Josh Bailey created a trailer, script, and poster for his final major project (FMP) in film production. He conducted research including analyzing existing works and surveying audiences. While his research provided some useful insights, he realized some questions could have been improved. His plans changed over time as he developed his crime thriller story concept. Peer feedback noted strengths like realistic dialogue but also areas for improvement such as improving audio/video quality for the trailer and adding more directional details to the script. Overall, the feedback helped Josh identify ways to make his works more appealing and professionally produced.

1. FMP Evaluation
Josh Bailey

2. Production Process Evaluation

3. Research
The first step for my research was looking at already existing products, this way of doing
primary research let me analyse and interpret ideas just from looking posters and trailers
myself; oppose to creating the questionnaire that let me find out what others think. I got
choose what questions I asked and that let me find out more about the audience I was
aiming for, the benefits of the survey were the numbers of people who I could get answers
and opinions from and the disadvantage is that you don’t know whose opinion that is. Finally
the interviews were a good way too get an honest and reliable answer from people you know
this helps me know my audience.
Personally I think my research went well and thoroughly improved the quality of my finished
product. The films that I included to do research upon helped me find ways to record and
write the trailer for my film in the way movies in this genre should be. My poster that I
created also takes heavy influence from the poster for Zodiac that I had taken to analyse,
elements such as; the dark colour scheme, the foggy tone and the slightly faded faces.
The weaknesses of my research however include some results from the questionnaire that I
sent out. Some of the questions I asked were helpful for production, some were not. Some of
the answers I received were helpful, some were not. Questions I asked that weren’t entirely
impactful on my FMP are ones like “would you pay to see a crime&thriller film in theatres”
while it was interesting to see the outcome of all the questions, they didn’t really affect how
my FMP was produced and how it looks now that it is finished. I believe that if I asked better
questions it may have influenced how my film turned out.

4. Planning
For my initial plans, my ideas were very different. I knew I wanted to do a film but
not what genre to do it in; I went through a lot of genres and tried to think of a
story off the top of my head and then I got to crime, and got a rough idea of a
kidnapping, this then developed into my story now. When I got to pre-production,
my products were planned, I knew what I was going to make the only struggle was
making them. My story was developed enough to know who my cast was, where
we were filming, the conversations they would have and how long I would spend
making each product
Some strengths of my planning are that for health and safety and contingency
planning precautions I found ways that my FMP could possibly go wrong, then
discovered more ways of how to fix them. This way I was prepared to face
whatever problems arise while working. Luckily no major issues came up and the
breaks for lunch, changing locations and looking after the smaller cast members
went perfectly.
I would say the biggest weakness for planning my final FMP is my schedule, I
could have planned that out more descriptively and didn’t prepare for extra days
of work. Time management was my hardest obstacle during production; there
was no order I gave myself in what work to do and because of that I did little bits
of everything all at the same time therefore finishing and editing them came at
the same time as well.

5. Time Management
Time management for my Final Major Project was somewhat of a disaster, luckily
somehow I managed to complete my work to some extent, unluckily it’s not what I
initially intended to make but I am happy with the finished product. At the very start,
during initial plans work I wanted/decided to make a film for it. Because of timing
problems and not having the right people or equipment I was reduced to only making a
trailer when it came down to it.
Working from home was necessary to have my work complete on time since I can only do
work that’s on Photoshop and Premiere pro at college; the software isn’t on my home
computer. But even then it was a struggle to find time between a schedule of two jobs,
friends and a large family, leisure and sleep. In those times where I had my computer
though I made a couple edits to previous work that saved me time from doing it in
college
While I do like my trailer and I am thrilled with the performances and camera work I cant
help but feel that the film would be more fleshed out and professional. The film was
supposed to act out exactly how my script was written, the dialogue was exact, the
settings were in my head, I just needed more time and better planning. My poster was
the last thing to be produced and took longer than it should have done. The problem?
There were no photos for me to use for it, I had to finds an old photo of both cast
members from my own camera roll and use them. This way it took forever to make.

6. Technical Qualities
Contrast between colours and tones
highlighting contras between two stories
(good and evil)
Titles (both near the
bottom of the poster) are
clear and big enough to
read. As well credits and
the production company
Characters in the posters
have expressionless
faces and might match
their personality
throughout their story
The colours used in both posters are gloomy and
gruelling. The Game of Thrones poster has a brighter
blue on the right side to symbolise the coldness and
ice featured in the show and the threat it poses.
The characters included in my poster are
arguably the most important characters
to be in my film, this is why I decided
they were to be the ones in my poster.
The contrast signifies their relationship
and how they are connected.
My design has a tagline at
the very top of the poster.
This gives a viewer an idea
of what to expect from the
film’s plot. It’s not a lot but
from this one can take
away that something bad
happens one day, to do
with the characters shown
and the title ‘without a
trace’ reveals that
something goes missing.
Both posters have close-ups of their characters
in frame and make that the eye-catcher of the
poster as it takes up the most space. They also
have blank backgrounds to focus all attention on
the characters in the centre of the page.

7. Aesthetic Qualities
While the trailer that I made was not what I had in mind in the beginning, it still carries traces of the film
with it, there are glimpses of what happens in the story, to the characters, where they are and that is the
whole point of a trailer. My film will never see the light of day but the trailer and script did and that will
hopefully highlight all the important parts of my plans I had in the first week of work and let it live on.
In my opinion my work was creative, it was an idea that not a lot of people were keen on (referring back
to the questionnaire results) and had a difficult production process but I am proud of it. Each piece of
work had time and effort poured into it:
• This was the first script I had ever written before and it may look amateur and have boring dialogue
but I learned from it how to write stage directions, scenes changing and making up an entire
character’s personality.
• The trailer was an experience to make. The cast’s performances were amazing, the music fit very well
with the shots and the graphics cards but it was a stressful process, to be a director, screenwriter and
camera man for the first time was pressurising but it makes me happy to watch the finished product.
• Making the poster took longer than it was meant to however looking at it now I don’t think about that,
I think I’m glad it’s over and I’m proud of how it turned out; I believe it’s quite a creative design for the
poster and shows clearly elements from the film and gives off tones matching the genres I went for.

8. Audience Appeal
My primary audience throughout production were always supposed to be the young
adults demographic. From about 16-30 y/o. I had chosen this certain group because I feel I
relate to them more than any other and can meet there expectations of a good
crime/thriller film. As well as them, my secondary audience would be adults 30+ y/o since
my film is rather sad and perhaps too difficult to understand for younger viewers.
Taking the information I received from the questionnaire and interviews, the results were
both positive and negative. Both of which are very helpful; criticism of this kind lets me
know the strengths and weaknesses of my products. Using the information I gathered
from my research, to an extent, I was able to produce and edit my products in a way that
would appeal to my audience. In hindsight, I could have asked better questions in hopes
of receiving more helpful and accurate answers to aid my production overall.
A clear example through which I would argue my production appeals to the audience is
through the creative flare. The poster is both expressive and distinctive, leading to the
audience attaining an understanding of the product itself. Additionally, I would say that my
script is appealing to the audience who would see it since it looks relatively professional
and realistic to Hollywood-produced feature-length films.

9. Peer
Feedback

10. Feedback 1 – The Trailer
• What did you like about the product?
– It was dramatic and effective-it made me want to watch the
actual film and find out the ending.
– The song was a good choice, it suited the atmosphere.
– There were some very arty shots that looked visually pleasing.
– The actors were good.
– I thought it had a strong start. I liked the montage
• What improvements could have been made to the
product?
– The audio could be more compressed and be higher quality.
– The roles were confusing. It's difficult to tell who is who and
what their role is.
– The graphic cards could look better and feature more useful
writing.

11. Feedback 2 – The Script
• What did you like about the product?
– It is well written with realistic
conversations/reactions.
– Stage directions are clear and easy to understand.
– Stage directions are also thorough and there is no
ambiguity.
• What improvements could have been made to
the product?
– Some more camera shots could have been to
make filming easier.

12. Feedback 2 – The Poster
• What did you like about the product?
– The idea is really creative and looks very effective.
– It has been made very well and the use of colours
to represent ideas is very good.
– It looks very professional.
• What improvements could have been made to
the product?
– Could be more eye-catching.
– Could use more colours.

13. Peer Feedback Summary
• What do you agree with from your peer feedback?
– I agree with a lot of the improvements I could have made to the film. Like
the ones that said the audio could be mixed better and the video could be
of greater quality.
– Some feedback for the trailer that I was happy about was that some of my
audience that gave me feedback wanted to see more; they saw the trailer
and wanted to watch the film, that was ultimately the purpose of
producing these elements for my FMP, to draw people in and let them
enjoy my products.
• What do you disagree with from your peer feedback?
– One piece of feedback I was offered for the poster stated that it could be
more eye-catching, I disagree with this since the point of the poster is to
express the tone of the film and the tone of the film is upsetting and dark –
like the design of the poster. However, for the same product I was given
feedback that said the use of the colours is a good representation of the
film, which contradicts what they have already said .

14. Peer Feedback Summary
Based on the feedback given to me by the three peers I showed my FMP products to, I would
make a number of changes to my trailer, script and poster to help appeal to my audience, look
visually pleasing, function properly as there meant to (i.e. the trailer to attract viewers and the
script to help produce the trailer/film) and help me get my grade up for my FMP altogether.
Some major changes would be for the production of the trailer, I feel like the trailer was rushed
and it shows it in the final cut, while my peers that I had shown the trailer to liked it, their
feedback was inevitably the same as mine; the resolution and audio could have been better,
the graphics could look more professional and it the trailer itself could be longer.
In that respect I had quite a few disagreements with my feedback. A positive comment about
my poster was that it looked professional while a negative was that it could use more colours,
personally I think the poster could be edited slightly better so the edges look smoother and the
contrasting images of the actors is more fitting. And maybe to appeal to the audience I should
have added more colour to either the title or the pictures of Alex and Harrison.
Looking back at the script for the film, I'm happy with how it turned out but I do still agree that
I should have added more camera shots and stage directions to make filming scenes easier as I
would already have a rough plan.