1) The student created a trailer for a crime drama film called "24 Shots" with their group. They wrote the script, storyboard, and production schedule. 2) The trailer featured fast-paced action scenes like a kidnapping to appeal to a young audience. It also included tense scenes like a drug deal. 3) While the student was happy with some shots using effective camera angles, they wanted to improve shaky shots using a tripod. They also wanted to refine their editing skills.

1. Iona Spence-Dingle
Unit 5 Evaluation
In Unit 5 we focused on crime dramas, namely crime drama conventions- such as chase scenes, police
officers, and an interview scene. We got into groups for the purpose of creating either a crime drama title
sequence, or trailer and in my group there was: Hayden, Beth, Clouida, Keiran, and Liberty. However
before we even started planning our own trailers or title sequences we studied: CSI, Sherlock Holmes, Life
On Mars, as well as the titles sequences of other Crime dramas- old and new. This research enabled us to
effectively identify crime drama conventions; furthermore it gave us a comprehensive ideas bank from
which to plan our own trailers. Once in our groups we collaborated all of our individual thoughts to come
up with the idea of ’24 Shots’, here is a brief synopsis:
An international Mafia cocaine heist is intercepted by the Police. Seeking bloody revenge and a way to
recoup their loses the Mafia kidnap twenty four innocent people and hold them hostage.
In return for the hostages they demand a huge sum of money, furthermore they will begin to shoot the
hostages one every hour until they get the money, or until all the hostages are dead. It is a race against
time for the Police to hunt down the innocent victims until it is too late.
We wanted our trailer to appeal to a young audience- so we decided to include lots of fast-paced action
shots (the kidnapping scenes,) along with tense scenes (such as the drug deal,) as we felt this would
present out crime drama as exciting. This unit has taught me to be more realistic about timing, because
initially we wanted to include a scene at the Police Station which we had to cut due to time constraints.
Personally in the pre-production stages I wrote the script, made the storyboard, and created production
schedule.
There are elements of the finished film that I am happy with, for example I like the beginning scene
because I think we used camera angles effectively:
I think this is a good use of a low angle shot as it portrays Kieran (the hit man) as menacing and dangerous.
I also like this shot because the close up focuses on the drug exchange, which implies that this is an
important moment.

2. Iona Spence-Dingle
We chose to dress the drug dealers in black because the colour black has connotations of evil and dangerso it is commonplace in crime dramas for the criminals to wear black.
I would like to improve upon some of the shots that are a little wobbly, so in future I will use a tripod to
eradicate this problem. However sometimes it is effective to film without a tripod because it gives the
impression that the cameraman, thus the audience, is in the heart of the action- making an action scene all
the more exhilarating. Also, in reflection I would improve upon my fine editing skill, as in some instances
the scenes have not been trimmed to a high enough standard.
The first stage in pre-production was to develop initial ideas out and select the best ones to put forward to
the rest of the group; in the end we took elements of everyone’s ideas to create ’24 Shots’. Our crime
drama research helped us at this point to develop our idea into something that looked and felt like a crime
drama- we did this by adhering to as many crime conventions as possible. For example I chose to open my
trailer with a crime taking place, the protagonist is the detective, and my trailer features an arrest scene.
Before we started to film we took photos of the locations we intended to use for the shoot, then explained
on our blogs why we chose the locations we did. The final pre-production task I undertook was creating a
production schedule:

3. Iona Spence-Dingle
My group followed the schedule as much as possible; however sometimes it was not possible because the
place was wanted to film was already in use. I did not consider this when I created the schedule, but it is
something I will take into account next time to avoid delays in the filming process.
Apart from this the filming process went fairly smoothly and we had no problem recreating what we had
pre-planned in the script. Sometimes my group struggled with time management, as it was at this stage we
had to cut the police station scene as we had spent too long on other scenes.
The above screen grabs show the tiles I used in my trailer. The first one introduces the name of my crime
drama- once again I used black to connote danger. The second one implies the dramatic and exciting
events will ensue, and hopefully will persuade people to watch 24 Shots.
Once filming was complete I began editing in Adobe Premier Pro, this screen grab shows me importing the
footage into Premier Pro.
One new skill I learned was how to include a voice-over in my video.
I did this by dragging only the audio of the video…

4. Iona Spence-Dingle
…and placing it into my timeline over the appropriate video section
For the finer editing I used the
‘mark in’ and ‘mark out’ toolshowever this is a skill I would like
to improve upon as at a couple
of points in my trailer the shot
has not been trimmed enough.
Although I did use this technique
throughout the editing process
to make my films look as slick
and professional as possible.
I also imported music and placed it over the top of my trailer to give it some pace and to create a more actionpacked atmosphere. I used music from the royalty free music website ‘incompetech’ that I felt created a
suspencseful and exilerating atmosphere to ensure my trailer was appealing to our target audience.

5. Iona Spence-Dingle
This screen grab shows me importing music, and the music I chose for to place over the drug deal scene.
I had some feedback that recommended that I should include more special effects, so in the future I will
use a website such as ‘after effects’ to make my film more aesthetically pleasing and exciting.
I would say that I was a useful and active member of my group, and in general my group worked very well
as a team to produce our trailers. The feedback regarding my trailer was fairly positive; people praised the
titles, storyline, and crime conventions but recommended that I use more special effects in the future. In
conclusion I am content with the finished trailer, but the peer feedback has given me plenty of scope to
improve my work in the future. Predominantly I will focus on ensuring my sounds blend more fluently, so it
is not such an obvious transition between one track and another.
Here is the feedback I got from my trailer: