Audience and genre evaluation

1. Which of the audiences uses and gratifications does your trailer appeal to? how have you constructed this?- my trailer conforms with most of Blumler and Katz's uses and gratifications theory, the main way it does this is by the audiences need to be entertained, the audience want to watch a production which conforms to the stereotypes of the genre but changes it at different aspects to make it less original, this is very effective when considering the marketing appeal of the product. Providing the trailer has certain elements conforming to the genre such as guns and fighting in an action then the audience will know that they will be entertained and surprised at the very least. My trailer shows these elements through its constant portrayal of rivalry opposition of the forces of good and evil. The constant need for answers throughout thrillers help to keep the audience entertained. Another way my trailer conforms to the uses and gratifications theory is through the need for an audience to identify with certain characters or situations. For example the protagonist looking for answers with the antagonist looking to quell his attempts. This is similar with the location as specific shots such as our use of the houses of parliament help the audience to associate themselves with the location therefore more with the situation, in the case of some thriller films the main protagonist is usually a father whom the audience can relate with especially having to juggle work and family life.This helps draw the audiences attention as it allows them to picture themselves in that specific scenario therefore helping improve their opinion of the film.The idea of the audience escaping their daily trouble and/or woes help to sell the product as people want to go to the film in order to enter a world where troubles aren't as crippling, especially in thriller films where usually there is a hero who has everything going well for him despite his normal upbringing (quite often an orphan) where he always gets the bad guy and the girl if there is one. These aspects help when people are watching,to have a character who is relatable is imperative as it gives the audience more of a sense of attachment therefore increasing the likelihood that they will enjoy the film. In my trailer our main protagonist is shown to be the gallivanting hero you'd expect who confronts the bad guy no question asked therefore helping us to conform to the genre, it is important to know however that in our trailer we made sure to show the bad guy as being more prepared and stronger to help subvert the stereotype that the good guy has it easy.

2. How have you appealed to the 'male gaze' in your trailer?- The 'male gaze' is imperative in my trailer as we set about making the trailer from the perspective of mostly male characters, the idea of the 'male gaze' is that the audience view a trailer from a heterosexual male point of view, because of this some woman may feel objectified because characters may be designed for a male audience.Our film trailer aimed to establish the main characters as the traditional roles you would expect to see in a thriller film with a protagonist, antagonist, dual identity character with a slight allusion to a female role despite it not being a leading role. As Laura Mulvey suggests we wanted our film to be watched from a heterosexual male perspective as our main target audience was young people predominantly males who would both be interested in the action elements as well as the dramatic story line which has twists and turns along the way.

3. What genre is the trailer and how have you conveyed this to your audience?- The genre we chose to purvey in our trailer was a mixture involving elements from actions films whilst being predominantly thriller. This gave us a much larger basis when considering the ideas for our film, we could take the action conventions with guns, chase scenes, fighting etc. with the dramatic tension filled atmosphere which is bought about by the thriller genre. The thriller aspect was put into our trailer through cuts when editing which makes enigma codes for the audience to follow, we also put it in when considering that the whole idea of a quest is more along thriller lines as opposed to the over the top violence you may see in an action film. We also know this through the establishment of a protagonist as well as an antagonist as it sets the scene.

Directors Narration over the film

Directors Narration over the film

The directors narration was helpful in letting us analyse the product post production and after audience feedback. This lets us have a much more detailed overview of the final product and helps us to reflect more when looking over the project. It is important to remember that this analysis can help someone who has never seen the film understand it a bit more. As far as marketing and distributing goes it can also help sell the product to hear the directors opinion on what is really happening therefore helping expand on ideas which may be implanted into the audiences head and settling a few debatable points if any surface.

Evaluation task 4-What equipment we used

Canon 500D

The main camera used for the majority of our filming, it was of very good quality and created a very good image, the main problem we had with camera was the fact that it didn't have a ;ens with optical zoom, this of course caused problems when we had to film form a distance, for example in an alleyway where you can't stand next to each other because it is too confined. The camera was useful for most of the shots especially in Dubai where we needed a top quality camera in order to film such a beautiful location.

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge

The Samsung was a very good quality replacement for the Canon, it was more practical being small enough to fit in a pocket and having more memory space as well as a flashlight for the dark and a very easily transferable data via the usb charging port. The phone was the most versatile aspect of our entire filming process and helped a lot especially when the Canon's SD card corrupted and a new one would cost around £50. This meant we didn't need to worry about filming because we had a top quality replacement camera on standby.

 Adobe premier elements 

The original software from last year and a more basic version of Cyberlink Powerdirector. Still good for its simplicity but yet it doesn't create the quality production we were looking for with specific special effects being really hard to implement such as the fade in shadow of the title or the gun shot sounds on a blank screen. The software still worked well when considering that we only really needed it as a backup if the Cyberlink Powerdirector turned out to be a dead end as it could be more complicated.

 Blogger

Blogger was the most important part of the research and planning process, it helped make the whole trailer planning process a lot easier as you could display all your ideas simply and easily on a blog. It was essential for most of the shots we gained to have an idea of what we were filming, with blogger we could plan the filming of particular scenes in specific locations pretty simply just by following the script, however even though we had blogger to plan we found it easier when filming to improvise our shots as it meant we could get a lot more shots to help fill the two minute time limit.

 Cyberlink Powerdirector

Cyberlink Powerdirector was the software of choice for editing as it provided us with an easier way of creating the presentation we desired, the actual quality of Powerdirector is very good, the editing aspect is far more efficient and the rendering is far quicker and less common as compared to Adobe's equivalent. At the start of the year we had to make the decision whether to stick with Adobe or not, the reason we chose Cyberlink Powerdirector instead is because of practicality and quality, in terms of going round Conor's to edit it was essential that we could edit whenever we want rather than relying on going to the media editing rooms to do it, this as is also helpful as the quality of the software is better as it is basically an upgrade on Adobe with an easier interface and simple controls when it comes to editing an image or sound etc.

Evaluation task 3-Feedback on our trailer

overall presentation feedback

good use of locations: high budget- this was one of our main aims when creating the production, the fact that me and Matt were lucky enough to have the opportunity to go to Dubai and Iceland during the year was very helpful in letting us make our trailer look high budget. Our plan to use the rule of three in regards to location seems to have worked very well, with the chance to show three very recognizable and different locations as well as the idea of three more rural/urban locations meant we could implement the rule of three very efficiently in order to create a better effect.

villains could have been more inconspicuous (black mask)- we understand the idea behind the villain's identity being kept hidden as it creates an enigma for the audience to follow up on, however we thought for advertising and marketing purposes it would be much more realistic to hint at Matt being the villain rather than keeping his identity hidden altogether as it would help increase marketing sales.

good range of shots- during production we made it very important that we collect as many different shots as possible in order to increase the quality of our production, therefore we set about using different types of shots in different locations, prime examples being the low angle shots used when the villain is in shot as well as the tracking shot which follows the protagonist on his search for vengeance all whilst sticking to the 180 degree rule.

cut the scenes, more close ups of characters- The close up of the characters is something we could of improved on, it would help the audience relate more to the character at hand but we believed it would take away from the significance of the locations we had in the trailer especially abroad as the  locations were sometimes so nice we didn't even need a character in them, For the purpose of the trailer we didn't deem it too necessary to establish parasocial relationships between actors and audience rather we thought just the alluding nature of what side (good or bad) they represent.

good use of editing to create tension- the editing was essential when considering the build up of tension within the trailer, the music was imperative in building this up, the actual soundtrack started slow in order to allow us to establish the plot as well as the characters but gradually gets quicker in order to allow a montage of shots in order to help us conform to the stereotypes and conventions of an action/thriller film.

slight jumps in clips, faster paced editing to fit with music- the slight jump in cuts was more human error than anything, the specific software we used Cyberlink Powerdirector could be a bit fiddly when editing shots and therefore the shots could be mishandled, it was also a case of the push of the deadline meant we had to rush any last preparation in order to produce the last product on time, as for the speed of editing we felt it was more important in establishing the settings to show a sense of high budget rather than increasing the speed of the editing, even though the action genre is known for quick editing we also have to conform to the thriller genre which is much more about a gradual build up of tension.

good font style which was effective- the title was very effective as we put a lot of time into it, this is because it is the last proper shot we see in the project therefore it needs to stand out and stay in the head if the audiences especially seeing its the name of the film which will help with the advertising and marketing campaigns as people would automatically link the name of the movie with the trailer and therefore an action/thriller element/

titles a bit too quick, not clear on characters- we agree with this view as it was very hard to edit in the titles perfectly over the pictures present, we struggled a lot with the amount of shots of specific characters and in some cases we had to sacrifice the title in order ton not repeat the same shot over and over again, of course this takes away the familiarity of recognizable faces but it can also be seen as a positive, for example Conor's character had two personalities one good and one bad and therefore the fact that we don#t show him too much keeps him a bit more secretive, also it may be a case that he may not be in the film as much and therefore it may be unnecessary to show him more frequently.

good soundtrack but perhaps a more tension filled one was necessary- This point goes along with the idea that we are not set in one genre therefore the need for a faster paced soundtrack might have taken away from the quality of the images we took, therefore we might have to have made a presentation which is shorter as the amount of shots we possessed was limited. However we could've done some fiddling around with the soundtrack to help bring in the fast paced bit sooner but the way we edited it and the shots seemed to fit perfectly with very little work meant we stick with the original soundtrack which took ages to find in itself.

Evaluation task 2-Comparison between three texts

Trailer with annotations

     Final Poster for the trailer                                                            Final Magazine for the trailer

how the 3 texts complement each other in advertising your film and appealing to your target audience

Trailer

The trailer compliments the other two texts really well, normally peoples attention in this case the potential audience is caught by the poster or magazine cover whether that be a split second eye catching image on public transport or in a famous magazine company e.g. TotalFilm. Therefore the people who usually view the trailer already have an idea of the contents through extra reading, this is usually how fan bases start. However with the dawn of social media it has become much more common for the trailer to be observed first rather than a poster, nowadays it is as simple as sharing the trailer on Facebook where all your friends will be able to see it. This is especially useful when trying to find a large audience base for the film. It is usually the case that film makers try to gain the attention of the audience without giving too much of the story away, our trailer is very effective in doing this, both the poster and magazine help highlight what the film is about through the use of a select few images. These images especially of the guns help to establish our film as a standout action/thriller film, the guns being the giveaway and helping us stick to the typical conventions of the genre. The trailer will appeal to our selected target audience (15+ boys) because it  has a lot of usual conventions of both action and thriller films, the constant presence of guns along with the exotic locations and the odd chase scene help us to keep the attention of the audience throughout the length of the trailer. The name Syndicate is what we want to stay in the heads of the audience after they have watched the trailer, the last shot being our animated title sequence, this helps us complement the other two texts as the audience would constantly be on the lookout for the name subconsciously, therefore in a busy environment if their eyes catch the title clearly shown on the poster and magazine their interest would be peaked and it would serve as a constant reminder of the film coming out therefore increasing the efficiency of the advertising campaign.

Poster
The poster is very effective in complementing the other two texts, not only is it very distinctive in look but it also possesses all the information needed in order to create a successful advertising campaign. The use of the title is symbolic of all movie genre's not just the action/thriller genres with the big bold title trying to catch the attention of whoever it can.The review system is also very effective in increasing the efficiency of the advertising campaign, with glamorous reviews from a lot of well respected businesses. In our poster we tried to use the most well known reviewing companies in regards to film, this way it would catch the eyes of the audience, especially if specific people look for reviews from specific companies e.g. IGN who can alter their decision on whether they go out of their way to watch the film. The fact that most of the poster is black but yet the actors and production and distributing company logo aren't is symbolic of most movie posters as they are crucial aspects which can gather the attention of audience viewers. The actors involved can be a major influence when film makers try to attract an audience, for example Leonardo DiCaprio in the Revanent where just the name can gather a cult following. For us the names are clearly presented at the top with the slogan "from the acclaimed visionaries of the Summoning and Vindictive" therefore catching the audiences attention especially those who enjoyed the original films. The production and distributing company logo's are also really important in selling the product at the advertising stage, the need for them to be clear is imperative as it can grab audience members straight away. Prime examples of this are companies such as Disney and Pixar who have a mass following every-time a new film comes out as they have such a loyal fan base. The poster establishes the genre of the film very simply through the use of guns with the two main characters with the smaller hand held weapon of the main protagonist as well him being in the middle whereas the antagonist is shown with the much larger gun and behind the main character to show how he is an essential part of the plot. The fact that only Conor's eyes are shown is essential with the idea of the action/thriller genre as his character is supposed to be secretive and his identity a mystery.

Magazine
The final magazine compliments the other two texts very efficiently as it is an overview of the entire plot as exhibited in the trailer as well as being the less detailed version of the poster. The reason for this is because usually where magazines are concerned the main image as shown above are on the front page as its big eye catching news which will gathering the most amount of audience to view the magazine. Therefore any crucial information about the films release, whose in the film and behind the scenes aspects are further on in the magazine therefore encouraging the purchase of the entire magazine based purely on the front cover. Our own magazine company was AbsoulteFilm as an alternative to TotalFilm, we did a similar logo with the red letters of film displayed massively in order to gather more of a relevant audience (those who are interested in film). The absolute being the hint that our magazine company only discusses film.When advertising a new release in a magazine it is very important that it makes the front page, other productions simply only get a slight notice with just the title and a page number for within the magazine being present. For us the film is presented on the front page with a picture which highlights the two main most significant characters who could have a massive influence on the advertising campaign. We also included the slight backdrop of London as a slight hint to the main setting of the film, this is important as the significant landmarks are clearly established in the trailer therefore to add a slight hint in the magazine cover is imperative. We decided to use very well known movies on the front cover of our magazine as it shows how our film is the most highly anticipated film of the year in front of all the big names even Mad Max Fury Road and Disney's release of Star Wars. We used the idea of an Oscars nominations to show how good our film is, in reality mad max had 10 nominations and star wars 8 so if our film was on the front you would expect at least 10 nominations and stiff competition from the Revanent for the best action/thriller film. We used the slogan "thriller of the year" to help gain the audiences attention, it is quite usual for movies to use specific comments from well established companies in order to show authenticity for the final product, we chose thriller of the year as it shows the truly prestigious nature of the production. We also used "the action continues inside" as it helps promote the advertising campaign as well as prompting sales of the specific magazine.Once again it was very important that we establish the magazine as the action thriller genre as that is what we are marketing the movie as, the use of guns once again highlight the audience we are looking for (15+ boys) as sometimes it can be generalized that men like action films more as they are less freaked out by gore.However there is less of a depiction of gore for that exact reason, despite the fact that we are appealing to boys with the action elemtents we don't want woman to not want to come especially seeing it is the thriller of the year. There is a massive marketing aspect behind film magazines, usually it is more likely woman who buy reviews of movies as they are more likely to buy magazines in general unless they are someone working in the media industry. Therefore it is very important that the magazine cover appeals to bot genders in order to get the biggest audience to view the film as possible.

Evaluation task 1-Nine shot analysis

The title of the film

The title for our trailer had to be symbolic, as an action thriller film we needed something which stuck in the heads of the audience at the end. The final title had to be basic with some sort of special effect, we decided on the black background with the white writing as it really helps set the scene in terms of the movie, as one of the last shots we see the title needed to be something with both conventions of the action/thriller genre but also have our own twist on it. The slight tint on the title of the film was put in as a special effect as it makes it less bland, even though we wanted a film title which was basic it couldn't have no editing on it as the detail makes it stick out more, the blend of colours makes sure it stays in our mind. The bullets are stereotypical of the genre as they represent all of the action elements within the trailer, of course during our trailer guns are a large part of it as we want to fill the atmosphere of the protagonist vs antagonist, the gunshots at the end being the final part of the trailer apart from the credits, the fact that we used three bullets was on purpose, the rule of three was used throughout our film especially with locations and so we decided to add it again here.

Settings/Location

Our settings and locations were very important in the making of our film, we wanted to conform to the idea of the big budget productions as much as possible, to do this we ended up filming in three major cities (Dubai, London and Reykjavik) as well as three more urban locations (Esher common, Oxshott scout hut and Stoke D'Abernon's residential area). We used the idea of the rule of three here as it was important in order to attract the audience as much as possible, having six different locations made it difficult to film but bought about a feeling of authenticity when it came to actually editing it. We had a nice balance with the hot deserts of Dubai, cold snowy mountains of Iceland and the built up areas of London and it helped create the idea that our story was about a worldwide or at least multi national organisation therefore helping us conform to our story-line.The fact that we used lots of different locations helped with our production a lot, our use of both recognizable and non recognizable locations helped our production reach the level which we expected, the big budget production movies usually have a mixture of the both as well, this helps us to conform to the genre as it means that we can present it as a quest of the those who are good against those who are evil

Costumes and Props

We had to make sure the costume and props in our trailer were conforming to the stereotypes we set out, the action/thriller genre we chose meant that we had to  have those action elements in mind, stuff such as guns had to be a constant presence in the trailer, the shots I have chosen show a wide array of the type of guns we were dealing with. Usually in action/thriller films the main character has a smaller type of firearm as opposed to a bigger assault rifle or shotgun, this is because it is seen as the more precise weapon as well as showing of the ability of the so called protagonist. The bigger gun is usually present for the bad guys to show off their strength in the situation, however they are usually less accurate and therefore always miss the so called more agile protagonist. The costumes also had to conform to the conventions of an action/thriller genre, this meant that the main protagonist had to wear something smart, in most of our shots I was wearing a shirt with trousers or black chino's, however there are a few shots where i was in a whole suit and others where i was in a coat depending on the climate. As for the bad guys it is symbolic that they wear dark clothing to give them that secretive appeal, the black coat is a constant presence for our bad guy so you can distinguish between him and the protagonist more easily, the other bad guy is seen to be wearing a suit, this is because we want him to be seen as the main enemy and leader of the entire organisation. The suit helps conform to this.

Camerawork and editing

We tried to use a variety of different shots in our film, we wanted to progress from last year where I used lots of prolonged shots and move into a more fast paced editing to fit with the idea of a trailer. The most symbolic shot of the trailer is the one up the top right, this is the climatic shot for our trailer, it shows the main protagonist in a spot of bother with the antagonist pointing a gun at the back of his head. The shot is symbolic because it leaves an enigma code because it makes the audience think about how he will escape this situation. the fact that we used a close up and over the shoulder shot helped to give prevalence to the protagonist but also gave a low angle shot of the main bad guy therefore giving him power. We also used a tracking shot in the same sequence as the climatic shot, this was important as it gave a sense of realism to the trailer as there is always a shot following the main character especially in action movies. Editing was also a big part of the trailer, we had to try and fit the credits over the footage we had gathered and still have it flow well, it was hard to do as most of the shots are split second and so don't give us the time to establish the names, we also had the problems of no proper close up on Conor's character which would work so we had to fit it into the background, however this can make him seem like a character who has less of an impact which helps him keep his secrecy. The example is of Matt and its an over the shoulder shot therefore conforming to the action elements as there is a gun present, the black background really helped as it meant we could use white writing which would stick out really well therefore increasing the quality of our editing.

Title Font and style

The title font and style was essential in our production, we needed something which was plain but not boring so it didn't take away the audiences attention from the action unfolding. I spent many hours developing the production company logo (top right) and with help made a really top quality image with non copyright images, the IFM logo was taking from my production last year, the Independent Film Making Studio's was our first idea and was the final product last year, however the logo didn't live up to our expectations, the font was efficient because the black helped it stand out against the background with a help of a white shade. Our distributing company was also taken from last year and needed an updating to the logo, the actual picture of  London is our own so it helps with the authenticity and the fact that the clouds were covering the whole sky and were pure white meant that the black font would stick out well. The actual title shown at the end of the trailer had to be plain with a bit of animation. the white on black works really well in most circumstances, the slight glow meant it stuck out even more, the slight shadowy appearance meant that it was more of a good quality, the fact we used capital letters for all of it was good because in most titles nowadays within film they are used to create the professional impression. On all films you see especially trailers it is very rare that you don't see them all in capital letters. For the credits we used the same font throughout feeling that it would be better to create that effect, the actual writing was influenced by lots of other trailer credits, most notably the avengers and superman. This helped us create the feeling of authenticity especially in regards of whats actually written, the actual production of the end credits took many hours as it was a lot of fiddling and different documents needed in order to create it, all the smaller writing had to be on separate layers, separate fonts , separate text boxes and sometimes separate documents.

Story and how the trailer sets it up

When creating the initial ideas for the trailer we wanted it to have a solid story, one which is more stereotypical of an action film, the idea of guns, exotic locations and an evil organisation was imperative. The main story idea was that there was a multi national crime organisation trading secrets of intelligence agencies across the globe and it is the job of the protagonist to stop the rogue agent who defected and stop details being spread. The trailer opens this up by using a selection of guns as well as different exotic locations including Dubai and Iceland. The evil organisation was present through Conor's part as both the head of the Syndicate as well as the good organisation therefore meaning he is an insider for the bad guys therefore making the job of the protagonist far harder as thee bad guys will always be a step ahead.

Genre and how the trailer suggests it

The action/thriller genre we decided on meant we had to stick to the typical conventions you would expect to see, the trailer definitely conforms to these as there is many shots where guns are present, the chase scenes also help to establish this as an action/thriller, we needed to make sure that the guns were the main element of the trailer therefore conforming to the conventions of a action/thriller film. The low angle shots of the bad guy are also constantly present therefore giving him power in the situation over the supposed victim. This is symbolic in most action films as they want to make the bad guy look a lot stronger then they actually are to give the sense of a bigger organisation at work. The constant over the shoulder shots also help to establish the genre, this is because they are useful when trying to keep an amenity about a specific character or it maybe useful in establishing who has power in the situation, for example the top left shot shows the protagonist and the so called 'good guy boss' however the fact that there is a lot more prevalence on the boss means he has far more power over the latter.

How characters are introduced

The characters are introduced under very different circumstances, The main protagonist is introduced first through being followed by the camera, this is supposed to symbolize the quest he is on and the journey he is undertaking. This is vastly different to the antagonist, the first shot we get of him is him cocking the gun and then firing therefore establishing him as the bad guy straight away. The fact that he shoots and you can't see the victim helps the audience to realize that he is someone not to mess with. It is safe to say that the establishing shot of the main antagonist helps to set the scene for whats going to come, the fact that he is wearing all black means he can be seen as the villain in the trailer even more. The so called 'boss' in the situation is presented in a suit therefore showing his authority as a character, the fact that he is sitting at a desk makes him seem more important as it gives him a sense of power over the protagonist especially seeing the over the shoulder shot gives him prevalence. The main female lead is only shown briefly in the entire trailer, that is because we didn't want to take away from the action element of the film especially where the gun violence is concerned.

Special effects

The main special effects present in the trailer are from the title, although basic they add authenticity to the trailer as it means that we have edited the title in order to catch the audiences attention more. The only other bit of special effects we have is the white screen with the sound of a gunshot every time someone looks to shoot the gun in a climatic scene. This creates the sense of an enigma code as the audience don't know what happens to the person they character apparently shoots. However overall we didn't really have to use very many special effects, this was because the quality of the shots were very good and the locations we filmed in created the high budget feel to the production, the only time we needed special effects was to fill in a split second shot so we can progress in the trailer from the original scene or if we wanted to improve the quality of something in this case the presentation of the title.

Post Production

Post-production 

What have you learned from your audience feedback? 

Improvements from a secondary source- From our audience feedback it was far easier to take away constructive improvements which if put into practise could have vastly improved our production. Issues such as the lighting or sound could have been redone, for example in one of the scenes we see the lights completely change from off to on even though the scene didn't prompt it, we also had issues with the sound that the camera didn't have a very food quality built in receiver meaning our voices were quiet, however due to the horror movie nature we could get away with it as the ambience created by the music meant we could avoid any potential hassle with re-filming the scene or recording our voices to input over the top of our production. 

To get constructive criticism whilst in production was something we could have strived to do, we very much were set in the idea of doing all our film independently so that when we show in the production of the film it would be open to criticism. It could have been useful if we asked for an outside opinion during production as it would have given us a useful insight into something we missed perhaps some little tweak which would attract an audience or help it conform to the stereotypes if the genre. 

What editing decisions were made? How did they inform the production? 

Annotations- Post production we were very much open to improvements, all the constructive feedback we received from other members of the class were put into effect when we added annotations to the production afterwards. This was good when it came to analysing our production for our evaluation as it allowed us to spend time writing in possible improvements to our film as suggested by members of the so called audience therefore meaning we could strive for a more audience friendly production. 

How did the post-production process enhance the overall production? 

The post production process helped us to get a better understanding of the process we would need to go through in order to improve our production, the audience feedback was essential in helping us improve our overall perception of the project as it allowed us to see dimensions which might have otherwise not been seen by us. It was very effective when looking back over our work to have an idea from a group of people what aspects we could improve as it helped us keep out any bias from our improvements, the annotation process reflected these improvements as it was us analysing our own work with the feedback given to us. 

How have you developed these skills at A2? 

At A2 the post production process is very much the same, apart from the fact that we built upon the mistakes we made last time in order to improve the production. The sound was much better and more efficient this year, we recorded a narration in order to make sure everyone understands the story and in order to avoid the low volume we experienced last year when recording dialogue without a microphone. The lighting is also vastly improved, this year we used a lot more intentional shots in the dark to give a feeling that the movie would be constant, all seasons and all times as shown through the shots in the snow, desert and grass and through the light transitions from dark to light and vice versa. The skills we learned last year means we can be a lot more critical of the work we produced, the fact we had a shorter time span to create the production meant we had to be a lot more accurate when it came to filming the production, however at the end of the production task we can look back on it with glee as it turned out a lot better than we first thought and the improvements were definitely present from last year to help us create a truly quality trailer.