(Screenshot of the making of the trailer)
Rough break down of a trailer for TV sitcom series -
BREAK DOWN OF TRAILER -
- 30 secs - 1min long
- Involves all the main characters and lays bare some of their issues
- Shows the conflict of the protagonist
- Has at least 4-5 hilarious punch lines or a montage scene
There were a few techniques that I wanted to adopt from my researched trailers and apply to this however as we didn't have loads of one liners, I had to be careful on which scenes I chose to put into the trailer. I knew I needed to find a specific scene that captures the essence of our project in 30 seconds. But this was becoming increasingly hard, so I watched the whole project through about 3-4 times, selecting scenes that I felt visually would work but with no idea yet of what to do with the sound for it.
The one big trailer that was still stuck in my head was Peep Show, and how it used so effectively the montage sequence for it's trailer. The trailer basically was made up of lots of snippets of different scenes throughout the new series being released, so I took inspiration from this and began to choose my favourite clips from our project. However this still didn't solve how I would start the trailer off, so I kept on looking for a scene that summarised nicely what the boys were attempting to do, what their goal was and if there was a nice sentence from one of the characters that would be able to lead into the chaos without being to cheesy. I eventually found a line, it's when Danny comes back from the toilet and they're just about to start the live stream podcast, I felt this was a justifiable point in the project to place in the trailer as it's the point at which things start to turn south, and where the conflict begins. It cuts out all of the slightly lengthy, boring monotonous stuff towards the beginning of the narrative, and allows you to jump straight to the point in the trailer, selling it's most attractive bits by putting them in the shop window basically.
So after selecting the scene that would start off the trailer, I needed to find a vast mix of short scenes that I felt represented the narrative and conveyed it's tone/themes in a balanced way. For these scenes I sensed that it would only be right of me to use the individual close up shots of them entering their hallucinations, the shot of them taking the pills, a shot of the penguin, a shot of the monster and several shots of the group falling out of their hallucination. These scenes in my opinion pieced together the narrative, in a very obscure but truthful way. A way in that I felt would leave the audience watching wanting to know more and question it, leaving them curious enough to go and watch it.
FINISHED TRAILER -
BREAK DOWN OF THE TRAILER -
- 45 seconds long
- Involves all the main characters and lays bare some of their issues
- Has a montage sequence towards the halfway mark
HOW
So to create this trailer, I had to wait until Aimee had finished a nearly complete edit, she then exported out a copy, put it on my hard drive and then I began the edit process. I thought it would be more effective if I were to use a full edit rather than me searching through all the raw files, as the files had not had any sound attached, so they were all silent. This made sense to me as it would save hours and hours of searching for the right clip and the right sound for that clip. Also the footage was ready for editing now as the colour grade had already been established it made no sense not to do it like this. So I chose the first clip, which was about 10-15 seconds long, scene 9, just before they start the podcast, then with the music, I put on a scratch record vinyl sound to act as if something has went terribly wrong. After this the montage effect will begin, so I did by cutting the selected scenes for about the length of 5 frames each? so I had 9 different scenes but lasting for about 5 frames each so it went past pretty quick, then with sound underneath it, the sound that we use throughout the hallucination scenes. I ended on the Cereal Offenders title, which I got from Aimee through Facebook and then imported them into premiere pro where I added effects on them to transition them in and out. It was the same transitional effect that Aimee uses on them for the edit.
WHY
I wanted to start off this trailer with a scene that really depicted our project at it's very core, it's a narrative about three students who try to live stream a 24hr podcast but realise it's harder than it seems so revert to taking drugs/alcohol to stay awake. My scene selection for this trailer is I believe justified by the scene that we begin this trailer with. We allow the audience to see just before the live stream begins, and this is also where I felt we had the best line that would start the trailer off nicely, it ends ' Here we go boys, and fans, this is all your fault ' It made clear sense to me to use this line as the addressing tone in Sam's voice was very formal and indicative that something pretty big and intense is about to happen. I felt after all the research I'd done on trailers and how sitcoms convey their narrative in them, it was best to choose a line and a character that hold the narrative the strongest. This was easily Sam and that line to me. After selecting this scene and placing it on the timeline it was time for me to start selecting the chaotic/frantic clips that would portray the second half of the narrative which would be displayed in a montage sequence. The reason for it to be created in a montage sequence was because of the research I had done on the Peep Show trailer and how effective I felt it was in portraying the hectic and frenzied characters at the peak. I felt this was the most appropriate plan of action and chose some of the visually most engaging scenes in an attempt to hook the audience. I selected the pill taking scene because this allowed the audience to gauge what kind of programme content it would be, an I felt if I didn't include that, it may be slightly misleading for them. After this I included individual shots of them in front of the green screen entering their own psychological state, this was incorporated because I felt we needed something visually stimulating in the trailer that wasn't anything major to spoil the plot line. Then I made sure to include a shot of the penguin, as again this was a clip that was very gripping and intense, I knew this would leave a lot of questions and curiosity after showing this. Finally it would end on the scene where they all crash out onto the floor, then it fades to black. I wanted it the trailer to start with all three characters and end with all three of the characters, to keep a consistent flow and not to favour any particular one more than the other, so the audience wouldn't have any misconceptions about the plot, i.e did one of them die and is that why they're not in it anymore towards the end?
EVALUATION
So to create this trailer, I had to wait until Aimee had finished a nearly complete edit, she then exported out a copy, put it on my hard drive and then I began the edit process. I thought it would be more effective if I were to use a full edit rather than me searching through all the raw files, as the files had not had any sound attached, so they were all silent. This made sense to me as it would save hours and hours of searching for the right clip and the right sound for that clip. Also the footage was ready for editing now as the colour grade had already been established it made no sense not to do it like this. So I chose the first clip, which was about 10-15 seconds long, scene 9, just before they start the podcast, then with the music, I put on a scratch record vinyl sound to act as if something has went terribly wrong. After this the montage effect will begin, so I did by cutting the selected scenes for about the length of 5 frames each? so I had 9 different scenes but lasting for about 5 frames each so it went past pretty quick, then with sound underneath it, the sound that we use throughout the hallucination scenes. I ended on the Cereal Offenders title, which I got from Aimee through Facebook and then imported them into premiere pro where I added effects on them to transition them in and out. It was the same transitional effect that Aimee uses on them for the edit.
WHY
I wanted to start off this trailer with a scene that really depicted our project at it's very core, it's a narrative about three students who try to live stream a 24hr podcast but realise it's harder than it seems so revert to taking drugs/alcohol to stay awake. My scene selection for this trailer is I believe justified by the scene that we begin this trailer with. We allow the audience to see just before the live stream begins, and this is also where I felt we had the best line that would start the trailer off nicely, it ends ' Here we go boys, and fans, this is all your fault ' It made clear sense to me to use this line as the addressing tone in Sam's voice was very formal and indicative that something pretty big and intense is about to happen. I felt after all the research I'd done on trailers and how sitcoms convey their narrative in them, it was best to choose a line and a character that hold the narrative the strongest. This was easily Sam and that line to me. After selecting this scene and placing it on the timeline it was time for me to start selecting the chaotic/frantic clips that would portray the second half of the narrative which would be displayed in a montage sequence. The reason for it to be created in a montage sequence was because of the research I had done on the Peep Show trailer and how effective I felt it was in portraying the hectic and frenzied characters at the peak. I felt this was the most appropriate plan of action and chose some of the visually most engaging scenes in an attempt to hook the audience. I selected the pill taking scene because this allowed the audience to gauge what kind of programme content it would be, an I felt if I didn't include that, it may be slightly misleading for them. After this I included individual shots of them in front of the green screen entering their own psychological state, this was incorporated because I felt we needed something visually stimulating in the trailer that wasn't anything major to spoil the plot line. Then I made sure to include a shot of the penguin, as again this was a clip that was very gripping and intense, I knew this would leave a lot of questions and curiosity after showing this. Finally it would end on the scene where they all crash out onto the floor, then it fades to black. I wanted it the trailer to start with all three characters and end with all three of the characters, to keep a consistent flow and not to favour any particular one more than the other, so the audience wouldn't have any misconceptions about the plot, i.e did one of them die and is that why they're not in it anymore towards the end?
EVALUATION
Overall I was quite happy with it, considering I had no guidance or help from anyone on this edit. I put all my research on trailers into practice for this short project, I hope it paid off. However I didn't receive great feedback from the team regarding this cut. Once I shown it Aimee & Will they didn't really have any positive suggestions, just negative and that they would of done it differently? I asked what could I do better with it or if you can give me any advice on where you would go with it now, but I was given literally nothing, offered no solutions whatsoever. It was quite frustrating to hear when you've spent three days on a piece of work for it to then be slated. I think I knew what they were trying to get that, that the starting scene was too long, however there was no way we could of cut this scene down in the trailer as the sound would of jumped, and it would of sounded bizarre. Also I tried several times to go just from ' It's all your fault ' as this was Will's solution to the dragging first 15 seconds, but this unfortunately didn't work. In my opinion, the slow start works, it lets the audience lull into a false pretence of security and then bang it jumps straight into the anarchy and chaos of the narrative that the characters will experience. Hopefully it's came across within the trailer. Potentially i've made the film look less like a surreal sitcom and ever so slightly more like a horror, but that's why I felt the first scene of the trailer needed to be long, as that sets the comedic value quite high and from this scene you can tell it's not a horror. To conclude, i'm quite pleased with how it's turned out, but I would of liked to of had more performances with really good one liners, so I didn't have to use such stretched out scenes to make this cut work. I know why some people don't like it but there was genuinely nothing I could do about this, I couldn't think of another line to use and I had no support from others on this so I accept it's on me but what could I do about it. I felt with the research i'd done, I had backed up every creative decision I deployed for it. So that's all I can really say.
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