Preliminary activity Trailer and Evaluation

Evaluation

1. What new skills, techniques and knowledge have you learnt from producing the preliminary activity?

I have learnt while producing this preliminary activity is how to use a camera and tripod to create different that will be used in the trailer. This helped make shots that we thought was difficult possible really improving the quality of the trailer. We used different shot types and techniques For example adjusting the tripod legs to get the right level to film. The software I used to edit the trailer was iMovie which I had experience with already but learned some new features that I didn't know I could use. For example I didn't know that I could change the lighting for the clip making it light or dark depending on what you want. It really helped give the trailer that horror look as leaving it normal wouldn't have made it appropriate to the mood of the horror genre. This experience gave me some useful knowledge that I can use for future projects. It gave me an insight into how to setup scenes, getting the actors to play the characters and to find the appropriate location to film. 

2. How did you work with other people in your production team?  What role did you play in the production? Would you have done anything differently?

We had a long discussion as a group to figure out where to film our trailer and who our actors are gonna be. we work well as a team and each did a specific job to help prepare. I did the storyboard to which will display what the trailer is going to be. Dawn produced the script and Natalie worked on finding the location and getting the actors while occasionally helping us when needed. On film day, my role was an actor and I played the main character with Stephanie who played the other main character. What we could of done differently is to maybe choose a better time in the day to possibly improve the horror theme. We could've brought more props to maybe improve the story and made the trailer more interesting

3. What parts of the process did you find most challenging?  How did you overcome this?

The most challenging part of the process was probably filming the trailer as we had to find actors to play our characters and finding the right location to film it. To overcome the search for actors we asked our friends if they could act out some of our characters and they agreed. This meant we had our characters including me as one of the actors meaning that we didn't have to find lots of people to help us. The location was easier but we had to pick a time and place that could suit our trailer. The location was Sutton park as it was a big place and had forests that could create the horror scene. 

4. How successful was your final product?  Did it meet your expectations?  What are its strengths? What would you do to improve it if you were to do it again? Does it effectively make use of narrative, genre and representation?

In the end our final product was a success and met our expectations. The strengths of the film trailer is that the shot types were filmed really well and I think it explores the horror theme well. I think the narrative needs tweaking a little but felt that it the audience would understand it. What we could improve is maybe having multiple locations to show different stages of the plot. Another thing is to possibly film different scenes with the same shot to see what would work best. The representation of the horror trailer is that there's always a victim that appears and chases the main characters. The main characters always go to the place to investigate a murder or a missing person. These we thought we could develop into our narrative.