1. What new skills, techniques and knowledge have you learnt from producing the preliminary activity?
I have learnt a lot of new skills from this preliminary task. One of the new skills I have learnt is how to use iMovie, which I used to edit my trailer. It was very important for me to learn all the applications in iMovie so I could make my trailer as professional as possible. When I first started editing my trailer, with little knowledge of editing, I was just joining one clip to another with no transitions that made it look very unprofessional. However, when someone in my production team recommended using transitions in-between different shots and straight away it looked more realistic. Another skill I learnt whilst making my trailer was cutting individual clips, which makes that shot shorter and keeps the audiences attention as they as seeing the bits with the most of action in them. This is vital in a trailer because if they are looking at lots of shots they believe there is a lot happening in the movie and is worth there while going to pay to watch the movie. From my research I quickly found out that text and music is very important in a trailer, in their own way. Text is found in every trailer I looked at and was used in most cases to show who the leading protagonists are in the film. From members of my production team I learnt how to add text in iMovie, I added text for when I was highlighting who was featuring in the movie who are well-known and therefore helps more people go and watch the film. I learnt how to add music to my trailer as without it, it is dull and boring which does not help keep the audiences attention. To add the music I had to download the non-copy righted music on Peggo which then allowed me to insert the file onto iMovie, where I could then cut the music so it fitted the shots and looked like the music was made for the trailer which lots of film companies do, which are predominantly from the “big six” to give the audience different moods.
From the preliminary task I have learnt is that next time I need to film as much footage as possible because for this task I felt that the trailer was too short and with more footage I could have kept the audiences attention as well as showing more shots which hopefully makes the audience want to go and watch the film even more.
2. How did you work with other people in your production team?
As a whole I think my group worked well together, as we tried to accommodate everyones ideas when making the script and deciding the location of which to film. Prior to the day of filming we as a group made a shot table which outlined what shots we are going to take as well as the costume style the actor needs to be wearing. This saved a lot of confusion because we all knew what we was supposed to be doing.
3. What role did you play in the production?
For the trailer I took a couple of the camera shots like the one at the start of the trailer. This shot was of another member of my production team called Joel who was acting the part of a drug dealer. Like vast majority of the shots I took I used the tripod so I could achieve the goal on my shot type plan of having a steady long shot of the drug dealer. In my production team I also helped make decisions on where to place the camera and what locations to use. The idea of filming in the multi story car park was my idea because it gave a sense of mystery as not many people who live in the area don't actually know where it is, which drug dealers want as they don't want to be caught so choose places which are away from the public. This I feel this made the trailer more realistic.
4. Would you have done anything differently?
If I was to do anything differently, I would change the equipment I used to a higher specification camera so it would give a better quality which would make the editing stage easier. Even though the sound was recorded using the camera and as a whole is good. I would use a separate sound device to preliminary record the sound. As a result this would dramatically increase the audiences attention to the trailer as the sound would feel more dramatic.
5. What parts of the process did you find most challenging?
I found the editing stage the most difficult. This is mainly due to the vast amount of thing you can do in iMovie, however the more time I spent using the program the easier I found it. Even though as a group we came up with the location quickly, choosing the shots we found difficult because as the location was in a relatively large space it maximised the types of shots we could use. It was very difficult to choose one shot apart from another as they both impacted the trailer positively.
6. How did you overcome this?
To overcome the challenge of using iMovie I had to, at first keep my patience as it was very frustrating at the start. Even though it was very frustrating I also had to have good determination as the longer I used iMovie the better I got at it. The difficulty of choosing the right shot was overcome by looking at trailers with similar locations and using camera angles they used when applicable.
7. How successful was your final media product? What are the strengths and the areas that you need to work on in future projects?
The tools I had I believe my media product overall was successful because i feel it made people go and pay to watch the film. However, as the camera quality of some of the shots i have used are not to a high standard it makes the overall trailer not as professional as it could be.
The key strengths of my trailer was the range of shots I used. These shots included, over the shoulder shots and extreme close up. If I did not do this it would not have made the audience bored and therefore would not attract them to watch the film.
One of my weaknesses I felt was the lack of different locations. I used two different locations which was a shopping car park and a public foot path. Therefore it suggests to the audience that only two different locations have been used and so they may not believe the film is worth going to watch.
In the future I will increase the amount of locations, use a better resolution camera as well as using actors that fit into the character profile.
2. How did you work with other people in your production team?
As a whole I think my group worked well together, as we tried to accommodate everyones ideas when making the script and deciding the location of which to film. Prior to the day of filming we as a group made a shot table which outlined what shots we are going to take as well as the costume style the actor needs to be wearing. This saved a lot of confusion because we all knew what we was supposed to be doing.
For the trailer I took a couple of the camera shots like the one at the start of the trailer. This shot was of another member of my production team called Joel who was acting the part of a drug dealer. Like vast majority of the shots I took I used the tripod so I could achieve the goal on my shot type plan of having a steady long shot of the drug dealer. In my production team I also helped make decisions on where to place the camera and what locations to use. The idea of filming in the multi story car park was my idea because it gave a sense of mystery as not many people who live in the area don't actually know where it is, which drug dealers want as they don't want to be caught so choose places which are away from the public. This I feel this made the trailer more realistic.
4. Would you have done anything differently?
If I was to do anything differently, I would change the equipment I used to a higher specification camera so it would give a better quality which would make the editing stage easier. Even though the sound was recorded using the camera and as a whole is good. I would use a separate sound device to preliminary record the sound. As a result this would dramatically increase the audiences attention to the trailer as the sound would feel more dramatic.
5. What parts of the process did you find most challenging?
I found the editing stage the most difficult. This is mainly due to the vast amount of thing you can do in iMovie, however the more time I spent using the program the easier I found it. Even though as a group we came up with the location quickly, choosing the shots we found difficult because as the location was in a relatively large space it maximised the types of shots we could use. It was very difficult to choose one shot apart from another as they both impacted the trailer positively.
6. How did you overcome this?
To overcome the challenge of using iMovie I had to, at first keep my patience as it was very frustrating at the start. Even though it was very frustrating I also had to have good determination as the longer I used iMovie the better I got at it. The difficulty of choosing the right shot was overcome by looking at trailers with similar locations and using camera angles they used when applicable.
7. How successful was your final media product? What are the strengths and the areas that you need to work on in future projects?
The tools I had I believe my media product overall was successful because i feel it made people go and pay to watch the film. However, as the camera quality of some of the shots i have used are not to a high standard it makes the overall trailer not as professional as it could be.
The key strengths of my trailer was the range of shots I used. These shots included, over the shoulder shots and extreme close up. If I did not do this it would not have made the audience bored and therefore would not attract them to watch the film.
One of my weaknesses I felt was the lack of different locations. I used two different locations which was a shopping car park and a public foot path. Therefore it suggests to the audience that only two different locations have been used and so they may not believe the film is worth going to watch.
In the future I will increase the amount of locations, use a better resolution camera as well as using actors that fit into the character profile.
MOST OF YOUR RESPONSES ARE SATISFACTORY HARRY ALTHOUGH QUESTION 7 IS A BIT ON THE BRIEF SIDE. DO YOU THINK YOU COULD ADD MORE TO THIS?
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