This is my Final Media Piece.
Full and Rough cut Versions:
This was my Rough/ Test Version. I compared the two together and most of it was similar, only few major or minor changes needed to be made.
- The final version time length of my film trailer was 1 min and 18 seconds long, meawhile my rough version was 1 min and 22 seconds long. My orignal time limit was going to be 1 min and 40 seconds but am glad I shortened it.
- In my full version the cuts and changing from scene to scene is much smoother.
- In my rough version I only had 1 sound effect, music and voice over and no visual effects, while in my full version I added in some more sound effects and visual effects.
- I changed the font in my full version to make it a little more creative and intersting.
Plot summary:
The background story is that the head (the boss) of a powerful mafia family known as the Cervus (meaning stag in Latin) has been murdered, he was seen as hero and good man to some but criminal to others. He leaves everything to his two children who are Leo and Rena Cervus, but also are left to find and bring their father’s murder to justice. They aren’t alone, their fathers right-hand man Haydes (Consigliere) and the rest of the family are working behind their backs. The only thing they know about the murderer is he or she is known as Malice.
Evaluation:
Idea:
From the beginning of the final project to the end of the project my final piece idea has been the same, it’s a Film trailer, the Plot is the same, and the Genre is action and Crime. From my inspiration which was the film The Godfather, it has the same idea of revenge and family and has the dark lighting style, the only difference is mine is more action based.
What went well? I think coming up with the storyline and thinking of the characters, mainly because that’s what I am strong at, being creative with designing characters and storylines.
What to Improve on? I think I was limited on time, although at the time I was ahead of everyone, the timing was an issues because I had to do script and pre-production early to fit in time with my timetable.
Pre – Production and Research:
From my storyboard there have been slight changes from where I have been filming because I came up with one or two new scenes but the whole thing is still essentially the same. Having done all my research little has changed from that, I had to research Mafia gangs (Origins and history) , Film trailers (what are film trailers and what makes a good film trailer), the film trailer that helped me the most was probably the Jason Bourne trailer. I also made a questionnaire to help with this, And Film genres (what genre is my film trailer categorised as).
What went well? The Storyboard, Risk assessment and research into film genres and trailers and Mafia history is the reason why it went well because I knew what I was doing and focused on what I had to do.
What to improve on? Script I thought I was a bit confused and didn’t have an idea of what to write for the voice over, it took some time to think of what the voice over should say, which wasted a bit of time.
Production:
Originally I was going to film for three whole days but instead I filmed one whole day and two half days. During filming I came up with two new scenes which I thought would be good to use which weren’t on my storyboard. One of which is a scene that wine is spilt across the table making it look like blood that has been spilt. This scene is one of the scenes that stand out the most in the film trailer because it’s a creative and gives the idea to the audience that something bad has happened and more blood will be poured.
What went well? Overall I thought the filming went smoothly and made a lot good scenes which have a nice look and style for the film trailer to fit in with the rest of the other scenes.
What to improve on? Similar to the other stages I think I was limited due to my Cast having upcoming exams or were going back to uni, We were going to film 3 whole days however had to change it to 1 whole and two half days but still managed to film all the important scenes and few extra and test scenes.
Post-Production:
During post-production I had a few changes, not to the storyline or anything, but placing the scenes, music and sound effects. I had few choices of good scenes to put in so it was hard to choose which scenes I wanted. Music – I had three music pieces that I had to choose from to use as the trailer music, in the end I choosing the song known as Rise by Devesh Sodha which I found on a YouTube channel that does soundtracks and trailer music. Originally I was not going to have sound effects but then I decided to add in two sound effects which is used to draw the viewers in, these were Camera shots and Gun fire sound effects. During editing I found a real problem with the sound because with the voice over you would hear slight background noise, nothing major but it was there and I couldn’t redo the scene again. I didn’t get any help from the technicians, so I tried raising this with voice enhancement while lowering the volume of background noise, and also raising the sound of the music I used.
What went well? Things that went well in editing were putting the scenes in order and making them changing smoothly, also adding in the visual effect to make it a little more cinematic and giving it the dark light crime genre type look. Finding the music also went well I had a few choices of music, all of them equally worked but the one I chose worked the best in my mind and other people’s opinions.
What to improve on? There wasn’t really a way to fix the problem I had with my background sound that was in my voice over. I tried most things to see if it made a difference, but the best solution was to enhance voice with the voice over to make it make clearer and lower volume slightly to kind of fade out the background noise. Then I put the music in to the right volume so you can still hear the voice over clearly and so you can’t hear the background sound as much.
What would I do differently?
I would have started earlier to give myself more time to plan ahead, really I think that would the main thing I would do differently. But also get a better camera and have more people to help me with camera and equipment. I would also like a lesson on special effects before we do FMP again because it would expand my knowledge and I could use the techniques more during projects.
What would I do if I had a larger or unlimted budget?
If I had an unlimited budget that would be great or just a larger budget. I would probably use it on better camera and microphone equipment and maybe use it on special effects and some costumes to make it look more professional and get better footage and audio. I would use it to hire out a team for helping out filming.
Changes I made during the my FMP?
•I made slight changes to the scenes because I came up with new scene ideas
•Originally my time length for my film trailer was going to be 1 min and 40 seconds, instead ended up being 1 min and 18 seconds, which was a better idea.
•Originally I was going to have just a voice over and music, but I changed it by adding in two sound effects.
•Also I never was going to have a visual effect either but i tried one effect out and it made it much more better, so I used it in my film trailer during editing.
Target Audience?
During the idea and pre-production stages I said that my target audience is aimed at people around the age of 15 -18 who enjoy both action and crime films. Also aimed at people who like looking at film trailers or are doing film trailers for their media course. I showed some of my audience this project and they really liked it, even people who are over the target age liked it, this shows that my media piece can be aimed at other age groups as well as my main target audience.
Skills Improved or Learned new skills?
I have learnt a lot from this final media piece. I have improved putting together and making the scenes change smoothly and nicely, learnt a lot about how a simple sound or visual effect can greatly improve a media piece. And of course I have learned to make a film trailer, so overall from this FMP I have indeed learnt a lot.
Conclusion:
From this year’s FMP project I have definitely improved and learnt a lot and have had many good results and challenges to overcome. I really enjoyed making a film trailer and wish we could have more projects like this. Probably the best part of the project was the filming was a great fun and I am very grateful to the people who helped out with it. I now understand much better what you need to do to make a good film trailer, and that Visual and sound effects are very helpful with improving your piece in one way or another. I am proud that I have kept it to the original idea and plan which is another bonus point, in the future do work more like this or better.
nicholaspagemediablog 