopefully be adding in more movement to the more stationary shots, like the establishing shot of Chiswick House, as it lingers on the shot for a long time, and its stillness is magnified by this. I will probably be adding some birds flying over, or some swaying grass. If my timing has been misjudged I can also made it a slow zoom out instead, making it a little more interesting. I can also make the trucks and tanks move more in the convoy scene, as well as the walking to school and running from the siren, but these parts will be a lot more complicated so it may end up being a matter of whether a still character drawn well is better than a moving character animated poorly. I'd also like to add more movement to Peggy's dad as he's appearing from behind the photograph, but I don't think I'll have time to do so, and will prioritise other aspects of the film before commencing on that.

I also have to add more sound, as it is only the original interview recording present in the film currently. I will add in the sounds of the siren, the convoys, the 'doodlebug'/V1 Rocket, and others to make the film feel more whole and real for the viewer.