Evaluate Peer Reviews

What I liked	What confused me	Sugestions
I loved the sound effects and background music. It set the perfect mysterious mood for the movie opening. Josh’s acting was also really great in the sense that he was a very affirming interrogator.	The dialogue left me confused at times because I couldn’t really hear what was being said. The kidnapping was confusing because it happened all of a sudden and I definitely made this mistake of my own.	Maybe record a voiceover to replace the dialogue happening in the opening and lip sync what is being said. Introduce the kidnapper more in a sense that leads to the kidnapping in an understandable way.
I really liked the music that was used in the background, it helped with the sense of mystery and developed the plot.	I was a little confused at the end why the hoodie was just left on the table where the last person was interviewed.	I think maybe at the end instead of the hoodie just being on the table the last person who was interviewed should get up and say "may I get my things" and the detective says "of course, you're free to go" and the interviewee gets up and gets the hoodie off of a hook or something and leaves, then the film cuts.
I really liked the lighting you chose, between the darkness of the night and the shadows created while Josh is interrogating people, it was very well executed.	I think the purpose of the opener is to cause confusion and raise questions, so in that aspect it was good.	The volume of the interrogations is a little muffled and quiet. Also, some frames are full screen and others are smaller, revealing black frames around the clips.
I really liked the music at the beginning. The interview scenes were also very well done.	I was a little confused when the person in the hoodie was kidnapping Miguel because during the scene right before that, Miguel and the hoodie person seemed to be friends.	I suggest that the volume of the music should be turned down slightly during the interview scenes. I struggled to understand what the people were saying at times. Other than that, I loved this film opening!
I really liked the noises added in. I also think the acting is pretty good and the whole film in general was just well done. The editing was good and I liked the plot too.	I couldn't clearly hear what they were saying because of the music and a little bit of mumbling so I didn't fully know what was happening. I also don't understand the beginning of the film where a character was on the computer.	I just think the audio needs to be fixed a bit. Just turning down the music while the characters speak would probably make it better.
The atmosphere was carried forth extremely well by the lighting, camera work, and mise-en-scene. The title, especially the way it was presented at the end after the scenes, raised questions for me: what is so important about this ordinary article of clothing that there would be a federal case about it? The director revealed exactly what was needed for viewers to understand the plot, while keeping the answer to this question hidden.	Besides the aforementioned question, I am confused about what the criminals' motives are for kidnapping someone. Other than that, nothing really confused me; the director provided everything else I needed to know.	I would suggest that the editor(s) attempt to filter out the slight static noise that is in the background of certain scenes, so that it will be easier to hear the dialogue of the characters. I would also choose a different location for filming, as it was fairly obvious that it was shot in a school, which conflicts with the adult nature of the plot.
I really liked the escalation between Miguel being watched to being taken. I think being in the perspective as the person in the hoodie is really interesting because it gives us this sense of wrong-doing yet we want to see the person survive. I also liked the music choice and the intensity of the interrogations.	I think the interrogation scenes were unhelpful to the plot and were confusing to the story. I also think that the pace between Miguel being friend with the person in the hoodie to then being kidnapped also was confusing, it was very fast and did not give a lot of understanding to what was happening.	I think that maybe having a bit more information or clarity to the plot would help viewers understand it more. I also think the interrogation scenes need to have much brighter lighting. It's really important that you get the gloomy atmosphere, but if you can't see the actors then it defeats the purpose. I also think the acting was a bit stiff, it seemed unnatural and I think would make a big difference in the opening.
The acting and editing were really well executed.	What really happened in the beginning, it was unclear to me as to what happened until the detective announced it as a kidnapping.	Nothing really, I thought It was a really well done first draft, maybe minor tweaks to the shots of the crime itself.

Of course, because it was the first draft it was a bit rough and we expected to have to tweak our work. Ultimately, the commentators not only noticed the issues I had seen when watching the finished draft, but they even provided useful ways in which they could be resolved. A common theme was complications with the audio. Aside from this, the comments left from the peer review were very helpful in identifying problems that we hadn't seen in the opener. Some which included sound clarity, and how to ease the confusion they had felt when watching our opener.

Another commonly addressed issue was how we formatted the kidnapping. Some viewers were confused as to what was actually happening, so we had to go back and evaluate how the pieces could better fit together since reshooting would be difficult with social distancing and all. In our first draft, Miguel tried to raise the volume of the actors, but that didn't translate well into the actual video. The lighting was another problem. Even though we wanted to do an interrogation with a darker setting, there seemed to be a lack of light. One comment specifically drew our attention in how to end the video: the last person interviewed should ask "may I get my things" and once given permission be shown to grab the hoodie, which reveals which suspect is the real kidnapper. Unfortunately, we may not get to do this as CDC guidelines suggest to come in as little contact with others as possible to avoid contracting coronavirus.

These comments were all useful in looking at why the opener didn't flow as best it could, and will definitely be used in the editing process for our final draft. Since we cannot meet with one another, Miguel will be cutting a few shots and adding in new ones that make sense. We will also search for music that works better with our kidnapping idea and lower and raise the volume as needed. When actors are speaking, the music will be lowered and to add suspense, the volume will be raised.