Communist Donuts - ID# 371

New Trier

Movie Trailer

Entry Description

Two teenagers travel in time to their high school in 1959

Recent Teacher Comments

• 3/30 10:09 am - You did a good job setting up the premise of the film--I am a little confused about the connection between the opening sequence and the rest of the film--opening sequence in garage should have clearer audio and use additional light sources--girl's face has big shadows--shot of lexus logo is out of focus-- I like how you printed the newspaper! Very cool--the dramatic shots of the donuts are humorous--very creative--nice work!
• 3/5 10:29 pm - Good introduction and exposition into the story. Your title cards were very well done. Not too many words and they were crafted in a manner that captured the movie trailer genre. Effects and production design to make the period older were effective. Make sure your titles are in title safe zones. During your rising action, I think you needed more wild lines from your principal cast to further develop those characters. Also, if this is to be a feature film, additional plot twists needed to be introduced as the trailer progressed. What else is there aside from a chase? At least one more story element was needed.

Judge 1

Positives: The opening of the piece was effective – "Really?" "Why what's wrong with it?" "It's no muscle car..." Very nice, classic setup. The opening music cue worked well. Overall comedy of the trailer was effective.

Improvements: While this is a very specific premise, the actual narrative and pacing is unclear. Two accidental time-travelers inadvertently 'curse' a box of donuts, that seem to infect students/staff of the school? Narrative is a bit foggy, even if the concept is very specific and contains comedic elements. Audio production could have been improved by booming characters during dialogue scenes, and some of the transitions between scenes and soundtrack was a bit rough. It would have been interesting to use a different lighting aesthetic, and style of color in the 50's sequences, rather than switching to black and white.

Judge 2

Positives: - visual effects used only to enhance the story telling - good use of color/black and white to further emphasize the past vs the present.

Improvements: - this felt more like an opening scene than a trailer

Judge 3

Positives:

Improvements:

Judge 4

Positives:

Improvements: