Comparison... How have my idea's changed? - Part 1 Evaluation

How do things compare?

View more presentations from Naomi Hall.

Storyboard Animatic.

This is the storyboard animatic I created about 2 months ago. I would have posted earlier but I was having some problems publishing the movie to upload to vimeo/youtube and I was still deciding on the soundtracks to use.

This animatic included some scenes I would like to see in my trailer and some I will maybe change when the time comes to edit. The music heard is the soundtrack's I will use in my actual trailer although I may also edit them so that they fit with what is happening in my trailer.

Yahoo Article...

When checking my emails and waiting for my storyboard animatic to upload I came across and article about movie trailers and how they can sometimes be misleading when comparing it to an actual film. Now, although I am not making an full film I have to create the illusion that I have so that the audience knows what is going on and can fill in the blanks and sort of understand what is going on.

http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/blog/article/92187/most-misleading-movie-trailers.html

The article talks about how people complain that all the good stuff is put in the trailer like explosions or seeing someone get shot but none of the boring walking about and talking scenes. But as the article rightly suggests how else would the companies that have created the trailer sell the film to its audience. Noone wants to sit there at the end of a movie trailer and think "What the hell have I just watched?" after seeing a full 2 minutes of a person walking around or just talking to someone. The audience want to be left asking good questions like "What happens!?".

Although you might be thinking "Well that's all that is in her current trailer (Referring to my current rough cut) just some guy walking around looking a bit lost. Where's all the action?". Well fear not because as I have pointed out the current version of the trailer is only a rough cut and nothing is set in stone. I will be making some improvements with the editing and action scene's will be in the trailer.

Trailer Length...

Looking back at some older post's that I did way back when I was still unsure as to what was going to happen in my trailer and which genre it was going to be I researched and analysed some movie trailer's in the genre's I was interested in exploring more. I chose to research horror/thriller trailers and began to expand on that idea.

Some trailer's I have looked at are:

As you can see the average length of the trailers that I have looked at is 01:52. I am going to aim for 02:30 as I feel this would be long enough to keep people interested in the trailer and what the film is about. As my latest version of the trailer up to this date (Rough Cut 2.1) is 01:48 I feel it that the other 00:50 of my trailer could contain more of the action scenes that I wish to see in it.

Creating the Mock Up's...

For my Magazine Cover, Movie Poster and DVD Cover (View them here) I have had to use a different piece of software.  I decided that I would use Photoshop Elements 8.

The first thing I had to do was create the font that would feature on the three products.  I did this by installing a custom brush that had been made previously (the blood splatter).  This gave the text a more original feel to it and also linked it in with the trailer.  The font was called 'IMPACT' which is a pre-loaded font. 

This is my movie poster compared to the 'Sweeney Todd' poster.  As you can see instead of having a main image at the moment I just have the name of the film.  In the future I will change this on my actual product.  Like the Sweeney Todd poster I will also have a main image.  Unlike the 'ST' poster I have added critic comments and ratings which I find works well.

Through out all my products I have used the same font.  Although I have used the same picture on the magazine cover as I have on the DVD cover. 

 This is the image I am currently using on my DVD and Magazine Cover.  I plan to recreated this image.  I like it because the person in the picture is mysterious and extremely dark.  This type of character will work well with the main character that is shown in my trailer.

What's been involved so far?

The software I have decided to use to produce my trailer is Pinnacle Studio 12.  I decided to use this because although it is extremely good for editing videos with the various effects and transitions that are available it is very easy to use. 

All the tools I need for editing my trailer are on the bar at the side.  

1. My footage

2. Transitions

3. Effects

4. Text for Trailer

5. Still pictures

6. Menu's (DVD only)

7. Sound Effects

8. Soundtrack

Before any editing though I had to transfer the footage I had filmed from the camera to the computer and into Pinnacle.  Luckily, again Pinnacle made this easy for me as Pinnacle can do this for you.

Pinnacle then detects the scenes from the camera and splits the footage from the camera into those scenes which again helps me to save time as I can use/find the individual scenes easily instead of having to cut the scenes out of the whole video and edit them together. 

I them transfered individual scenes onto the time line in the order I want to create my trailer.  One issue I did find when doing this was finding out how to have to soundtrack playing while the sound from the original video was playing over it.  On the party scenes I have sounds from the party as well as the sound track playing at the same time.  To solve this issue I muted the sound in the original scenes, added sound effects onto the time line using the sound effects bar (on the time line 4th line down on picture to right) and had the sound track on the music bar.  I then adjusted the volumes of both so that they could be heard. 

Trailer - Rough Cut 2.1 (Sound Effects Added)

Naomi Hall - Degrees of Freedom Rough Cut 2.1 (Added sound effects) from Naomi Hall on Vimeo.

Also on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9S4zY5mkRNc

This is the same as the second rough cut but with added sound effects on the party scenes.

Trailer - Rough Cut 2

Naomi Hall - Degrees of Freedom - Rough Cut 2 from Naomi Hall on Vimeo.

This is the second draft of my trailer.  A sample soundtrack has been added and edited to (roughly) fit in with the music.  Transitions and video effects have been slightly improved from the first cut but more is needed to perfect it.  Title screens have been added.  Action scene's still need to be added and alternative soundtrack will be used.

Trailer - Rough Cut 1 (Extreme Rough Cut)

Naomi Hall - Degrees of Freedom (EXTREME Rough Cut) from Naomi Hall on Vimeo.

This is a first draft of my trailer and the basic layout of what I would like to see happen in it.  Action scenes are still yet to be added as well as the music.  Scene transitions and video effects also need to improved/added to the trailer.  Title screens with the Production company name, film certificate and film title as well as text in the trailer also needs to be added.