Evaluation

This brief started with each member of the class writing and pitching their very own remake of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. When each of these were pitched, 5 were selected, Jack's, Wingad's, Nathan's, Manuel's and mine. We was then split into 5 groups and each given one of those remakes to work on and create a trailer for, I was put on a team with Cannon and Katie and had Jack's remake to work on.
We started by taking his treatment and breaking it down scene by scene to see what worked and what didn't, parts we dropped for instance is the main character Jean, waking up in a hotel after Alex finds her and pulls her out of a car crash. We started to craft an entire trailer that revolved around that car crash, with dialogue already coming together and talks of green screen, but the more we worked on it, the more it was seeming more and more difficult, especially the car crash part. Cannon came up with a way in which we could do it in which the camera cuts to black before the hit, and the sound effects tells the story but it still meant having to find a car, and filming around the fact that Katie couldn't drive. So we went back to the drawing board. We seemed to come up with our new idea rather quickly, it started with dialogue from two nurses and then formed into an entire trailer that revolved around Jean in a coma lying on a hospital, it invites questions, and creates a great atmosphere.
I took on the role of team leader, this mostly just meant that I dealt with the paperwork, such as the Personelle and release forms. But it also meant that I ran the team meetings, and made sure that everyone was up to date with Journals, on set, I would take a back seat with a notebook to jot down the EDL's as Cannon worked his magic with the XM2 and glidetrack. When it came to creating the titles in Motion however, I found myself out of my depth, this is were Cannon came in, he was the teams tech guy, he even gave me a brief tutorial on Motion with a template. This was the first time on a team I felt like the ideas came from everyone and not just one person, a lot of our ideas came from Katie, and a lot of our amazing looking shots came from Cannon.
The various tasks that we concentrated on in the beginning were handled really efficiently and quickly, especially when we went back to the drawing board. We managed to get scripts, shots list, location, location and actor release forms done all done in a single day. The only thing I could think of that we could of improved is on the first day we went back to the drawing board, I was completely mentally dead, I needed to come back after some rest to creatively flow again.
Aside from that one instance, I feel like I performed really well, during my Peer 2 Peer Review, my biggest weakness was how serious I was during the entire production, although I don't feel like this is a big problem, I do see how having a bit more of a laid back attitude is easier to work with but it didn't have a negative effect on my teams performance.
The biggest factor that helped our teams decisions was Katie and her props, we had a lot of hospital equipment to work with, which helped create a lot of great shots. It is the fast paced shots that we should of thought about a lot clearer, we had one or two in our heads from the beginning, such as the bloody hand down a window.
The shots we have and use in our trailer are really effective, the slow zooms, and pans really add to a dramatic, atmospheric tension. The best part is that it builds up to something, in the first few drafts, my trailer built up to very little, the sounds really helps as well, everything mixes so well together, and really paints an eerie trailer. Our idea was to have quite a tense trailer, in which it shows a comatose main character, with a voice over put over it, this voice will throw up a lot of questions...

I feel like our trailer follows trailer conventions, dialogue is dubbed over another scene, the cuts are quick, it has a fast paced part, there are titles like "coming soon". The trailer doesn't give too much of the story away, it shows a few characters, gives a tiny bit of the story away (the birds attacking) but raises enough questions to entice an audience to go watch the movie.
When my trailer was shown to the class, the general feedback that I received was that my pace and sound/music was very well used, the trailer flows, but the segment in which it cuts to black goes on for a little too long.
Overall I feel like the biggest strength in my trailer is the ending, everything about it, the sounds, the shot, the build up, creates such a great ending. The slow build up really works to make that ending better like I said as well, it sets the mood you will usually find in other trailers. I feel like the weaknesses are the fast paced parts, in all the drafts I made, I was perfectly happy with that portion of the trailer, I was happy with the shots we got when we ventured back out to get extra shots but even when I re-watch it now, I can't help but feel that I could do more.
I think what I want to learn for next time, is to use Motion. I feel like at the end of my first year I should know how to use a lot more of the technical software to help with my future briefs and projects.