EVALUATION

Andrew Evans' A2 Media Studies Evaluation

FILM TRAILER: Run: Never Enough Time

We also compiled the remaining pieces of film into a 'blooper reel' style video, displaying the excess film production we did and some behind-the-scenes footage of how we went about discussing the various ways to accomplish particular scenes. To view the outtakes, click here.

MAGAZINE FRONT COVER: Total Film

This was the initial draft design for what my magazine front cover would be like . As you can see below, I stuck to my intentional design and made sure to include such staple features such as the masthead, puff, additional text and allignment of the sub-titles.

This is the final magazine front cover design for my chosen brand Total Film. I used an existing magazine cover design by the same company so that I could replicate certain key features that define the overall look and feel to the companys image. The background image is a photograph I took of the secondary character in the story. It was taken down a well-known road in Liverpool which houses quite a lot of graffiti and general 'urbanness'. I deemed it a fitting scene to take a picture in, and positioned the character to the right hand side to allow the typical magazine features such as sub-titles etc to fit in nicely.

FILM POSTER: Film Four

This was the initial draft design for what my film poster would be. As you can see below, I stuck to my intentional design and made sure to include such staple features such as the age certificate, director name, credits and of course the Film Four logo.

This is the final design of my film poster. For added authenticity I added the supposed directors name, the Film Four logo and of course the age certificate appropriate to our trailer. I decided upon a nice clean font to convey a sense of sincerity, and so that I did not fall into cliché font types that might take away from the seriousness of the film.

RUN Film Trailer: RISK ASSESSMENT

Below is the risk assessment form completed before we went out to film our trailer production. As you can see, we took into careful consideration any possibility of trouble; either physically or related to the law.

Click the below image to view its original size.

RUN Film Trailer: PRODUCTION SCHEDULE

Below is the Excel spreadsheet created to schedule the filming of our film trailer during one calender week. Each colour represents a space in time (shown along the y axis) during each day, and the adjoined key explains what exactly each section of production consisted of.

Click the below image to see it in its original size.

RUN Film Trailer: ACTORS AND COSTUMES

Main actors:
Phillip Lanyon

Carl Backland

Carl is the protagonist of our film, and so we took careful consideration into what he should wear for filming. Below is a montage of individual photos of clothing that Carl replicated during the process of creating the trailer. Luckily he already owned the clothing and so it wasn't a trouble to get into the character we envisioned.

Andrew Evans (myself)

Sub-actors:
Simon Fillingham
Ben Bowker
Adam Kennedy
Alex Harvey

RUN Film Trailer: PROP LIST

In order to ensure our media trailer was up to the standards and visual expectations of our target audience and related film productions, several props had to be brought into play and below are the descriptions and reasons as to why we used each item:


Cigarette:
One of the most prominent characters featured in the trailer is introduced whilst utilising a real cigarette. We were lucky to have an actor who already smoked who had the time to be filmed for our film trailer, and it was a key factor during the planning process of who we wanted to cast i the trailer. The cigarette symbolises the very basic drug and 'street' undertones that we feel is necessary in order to give our production a realistic and credible feel.


Handgun (plastic):
During the most memorable scene in the trailer a plastic handgun is used. The actual object is a simple toy gun that was originally designed for use with Sony's Playstation 2. Given the lighting and camera angle the prop looked realistic enough to ellude the casual on-looker whilst keeping us out of any trouble with the law. We also made sure not to mindlessly wave it about in public (part of risk assessment) to avoid any unwanted attention.


Deodorant Spray Can/ Actual Paint Can:
In order to create the illusion of genuine graffiti activity and vandalisation we needed to plan our camera angles and prop positioning carefully. A total of two cans were used: a genuine paint spray can and a regular deodorant spray. Any scenes which depict the protagonist literally spraying a wall - the deodorant can was used. Under dim light all that can be seen is the residue coming from the tip, which gives the illusion of the pay spraying on to the wall but no visual mark made whatsoever. In the remaining scenes where the spay cans are not being directly utilised, an actual spray can would be visible to make it seem realistic and enforce the illusion of the previous graffiti scenes.


Camera:
During the drive-by scene we utilised a camera for it's flash function. Properly timed the flash will be made to synchronize with the sound of a gunshot, as well as the physical movement of the toy gun to replicate the actual behaviour of a firearm. The camera would be flashed from within the car with the operator totally invisible to the camera.


Car:
As the trailer keeps the secret of who killed the character, the use of a motor vehicle was clearly necessary to not only enforce even more realism but to make it more mysterious. We were able to utilise car, the driver of whom has a full licence and did so with permission of the Maghull Council to use the car park providing we were not loud and/ or disruptive. We instructed the driver to pull away quickly, and the subsequent wheel spin gives the effect of urgency.


Flour:
One particular drug scene demanded we make some kind of realistic representation of a drug - we chose cocaine and the method was to simply fill a small bag with flour and tie it with sellotape. Although probably not visible in the production, we felt it necessary to be as realistic as possible.