Police of Cake

IntroductionOur aim for this project was to create a captivating trailer that was to last no more than 3 minutes long. Each member of the group had many different styles and approaches to how they thought we should construct our trailer, but first, some research was required.

ResearchOur research began with watching some crime drama and film trailers to give us all a sense of some iconic features that audience members love to see in a trailer. The most common features were a fitting music track to match the onscreen videos and some key events to attract viewers but not spoil any of the story line. Furthermore, every trailer we analysed consisted of specific information that the potential viewers will need to know. Such as;

Key words that highlight and hint at the events

Action scenes

Who are the actors (these attract views using popular actors)

Release date

Producers and directors

We also watched some full episodes of crime dramas, such as ‘Midsomers Murders’, ‘New tricks’ and ‘Life on Mars’ and analysed each one after (picture on the left). Watching these popular, successful shows gave us a clear indication on the iconic scenes that we should include in our crime drama. These were scenes such as; a chase scene, two good cops, a local villain and whatever else suits the content and genre of the drama.

Genre After watching some serious popular crime drama, we also watched a comedy crime drama, ‘A touch of cloth’. After watching this comical crime drama, it was clear to us all that this is what we want to do. Comedy came naturally to us all and a comedy genre was perfect for our project. This enabled us to be creative and still include the iconic crime drama scenes but presented in a comical, ‘spoofy’ manor.

The Project

The project required some thoughtful planning before and during the filming. Before filming and at the early stages of filming our group needed to create a detailed production schedule of what was going to be filmed when, what the scene included and what props and costumes we will needed. This helped us to plan ahead in our story line and filming and helped us spot any errors before we set out filming.

As well as this planning we also had to provide evidence of where we will be filming. This made us, as a group go around all the places of the school and decide which was the best place to shoot the iconic chase scene.

Technical Aspects

Putting what we had analysed into action, our comedy crime drama trailer had to feature when the show will be released, ‘This Christmas’. This was a common feature in all trailers and was easily created by simply adding a title between the introduction clips. The black connotation gave a serious sense to the trailer but not until the clips are shown do the audience get a real feel for the genre and content. It adds an element of surprise that we used to instantly amuse our target audience. The red also highlights the fact that it will be released at Christmas.

We also used an iconic, epic comedy scene walking down the corridor, panning from a low angle shot to mid shot with the slow motion effect and the wind passing through our hair. This feature is common in comedy scenes when an important character(s) is

making an entrance. We tried to replicate this to show our audience, we were the important characters.

We also used a classic feature in all trailer, naming the actors involved in the series/film. In our case, pretending that we were well known actors, and labelling our names throughout the trailer was a device to attract potential viewers to their favourite actor(s) and bump up the views for our comedy crime drama.

Finally, the classical and comical ‘Chase scene’ that every audience member loves to witness. This was a

top priority in our trailer and one that would highlight our content and genre perfectly. This featured

comical events during the chase, and we were certain that this would appeal and entertain our target

audience.

Premiere Pro Skills

Unfortunately I did not learn any new skills during this project but it was the perfect chance to practice some existing skills. The main skills that I used were the fading of music, and the use and layering of titles in-between and on top of video clips.

During the trailer, I used two different music tracks and at some stage one needed to change to the other. This was done with the use of fading the end of one clip to allow

the other clip to start. This was simply done by adding two key points and turning the volume level down on the second key point to create a steady decrease in volume.

This was also used when a character on screen was talking and the music volume needed to be decreased in order for the speech to be heard.

The second skill that I frequently used, was adding titles during trailer. It is a common feature to have a pause in the video clips and just a still title

of a few words that help to portray an important message or some important information of what is to follow. This was done by simply

creating a title, choosing the colour, font and position of the text and placing the title in-between selected clips. This was also most effective when there was a pause or when there was a diminuendo in the music.

Furthermore, the closing title of the trailer needed to feature some important on

screen details and icons. The trailer finished with the name of the crime drama ‘Police

of Cake’ and when the show will be released onto the public screens. Also, a

copyright logo was added and the name of the broadcaster to inform the audience of where to look for this show. This was done by creating a separate layer for each the two icons and the text and simply layering them on

the timeline, adding a cross dissolve transition and having them all appear to end the trailer.

Finished Product – Strengths and Weaknesses

The strengths of our crime drama project would have to be the comedy genre we chose. The element of comedy made our trailer different to all the others and with comedy being second nature to us all, it was very effective. Another strength would be our prior knowledge of crime dramas. All of the team had all watched crime drama shows, and that combined with research and analyses of more TV series provided the team with an assured understanding of what is expected in a crime drama and its trailer. Watching the different versions of crime dramas like “A touch of cloth” and “Sherlock Holmes” helped us create the classic scenes in our trailer and the type of scenes that would have features in a show. Finally I believe, the putting together of the clips summed up what we had to offer as a group. The clever use of low angle and slow motion shots and the positioning of the clips at different points in the music to add extra effect was the perfect touch to -6our trailer.

However, one of our weaknesses was the concentration levels whilst planning and even filming. Getting the research completed was very time consuming as we were all desperate to film, but looking back now, we know the quality of our filming would not be the same without the research beforehand. Our seriousness during filming was also an issue. The aim our sketches were to be comical, but in a subtle way, much like that of a ‘spoof’ film, but trying to act professionally and seriously was a challenge during a comical scene or event. Unfortunately this resulted in many filming re-takes and extended our deadline for the trailer.

The teamwork in the group was very good and everybody, being close friends worked well together no matter what the task was. We all pitched in relevant ideas when required and each and every one of us had an important role in the production. In all honesty, we were all the producers and directors of our own show. We all decided how to act and what to film when and where in different scenes so we shared the responsibility and decision making. Aaron Cork was our trusty camera man; Tom Fearon, Will Matthews and I were the starring

actors in the trailer as well as being heavily involved in the production of the screen; and Sophie Carey was the research and analysis leader as well as a keen and skilled director.

Am I pleased? I am very pleased with the end result of our trailer. After extensive research, detailed planning and editing all the clips and titles, I am very happy to see that all our hard work has

been paid off with a professional and entertaining trailer. The trailer has also been shown viewers outside the media classroom and I am also pleased due to the verbal feedback I received.

Target audienceI believe our trailer does meet our planned target audience. We planned as part of our research to aim our trailer at the age range of 14-25. We believed this was a suitable audience that we could accurately appeal to, being teenagers ourselves, through the use of language and modern comical devices. To analyse whether we had met our target audience, we asked some members of the target age range to watch our trailer, rate and review it. The ratings were high and the reviews were positive which is what we expected and shows us that our trailer was accurately designed to appeal to our target audience.

Our ideaI don’t believe our idea was completely original as we decided to replicate a ‘spoof’ comedy crime drama such as ‘A touch of cloth’. This was the type of content and genre we could be creative with, but gave it a more amateur feel, one that could be recognized by other students. However, we thought that other student groups would choose to create a serious crime drama so in the sense of a school project; our comedy crime drama was an original and effective idea.

FeedbackThe feedback that we received from viewers was very positive and what we were all hoping for. Both year 10 BTEC media classes ‘Loved’ our trailer as we received verbal feedback such as ‘Amazing’, ‘Very cleverly filmed and edited’. Some people even wanted to watch our trailer more than once because they thought it was ‘hilarious’ and even said it was better than their own. The highest rating for our trailer was ‘9/10’ and the lowest was ‘7/10’ which we believe accurately reflects our creativity, unique thinking and hard work.