LO4: Evaluation

For this unit, I worked with Joshua Gray, Frazer Mclean and Matt Frost. After being given the choice of creating a music video for a local band or a trailer for the film we were creating for Unit 5, we initially opted for the former. We started with a band called "Evening Coffee"; Josh went to school with the drummer so we thought this might be the easiest option as contacting them would be relatively easy. However, they did not have a completed song for us to use so we had to find another band. We found another band called "Brooklin" after searching for local bands on SoundCloud. This band were a lot more professional than "Evening Coffee" however the song that we wanted to make a video for was not going to be completed until after Christmas which did not give us enough time to edit or make the video before our deadline. After these setbacks, we decided it would be best to make a trailer for the short film we were producing as we felt we would be able to produce this quicker due to not needing to rely on as many people. 

In terms of planning the trailer, Josh made a script featuring the shots from the film that we want in the trailer. All members of the team were involved in creating a storyboard for the film as we each completed 10 seconds each. The purpose of a trailer is to make the audience want to pay to watch the full film and as our film is a thriller, we wanted the trailer to offer suspense which is why we decided to add a backing sound of a clock ticking with all the transitions syncronised to it. Personally, I think the trailer achieved its purpose of creating suspense and making the audience want to go and watch it. However, the inclusion of some dialogue could have given a better insight into what the film was actually about as our feedback survey shows that the storyline of the film was not made obvious in the trailer for a small percentage of people surveyed. Arguably, having no dialogue could work as a positive at making the audience wonder what the short film is about. The genre of a thriller is made obvious by the ticking noise and a lot of other things in the trailer e.g. pacing, appearance. This means that although the genre is clear, the storyline or contents is not so it may make the audience curious and want to watch more. 

In the trailer, we created a brand for our film by making up the name and the logo of a production company (Wylde-Gray Production)

In hindsight, we should've spent more time searching for actors as the majority of the ones we hired turned out to be unreliable or underskilled. Two members of our group (Josh and Matt) had to cover for two of the actors that cancelled for our filming as we did not have time to find anybody to cover them due to our tight deadline. Better acting would have improved our trailer, however, there isn't much we could have done about this due to late cancellations. 

We adhered to the legal and ethical rules well as there was no breach in copyright (we used a copyright free clock ticking noise), we received permission from the actors to use their images in our trailer (including Josh and Matt) and we also made sure that there wasn't any slanderous material in our trailer. 

Making sure that the product matched our plans proved more difficult than we first thought. However, the changes that we made were for the best. The trailer uses a lot of quick cuts, which added to the suspense. Our storyboard used more long clips that would have made the trailer drag and have not as much suspense. 

The audio of the project could definitely have been improved. The audio being record separately would have made it a lot clearer and would have helped remove the static noise. We used on-camera audio which picked up a lot of unwanted background noise. Using Adobe Premier, we managed to remove a lot of the unwanted noise, however, it is still there and it could have been completely prevented if we had recorded the audio separately. 

Overall, our trailer project was successful according to the feedback that we received from the focus group. The improvements that the focus group suggested were implemented into the trailer and I believe this greatly improved the finished product. The main improvements that we could have made would be making the flow towards the end of the trailer better.  The audio could have also been improved if we recorded the audio separately instead of using on-camera audio and the story of the film could have been made more clear, although again this could also have been a positive as the lack of dialogue creates more suspense.  

LO4: Drafts

Trailer draft one:

This first draft of the trailer was to use as a guide for the team to follow when working on aspects of the rest of the trailer so that they could understand the tone and pacing of the trailer that we were trying to create as a team. When asking others for feedback on this version the main complaint was that the trailer was far to linear and therefore gave too much away about the film and it's narrative (which while being hinted at should not be revealed in its entirety as that doing so would mean that the audience no longer has any investment into decoding narrative enigmas.)

Another large issue is that the frame size was not large enough to fit a YouTube video. As well as this this version of the trailer features none of the clips we took of the actual kidnapping scene which is paramount to the basis of the film. This is because at the time of its creation we had not yet filmed this final scene and will therefore add it in subsequent edits.

Trailer draft two:

This second edit doesn't add much to the trailer beyond removing some excess sound and improving the issue of the frame size being too small. This is the trailer that we presented for feedback and therefore the final version addresses the main issues addressed by the audience during that session.

Trailer draft three:

This is the final draft of our trailer and the one that would be shown to an audience. In order to make it more suitable to them we made the plot a bit more clear and also added some lines of dialogue as that that is what we were asked to do when we requested feedback. We feel that this is by far the best version of the trailer that we have created.

  

LO4: Footage Log

LO4: Audio Levels (Jacob)

The main task when editing the audio for the trailer was removing background noise and hissing from the majority of the clips. To do this I selected the audio and used the noise/hiss reduction tool. I then altered the amount of noise reduction so the unwanted background noises was removed and the dialogue was kept intact. We did this to make our film sound more professional.

The other main task when editing the audio for the trailer was syncing up the ticking noise in our backing track with the transitions. To do this we made sure the gap between the ticks was the same length as each segment of footage (starting of at 1 second getting increasingly faster).

LO4: Final Promo (Jacob)

LO4: Offline Edit (Matt)

In the offline edit, I pieced together twenty seconds of the trailer together using the raw footage in Adobe premier, the clips were cut and trimmed to the timing of a slow ticking noise that I found on a creative commons website ad we wanted our cut to transitions to be in time with the ticking noise. whilst doing the offline edit we noticed that some of the dialogue that we want to use in the trailer had a hissing noise on the audio which would need to be removed using audition this will be done in the online edit.

LO4: Evidence of editing (Jacob)

The main aim of the trailer was to build suspense using quick transitions and intense bits of footage. I believe the way I edited the trailer helped create suspense and a feeling of uncertainty as to what will happen to the characters. This will make people want to watch the whole film to find out what happens which ultimately means that the trailer has achieved its purpose.



One of the main aspects of editing in the trailer was syncing up the footage with the ticking noise audio. Each clip needed to be exactly 1 second long and matched up with the ticking noise (the ticks were 1 second apart and the transition between clips needed to take place on each "tick").

Another important aspect of editing the trailer was cropping some of the clips. In the trailer, we wanted to have close-ups of each character and to do this we had to crop some of our existing footage. This helped us introduce each character into the storyline, which is one of the main conventions of a film trailer. The cropped close-up shots also helped add to the overall feeling of suspense.

Arguably the most important aspect of the trailer was altering the colours of the shots. Altering colours and applying filters is extremely important in creating meaning in an audio-visual product as certain colours have different connotations. For example in this shot, we wanted to reinforce the negative stereotypes about the kidnapper so we altered the colour of the shot to make the blues stronger and the reds weaker. This gave a slight blue, cold tint to it which helps reinforce the fact that the shot is showing the antagonist.

This screenshot shows me adding the only titles used in the trailer, which were added at the very end to enclose the title of the film. I decided to use a cut-out style title is I thought the drastic change in background colour would make the audience take note whilst still allowing them to see what was happening in the shot behind. Another reason for using such a title was to demonstrate my editing ability as it is not a commonly used title.

LO4: Audience Feedback

Gaining feedback: 

An important part of the creation of any media product is the gaining of feedback for the products adaption. For this reason I ,after the creation of our first draft of our trailer, decided to create a survey that would gauge people's response and help us to make a product that would more accurately suit the taste of our target audience.
Below I have left links to both the youtube video trailer of our trailer as well as the survey monkey.

Me (far right) and my team present the trailer to the class.

The trailer we presented is below: 

As well as showing the class the trailer we also sent everyone a survey using the website Survey Monkey. The responses to this survey are below.

MATT

Strengths : 

Our trailer communicates our style and genre to the audience and connotes the meaning to the audience.

Our non-linear layout of the trailer allows us to keep the narrative a mystery to the audience.

Weaknesses :

The trailer could've been more action filled to keep the audience engaged

Some of the audio quality could've been improved 

LO4: Sound Editing (Jacob)

The majority of the audio in the dialogue scenes has a hissing noise in the background. I intend to edit this out.