In Retrospect Pt. 1

         Looking back at all of my editing, recording, brainstorming, and planning, I want to say the final product was pretty good. Here I wanted to talk about the project itself, and in part 2 I wanted to reflect on myself, so here we go.

        With everything almost done except for some nitpicking here and there, the final idea actually differed from my initial idea quite a bit. One of the major changes was the pacing. At first I thought of including a scene at school, one outside, and a few possible extra scenes here and there. Obviously, none of this came to fruition. In the end, I really enjoyed the opening because it not only brought together a lot of things I like, but also gave me an opportunity to learn.

        The credits of the opening scene were my favorite part of the production, as I was able to incorporate something I saw in other media in my own film. In some movies I've watched, I remember how creative some title sequences were. While some films were dull in their delivery, others did an amazing job. Final Destination 4 for example, showed the cast and crew alongside major plot points. While it certainly isn't the best, it is a lot more enjoyable then bland, white text on a black background. Another memorable opening scene was Memento (2000), where backwards, unintrusive video was played alongside the credits. The way these two movies brought about creative, memorable, and entertaining-ish titles (as far as credits go) became a very good source of inspiration for me.

        Links to the openings are here, but fair warning as both have gore/blood

Final Destination 4 Opening

Memento (2000) Opening

        While movies do an alright job at keeping audiences engaged, there is nothing less intrusive than some of my favorite video game openings. Seeing everyone who worked on what you are interacting with is on another level when compared to movies. While many openings still retain movie-esque portrayals of abstract art alongside credits, some do a fantastic job at getting you right into the action.

        Starting off with Tales from the Borderlands, we see tons of resemblance to movie openings. While the openings aren't interactive, the blending of text credits with what's being shown is creative. The usage of text that blends in/interacts with the environment inspired me tons, and gave me the idea to not do yet another boring title sequence. While my credits were not as expansive or detailed as these, I still managed to get the same idea across by having unobtrusive and creative openings.

Check out the opening here, fair blood and content warning though

        Last but not least, we have last year's The Last of Us 2, which is the epitome of reserved credits. Being able to see everyone who worked on the game while playing and interacting with it was an amazing experience. I wanted to do the same with my short film by not wasting time on credits and still including as much story as possible. By having the credits show up on every shot while at the same time including content I was able to make full use of all 2 minutes given to me.

Fair content warning on this one as well, but the link to it is here

        In the end, I think I accomplished my goal of not being hindered by credits and creating a good story. I drew inspiration from everything I find well-made, and the final product is reflective of it all.