Kenny: Secret Agent Man - ID# 174

Neuqua Valley

Movie Trailer

Entry Description

One man embraces his inner spy as he stumbles upon a recently deceased spy's mission.

Recent Teacher Comments

• 4/11 3:41 pm - Good job with the pacing of the trailer and cutting to the music and building rising action. Shots were well composed and constructed. Titles and logos worked well and matched the tone of your piece. The primary issues are twofold. From a story perspective, I don't have a clear sense of conflict and I don't have a real connection to the protagonist. I need to know a bit more about each. It might seem like small details, but you have to establish characters that your audience cares about and your have to clearly define the primary conflict of your story. If you don't, no amount of cinematography or editing will hook an audience. The second issue is audio. The phone dialogue was inaudible in the mix. It needed to be re-recorded via ADR and then treated to mimic a phone voice. With so little dialogue in the piece, you need to make sure that what is in there can be understood completely.
• 3/25 12:00 pm - Nice use of the drone for some compelling shots. Although the entire trailer seems to be shot in one location, it still somehow works. The pacing of the video moves along to the music and we're given a good look at the plot. But all the drama of the music doesn't really lead up to anything- it could have revealed something that could have hooked us a bit. Editing was on the beat which was nice. Graphics looked decent (unordinary?!?) Audio was ok- the phone call was the difference- hard to tell what was being said in that call. Which obviously is very important to the movie. It has some good elements to a movie trailer, and if cleaned up could be a real good one.
• 3/4 10:05 am - Nice establishing shot. Good use of natural sound, camera angles, camera movement. Appropriate use of music. Suspenseful, professional looking trailer that could just use a little more plot development.
• 2/26 12:49 pm - CAMERA: Some nice use of camera shots, compositions, and angles. SOUND: The phone call dialogue was very unclear; we had to listen to it 4 times, and even then only got part of it. Record it better, then put a low end filter on the EQ to make it sound like a phone call. Music and sound effects too loud in the mix. LIGHTING: Seems like you just used available lighting on location. No additional lighting used to add mood or enhance scene. EDITING: Titles look slick. But...11 seconds - Unordinary is not a word. Perhaps extraordinary would have been a better choice. You can cut on beats, which is nice, but the pacing doesn't lead up to anything significant. Your editing does not hook the audience, which is the point of a movie trailer. STORY: Everything was shot in 1 day; same clothes, same locations. This looks more like a movie scene than a movie trailer. What's the conflict? What is the character doing in the plot? Who are the other people? Who is the antagonist? Why should the audience engage or care? Story seems very thin.

Judge 1

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Improvements:

Judge 2

Positives: Great use of rhythmic cuts, with a solid backing track.

Improvements: Though generally well edited, the chosen shots didn't elevate the basic premise of the film.

Judge 3

Positives: Your editing is excellent. Cutting to the beat of the soundtrack and the variety of shots you used built a strong feeling of suspense. Building the statements with the animated graphics enhanced the look and feel as well.

Improvements: Try to reveal a little more of the story that will be in the final movie. I wasn't quite sure what the story would be. Watch the continuity. The main character has water drops in his hair in the shot at :41 and when you cut back to him around :46 his hair is dry.

Judge 4

Positives:

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