production diary-trailer

 

To start off my first draft i opened the editing software and started importing my footage

with the footage imported i could choose which footage goes onto the timeline and in what order, the main benefit of this is that i can see which bit of footage i'm selecting, this way i can select the desired footage while ensuring i don't mistakenly put the wrong clip into my timeline or put a duplicate of a clip in the timeline twice, this also saves time as i can select multiple clips at a time rather than one art a time which once again increases the risk of forgetting what clips i've put in and putting a duplicate clip

with all the clips in the timeline, i cut down the clips to make them shorter to make it a trailer appropriate length as a trailer is usually cut down to between 30 seconds to two minutes depending on the length of the film, after cutting down each piece of footage to ensure each clip was in a coherent order as well as having no repeat clips or mistakes while making sure that none of the audio in the clips cut off too early. Once i did that i exported it and uploaded it to youtube before getting feedback for the draft to see if an audience would like the 

trailer and to see if there was any way i could improve my trailer

 the audience said that this first draft was either average, bad or awful, the main comments of feedback for this post was to add music to the trailer to give it more substance and make it look more like a professional movie trailer

with the feedback i was given i went back onto my trailers timeline, making sure that i was still happy with both the length and the order the clips were in as well as how i chose how to end the trailer as the suspense in a trailer is key, i want to show the audience what my film is about and show them enough to where they get the idea of what my film is about while also leaving them wanting more, after re-watching the footage i was happy with both the length and the clips chosen as well as the order that the clips were in.

following the feedback of the audience i looked through some royalty free horror music to be used for my trailer, a couple of comments said to add some slower music to the trailer so i listened to different previews of music to decide which one would be the most fitting and match with the pacing of the trailer, it also had to be long enough to run through all the way to then end of the trailer as i didn't want the music to stop before the end of the trailer as that would ruin the professional look to the trailer, it would also ruin the horror atmosphere the trailer would give off if it were to stop before the trailer finished

with the music added i made sure it was positioned at the beginning of the film, i also manipulated the volume of the music to play quieter than the footage audio so it doesn't overpower the dialogue in the trailer as i want to have the background music to be in the trailer subtly to match the horror theme of the trailer without the music being to overpowering and ensuring that it faded in at the start of the trailer so it doesn't suddenly start and act as a jump scare in my trailer. with the music added in following the feedback i once again exported the trailer and uploaded the file to youtube to show it to my audience to see if they like it and if not some feedback as to why they don't like it and how i can fix what they don't like it, my goal is to have the majority of the audience say that they really like the trailer before i deem it good enough to be called my final draft

50/50% of the audience that watched draft 2 thought it was better than draft 1 saying it was either average or good, this means i'm making a good improvement but its still not good enough to be my final draft, the comments i received on how i can make my next draft mostly revolved around an issue i ran into revolving around the music used in my second draft, most of the comments said that the music used in my second draft of the trailer cut off too early, this was an issue i'd have to fix to get the audience to give my trailer an even better audience review, some other comments said that to make my trailer better i could add an end card that teases the release of the film.

With the feedback i needed, i once again got to work on my third and hopefully my last draft for my trailer, i fixed the simple issue of the music being cut off too early by extending where the music finished on the timeline and added a fade out so the music didn't end abruptly but instead slowly comes to a finish to give it that little bit of a professional look. With the music finished i decided to add something else to my trailer, i added an camcorder display overlay just to make the trailer look a bit more interesting

this was the image i wanted to use for my overlay, it had a cool looking camcorder display look to it and i though it could work really well in this trailer for a found footage film, giving it more of an older found footage film, it makes the trailer look interesting and draw the audience into the trailer, i would have to figure out how to remove the fully black background off the image so it doesn't completely cover the footage.

to add the overlay i used the add overlay option and imported image file into the timeline, with the overlay in the timeline i saw that i ran into the problem i thought i would, that being the overlay not being on the correct layer, unfortunately i couldn't move it to the layer above the footage otherwise the overlay image would be completely covered by the footage and would be the same as if i were to never have implemented an overlay onto the timeline in the first place.

to combat this issue i selected the overlay layer and chose the edit option, i was the able to blend the overlay to the footage making the black box disappear so you can see the image of the camcorder display but also having the footage clear and visible, this gives the footage a more interesting found footage look for my trailer. despite adding this overlay to better the third draft of my trailer, i still had one more piece of feedback to follow to make my trailer as appealing to an audience as possible and that was the addition of an end card/release date teaser.

for the text to show up clearly and stand out i had to go for a dark background, i imported a plain image into the timeline to be able to have a dark and neutral background that makes the text stand out on its own as the end card is essentially its own part of the trailer so i don't want any elements that will over shadow the text and draw the audiences attention away from the text so a black background is the perfect choice for the end card.

i then selected the text tool and overlaid the text over the background, i changed the font colour to red as to match with both the colours used in my posters and my film, with the text implemented and the colour and positioning of the text correct, i went back to edit the music to ensure that the music ended after the length that the end card was on screen for finished

before exporting the trailer i decided i didn't like the font used for the end card, it was too basic and didn't match the horror theme of my trailer, so once again i selected the text tool, selected edit and scrolled through many fonts until i came across one that matched my poster, wanting to keep product continuity i decided to use this font for my text, after finalising the font change i exported it to youtube and once again got audience feedback to see if this third draft was considered good enough by the audience to be my final draft

100% of my audience that watched my third draft gave it a 5/5, with good comments to go alongside it, the audience said they either liked the music choice and the music fade out, they loved the camcorder and camcorder overlay as well as my end card teaser, with the 5/5 audience rating followed up by some good comments is enough to show me that i've followed the feedback well enough to earn the audiences approval for my third draft giving me the evidence needed to call the third draft of my trailer the final draft of my trailer