Trailer for "The Engineers Of Our Future" - ID# 122

Morton East
Movie Trailer
Entry Description

"Trailer for the documentary video titled 'The Engineers Of Our Future'." Music Resources: The Production Garden-Volume 13-Idea Tracks, Track 83. License was purchased from Production Garden Music on January 31, 2007. Unlimited Usage Lifetime Blanket/Royalty-Free.

Recent Teacher Comments

  • 4/25 1:32 pm - Nice documentary trailer. The soundbites chosen from the interview do all the selling you need to entice people to see the full feature. The interview audio is left channel mono and should be converted to stereo in the editing process. This is a quick and easy fix but a detail that needs to be paid attention to. The b-roll is well produced and compliments the subject matter. I would like to see the full film.
  • 4/23 12:13 pm - Excellent audio in the interviews. Good mix of music. May have been a bit loud, but very clear. Interesting topic and some good shots to make people interested in seeing what this movie might be about. Interviews could have been a bit more thought out as far as framing- to make it a bit more interesting (rule of thirds). But- is this a movie, or a promo for taking the class? If it's a trailer, then there needs to be a story to it (beginning, middle, conflict, resolution, end) and this is not apparent in your trailer. Has a great start, but needs to add more to really get into the trailer realm.
  • 4/10 9:36 pm - This was a really great trailer for a documentary. Really good use of broll and interview sound bytes to introduce the story and drive it forward. I want to see the whole thing! The one thing the story was missing was stakes. In other words it needed a sense of conflict. Why is this so important? How big of a struggle is it for these kids? What happens if their experiments and designs fail? From a production standpoint, learn how to film documentary-style interview shots. Follow the rule of thirds when framing your interview subjects and have them look at the interviewer rather than directly at the camera. In my opinion, the doc interview shot is one of the most important things a film maker can learn because these shots are both simple and artistic. From an editing standpoint, be mindful of your audio. Your music was a bit too loud and your dialogue was as well. I could hear everything well, but it needed to be mixed better overall.
  • 3/4 9:49 am - Good use of music to enhance the trailer. Good use of interviews to reveal the plot. One suggestion would be to incorporate more variety in camera angles, movement etc to keep the audience interested.
  • 2/26 11:55 am - Great trailer! I genuinely want to see the full documentary. Great interview clips and b-roll to set up the story. Suggestions for improvement. Sound was WAY too loud; make sure you're watching the VU meter when you're recording AND editing. Dialogue levels should be between -6 and -12 db, sound effects between -12 and -18 db, and music beds should be around -24 db. The music bed definitely felt way too loud. From a story perspective, I feel like you needed to set up the conflict or obstacle; why THESE students, at THIS high school? What makes their studies more compelling? What do they stand to gain from their projects succeeding? Is there a competition? College admission? Scholarship?
Judge 1

Positives:

Improvements:

Judge 2

Positives: Excellent, inspiration content – a very clear narrative. Nice BROLL.

Improvements: Could try and utilize available light to stylize the look of the content a bit more.

Judge 3

Positives: The lighting and color scheme are very effective. It looks as if in some of the shots you set up lights E.g. @ 8 seconds. This helps you to control the mood and emotional impact. The colors were pleasing and appropriate. It looks as if you took the time to color correct each shot. (If you didn't do color correction I am extremely impressed with the camera you used.)

Improvements: Some of your shot compositions could use a little work. Throughout the entire piece most of the people of interest are looking screen left. Watch the first 20 seconds. It would make your editing much easier if you were to mix that up where you would use some of the shots just as they are and others would have the focus in another screen direction.Try to use the rule of thirds in your compositions as well. Several of your shots center the subject. Look at the composition at 9 seconds. The speaker is looking screen left and is centered. It feels crowded. If you were to move him screen right about half of the distance from where he is and keep him looking in the same direction it would be a much more impactful shot.

Judge 4

Positives:

Improvements: