Evaluation of our trailer

The opening shot, which you can see is the first shot in the pictures above, was important because we wanted to create mystery straight away. Having the chess at the front of the frame was a decision we made to make it obvious that it is there and is going to effect Megan (our actresses) life. I think that having the chess as a close up with Mia looking at it as she wakes up works really well because the chess looks out of scale which makes it quite domineering. The only thing that I would have liked to have done would be a focus pull from the chess, to Mia looking scared; unfortunately the flip cams do not have this ability. We chose to repeat a similar shot where Mia finds the chess piece in her locker at school. Having it again meant that the audience would be aware that the chess will always be somewhere you're not expecting it, and by having it at the front of the frame is like having something at the front of your mind, which our character, Mia was supposedly experiencing. 

When we showed text in our trailer, we made sure that it zoomed in slowly. This was so that tension would build, as well as allowing the audience to read what it says properly. Towards the end of the trailer, we added text in very quick and short cuts to mirror the tension we were building in the trailer. I think that the contrast between the slower text and the fast text works well because it represents the panic or hysteria that Mia is feeling in her life due to this constantly appearing chess. It was important that we kept the same font as the poster and film magazine so as to link them all together. I think that this works well as people will know that this trailer is advertising the same film as the poster is even before they reach the end of the trailer with the title. Having the title and due date at the end of the trailer was a choice we made because from looking at other trailers, we noticed that pretty much all of them had the date and title at the end of the trailers. Keeping to this convention means that our trailer seems more professional. 

As our main character was aimed at people aged 15-20 we had to make sure that her clothing was contemporary to fit in with the similarities of our target audience. This wasn't a problem as it is what Megan would wear usually anyway. Having Mia as a contemporary teenage girl works well because it allows our audience to relate more easily to her. In the scene with Mia in the bath, we wanted to make it obvious that she was trying to drown herself, so we decided to keep her in her clothes. I think that this works well because not only is it a bit weird that she is in her clothes in the bath, but also because it does emphasise the fact that she has gone a bit mad because of the chess. Along side this was that we chose to film parts of our trailer at school which makes our character even more relatable to most of our audience. Doing this also puts into perspective how normal Mia's life was up until things started happening which works well because it hopefully makes the audience think how it could happen to anyone, including them.

This bath scene works well I think because of the bird's eye angle that we chose to shoot in and also we slowed the speed down slightly to make her eye movement more obvious. These two things combined work well because it shows the crazed side of Mia who is trying to kill herself in despair, also it creates a mystery as to if she is going to actually kill herself, and also what has been so bad as to why she would want to kill herself.

When it came to filming the scene in the kitchen with the kettle we did have trouble doing this as it was very bright outside and it took us a while to find an angle where it's possible to read everything that is written on the window. In the end we decided to have two shots in the trailer from different angles to enable the audience to read it properly. I personally think that the two angles aren't different enough and if we had a more contrasting shot this would have worked better or maybe if we had made the cut in between each shot more dramatic with a non-diegetic sound to emphasise it and to make it more scary.

As I mentioned in my blog about our animatics, we were looking forward to using a split screen and although we haven't kept to our original story board, removing the beginning of our trailer completely, we still wanted to include a split screen. The split screen helped to evolve our editing skills because we worked out how to do it ourselves, and we also made one half of it play backwards. I think that this works well because it shows how messed up Mia is, and she feels all confused. To add to this, we also made sure that the camera movement wasn't smooth to enhance the feeling of disruption. 

The lighting in the bedroom when Mia is waking up and having nightmares is important because it is quite hazy and red light, which adds a strange atmosphere to the room. The haziness creates a sort of dream like feeling which I think works well because dreams are surreal and we wanted our audience to feel like they are in the same surreal state as Mia. The reddy - pinkness of the room also adds an element of danger to the shots which also works well because it connects the trailer to the magazine cover where Mia looks hunted and in danger. 

Having the separate shots of the chess board adds the effect that there is another "player" in this game which could be anyone in Mia's life. Although Mia isn't sure if what is happening is for real or if she has gone mad, the audience know that there is someone as they can see the chess game being played. I think that this creates a mystery as to who is messing with Mia's head which is why these shots work well. We wanted the speed of the movement of the chess to match up with the speed of the trailer so we changed the speed of the footage to slow it down and sometimes speed it up. I think that this works well because again, it adds to the tension of the trailer.