Rough & Fine Cut review

Rough Cut:
My rough cut review re-enforced some of the issues with my film that I had already noted and brought up some extra issues and notes for me to look at.

• Avoid 'music video territory' - whilst the music in my rough cut was only being used as placeholder and more of an example of the type of music I was hoping to use, Sam suggested I focus more on real world sound. There is a small moment in the rough edit where I'd added a clip later on and forgot to remove it's audio - Sam said this was probably where he felt the most engaged as there wasn't a buffer from the music. I'm going to try and add a radio effect to my final music to make it appear diagetic to the piece. 
• Watch out for eroticism - This is something i'd been worried about when using the pink lights as they have a very warm feel and somewhat sexual connotations; combined with the subject of the piece it can appear as if the protagonist is in the window of a brothel. Obviously this wasn't my intention and I don't want to sexualise the protagonist or give the impression that they're cross-dressing for sexual purposes, however it's not something I want to remove completely as I feel the sensuality is important, showing that the character feels more attractive and sexier when dressed as a woman. 
• Cut more early on to add pace or cut less to build tension - Sam noted that the opening of my piece is rather slow and builds a tension that is unnecessary or unused. Since there isn't really a 'reveal' within my piece the anxiety that comes from the drawn out shots early on isn't explained and seems rather confusing.  He suggested to cut more or less but to commit to it: make the beginning choppier to show how disjointed the protagonists feels and how they want to escape that feeling quickly or to keep it tense, reflecting their discomfort in the situation and build to a reveal of cross-dressing.
• Imply meaning to everyday objects - Sam noted that he enjoyed the close up shots of the boots and the nail varnish that I'd used and suggested building on them by considering more, especially towards the actions like using lip gloss. Make up can seem like a very basic, every day object for a lot of people but it can be very important to a queer person who can see it something that makes them feel more complete in themselves. I could use extreme close-ups to highlight this, showing their importance to the audience by making these regular objects seem more important. 

Fine Cut:

 Our tutor, Sam was very happy with the changes I'd made to my piece. I'd fixed the pacing issues at the beginning by shortening some clips and re-shot for some extra extreme-closeups and to capture a couple of extra shots. He noted how the lighting from my new shots matched the old ones without any error and complimented how the whole film flowed a lot better, without any unnecessary anxiety from long, drawn out clips.
 However, whilst he preferred the piece of music used (Port Horizon) compared to the old one, he did note that the electronic sounds lasted slightly too long and were quite jarring to the ear. This was something I was aware of and will search on the site I found it from for a version without the electronic sounds or I will change the volume of it & change the EQ to make it less jarring. Upon searching on Incompetech I found that the only way to remove the electronic radio frequency sound was to purchase the uncompressed version of the track - if this was a larger project with an established budget I would have followed up on this; instead I have turned down the higher frequencies via the EQ, which I think makes the track less jarring.