Evaluation

During the production of making the film there were many strengths and weaknesses I found along the way. My strengths of this would include; designing and preparing for the actual filming, knowing how to use each program or learning quickly, coming up with ideas to produce and getting on with the project efficiently.

If I were to do this again, I would speak up to my group and use the camera more, become a bit more organised and make more of an effort to be involved in the filming.

The original ideas would include; a serial killer, school crime drama and a heist, which is the idea we as a group went with. First of all we started filming a film, but then realised that it was meant to be a trailer, so we had to re-think the whole trailer, making sure we know what sections to film and when.

The audience are expecting a cop/crime drama, which is almost exactly what they got. Within this trailer characters involved would be: The two Robbers, a private/standalone detective and two civilians/workers in the bank. We see in the trailer that the private detective finds the mask and is immediately in action trying to find the culprits, ending up with a shootout.

During the process of filming I used many camera angles and shots. I used long shots, which were perfect for when the robbers walked into the bank. Close ups when we saw the main characters on screen, this showed their emotions on their faces to help the audience understand the background/scene easier, bird’s eye when the detective walks into the bank, by using this angle it makes it look as if the robbers are watching him. I used an extra-long shot when setting the bank scene so that the audience could clearly see the whole area that is needed to be seen. However next time I would try to involve myself more in the camera work rather than letting the rest of my group get on with it and try to have a say, (I think the boys just wanted to get on with it really).

The finished trailer is good but isn’t perfect, so if I were to make this again I would add more special effects, such as explosions, gun flares etc. this would create excitement for the audience, to keep them engaged in the film. However it does still look pleasing in appearance as some people who have watched it think so. The style is related to the genre, which is cop drama. I thought very careful about what font to make the title what it is. The red makes it feel secretive/dangerous and the tilted angle gives it a mysterious touch. With the boarder around the edge of the wording makes it tidy, so that the audience know that it’s a clean detective scene.

As well as myself in my group there was also Alex Hamlin, Josh Sullivan, Owen Bowden and William Traynor. My group’s idea was to make a bank heist. The boys mainly came up with this idea because they had seen many things like this on TV and really enjoyed them, so wanted to interpret this into our own. We started by making the timeline of the whole film, then the script and props. As well as

taking location photos to known where we were filming in the school and what part was what. Our target audience were teenagers, who enjoy action, so a bank robbery was perfect, in this episode. In the trailer I included titles, wording to set the scene, character introduction, special sound effects (gun shots). We also used some props and costumes; Hoodies, coats, a bag, masks, guns, shoes (as money bags,) which we had to improvise, however by the angle of the camera it still made the ‘money’ look affective. The masks give the episode a mysterious effect as we don’t know who they are; the hoodies connotes stereotypical gang behaviour/ conduct/ costume. The guns just give an extra touch to show that they mean business and are serious, adding to the mise-en-scene. By the camera angles and shots I had, my trailer was at the best of my ability, however if I were to do this again I would add gun flares and explosions. Next time I would also ask for certain shots/angles to make it even better than this one because nothing is ever perfect the first time. The titles fit with the trailer because they set the scene for the people watching it, however I wasn’t very pleased with the choice of music as it’s an deep-rooted song and many people will have moved onto more modern songs, so if they see/hear a trailer with an old song then they might think the episode is set in olden times. Apart from that I am happy with the outcome. At first we assigned roles to everyone, but we didn’t stick with all of them, as all of us were originally meant to all have a chance to film, but it was mainly two people who did it all. Also some of the filming we were meant to do on in the episode was missed out because of time and because we changed our minds on whether or not it fitted with it. I was the bank worker, and had to surrender when the robbers came in with a gun, and sometime pointed out flaws in our plans.

Before we could start filming we did some pre-production research, we watched Sherlock Holmes and CSI this helped us get the feeling of cop dramas, and to know what features were involved in them. It also helped with what camera angle/shots needed to make it effective e.g. close ups of faces to show thoughts. However we didn’t use these because they weren’t suitable to the

episode we were creating nor did we have enough time to add these extra details. But at least we will know what shots to have if we were to make another one. Pre-production section also included things like making mind maps, a synopsis, script, storyboard, location pictures, equipment, props and schedule. The equipment & prop list was helpful because then we knew what equipment/props to bring in and who needs them. The mind map helped us to make the one idea; we could take ideas from different places of

the mind map and put them together to make one. The location pictures helped us the whole image of that location and to work out what should be recorded and where. The storyboard was half obliging because we didn’t use it or go by it completely because we needed to adapt it to fit in with the time we had and the scenes we could. However I didn’t write the synopsis until I had finished because I wasn’t sure on the whole trailer/episode until we had finished. So if I were to do this again I would make sure I knew exactly what the episode was about. We didn’t use or make a schedule so this didn’t affect us in the process of making of the trailer. When creating the trailer however, was all my work, the creativity came from trailer I have seen on TV and watched in lessons, as I didn’t get much of a say in the camera angle/shots I had to make do with what I had. I either new how to use the program or taught myself by fiddling around. This was due to not having much help from my peers/team. I downloaded the theme tune off YouTube and used YouTube converter to convert it into a MP3 so I could put it onto my trailer. Also the gun sounds had to be exact with the timing of when he pretended to shoot. I also edited clips so that I didn’t have the whole of it, but little snippets. As I didn’t have a schedule I didn’t use one throughout making this trailer. By using the pre-production research we got a better idea of what needed to be included, and how much detail/time to spend on the scene.

The razor tool was used to crop and edit scenes recorded, but to keep the useful parts and remove the non-useful.

This is the timeline to see what you have already edited and added e.g. clips, music, sound effects and special effects. However when you sped up a click or slowed it down, it made it very hard to fit with the film as it sometimes missed out parts of the clip. To resolve this we had to stretch the clip until it showed all the

appropriate parts.

This is to watch your whole film and too help yourself understand what doesn’t look right and needs to be edited.

This is for extra effects on the clips/music.

In my own opinion I think that my overall trailer is to the best to my ability with the clips I had to produce it. However if I had the opportunity to do this again and I were to speak up and ask for the shots/angles I needed/wanted, my trailer would be enhanced in quality. No-one in the group obligated a diary or schedule, maybe if we had myself and my group would have been more organised, in the process of the pre-production section.

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