Media- Crime Drama Evaluation

Finished Product:

Compared to the original idea

In comparison to our original idea, the final outcome of the trailer produced was relatively accurate. It included vital crime conventions such as a murder and a chase scene found in general crime dramas, both of which created suspense and engaged the audience. We decided in our pre-

production stages that we would introduced the characters in a unique way and I feel that we achieved our goal as it is made clear to the audience the importance of each character early on in the trailer. After we had all agreed on the story line for ‘Detective D’ we developed a story board

which included a variety of the shot types that we intended to use to create a dramatic effect. Although we changed some of our shot types and angles which altered our final piece, I think overall

it was for the best and we had produced a more alternate and interesting trailer for our audience. Another thing that was altered from the original idea was that we changed the picture to black and white which created a more dark and suspicious atmosphere in comparison to a bright clear setting.

Does it meet audience expectations?

The target audience that we aimed our trailer and crime drama series at was 12+ as it contains more mature humour as well as gory scene such as murder scenes. I feel that our audience was accurately

suited to the final outcome of our trailer as the trailer has an overall dark humoured likeness to it. Our trailer fits the crime drama genre as it contains a variety of typical crime conventions but the trailer produced engages the audience in a unique way. The music choice for the trailer creates another aspect to the overall feel of the trailer as it has many layers which all contribute to the

ambience of the final piece. From the feedback that I received from the audience I can see that the music choice worked for the trailer but the introduction clips were too long and made

Technical qualities- Camera work:

The first shot that we used in our trailer was a close-up of some keys, a wallet, ID card and a phone. We chose to open our trailer with this clip to intrigue and engage the audience to why they were

there; a close-up was suited to this shot as it was the clearest way of showing the audience the props were related to the crime drama genre.

To introduce the character of Detective D we used a low angle shot which panned from the feet of the character to the to a medium close-up shot showing the face to waist . This shows the audience

Detective D’s power and importance in our series.

We introduced The Rookie in the same way as Detective D as we thought he played and equally important role in our crime drama. We used the same panning from feet to a close-up as we thought

it let the audience know the character.

The victim was introduced in the same way, although he is a less superior and weaker character he character we thought that he played an equally important role in our trailer as the other characters.

Next time I would use a high angle shot to show the audience that he was weaker and more vulnerable.

We chose a more plain setting for the close up of the murderer as we thought it created a more suspicious atmosphere for the audience. We used another low angle shot to show the characters

importance and power.

Overall I think that the introductions of the characters were effective and created the suspicious aspect we intended to but next time I would reduce the screen length of them. I would reduce it as it

is slightly too long for the audience and they may find this part a boring although it is essential to show the audience.

In our trailer we used a variety of different camera angles and shot types to show a different view point to the audience but most of the techniques used weren’t discussed in the story board stages. In our story we board we drafted some basic ideas to do with the chase scene which weren’t very

unique, so we developed more interesting shots for our trailer as we filmed and I feel that they turned out very successful.

We used this low-angle shot of the victim being chased down the stairs to show how dangerous

the murder was, we thought that the stairs would add to the intesity of the scene. The low-angle of the victim shows his vulnerability.

I was very happy with this shot as I feel that it created a tense yet funny apsect to the trailer. It was a close up of the victims face as he was running away from the murderer, we achieved this shot by running backwards with the tripod as Jack (the victim) ran forwards.

For the death of the victim we used a high-angle shot to show how weak and vulnerable he was compared to the murderer seeing as he has been killed,

Aesthetic Qualities

The whole trailer was in black and white as we thought it fitted the crime drama theme, we also decided that it would give an older dimension to the trailer that we thought would be appreciated by the audience. We aimed to get the best quality shots for the trailer as we

knew it would increase the aesthetic quality of the final piece, but I think we could improve many of the shots as we rushed them a bit and we didn’t succeed full potential. The

feedback that we gathered from the audience showed me that the intro clips were slightly too long making it boring to watch but that rest of the trailer was entertaining. We managed

to use all of the best clips that we filmed in our trailers but we had to cut the clips as they were shaky. Also I cut out the sound from the clips so they didn’t interfere with the music

but next time to be more dramatic we could put the music quieter and record a voice over of the murderer or something similar.

Team Contribution

I think that as a team we worked well together from the post production through to the filming stages of our trailer. To start off with we all contributed our ideas toward the final

idea and everyone had good ideas of which aspects of each were used. When we started filming George, Jack, Josh and I took the story board with us to replicate the ideas that we

had drawn up, over all we all worked well together with minimum disruption. Everyone took it in turns to film the clips and as we went along everyone contributed ideas to some more

shots that were used.

Production Process:

In the pre-production process we looked at the openings of popular crime dramas such as Sherlock, CSI and Castle. These programs helped us to understand how they showed the

audience that it was a crime drama through the different crime conventions they used in the opening scene. Each show introduced the characters in a typical way of a close-up and action

shot of the main characters while doing so they showed typical police behaviour such as a chase scene and detective work. I feel that the shows helped us to understand the concept of a crime drama therefor helping us to make our trailers accurate and fit the crime drama

theme that was set.

To start with we all drafted our own ideas onto a mind map for our trailers which included our knowledge of all the crime conventions in crime dramas; this helped us to have more

than one idea for our trailer of which aspects from each were used. From our mind maps we all shared ideas together which helped us to develop our final idea for ‘Detective D’ and

write up a synopsis for the trailer, this was then re-read and adapted before putting onto our blogs.

The storyboard was developed from both the synopsis and the mind map to help us understand which shots and camera angles we intended to use for our trailer. Our

storyboard played a big role into the final ambience of the trailer as we knew which shots that we were going to use and the effect that we wanted to create from them.

After we had filmed all of the clips that we required for our trailer we watch each clips to check if we needed to re-film any, finally we had all of the clips and could start editing. From the crime dramas we had watched previously we could see that after the intros there was a logical yet chaotic feel to create suspense and this help me to develop the order of the clips. I chose to put the clips in black and white as I thought the colouring of the clips wasn’t dark

enough to create the suspense that was needed and after doing so I felt proud of the aesthetic quality of the clips.

I deleted the sound of the clips as they had a lot of background interference, but this didn’t affect it as there was music on the trailer. The music choice was influenced by the CSI theme tune, although they are not similar the idea of a memorable tune to associate with the crime

drama was the intention.

Sources of information.

I feel that I contributed well to the groups work; I drew up the story board while contributing some of my own ideas for the trailer. Our group worked well together as we all knew we

needed to concentrate to develop the trailer from our ideas; this was a clear strength of our

group because we all linked our abilities to help each other where ever possible. One slight weakness of our group was our attention that we kept on certain tasks as looking back we all

got slightly distracted in out pre-production stages.

Overall I am satisfied with my work and how I contributed to the groups ideas and work, in the future I would try to concentrate better throughout the whole production stage to

achieve my maximum potential.

We kept a production schedule so we understood what we were to do each lesson and whether we had met our targets.