The evaluation

Evaluation

After assessing our trailer ‘Over the line’ and reflecting on all the research we put into it I feel that it mirrors a lot of conventions of a real movie trailer. Throughout the production we as a group were keen to create a realistic approach as we believed that this would increase the quality of our work. Therefore we used various devices that people were used to seeing in normal Hollywood/British movie trailers. For example the use of institutional data, BBFC logos, real film companies and film festival in which the film has been showed in i.e. Cannes. We got these ideas from a range of trailers varying from big budget blockbuster such as ‘Avatar’ to independent British movies like ‘One day’. In addition to this we closely studied many trailers to get a feel of all the different shots we could use in such a small space of time – while maintaining the clarity of the trailer. Doing this enabled us to use shots that normally we never would have. For example from the Brick trailer we decided to have close up of the rubix cube to show the distortedness of our protagonist. We also used montages and a general speed up of the action as an inspiration from the adulthood trailer. This very cleverly used the music and growing acceleration in action to keep the audience on edge. We tried to use this as a foundation for the action in our own trailer as we felt this lay out would fit our narrative perfectly.

Throughout the construction of our trailer we came across many strengths and weaknesses as a group and also as individuals. For example as a group our strengths were that we were all very keen to start working and devising the trailer. We all found it easy to communicate and listen to each others idea’s which in my opinion helped a lot as each of us had a different approach which enabled the trailer to be diverse. For example, whereas I bought ideas forward on how to portray the soft vulnerable side of our protagonist, Yasser and Wadud were much better at devising the bullying scenes which were rather tedious to construct as we clearly had to show a fully blown fight. Furthermore I really felt that as a group we all communicated and worked well which enabled us to reach our targets and successfully record and get things done in short spaces of time. On the other hand, in my opinion of our major weaknesses were the cast and the reliance we had to place upon other people. I feel that this hindered out progress a lot as we were let down by cast members on various occasions. We also felt that the weather and length of the days was a disadvantage to our progress. Due to the fact that we only received the camera over one weekend we had to get all our day time shots done in that one weekend and we were therefore unable to reshoot. However luckily we had the advantage of using home camera’s which was a very similar quality to the college cameras. However if we had not had access to these camera’s I feel that it would have been difficult for us to re shoot some crucial scenes. Furthermore a personal disadvantage for me was my lack of skills with Photoshop, I found this very frustrating as I was unable to do certain things to help out. However I did use this as an opportunity to learn more about the software and increase my knowledge. One major improvement that could be made within our trailer is definitely the use of more Digetic sounds, I feel that our trailer has a real lack of these and this may hinder our chances of receiving good marks.

Although my research investigation can not be directly linked to my trailer because the trailer does not have any prominent young female character in it, I still strongly feel that a lot of the research I undertook did help me understand the nature of British movie much more clearly. For example all my research on the British movie industry helped us understand which movie companies would be most likely to fund a movie such as ‘Over the Line’ through this we made the decision to use the ‘Odd Lot film entertainment’ company and our own company called ‘Spartan studios’ as our main movie studios. Furthermore it also helped in the way we represented our young characters, especially the main bully. I was able to do this after I had closely studied the representation of the characters in Kidulthood and this helped us understand the kind of clothes the inner-city bully/bad boy should wear. Kidulthood also helped us recreate the young urban feel in our own trailer.

My research investigation also helped us use the conventions from movies such as Kidulthood that are specially devised to attract the target audience. The target audience for our trailer is young inner-city youths ranging from 16 - 24 which is very similar to Kidulthoods target audience. In order to maximise the appeal of our trailer we used certain conventions such as, a very inner-city back drop and young people represented in tracksuits and ‘chav’ wear. However at the same time we also tried to incorporate a sense of being different through our protagonist as we showed him in very different clothing to everyone else to show individuality and how it is difficult to be different in an inner-city environment. Through these conventions we wanted reach out as much as possible to out intended target audience as well as maximising other people interest within the trailer.

Now that we have completed the trailer I do feel that as a group we have come along way since we first started out. I have enjoyed working on the trailer although it has not always been easy especially as we only had a group of three people, which meant each of us had a lot of responsibility. The genre of our trailer is inner-city crime, which worked well as we were able to implement a sense of realism to the trailer due to the environment we live in. Furthermore there are many things that I have learnt from the devising of the trailer and although I am pleased with the end product I am sure that I would do certain things differently if we were to do it again. The main ones being finding more reliable cast and brushing up on my own software skills.