Feedback From Peers -

Simon Rogers (Set Designer) said -

Great to see you making some stuff  and I really enjoyed the opening sequence.

Here are some thoughts.

Really like the use of music in the pre title sequence and I like the sense of anticipation it encouraged.  I thought you could make more of the first shot, maybe hang on it a little longer.  It's really got to create the first hook for the audience, so needs to have a very clear intention. In the context of this film it has to create suspense and anticipation but apart from this I think you were generally very successful here.  However, there are several things you could consider: Maybe the use of slow motion would have added to threatening atmosphere, it's a great device, creates mood and would work well with the your choice of music.  Also, as this is a flashback it would be cool way of messing with the sense of time.  You do do this successfully, however,  with the mixes and dissolves. I think the styalised framing added an edgy, contemporary and urban feel.  I liked the overall editing strategy but maybe you could have built up the cutting pace a little more before the attack.  Cutting between the two characters  would make it more clear who is following who helping us to identfy with the protagonist and would also increase the sense of suspense.  I really liked how the attack came out of the blue, however, so I think you were doing this already but could have gone a bit further.  It's really important to make a clear choice which strategy to take, long slow takes with static set ups v quick cutting montage and an active camera need to be chosen decisively and employed for a specific effect as do the speed of cutting.  It's important to consider how exactly these choices effect the way in which meaning is created. But I think you opening was very bold......but be bolder.  Sometime more really is more. 

Your choice of location was excellent.  Dark alley ways and metal footbridges were suitably foreboding and potentially perilous added great mystery and tremendous jeopardy.

Difficult to shoot at night without lots of light on a small budget i know, but the opening could do with a little more illumination.  (Although there is value sometimes in not letting the audience see too much and you were clearly playing with this).  This can even be handheld torches off camera, or headlamps of cars parked out of shot, or a couple of red heads or blondes rigged in a way that it looks like the light is being cast by the street lights.  I'm really big on seeing point sources of illumination in shot and use practical lamps loads.  Directors of photography really like playing with them.  If you can introduce these specular highlights it always looks really good wet downs at night are an obvious choice to be made and are rarely resisted.

Choice of costume was also spot on and I like the James Dean type reference for our central protagonist v the contemporary  gang style ( in a chavvy youthful south london sort of way) hoody

I really liked the way that the attack comes directly at us and suddenly  we are not meant to just identify with the central character but have become them.  A very strong image leading us into the rest of the film.  Blackout to title card to white out to a revealing panning up from the porn mags and discarded pants on the floor, works really well.  Simutaneously taking us forward in time and very quickly establishing character and a sudden change of mood.  Little bits of dressing like this are an efficient way of telling the audience instantly where they are.  The use of props and the top shot of the phone were excellent.

I like the integration of the titles into this sequence and the obvious change in pace in the editing creates a great contrast to what has gone before.  You continue with great economy in a really interesting way in which you hold the shot at the top of the stairs letting your characters leave frame, and only cut on the sound of the front door closing as we see the girl leaving form the upstairs window.  Already you are beginning to create a sense of uncertainty in the audience, as you unsettle them through these choices of what to show and what not. 

I thought this was excellent.  Lots of fantastic decisions made and the shot from inside the fridge was very innovative.  The minimal use of dialogue worked really well and told us everything that we needed to know, and suddenly joined up all the dots. ( Although I wasn't sure wether the performance style or characterisation was meant to make us feel sympathetic to him) This small moment of exposition created a really interesting switch in our relationship to what we had seen so far, moving us from the anticipation and intrigue of the start of the film to expectation and suspense knowing, or thinking we know, what surely is the inevitable outcome.

 

Aaron Lipstadt (Hollywood Director/ Producer) said -

 

I think it works well. The lighting of the night scene, the timing of the music, the effective cutting that keeps the pursuer hidden with good reveals (:23), the dissolves, create a foreboding that is let down a little by the tameness of the confrontation; the title that tells us this is a flashback that will explain who is the pursued and why; the continuation/reprise of the music taking us back to the night scene; the overhead stairs shot lets us know things are not going to go well; the hidden identity of the woman; all set up a series of questions that will presumably be answered.
The morning scene, while quick, could be even quicker; conventionally, the credits would end just before the low angle close up of our hero with cigarette. I had a hard time reading the note, had to rewind a couple of times just to get the gist; think you've gone one shot too long, the high angle crossing the street is more eloquent than the one that follows; and I have a pet peeve about camera-in-the-fridge shots--it's a nice transition, but self conscious to the point of distraction.
Hope this helps, and I'm glad--eager--to talk more. Email anytime, have a great trip to NY, say hi to your dad, and let me know when the premiere is!

Best
Aaron