Forest Way Drive - ID# 485
New Trier
Movie Trailer
Entry Description
By Ava Blaugh. For MMEA Film Festival 2019 consideration - "Movie Trailer" category
Recent Teacher Comments
- 4/25 9:17 am - The setup to the story is promising in this trailer. There is an inciting incident that sets up the basis for the narrative. The follow through on hooking the audience, however, falls short. Too many things are unclear as the trailer progresses in terms of the students involved in the accident. The technical aspects of the trailer compounded this because there were too many things distracting the viewer from paying attention to the story on screen. The opening shots are underexposed and grainy. The camera appeared to be out of focus for many shots. The sound track was stronger but needed a little softening between track transitions to avoid the popping and clicking sounds. The shot at :58 has a tripod in the background, which I found distracting. Try to avoid straight profile shots of key characters during dialogue shots in trailers, so they are easier to identify and more memorable to the audience.
- 4/23 12:53 pm - A good premise, but a premise that still needs a bit more development to tell us what we can look forward to. Ok- a girl is missing from an accident scene. But we need to be teased a bit more as to WHY so that we are intrigued and want to see the movie. The acting could use a bit more passion to make it realistic. Like the PA announcement to "set us up" for the problem of the story. Watch the focus of the camera. Variety of shots was good, but exposure on many of them is off. Need to work with your lighting more in the future.
- 4/7 8:27 pm - The way into the story was good. I liked the cold open followed by the PA narration of the school administrator. You defined the conflict of the story clearly. The problem with the story was two fold. I never understood or clearly connected with the protagonist. It was difficult to get a clear picture of the missing girl. What was the protagonist's relationship with the missing girl and what was her motivation to find her? This needed to be spelled out more clearly in the trailer. The trailer also lacked rising action. It needed to build to an almost climax, but it never quite materialized. The production value of this was mixed. The shots were often out of focus or highly pixelated. This suggests a lack of light when filming or an ISO that was too high or both. The audio of the trailer needed better levels and mixing.
- 3/4 8:57 am - Good use of the principals voice to narrate the story. Some of the shorts are out of focus, pixelated and the quality of the shots/color varied dramatically. Good use of close ups. In the future use more natural sound to help build suspense (tires screeching etc).
- 2/26 9:01 am - Camera: choice of shooting in 720 60 fps made the trailer feel like a video news package. A lot of out of focus shots (maybe because of autofocus?). The framing for the interrogation scene was not effective; you could see the bottom of the curtain and the stage/studio behind the curtain. Camera should have been set at eye level and all lights BEHIND the curtain should have been turned off. That way you could have established better limbo lighting. Lighting: lighting is crucial, even when you're trying to shoot a scene taking place at night. You did not provide enough light for proper exposure, and as a result many of your shots were very pixelated and/or fuzzy. Audio: Audio levels weren't mixed appropriately; music bed was too loud in many parts. 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. Editing: the editing was clean, but it was difficult to follow the cross cutting sequence between the interrogation scene and the person writing on the white board. What was the connection? Story: well, this is the tough part. The story felt very disjointed. Using the P.A. announcement, you conveyed the set up for the storyline, but that fell flat because you didn't really effectively hook the audience with the mystery. What's the buy-in? Why should the audience care about this? There wasn't much clarity from the interrogation OR the white board scenes. Acting was pretty flat and not very believable.
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