Video Feedback from our Trailer

Here is the video feedback we received from people who had watched our trailer! Again we used YouTube to upload this to the internet, as it was a quicker upload and also means we can just use the html code to post it where we would like.

Individual Evaluation Blog Links

We've all finally finished our individual blogs and here are the hyperlinks to each member of our group.These include our evaluations.. 5012 Sarah Baker 5085 Jessica Hurt 5102 Launa Littlejohn 5028 Alice Cadenhead

Feedback Questionnaire

Using the DVD, I showed several people our trailer and got some feedback using a questionnaire that we had written (See Below)

Edited by Launa on 24/03/11)

Trailer.

1.) What is the trailer advertising?
2.) Where is it set?
3.) Who do you think is is the target audience of this trailer?
4.) Does it look like something channel 4 would produce?
5.) Would you want to watch this show?
6.) Are any of the freeze frames unclear in meaning?
7.) Which storyline do you like most? why?
8.) Who is your favourite character? why?
9.) Is all the dialogue clear?
10.) Do you think the music compliments the image?
11.) What did you like about the trailer?
12.) What didn't you like about the trailer?
13.) Is there anything you would change about the trailer?
14.) Does the trailer make you want to see more? Which parts in particular?
Poster.
15.) Who is the intended audience for the poster?
16.) Would the poster make you want to watch the trailer/soap?
17.) What do you like about the poster?
18.) What improvements could be made to the poster?
19.) Could you imagine seeing the poster on a billboard/bus stop shelter?
20.) If you hadn't have watched the trailer would you be able to identify the poster as advertising a new TV soap? If not, why not?
21.) Is the colour scheme for the poster appropriate for the target audience and for the soap opera?
TV listings magazine.
22.) Who is the intended audience for the TV listings?
23.) Does the TV listings magazine look like a real product?
24.) Would you want to buy the TV listings?
25.) Is the colour scheme for the TV listings appropriate for the target audience and for a TV listings magazine?
26.) Is the language suitable for the target audience of young people?
27.) Is the font clear on the TV listings front cover?

28.) Do the trailer, poster and TV listings work well as a promotional package?

The Video!

Here is the version of our trailer we used to get our feedback.

Launa saved it to a DVD so we could show people and I also uploaded it to Facebook so we could get digital feedback. Although, we were a little disappointed by the quality of the video once uploaded to the internet. Here is some of the Facebook feedback:

Our Final Poster and TV Listings Magazine Front Cover

The Poster





The Magazine Front Cover

Re-recording of Chris' voice

After having watched our trailer many times throughout the editing process, we decided that some of Chris' voice over was not clear for the audience, hence Sarah re-recorded Chris' voice in a quiet inside room, whereas before it had been done outside during the filming week. We are happy with the quality of the audio now.

Extra Filming

From our class evaluation, we learnt that during Chelsea's crying scene in the toilets, it is not obvious that she is pregnant. Therefore we created an NHS Letter, clearly saying she was pregnant, which we have found to be a lot more effective. This made the storyline a lot more explicit, without taking out the excitement for the audience, as they would still be wondering - Who is the Father? and What is she going to do?

Class Feedback

Although we haven't finished editing our trailer, we received some class feedback from people working on similar projects which was helpful for us to identify where improvements could be made.

More Music

We had a brief evaluation at the end of last term before Christmas and decided that we were happy with the second half of our edited trailer, but not so happy with the first half. One big improvement we deemed necessary was to add some music to the first half of the trailer.

We spent quite a while last term trying to achieve this but couldn't work out which style of music we wanted. However, Launa, Alice and I spent an hour today using Soundtrack Pro to create a mix which we are happy with and just needs a little tweaking to make sure it fits well with the moving image; otherwise we may end up creating a sense of confusion for the audience. For the music, Alice began with just a simple beat and then added extra guitar and built the layers and it sounds really good. The piece of music starts to become quite rocky at the end so that we can more easily change to the loud theme music we use in the second half of the trailer. The two pieces of music don't quite correlate however, so we are hoping to use a 'DJ Scratch' to mix them together.

We also sorted out a problem with our video too because we imported pictures from a USB to be added to the video for the 'screenshots', when we reopened the file at first the pictures had gone. This was because we had removed the USB, however we transferred the images to the Mac and then re-imported them and added them to the trailer and this problem is now resolved.

The Editing Process

Alice and I (Sarah) have learnt how to change the volume of the audio in Final Cut Pro as some of the dialogue was too quiet and we wanted the music to fade down so you could hear them. But we have now made the necessary improvements. The quick-paced frames which come in after all the characters are introduced are going really well and they work effectively with the music.

Alice has created the title screen 'Insiders' with the basic information using Photoshop.

In our group outside scene, originally we intended to freeze frame the different characters so we could overlay text with their name and a comment from their character. We decided to change this and Jess spent a lot of time using Photoshop to edit the freezeframes to give them another colour and use our house style font 'Cracked' for the text. We imported the pictures back into Final Cut and it now looks better. It was also suggested that instead of a comment from them we wrote their sentence length and so we made this improvement too. Alice and I looked at a lot of music on Soundtrack Pro, trying to find some good backing music for the first half of our trailer, but we have decided to not use any at this point in time and to use diegetic sound from the video footage instead.

Re-Filming

We refilmed some of the outside courtyard scenes today so that we had more footage to edit and so we could get the shots we wanted. We wanted the following shots and got them:

• A full pan of the characters outside


• Reaction shots to our character Harry being introduced


• A slow hand held shot from the POV of the two boys walking round to introduce them


• The group hanging out and a bit of fighting occurring

We are now happy with our amount of footage and think we can get further with our editing.

Before we went and did the filming, Alice and I created a one line bio for each of our actors to guide them slightly in their character portrayal. We based their characters on characters from Skins/Misfits/The Inbetweeners, as not only is it relevant to our targer audience, but we knew that it would help our actors who have all seen one of those programs at least. We also planned the actor's postures for the freeze frames, aiming to depict their main character trait.

Magazine & Poster

Thursday 25th November- We've decided to use this time to work on our print productions. Alice is working on the magazine front cover with the images took on the day we filmed in the half term which shows the actors in character and posing in character- this will help establish main characters to the audience and the soap.

Launa and Sarah are finding screen shots to involve on our magazine cover special because this will show the actors in character.

Thursday 25th November Problems

Unfortunately only female actors could make it in today and we're left with such short notice that would could not refilm anything today, however we've rescheduled once again and will include the male actors so hopefully tomorrow our courtyard scenes will be finished!

Editing Problems!

As a group we have decided our footage of the courtyard scenes are too windy and our actors cannot be heard and therefore we feel these scenes are unusable and would be a waste to use them.



We've now rescheduled actors to come in on the Thursday 25th of november to refilm our courtyard scenes to then be able to continue editting.

Editing Begins

Our whole group has now reviewed all of our footage as it stands on the tapes we used.

We've put every scene on the Mac's and are ready to begin editting to create our new soap trailer!

We've begun to add each scene and cut scenes to the right length and position them to create the trailer's structure, i.e. beginning with the opening establishing shot of HM Prison Canterbury and ending with the great piece of footage with the girl screaming 'Let Me Out'

We have been using Final Cut Pro 6 and Soundtrack Pro to help edit the sound together.

Day 3: Final Day of Filming

Today we had several of the same actors back to film more of the shorter scenes. We really enjoyed filming some of them and had to stifle our laughter at some of the great acting that was coming out of the people we had asked to help us in our project.

Most of the filming again took place in school, although I (Sarah) went to Alice's to film one small segment with one of our prison guards.

Today we also took the chance to take photos for our magazine front cover and on both days we took photos for our poster. The images look really good and quite believable too, I think. We will post some of them onto the blog quite soon.

We managed to get everything done, except for a gate which we still need to locate, and we hope that it is going to come together now in the editing process.

Day 2 of Filming

We felt today was quite succesful as we managed to get quite a lot filmed, despite the fact it was freezing outside and quite windy. We feel that the sound quality could be slightly affected by the wind, but we played it back on the camera and it seemed okay, so we will have to check this when we get to the editing stage. We filmed the scene in the courtyard today and our actors got into their roles quite well. We are worried about how some bits will fit together as it was difficult to get all our actors/actresses there on time, but hopefully through the editing we will make it look professional. Some of the short clips were filmed too, although some didn't end up so long, we filmed as much footage as possible so then we have more to 'play' with at the editing stage. When filming we tried to be very aware of the mise-en-scene and anything that may have been in the background, resulting in us having to move tables, chairs, etc.

The Start of Filming!

Here is our film schedule:




We began filming today, but our film schedule didn't go exactly to plan because of issues with actors, so we decided to make the most of our time by driving to Canterbury to film the front of the HM Prison there.

Unfortunately however, Jess, in our group had become quite ill and had to go to hospital and was therefore unable to partake in any of the filming on the three days. Although she is however back to health now.

When we arrived at Canterbury, we thought it was best if we went to ask permission before we got a camera out and started filming a real prison as otherwise people may have been asking questions. We were told that as long as we were standing on the pavement outside the gates, they couldn't do very much to stop us from filming. They didn't seem overly happy about it, but grudgingly said we could, so we went ahead. It took a while to actually get the shots we wanted as typically we arrived at an end of a shift, so many of the prison wardens were leaving and we couldn't have them or their cars on camera.

We filmed several shots at different paces, but we were quite disappointed that the inscription wasn't very visible.

Mug Shot Preparation

We prepared the information boards before the filming days, so we were ready to take the photos of each character to create our poster.

Story board.

As part of our planning for the trailer, we created several drafts of a storyboard containing our ideas of the storyline we wanted to produce.

Draft 1:

 Draft 2:

 Draft 3:

We updated our story board several times as our ideas constantly changed, from adding props, including different camera angles and even changing location of the set. All of these elements collectively add to producing a realistic media text.