Making this trailer and writing this story has been a huge learning experience. I now have a much deeper appreciation for the fundamentals of story writing and the whole production tasks that intertwine to create a finished film. Doing this project on my own has made me do things I never considered when making a film, from drawing very basic on the spot concept arts to show the actors the picture for the film I had in my head to drawing it out a time schedule to the shot list to maximise the efficiency of the shoot days. I struggled most with the planning because of the sheer size of the project (number of people, shots, scenes, locations etc) but it has taught me many lessons which I take with me whenever diving into a new project.
The filming was a great experience. It felt great to have a large portion on set all looking for your guidance on what they should do. In theory it should feel pressured but honestly I felt the opposite as it was one of the few times in the project where I could completely determine the fate of the product. Audio is something I usually stay well clear of and let other people take care of it but this project forced me to take control of it. This was good because it forced me to look into recording audio properly, teaching me a number of new things to maximise my output. It resulted in me recording the audio both directly into the camera via a shotgun mic mounted on the top of the camera and separately using a another shotgun mic on a boom connected to a H4N zoom to get a crisper sound for dialogue.
Editing was a struggle in places. Usually I enjoy editing because for all my past projects I worked with linear straight cut scenes which allows me to get large portions of footage sorted in short amounts of time. With the trailer though it was extremely frustrating in places, I found myself constantly re positioning things and spent hours deciding over the length a shots against the importance of them. I have a new found respect for trailer editors because for a whole film, I can imagine having to shave my head to avoid me ripping my hair out over frustration. On the other hand it was overly rewarding in places. There were many times I found myself running around where I am living in excitement because something finally clicked just as I wanted it too. If there was anything I could take away from trailer editing, it is that patience is key and playing safe doesn't work; take a risk and it could pay off dramatically.
If was given a few more weeks for the project, I think I would look into filming some more scenes/re-filming some bits with the actors. There are some shots that I feel I didn't get the best out of what was available. This would allow me a greater diversity in the trailer amongst shots, on top of what was already there. I would also look into some visual effects that I could add to maybe hint at a more high budget films, playing with the concepts of fire/car crashes all that shot from certain angles could make it look realistic without out me doing any actual damage.
Overall I have thoughly enjoyed making this project, and it has been my favourite video that I have worked on to date. I owe a lot of thanks to everyone who gave inspiration to kick start ideas around the film and that provided me with favours in the actual production. This project has provided me with skills and confidence I can take into further projects allowing me to a lot more than before.
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