Evaluation for my tv cop drama trailer

1. Andrew Goldman
Evaluation
During the production of this TV Cop Drama trailer we encountered many
aspects of film that was successful and some things that were not. In this
evaluation I will be looking at the different stages that we faced and the
problems we had to overcome. I will look at everything that will be required
and evaluate it to the best of my ability. In my group were Me, Rory, Matt,
Stan and Jordan. We all knew that our target audience for this was anyone
from our age group upwards.
Pre - Production
We started our planning with a rather complicated mind map of ideas for a TV
cop drama and when finished I compared with my fellow group members.
This was my mind map, unfortunately none of my ideas materialised to a final
idea however the private investigator idea was strongly considered as a final
option which I was proud of. But before any of this we needed to investigate
TV cop dramas themselves, for example we evaluated CSI: Crime Scene
Investigation, a TV cop drama starring George Eads, and looked at different

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conventions used in an episode we watched. We looked at sound, mise-enscene, characters and other elements. Doing this enables us to find out a little
bit more about the show we were watching and how much information you
could grasp and evaluate from a single episode. Especially the opening of the
episode which would be the core of the narrative we would produce. If you do
not have a significant opening it’s difficult to evaluate.
Back to our TV cop drama, preparation was key and more difficult than you
would presume. After the completion of our mind maps and deciding which
story basis we would use it was time to create the all important synopsis. Our
synopsis was successful in the sense that we followed it and our final versions
closely resemble the original idea. Below is an extract from my synopsis.
“A man named James is walking down a dark, windy and quiet alley, when he
is suddenly struck on the head and then wakes up in a dark room with one
dimly lit light. His captor is a psychotic loan shark who is owed money by
James. Eventually James cannot give up the money so is simply shot in the
head by the evil loan shark. His body is dumped in a field. It is found by a
farmer who quickly calls the FIB’S.”
Already we can see who the victim is, who are the main protagonists and the
antagonist and a basic concept of what is going on. From this we are able to
develop a script. The script created by me and my group was one of the more
unsuccessful affairs of the pre-production phase. The final edition of the script
was incredibly different to what was filmed. The interrogation scene was kept
with very similar dialog however some parts were left out entirely. For
example one of the parts of our drama was the feature of the main antagonist
having previous connections with the main protagonist, however due to
pressure of completion at the time, we were forced to abandon that idea and
move forward with what we could do. Although on our script we do feature
the character names and the actors who will portray them and that is
something that we needed to include as it separated us from our characters,
and while most names were left out of the final version we would always refer
to them while filming. All in all compared with my finished piece this script was
hardly the same and was unfortunately an unsuccessful addition to our TV cop
drama trailer despite being important. If I ever do something like this again I

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will focus more on the script due to its importance. We then put our ideas and
lines onto a story board. Below you can see it.
My storyboard is far from perfect due to my art work hardly complimenting
the ideas but all the information is there, for example the type of camera
shots, the dialog (if any) and how long the shot will take (not exact). The
storyboard is important due to it being the only source of how things will look.
My storyboard partly resembles my finished piece for example the
interrogation scene is shown, as is the discovery of the body scene, the DNA
analysis and the long shot of the two protagonists walking towards the camera.
When you look back at your storyboard it is both pleasurable and annoying. It
is satisfying to see the scenes and shots that were produced according to plan,
however when you see other planned scenes it annoys you because you
wanted to do it and also it would have probably worked well. Overall I am
quite pleased with my storyboard and does give a clear example of a mid
development stage while we were still investigating the possibilities of what to

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film. The next stage was putting your storyboard to life and finding the correct
locations for your ideas.
Shot 1 was planned to have been shot on a long and dark pathway but in the
end we decided to go with this bike shed as it was a little more colourful and
less stereotypical for a man getting clubbed round the head in an opening
scene. The production photos are generally meant to connect with the
storyboard however unfortunately this wasn’t really the case for me or my
fellow group members.
This is one of few

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location camera shots that indeed shows a scene planned in the storyboard.
This helped our production as it gave us backing that we were following our
original idea as opposed to starting over while filming.
This is another example of
a location picture that was in the storyboard also.
Next the props and equipment we used. Of course we used the compulsory
equipment like camera and tripod. But we did bring in our own props that
would help our TV cop drama trailer look even more realistic.
Prop and
Equipmentlist
Plastic Revolver
Camera
Filming camera
Phones
Plastic P99
Camera Tripod
Coat
Plastic Button
Tie used as gag

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Desks and tables
Computer
Science equipment
Goggles, test tube racks
Above is a list of everything that we planned to use during pre – production
and we used all of the itemsindicated during the filming. I was immensely
proud of that as most pre – production work we did was not used as much.
This list helped our production more than anything as it gave us something to
plan and work on and gave ourselves a little homework to prepare and gather
any equipment that could be used in our filming. The prop and equipment list
was definitely a strength of our pre – production.
For our pre – production we did do some slight schedule planning however due
to us spending time on our other planning, a schedule was not a factor in our
pre – production, but it would play a part in our filming as when we were
filming we had to judge what would come next.
Production
Finally we were able to start the filming. With all of our planning and
brainstorming we could now bring all that to life. We had brilliant teamwork
during our filming and all made our own little contributions on set. We got on
well and had no disagreements whatsoever. A lot of the time when trying to
film someone we would laugh and we couldn’t film for another five or so
minutes due to our continuous laughter. It wasn’t great for our production as it
put us behind but made the experience much more enjoyable. The technical
skill of our production was mainly down to whoever was filming that particular
scene, working the camera could often be difficult. During the filming of one
scene, Rory and I couldn’t fathom what we had done to the camera and only
just mulled it out after minutes of trying, not down to technical skill but down
to luck. The creative ability in our group was great. Due to Rory and I both
doing Drama, we were able to make creative adjustments to costume and
lighting to make a scene more effective which I think helped the final piece
considerably better. The different camera shots in our production varied from
first person, extreme close up and an extreme long shot. The first scene is a

7. Andrew Goldman
perfect example for varied camera shots and angles. Below are the four
significant shots from this scene.
The first is a first
person camera shot because that is the conventional way of establishing who
is the character getting attacked and his own personal view of it happening. It’s
effective because it gives you a clear view of what is happening to the
character in hand.
This next shot is of the
antagonist dragging his victim across the ground where he was attacked. It is
an extreme long shot because that is a conventional way of establishing the
distance they are from the audience and how little we know about them. Also
it features a lens movement of zoom out. It is an affective shot as it tells the

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audience that the two characters are going somewhere and if you watch the
trailer you want to find out where they are going.
This shot is that of Stan’s
character being interrogated by the antagonist. The usage of a big close up is
to show the fear of the character and the illusion that he is all alone when
clearly he isn’t. This is proven by the eerie voice of the antagonist and portrays
his mysterious nature. It’s an affective shot as it captures the fear and
uncertainty of the character, two feelings that an audience would possibly also
be feeling.
This shot features the two
protagonists walking down a hallway. The movement they use is unique in the

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sense that it is their own personal movement and makes you think about the
type of characters they are. This is a middle shot and the shot angle is that of
eye level. This shot works as it enables the audience to feel as though they are
there in person, almost like in 3D. My editing enables me to annotate the shot
as shown and put it in slow motion but I will talk about the editing next in my
evaluation. Overall the production of my TV cop drama was a success and had
very few weaknesses,although next time I would look at different aspects of
camera angles and lens movement.
Post – Production
Once we had finished our filming and had transferred all the footage onto our
computers we could finally begin editing. To do this we used Adobe Premier.
Personally I enjoyed using it as it was quite easy to work with once you got the
hang of it and made my trailer what it is now. Editing consisted of putting
together all of the clips into a certain order and importing them onto Premier.
You could do anything with editing, the sound of my trailer was important
because it needed to match the story. I personally chose a remix of the famous
Godfather theme tune. This was done to connect the music with the story as
the main antagonist is a key member of the Mafia therefore music like the
Godfather would be appropriate. I decided to go with the remixed version to
add some modernisation to my trailer and I think that worked as it felt more
entertaining to listen to. The titles I used were also important. Earlier in this
evaluation I looked at the camera angles of the shot featuring the two
protagonists walking towards the camera and on that you see a title reading
‘The Cops’. This immediately tells you who they are and what their
involvement will be. Also I slowed down that scene to create affect and I think
it worked incredibly well as it made your eyes fixated to the principles. I also
titled the interrogation scene with ‘The Victim’ and that was done for the same
reasons as ‘The Cops’. To make you aware of whom that character is and gives
you some justification as to why he’s gagged. I did not have much technical
skills before this with Adobe Premier and I was extremely pleased with my
progress with the software throughout my post – production phase.

10. Andrew Goldman
In conclusion I believe that this evaluation has justified what went well, what
didn’t go so well and how I could improve on something similar another time.
It was very different to the original idea and all the pre – production e.g. the
script and storyboard. The camera work was good overall and was unique, and
I think that it is a pleasing TV cop drama trailer and I am very happy with my
work over the past few weeks.