Evaluation
When I was given the brief for this project I was quite excited to start because I’ve always wanted to have a go at editing a trailer together, syncing visuals up with music. Especially because of the new software I’ve learnt this year I wanted to test out my knowledge to see how well it would turn out. The Big Ten short project was really useful in developing this as I could actually demonstrate the skills I had learnt. I think my final promo turned out really well because I put all my effort into it as I enjoyed doing it. I think I’m going to continue doing more of this in my own time.
When I started this project I had a brief idea of what I wanted to make but no specifics. I knew I wanted to make a promo that provoked emotion out of the viewer. I didn’t want to go for the action packed trailer because I didn’t want to do the same as everyone else and I didn’t want to go for a comedy or horror because I don’t like horrors and I feel like I’d just show all the funniest parts in comedies and ruin it. I chose The Lobster in the end because I could keep a lot of elements from the film a secret still and I know the film really well so knew what I wanted to include before I even started looking at alternative clips I could use. I knew I wanted to put in reviews of the film and the awards it’s won.
What I really like about my promo is how I’ve incorporated the slow mo and fast paced scenes in the right places so that they fit in the tempo. For example the slow motion walking scene on the dancefloor which I put in right after the quick built up montage of scenes in order to slow the mood down for the end. I also like the rotoscoped scenes where the reviews are hidden because I think it has quite an aesthetic look making the audience feel like they are part of the scene. What I also think I’ve done well in my promo is the speed of the whole trailer as I often struggle with that I feel like I’ve definitely improved at managing speed so that the parts increasing in tempo occur seamlessly. I also like the start of the trailer because I think has a nice atmosphere immediately that suggests a mood for the audience. They are straight away set up for an emotional trailer.
When comparing my promo trailer to the actual trailer, I have tried to make sure that I did it differently so that the whole emotion the audience feels is different. For the original trailer classical music is used to keep an upbeat feel for the whole thing. The advert is really good and I wanted to go in another direction which has helped me to learn that just by editing clips in different ways an entirely different mood can be generated for a trailer.
I’ve picked up a lot of new skills during this project that will help me in the future. Mainly in the sound editing area as I’ve had to readjust the music and the voices so that everything flows smoothly. Some of the voice clips were extremely frustrating to use because some had music in the background and some had weird noises at the start and end because of the silence in the actual movie. I tried to edit this out the best I could and I think I did okay but it could still be improved. I also used After Effects for the rotoscoping using the rotoscope tool which I hadn’t used before and I imported them by replacing the clip in premiere with the After Effects composition which is new to me. I also learnt a bit of tracking using tutorials online to track a review onto people dancing in the background which was interesting to learn and wasn’t too difficult.
If I had to change anything I’d make the text a bit darker when the quotes pop up because it doesn’t feel like they fit in with the scene. I could’ve also had a better ending that is slower paced because I feel like the title of the film goes away too quickly in order to show the Netflix logo. The most challenging part of this project was the rotoscoping and tracking. The rotoscoped scenes are a bit off as I’m not experienced in that area so I couldn’t get the walking scene perfect which was alright in the end because I only used the start of the composition which was the best part anyway. A bit of the person’s name on the first review disappears in the shot as well which is frustrating because it didn’t happen in the preview but when I exported the video it disappears so I definitely still need to improve.
This was probably my favourite project so far as i managed my time a bit better so could do everything i wanted to without feeling rushed. I’m really happy with the end result and I look forward to experimenting more with After Effects and Premiere Pro in my own time and for future projects.
