1. Evaluation
In my BTEC Creative Media Course I was set out to create a film trailer for one of my units. I
had to choose a few people to be in my group and then we had to go out and film. After
filming we all had to upload the footage onto the macs and then edited and made individual
trailers. So we all had our own trailers but with the same footage.
The target audience for my trailer was people who like watching dramatic movies. It was
aimed at people aged 12 and over because there isn’t any swearing or any violence in the
trailer however it’s not really suitable for younger children because of what actually happens
in the trailer. It
The trailer conventions I decided to replicate were intertitles, black screen narration, the
release date, the title, and social media links (Facebook, twitter and Instagram). The reason
why I chose these links is because these social media websites are extremely popular. I also
had an institutional logo, I imported a picture onto my trailer. I wanted to make my own
institutional logo but I was running out of time so I decided to use the ‘LIONSGATE’ logo.
Without trailer conventions trailers wouldn’t be as effective to the audience, the audience
wouldn’t really watch the trailer. Trailers need to have the title of the film in the trailer or else
they won’t know what the film is called. They also need to include the release date of the film
so the audience know when the film comes out and when to go and watch it. Social media
links, intertitles and the institutional logo are included in film trailers to provide more
information for the audience. Trailer conventions are extremely important, it makes the trailer
become more attractive and more effective. I wanted to use more trailer conventions but I
didn’t have enough time to do it.
I undertook various preproduction tasks to help me with filming my trailer such as a
storyboard, the filming schedule, the risk assessments, location and costume ideas, shooting
script, cast and crew requirements, the script and the props list. I created a filming schedule
table to show what is happening in each scene, so a short sentence about each scene, who
the actors are in my film trailer and what the name is of their character (cast), for example my
main actress is Nesserine, and the name of her character is Katie. What props I need for my
film trailer for example a diary, what the locations are going to be for each scene, for
example for the first scene (the classroom) I used the library, what equipment I needed for
example the tripod and the camera, and who’s in my filming crew. I created a storyboard on
http://www.storyboardthat.com/. On story board that I summarised what was going to happen
in the trailer. So in each box it was a different scene and it showed what was going to
happen in that scene, which characters were going to be involved in the scene and what was
going to be said in the scene. I evaluated the potential risks that could have been involved in
our project. So I said what risks there are, for example tripping over the equipment, and what
we could do to prevent them, so to prevent people from tripping over the camera equipment I
moved all the equipment into a corner and made sure it was on one side and not scattered
all over the place. I think this is one of the most important tasks I had to do because of how
important health and safety is. I did a task on location and costume ideas to show where our
locations were going to be for each scene and what the characters were going to wear for
each scene. I created a film proposal to describe what my film trailer was going to be like.
Furthermore, creating a shooting script was extremely helpful because it showed what type
of shots were going to take place and what angles we would use. I talked about my cast and

2. crew requirements, so who is going to play who in my film trailer and what roles each person
in the crew had, everyone had their own responsibilities, so for example my role was the
camera person. I was in charge of the camera. The script was extremely helpful because it
had the dialogue of the trailer. And my final preproduction task was creating a list of props. I
made a props list to show what things I needed for my film trailer. Doing this preproduction
task was extremely useful because I was prepared and I knew exactly what I needed for my
trailer and what was going to happen in my trailer. It’s always good to plan ahead so you
know what you’re doing. However my story board isn’t very similar to my trailer, because
there were a few change and improvement in my ideas for the trailer.
In order to create an effective trailer I conducted various research such as creating a
questionnaire. I went round and gave the questionnaire sheet to a few people in my school and
made them fill it in. I included questions like “what’s your favourite film genre” “How many times
do you go to the cinema in a month” “Do you prefer reading books or watching movies?” “Where
do you watch film trailers?” etc. Creating a questionnaire was extremely helpful because some
answers from the questionnaire were so similar, so I had an idea of what the audience like. I did
some research on institutional aspects, genre signifiers and different angle shots. These are the
things that helped me find out what a good trailer looks like.
The things that went really well were the questionnaire and the research. These were extremely
effective because it helped me see what good film trailers are like and what kind things my
trailer needed to include to become successful. However a few of my tasks didn’t really go well
because I had to keep changing a few things, for example my script and my story board. In the
research and planning I could have improved the props list because back then I didn’t really
know what I needed for my film trailer but as I started filming my props list was increasing.
There were many strengths and weaknesses during the production process. For example out
time management wasn’t so great, we were running out of time. We did a lot of last minute
recording and we rushed abit. Our teamwork was extremely good, we all discussed and made
decisions together. We had meetings and worked together very well. But sometimes we had a
few issues, for example a person not being able to meet up to film.
There were some shots that worked well and some shots that didn’t work well. So for example
filming the guy in the hoody didn’t go so well, we had to repeat it a few times because it kept on
going wrong. Also the lighting wasn’t so good because it was really dark outside and you
couldn’t see the hoody guy at all so we used phone torches. The lighting for the scene where
Nesserine was in bed was very good, it wasn’t too dark or too light. We was able to see her
perfectly. The shot of the hoody guy following Nesserine went really well, and I think the angle
that we filmed it in was very good as well. The sounding throughout all the filming was perfectly
fine. The only bit that could have been improved was when the goody guy was standing outside
the window, because the lighting was very bad. We should have changed the location, we could
have gone to another room and checked out how good the lighting was.
I only did one production log because we only filmed on one day. We did our filming all in one
day because we thought it would a better idea if we finished filming and then started to edit this
way we would finish editing our trailer.
My editing process went quite well. My whole group managed to finish editing our trailer before
the deadline. I struggled quite a bit with the intertitles. I didn’t really know how to do it, and I kept

3. changing my idea. So I went and asked a few people which ones they think are good and I used
those intertitles. And I got someone to help me and show me how to put my intertitles in. I
decided to use white writing for my intertitles with a black background. I didn’t want it to be
colourful because I thought it wouldn’t suit my trailer. If my trailer was a comedy, I would have
used bright colours. I thought using black was quite attractive and effective. The fonts I used for
my intertitle was attractive and adding animation to my fonts was effective, without animation it
could have looked very boring. Adding freaky sounds to my trailer was extremely effective
because it added tension. Also fading a few of my scenes in and out was quite effective and
attractive. I was quite impressed with that. My editing process didn’t go as bad as I thought it
would go, I don’t think I did too bad because I did manage to finish on time.
My finishing product changed quite a lot compared to my original ideas. I improved and changed
quite a lot of things. I am happy I added a few changes. I wasn’t going to add in intertitles
before, but then when I saw a few professional trailers on YouTube I realised that they had
really catchy and effective intertitles. So I thought if I added a few, my trailer would be much
more professional. I think my trailer will appeal to my target audience because I tried my best
and didn’t give up, I worked to the best of my ability and put in as much effort as I could in my
work. I added as much trailer conventions as I could and tried making it look like an actually
trailer. I think the changes I made from my original ideas to my final piece was very helpful.
The trailer conventions that I used were settings and characters. The scene where the hoody
guy is following the girl and is watching her outside the window makes the audience think why
he is following her and what he wants from her. I was quite impressed with my shots and angles
they are quite effective. The lighting in my trailer is good, we used torches and tried our best to
make the lighting look good. The lighting, shot types and angles are extremely important
because without these things the trailer would look bad. I think my film trailer is well edited for a
person who has never edited a film trailer before. It was my first time and I am quite impressed
with myself.
Something that worked particularly well was the fast paced montages in the middle of the trailer.
In these scenes it shows Katie starting to find out about her mum, she finds more clues and has
an argument with her friend. They are edited together quickly because I wanted the effect of
tension in my trailer. With fast paced montages there is a lot of tension.
I got feedback from my teacher and a few friends. My teacher said that it was good and it’s up to
a merit standard. I am happy with that because it is my very first time editing and filming.
Another media teacher watched my trailer and she said she really liked my intertitles. I showed
a few of my friends my trailer and they enjoyed it. They liked the way the story goes and the
liked the intertitles, they said the intertitles are very effective. If it was a movie they would go
ahead and watch it. I think my trailer was successful and I would like to do it again sometime.