Mark IV cut of Seoras 22/06/23

Mark IV cut of Seoras                                                                                                                                 22/06/23

Figure 1: Latest cut of Seoras as of 22/6/23

I have finished the Mark IV cut of Seoras, and it is currently seven minutes and forty-two seconds in length, so I am close to reducing the original length of the film by half.  There are still a few issues that need to be resolved, but I am happy with how it turned out.  There are some techniques that I have implemented in order to make the effects of the narrative clearer, including adding a necessary colour correction to the first two thirds set in the city centre.  The purpose of this is to add a cold, discontent effect to the shots, and to better indicate that the main protagonist is not in tune with the world around him.  Once we get to outside the city centre, the colour correction is entirely organic, and this should indicate the transition and acceptance better than the original edit.

At the suggestion of another tutor, I've tried a new strategy for the flickering shots.  Instead of setting random wiggle expressions on the opacity, I've set up a "loopOut" expression which will gradually decrease the opacity of the sketch filter figures until they are invisible.  The only exception to this is the last shot in the city centre where the main character flees where the channel is set to Alpha Inverted Matte, so that the area around the figure is the centre of distortion.  The effect starts out at 100% opacity for the "loopOut" expression but then decreases in increments until the very end.  The lack of filtered shots on the areas outside the city centre is meant to indicate the areas where the character is more relaxed and engaged.  The only downside of this is when it comes to the proposed alternate cut where we start out at the more intimidating set pieces and progress to the parts that are more serene, because this method was built with the original narrative flow in mind.  It'll make the filtered shots look more erratic again.  This will mean I might have to go back to the shots and redo the opacity expressions for the new narrative flow.

I also have to start collecting footage for my assessment video, including shots showing how the rotobrushed shots are made, how the shots at Cox's Stack and Camperdown were made, and brief footage of me editing the film.  

Figure 2: Original filtered shot

Figure 3: New filtered shot

Tasks to complete:

• Collect footage of rotobrushing work for Assessment video
• Collect footage of editing for Assessment video
• Collect footage of original shots for assessment video
• Make alternate cut of Seoras with different shot order
• Finalize Seoras and Assessment video