Horror Trailer, Production Evaulation

Production Evaluation
The purpose of an evaluation is for you to revisit the pre-production, Production and post-production stages of the assignment. Through doing this you will be able to decide if you have achieved the outcome that you had originally planned.The important aspect of this evaluation is not that everything went to plan and you are happy with that outcome, although this is still important. What we also need to see is that you have carefully considered each aspect of the assignment and taken from that assignment any lessons or do’s and don’ts that can be transferred on to the next assignment. It is only through such a process that you can really gauge how far and how much you have taken from the course

.1. What do you feel is the most important area of learning that you have taken from this assignment? Look at all the production stages and ask your self which areas of this assignment have given you a new way of thinking or approaching you future projects. (50 Words)

Looking back on our production I would say that this project has given me a lot of useful experience in all stages of production, firstly from the pre-production stage I learnt that it really is important to get all of your pre production work and paperwork out of the way as soon as possible and to have it as concrete as possible, with this project we were a little loose with our pre-production work and I think it defiantly slowed us down in some areas, not only that but also as you are filming you do have to make changes and it is really very much easier just to go back and make a few changes throughout your paper work. Secondly throughout filming we had to get other people to film for us at certain points and you really do need to be specific in what you want because if your not in the long run it just costs you extra time and as long as you ask in a nice way, a lot of people are happy to do things to your specification. During the editing stage we had trouble finding music to fit our piece I think next time it will defiantly be something I need to look into a lot earlier in the project so as to give myself more time and get the best result possible

2. From your finished project what parts are you most happy with? With the same level of consideration what areas do you feel you need to improve on? (50 Words)

From the finished project I would say I’m quite happy with the piece overall, although it is a little slow but this was mainly due to the fact that we really did try and stick religiously to the time specification given. Also if I could go back I would get a different sound track. Because there is quite a bit of text in our trailer and upon viewing it didn’t stand out all that clearly I would defiantly rectify that by making the front bigger bolder and maybe in a different color, there are certain aspects of my parts of the trailer I would change but that’s mainly to do with camera angles and shots, for starters I would try and get a lot more close ups in but with shorter scenes and really try and capture the actors facial expressions.

3. How well do you think you and your group worked in achieving all the goals that were set by the assignment brief? (50 Words)

I think for this project we did fairly well but could have done better. As a group we communicated well but had issues with myself and other group members being absent which obviously is problematic, when you’re trying to film especially. We worked well with coming up with the initial idea and everyone was happy with the one we came up with and we discussed it a lot, and even though throughout the production we pretty much ended up tweaking every scene if only a little we managed to work well enough together to do that with out any major delays or mishaps. For my part I think I tend to take control a little to much so for this project I tried to step back a little and let other be in charge, it worked out better because it gives people there own responsibility and means I don’t worry as much about things I shouldn’t have too.

4. What would you change or do differently in the next production? (50 Words)

In the next production I would make sure that we absolutely had all the paper work finished and in order before we even considered filming. Also really try and make sure that every member of cast and crew will be present when needed as I think these were our biggest downfalls in this project. I would also consider the practicality of the chosen storyline a lot further, in this project when we came up with the ideas they seemed brilliant but then when we had to film some of them just weren’t practical so we had to stop and look at other things to replace them this defiantly cost us time that we could have used making sure we had better footage and in editing. I would also make sure we had more time to edit as we were right down to the deadline with this project.

5. How does your trailer fit with the look and style of a real example that you looked at in research, think about how your trailer looks and how it is edited (50 Words)

I think our trailer is about 50/50 for the brief, looking at real trailers. when coming up with the ideas for the trailer I kept going back to the idea of a story that was set up for you really, throughout the trailer there is text explaining things that would seem unclear or unrealistic if you didn’t know the story line behind them but without giving away what’s happening in the film too much, I took this idea mainly from the film the ‘Blair Witch Project’, although I’ve never seen the film, having watched the trailers they used the same technique and it does help build a sense of tension and intrigue for the film. I think our trailer was perhaps a bit slow to be a conventional trailer and maybe not dramatic enough for a horror trailer, during editing we tried to make it quite choppy, as a lot of horror trailer are fast, with short choppy scenes, this worked to an extent but I think overall some of our scenes where just to long and in future we would have to consider that more when planning. Also as a general rule horror trailers have a darker atmosphere and setting but because we were filming during the day it was hard to get round that, if we could have filmed later in the day or at night it would have been better things that happen at night always seem scarier than during the day, I know as a rule that most horror films I watch during the day don’t bother me nearly quite as much as the one I watch later at night.

Horror trailer, Production

We are currently filming our production ' Hide and Seek'
so far production has been slow, due to the fact that we have had a few problems with storyboards and scripts and also due to the fact that people have been missing from the group and currently havent had anyone avaliable to film the ' main' shots of the trailer so we are having to work around that, we are hoping to make quite a bit more progress today and get at least 4 or 5 shots out of the way and the hopefully get the main shots done next week.
we have also been helping other people film as the needed extra people and also yesterday i had to act in a part for another group. we are finding it quite hard to work around the fact that were missing a group member but hopefully they way we have worked it out now will help us be better ready to complete the project on time, we've also had to re-consider alot of our affects and camera angles due to lighting and reflections and things like that.

Work Shop, Post Production

For post-Production we were given back our script and the footage that the other group filmed for it. We then had to edit it, put the footage in sequence order and add titles and credits. We were told that we were not allowed to alter the footage in any way other than what was needed for editing. We were very pleased with the footage we got back and the group that had our script stuck pretty much to what was there, also we think they did a really good job of filming.

Editing the piece was fairly easy as all the footage was near enough in order any way. The only thing we added were titles and credits and a few transitions and overall it turned out brilliantly.

Work shop, Production

For our workshop production we had to swap our scrip with someone Else's and film their production while another group filmed ours.
We were given a script from another group to film, after looking over the script there were a few parts that were unclear and that we would not have been able to film due to location issues and similar problems, however the overall storyline was good though so we tried to stick to it as much as possible.
We enjoyed filming and found that it didn't take us to long to complete. overall Raina and i were happy with what we produced. in future though we would perhaps try and use a location more similar to the one described but i think it still worked out very well.

Evaluating, My Contribution to Post Production and Final sequence.

In Post Production I Edited Roughly half of the clips as we tried to share it out equally between the two of us so we both got experience. I laid the music over the film at the end. The areas of Post production I would improve on are the Music in some places it’s a bit jumpy and doesn’t blend well where it wasn’t faded properly and I think in some parts the sequence doesn’t flow so



I would try and edit it so it flowed better from one scene to the next.
The areas of the final film I would change would be To write in more close-ups and cut some scenes down like the opening scene, and to re-shoot some scenes as there where a few continuity errors here and there due the fact that we were filming on different days and also we forgot to set the white balance one time. Also I would try and improve on my acting skills and be more convincing. I would also try and Have a longer Chase scene and cut down on the build up to it whereas at the moment we have a short chase scene and the majority of the film is build up.


I think as a Group we Worked really well, we both compromised where needed and was open to direction from the other person, we talked everything through and made sure we were both happy with what we were doing before we made any final decisions throughout the project.

Workshop, Pre Production.

For this exercise Chris set us into pairs, i was put into a group with Raina, and set us the task of coming up with a script and story board for a short sketch with the following guidelines.

• it must be filmed on the fourth floor



• Must not contain weapons or bad language



• Must only contain one character but there must be dialogue.



• the character must not have a name or gender.

with 1 long shot, 2 close ups, 1 medium shot and 1 over shoulder shot.

At first i found it difficult to come up with an idea for a script for just one character after speaking to Chris i decided to do our script about a person in the hallway on the phone. Although it sated there must not be a name or gender i asked Chris if i could name the character 'Sam' because 'Sam' can be used for a name for a boy or girl. i found it relatively easy and once i finished that i started putting the directions and information 0onto the storyboard was absent that day and made notes down the side of my script as to what camera angles should be used for easy reference.

When that was finished we swapped scripts and storyboards with another group. We got Arron and Johns script and Storyboard. After looking through the script i made a Shooting schedule. I found it hard working to someones Else's work. I found that the Script wasn't very clear in places and there were errors regarding the criteria and there wasn't enough information in places, after discussing this with Chris Raina and I made a few changes to the Script and Storyboard and Started Filming. We Found filming Easy and Finished it fairly Quickly. On the whole i thought they had come up with a good concept and after we finished filming and watched it back found it worked quite well.

Evaluating my contribution to, Production

Individual input for production.
I was the main actor during filming and both Raina and I contributed to Directing.

Acting: I acted as the main character for the whole production
Voice: I will also provide the voice for summer.
Props: A baby doll, Blanket, Make up, Dressing gown, change of tops x3, white thread, fake flowers, vase, fake broken glass.
Music: For the opening
After filming we noted that we left one of the props in the shot while filming in the medical room, sadly it was too late to re-film and luckily it could easily be passed off for something else, like a bottle of drink.
After filming our extra footage on the Monday we realised we had forgotten to reset the white balance on the camera for the new location this will raise a big continuity issue but unfortunately it’s too late to redo it.
Group contribution.
Raina filmed
We both added input when filming (i.e. stage directions)
We took turns in taking the pictures for the opening sequence depending on who was needed in the shot.

When filming I acted as the main role and I am the only character throughout most of the production. I was unhappy with some of my acting and found it hard in places to get the right emotion across or to take it seriously and in future would work harder to improve those skills, I think a lot of the problem is that I get shy infront of the camera and found it hard to relax, I would defiantly say I prefer to be behind the camera than in front of it. However overall I think for the most part it came out reasonably well. Although I did have a lot of trouble with end shot when Rachel is supposed to cry I found this very hard and in the end had to take the camera home to film it on my own. I managed to get a reasonable shot eventually but I wasn’t completely satisfied with it. I think the props I brought were essential for the story line in particular. We both agreed that I would do the voice for Summer as well as I was slightly better at doing it which will be recorded and laid as a sound track in post production, this is a very important part of the production as it’s the only dialog apart from one piece of dialog at the end from Rachel which I also did. I found that dialogue very hard to do and struggled with it throughout filming I still wasn’t entirely happy with the end result and would defiantly need to work on that in future projects. It was also decided to find music to put to the opening scenes which I will provide as a sound track this will also be added in post production again this is important because I think it will help add drama a build the right setting for the film. As a group Raina did nearly all of the filming except one shot that we shot as a re-take but we both contributed with directing and saying which positioning looked best although Raina did the majority but I do think that because we worked as a team it was easier and the result was good. The pictures for the opening scenes are essential as the build background for the story and I think they came out really well they were one of things I was most happy with in this production.