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.

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 conventions used in an episode we watched. We looked at sound, mise-en-scene, characters and other elements. Doing this enables us to find out a little

Andrew Goldman

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 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.

Andrew Goldman

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 film. The next stage was putting your storyboard to life and finding the correct locations for your ideas.

Andrew Goldman

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 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.

Andrew Goldman

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 Equipment list

Plastic Revolver Camera Filming camera Phones Plastic P99 Camera Tripod Coat Plastic Button Tie used as gag Desks and tables Computer Science equipment Goggles, test tube racks

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Above is a list of everything that we planned to use during pre – production and we used all of the items indicated 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 perfect example for varied camera shots and angles. Below are the four significant shots from this scene.

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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 audience that the two characters are going somewhere and if you watch the trailer you want to find out where they are going.

Andrew Goldman

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 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

Andrew Goldman

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.

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

Andrew Goldman

I think that it is a pleasing TV cop drama trailer and I am very happy with my work over the past few weeks.