Evaluation upon the Coursework

Evaluation

After applying the finishing touches as well as the editing, the video trailer had been reviewed within each scene.

During the study and the analysis of the final trailer, we as a group have discussed upon the finishes and what part of the clip they have enjoyed.

Being the editor and such, I felt that there could of have been a big improvement within cutting out the unneeded background music. I understood that that due to time constraints and the budget that we could not use professional props and items to which we worked with what we had.

The theme and style of the film trailer was exactly how I portrayed (though being the editor does allow that advantage over others due to their perspective and how they would want the film to be directed). The overall outcome of the theme was indeed grittiness, violence and crime (to which met our specification) Though in my opinion I felt that it lacked semi gore-ish scenes, I understood that due to our budget, fake blood could not have been induced within the production but solely because of that, it wasn’t as realistic as compared to other professional film trailers.  

The theme songs and music fitted in with the tempo and the rhythm of each clip, such examples as when Pete Crowley(Hadyn) was looking remotely...suspicious, using the laptop to hack into the hideout’s system and the combination of the non-diegetic background music with the lyrics “And you’re looking pretty suspicious”. So there was an applied lyrical-visual technique sustained within the trailer(though unintended until editing took place).

Camera shots and panning were as professional as it seemed for some of the parts, other than some misjudgements and amateur hand shaking to which overall helped the grittiness and the feel for the realism.

In general, I feel that the trailer was too extended, the trailer lasted for 2:30 minutes when trailers should last around from 1:30 to 2:00. The first front half upon the dialogue should have been shortened to an extent. I understand that with the main protagonist speaking out within the beginning was necessary in order to introduce the scenario, however, I have discussed that some of the dialogue wasn’t needed due to that we shouldn’t be explaining the main plot but hinting different features and different cases in order to grasp hold of the audience’s attention. Such examples given are how most of the antagonist are introduced at the first half the beginning.

Instead, we should be creating anxiety throughout the trailer and portray each and every character with an unknown identity or rather with a mysterious profile.

Overall, the score I would give to the trailer would be 3.5/5, initially, if we had a better equipment and better understanding with the tools and programs that we were using, it would of been much easier to create a more standard and professional trailer.

 

Media language

"Media is communication.” Discuss the ways that you have used media language to create meanings in one of your media products.

The communication within presenting our trailer consisted of using various techniques to which the audience could translate themselves their own values.

Within our A2 Film project, our sole desire was to initially target an audience demographic whom enjoys the typical action packed twist with the hint of crime, namely young males. Our main intention was to create a nitty-gritty film to which we hope to grasp our audience with that action packed realism. We wanted that impact on the film in which we hoped that the audience could reflect upon the characteristics of the theme without having the difficulty to figure out the whole plot of the trailer. Hopefully offering something fresh and new while sticking to the conventions of crime movies and trailers.

The mis-en-scene was carefully constructed in the film trailer, such and such consisted of our props and clothes, the antagonist within the film trailer was depicted with dark characteristics; Dark black clothing were used with the combination of the eye-patch. This served to reinforce stereotypes of the cool suave gangster. The communication that was put forth throughout the attire/asset was that the clothing was the signified clothing as that signifier situated the actor as an evil villain. We used this concept of portrayal throughout the film trailer as this help us to set the medium for each enactment.

Once the idea of the film trailer was introduced and confirmed, the main goal was to force a definitive genre into each of our scenes to which we hoped that all of our audience can relate to or rather understand the concept of the theme.

With the uses of different camera shots, we learnt that we can create various styles and themes that fitted our genre. On the whole, with the use of amateur follow-ups and shaky camera recordings, the outcome for the scenes concluded with a gritty perspective. Angles consisting of low angle shots that were performed on Nathan Cole (The Protagonist) when he was looking suspicious.We used this within our chasing scene where the pursuit took place between the protagonist and the antagonist as we focused on giving the audience a first person impression/view of the whole chase. This initially created a realistic viewpoint of the action and violence.

In other instances, the title of our film (Chasing the dragon) interconnected with two aspects of the plot, one of which that the word ‘Dragon’ was a reference to the main antagonist of the film (Hao Zheng) as his background origin came from China (China being heavily influenced with Dragons and such). The other meaning to the connection of the film title was that ‘Chasing the dragon’ refers to smuggling and the trading of narcotics (Such as cocaine). This polysemic technique assisted the theme of the film to which the audience should have an rough idea of the plot upon looking at the first impressions.