Evaluation Activity Eight:

What targets will you set yourself for A2, when you make a trailer?

Having finally finished our product to a successful level, looking at it we feel there is still room for improvements. There are many parts of our film which we really like and feel have worked very well. There are many areas in which you can tell we have improved from our preliminary task which we created at the beginning of the year. There are many targets that not only myself but my whole group feel we could progress on next year when we make a trailer.

There are many positive outcomes from our film, including our camera work and and storyline. I feel our storyline was effective as we had thought about it for a long time and wanted it to be as good as possible. We also wanted to ensure that it was a fairly different type of thriller film. Our film successfully appeals to both gender audiences as females like the idea of it being based around women as they can relate to it. Males would also enjoy due to the 'male gaze'. We like the storyline due to it being unique, you never really see the protagonist being attacked/killed by suffocation. The location is also quite eerie suggesting it has a freaky horror connection. Our camera shots and angles work effectively as we wanted to use different angles to create a tense atmosphere. Using high angles and canted angles we were able to achieve our aims. We made sure by using cross cuts it was showing the audience the different locations and keeping them engaged throughout. Overall, with the camera shots we wanted to include as many as possible to help get a good enough grade but also making sure the shots were accurate and presentable.

 Even though we have a wide range of positivity from our product, there is still room for tweaking and making improvements. We need to focus more on the mise en scene. We should have thought about our costumes in more depth and how they related to our characters. Katy who played Bella was wearing an outfit which subverted her stereotype, it wasn't scary or thriller like. Myself who played Ellie, is an innocent character but was portrayed wearing dull dark colours. I should have worn brighter colours to show my kindness and vulnerability. The protagonist and antagonist were dressed effectively to conform their stereotype. The makeup also wasn’t really thought about. Nadiye who played Tara had chipped nail varnish which looked unprofessional. It looked as if we hadn’t taken much time to get our characters ready or thought about it. In editing we used the ‘smear’ transformation to enter in our titles. We liked this as it conforms the the thriller genre although, the timings aren’t great and they enter and disappear from the shot a little to quickly. Acting skills… definitely room for improvements there! As our actors aren’t professional they obviously weren’t going to be perfect, but they could have tried a little harder. During the conversation between Bella and Rosemary, the shot reverse shot looks a little uneasy and wonky due to the change of camera position. Lastly, I feel our soundtrack may have come across a little to scary and not thriller like. By trying to find a non-copyrighted soundtrack it was hard to find one perfect for our film. We ended up using one which sounded like children and dolls which is more horror orientated than thriller.

Overall, I feel that by creating an opening two minutes for a film we have many ideas and skills for next year when we make our trailer. We now know editing skills, techniques, rules of continuity and basic media areas which will all be included in our A2 production. We will be able to really focus on where we lacked perfection from this year and hopefully create a much more successful project. Myself and the group are very much looking forward to the new skills and techniques we will learn next year.