Main product

This is my finished full length film trailer (3:09 minutes approx) Here I will critically analyze my own piece of work.

The first clip is of my course details for the examiner, this is not part of the actual trailer. The start of my trailer features a ratings card which I acquired from http://re-run.com/article/free-rating-card-artwork. This is a conventional of film trailers to include a film ratings card. I used the keybar on the timeline to fade this into my logo.

The production logo of the film is then displayed, this is the same logo that I created and used in my film poster, this is an example of intersexuality. To make my logo stand out more and give a bigger impact I used a matrox effect called “spheres” to give an initial effect to the logo, I then customized the effect further in the custom effect window. This then gave it a 3d like quality which I think is very effective. An oversight in the creation of my logo initially caused problems with the text featured on the logo as it was of a dark colour on a dark background, this was remedied quickly by choosing a suitable text overlay and font provided in Adobe Premier Pro, this gave the side effect of a shadowy secondary text in the logo which surprisingly works quite well.

The trailer truly begins now, with text fading in the bottom left hand corner, setting the scene for the trailers story to begin. The text was positioned in such a way to be almost like a security camera or a hand held video cameras recording details overlain on the imagery.

The first scene is then faded in with the camera facing close to the ground with a slow rise as to give the impression of waking up/ recovering or looking up. The music (non-diagetic) then begins as this occurs. The shot then uses a combination of depth of field and the matrox effects soft tone and blur to focus on the hand; this gives the viewer a sense of displacement or dizziness with the goal of it simulating someone coming in and out of consciousness. As the camera pans up the actors hand twitches, indicating he is coming to. The camera then zooms in to the characters face and after a moment, he awakens with a start, this is then immediately followed a flash back. To create this flashback effect I had to position two clips together in the time line with a space between each and then put a blank white clip in-between, once this had been done I lowered the key bar of each of the two clips into the plain white one, thus giving a flashback effect.

My trailer initially was a match on action piece with quick edits, in this final production I have changed things considerably, it now has slow cuts with most having a fade done in time to the music.

The trailer also makes use of symmetrical editing, to have two different settings that eventually become one.

The title clips used in my trailer follow same style throughout with the sentence fading in first followed by the key word in red which then lingers after the rest of the title has faded away, this I feel helps enforce the genre of my trailer, sending the information clearly and visually to the audience.

This trailer is a hybrid of sorts that challenges conventional film trailers and draws inspiration from game trailers and music videos as well as existing film trailers. The reasoning behind this is that when considering how I could make it realistic and effective, I came to the conclusion that with what I had at hand, I would be limited in what I could do, this prompted me to research into games of a similar genre as they had to make their products realistic, while still being fictional. This research can be seen in the trailer for example the stance of my main character, his poses, various shots of the camera and special effects all combine in a similar way that games use. Examples of this are at 1:52, 2:02 and 2:08 but other examples are featured throughout.

At 1:08 red containers can be seen as part of the setting, this was intentionally done as; from my research this colour helps imply danger and violence and would work with my title sections well. I also made use of a “slow mo” in the scene to help emphasise his despair and struggle.

I had taken inspiration from cloverfield for a first person view of the attacker going after the main character, this provides realism to the scenes and helps the audience identify the position the main character is in, from the eyes of the enemy so to speak. At 1:23 this is used for an effective cut to a title.

The computer scene I found a challenge as I needed to create visuals to show the situation of the nation. Leading up to this scene I used the blur video effect to show him recovering and still in a daze. The visuals I created by taking images of England from Google earth, I did this by gradually zooming in and then using the printscreen button to take a snapshot of its current position. I then sent these images to Photoshop CS3 where I cropped them and then heavily edited them to appear as if England had been gravely destroyed in part. I chose to retain some of the google tools on the image as this would be recognized by the audience and thus be verysimilitude. I used a dissolve effect to transition each image in a futuristic way.

At 1:47 the symmetrical editing ends in a transition from the scientist to the survivor. Another notable transition is at 2:04 where the action runs into each other seamlessly.

The title is Exodus; this title was chosen due to the storyline/plot. Exodus means flight or departure on a mass scale so I wanted to portray the main character travelling the 2:09 to 2:26 time frame shows this to a good extent showing a wide array of shots of him walking, running and climbing.

I have used special effects while editing my trailer as I have mentioned but two of the more notable ones I have used for added effect is that of the split screen effect and the lens flare effect. The split screen effect can be found at 2:26 and gives multiple perspectives of the character in action. The lens flare was customized heavily for my production and was used for a different objective then it was intended for, I wanted to give the main characters gun a muzzle flash for some of the action scenes as to make it more interesting for the viewer, this was accomplished by transforming the neon pulse lens flare and positioning it next to the gun in a portion of a clip that was cut from the rest of the same clip. By removing the flare pulses it left a brief flash of light in the effect of a laser that had the desired effect.

The ending of the trailer features a first person perspective of someone chasing the main character and getting shot down, with the impression of them passing out. The last scene uses time lapse to have the character fade out as he walks a good distance into the blizzard which shows a sense of movement. The last title features the films name and an enigma title, “It begins 10.10.10”. The music also ends to the same rhythm and pace of the last scenes.

Finally the billing block is shown that I created, before that to fades out.

Character Development.

The way my main character has been portrayed has been in two main forms.

The scientist

Here my character was shown in a lab coat and features glasses and lighter everyday type of clothing, this was an intentional choice as I wanted it to be a stark contrast with how he first appears to when he is out in the open. This also fit the mise en scene of a lab space.

The Survivor.

I wanted him to look bulky, ready for action and equiped to survive, this is prominant when the film trailer transitions between the two costumes. He features urban khaki leggings and top, heavy boots, gas goggles scarf/gloves and gun. This helps the audience see how conditions and circumstances change and how he adapts to survive.

This was my short feature length trailer. It uses clips from the main film trailer but with much quicker edits and music to match. It also shows alternate title sections and scenes not used in the main trailer. Unlike the main trailer this one features sound effects such as a nuclear siren at the beginning and a gunshot blast at the end to provide an edgy action feel to the production. The special effects used in this was the customized lens flare for the two gunshots.

This is the original raw footage showing the match on action storyline that was originally intended for my trailer before the changes and editing took place.

This is the billing block I created in Photoshop CS3 using the text tool, and the transformation tools to resize my logo and secondary texts.

Free rating block from : http://re-run.com/article/free-rating-card-artwork.