Galaxy Media Feedback

GALAXY MEDIA FEEDBACK

Research and Planning

Level 4 16–20 marks

Planning and research evidence will be complete and detailed. H4

There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience. H3

There is excellent work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding. H3

There is excellent organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props. H3

Time management is excellent. M3

There is excellent skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the presentation. M4

There are excellent communication skills. M4

When you post a new version of the trailer always write a comment on how it has been improved and why changes were made to the previous cut.

On the whole the blog is excellent and detailed. However I see no evidence of research into a target audience, so perhaps drop in a couple of backdated posts on this. Perhaps a questionnaire about how some of your story ideas appeal to your audience. You could have the questions based on ratings:

1 – Strongly agree

5 – Strongly disagree

That sort of thing.

Also might be useful to have some overhead camera plans for some of the locations where you had more difficult setups.

Is there a script or storyboards you could stick on there?

Currently you’ll probably get about 16/20 for this, which is a low 4.

Production

Level 2/3 (15-23 mks) / (24-31mks)

The candidate is expected to demonstrate basic ability/proficiency in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:

·         shooting material appropriate to the task set; including controlled use of the camera, attention to framing, variety of shot sizes and close attention to mise en scene. H2

Much of it still feels quite thrown together and a bit amateurish, which, given the time you’ve had, isn’t really acceptable. There are some good shots intermingled in, but the lack of coverage (different angles of scenes and different shot sizes etc) and a repetitive aspect to the chase scenes drags it down because you end up having to linger on most shots too long. There would not appear to be much attention paid to the mise-en-scene, throughout really.  

·         editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use of

shot transitions, captions and other effects H2

Unfortunately the meaning is not clear throughout. “Why did we do it?” It isn’t apparent, especially when there is clearly only one sinister character in a gas mask. Perhaps this is covered in the missing scene, but I think there is a requirement for some sort of flashback that actually suggests some bullying took place and to whom and by whom. Avoid cheesy transitions and see below for comment about caption.

·         recording and editing sound with images appropriately. H3

This has been done generally well, with music changing in appropriate places. The voice over is clear (though you might need some more of it). There is one point were they’re talking at the start where the audio cut sounds quite abrupt though.

Where a candidate has worked in a group, a proficient contribution to construction is evident.

I think at the moment I can only give it a Low 3 – 24 mks. (This might even be a little generous).

A couple of things still aren’t entirely clear:

1.    That this group of boys have previously bullied another student.

2.    Why Wilson just gets up and goes off down stairs. He said what, “was in the basement”?

3.    There seems to be quite a lot of unmotivated wandering and running about. Why do they go looking for Wilson? There is little suggestion that there might be anything wrong.

4.    There doesn’t seem to be a great deal of urgency in the acting.

5.    The editing is somewhat confusing in terms of establishing some kind of continuity.

6.    Though the shot with the phone is nice, it is unclear what it is telling the audience. Has the killer taken this off one of the other students? Is the boy in the gym trying to call him. Does the killer use it to lure the student away.

Change opening title. The blue doesn’t work and the way it flies on is just cheesy. Something like a dissolve up might do it.

On the whole it still suffers from what I’ve been saying all along and that is, that for a trailer, the shots are simply too long and you don’t have enough coverage.

It’s not really enough at this stage to have just that one shot of the guys in the common room talking. You needed some cutaways to close-ups, so we get some reaction about their concern about where Wilson has gotten to. However I appreciate it will be difficult to get this at this stage.

Suggestions:

If, we the lads get up to go look for Wilson they find themselves looked into the common room, this will set up the idea that there is someone there to get them, and indeed is there trying to pick them off one-by-one.

An insert of a hand turning a key the lock will do this. Then one of them through the glass trying the door handle. There is currently a sense of the tension ramping up.

Not sure how you get them out though, possibly just have someone else enter the room, as if there was nothing wrong with the door, and then they all rush out knowing that something is definitely wrong with Wilson.

To use the phone shot better, perhaps you could’ve had a reverse over the gym boy’s shoulder, the phone sound effect then the gym boy following the sound of the phone, to his DOOOOMMM!!!!

Ancilliary Pieces

 Within the section of the main task, centres should consider the relationship between the tasks and ensure that a sense of brand identity across the package is evident. This should be taken into account at this stage.

Level 3 / 4 (7-8) / (9-10)

The candidate is expected to demonstrate proficiency in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:

·         awareness of conventions of layout and page design L4

·         awareness of the need for variety in fonts and text size L4

·         accurate use of language and register L4

·         he appropriate use of ICT for the task set L4

·         appropriate integration of illustration and text L4

·         framing a shot, using a variety of shot distances as appropriate M4

·         shooting material appropriate to the task set; selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting L3

·         manipulating photographs as appropriate, including cropping and resizing. L4

Generally speaking the ancillary pieces are quite well rendered though I would consider experimenting with a little bit of colour.

I would also say that in the poster the headshots look a bit soft (out of focus), as the focus appears to be on the wall behind.

Apart from this both pieces follow the conventions of poster and magazine cover rather well and there is sense of brand identity of the product.

I would give a High 3 overall – 16mks

Without the evaluation completed (worth 20mks) you have a total of 52mks out of a possible 80.

Even if I am being generous here, this is already a D. An effective evaluation should make it a decent C. If you are able to make suitable changes to the film itself, a B is still possible.