Production Area
Television & Radio
Creating a Film Trailer
In this section we look at:
- Pre-production planning and research
- Production — filming your trailer
- Post-production
Research
The first part of creating a film trailer is the research.
- Look at and analyse a variety of film trailers in several different genres. Visit www.screenrush.co.uk/video to watch a variety of trailers. You will have seen many film trailers in the cinema, but for this module you have to look much more carefully and from the point of view of a filmmaker.
- Choose a trailer in a genre that it is possible for you to make. An action thriller is not as easy to make as an undercover cop/thriller or spy/thriller (Bourne Ultimatum). A comedy/romance (Heartbreak Kid) might also be possible.
- You could start with the documentary genre. In the Shadow of the Moon is a riveting 2007 documentary film about the Apollo moon landings www.intheshadowofthemoon.com
- Write down the ingredients of a good trailer — exciting pictures — some promotional words — the title of the film — maybe an interview with a star or the director — a sense of narrative — quick editing — catchy music.
- What is not there — obviously, you must not give away the whole plot. You can have some details but do not spoil it for the audience (some trailers do)
- Write down what you will need to make a trailer for a documentary. It will need an idea, an interview, some good pictures, and a reason why an audience should see it
- Investigate key concepts of the trailer in the genre that you want to work in — genre, representation, media language, audience, institution.
Preproduction
Outline
Think up a short brief for a longer film with a simple beginning, middle and end e.g. a mixed genre cop/thriller.
Young special constable Gary finds himself on a job to track down DVD pirates — gets attracted by young girl selling them — is attacked and chased by criminals. With help from the girl's friends gets criminals locked up, but does the girl end up with him, or is she really in love with the gang leader?
Storyboard
- Create a storyboard for the whole film. This template for an 8 frames storyboard is all you need — show the most dramatic moments and the plot — this will be the basis for the practice trailer. For the story above:
- Frame 1: Close Up Gary
- Frame 2: Girl with stolen CDs
- Frame 3: Long shot Gary and girl together
- Frame 4: criminals confront Gary
- Frame 5: Girl on phone trying to locate Gary
- Frame 6: Gary in dungeon bound hand and foot
- Frame 7: Girl finds Gary and knocks out guard
- Frame 8: Gary and girl have criminals caught by Police
- Use this storyboard as the basis for a trailer. At this point you may wish to go out with a digital still camera and shoot the actual frames that you have created in the storyboard. They may not be exactly the same, but they should tell a similar story. Download these to PowerPoint or publishing software. Using theses pictures you can create a storyboard for a trailer of still frames for this movie. You will need to add a title and other graphics.
- You could try a voice over tease about the film. This is a practice so do not spend a lot of time on quality but more on getting the structure right.
- Show this trailer storyboard to a group of people that match your target audience demographic and get their opinions. If the feedback suggests a change it is easier to make it now than after filming.
Details and Planning
- IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT YOU CHOOSE A GENRE AND A STORY YOU CAN SHOOT — no helicopters, flying fights, car chases (but yes you can have a mountain bike chase) or CGI. No explosions, no exotic locations. So what can you do? Make a list of local places that would make a special location for a story — forest, river side, friend's garden, park, churchyard — any public space is a potential set. You will need permission in shopping malls, private parks and churchyards. Be careful to avoid anywhere dangerous.
- When choosing your location, be aware of the ambient sound. If your location is near a railway line you will need to plan your filming
- Do a recce (reconnaissance) of potential locations — take still digital pictures or moving pictures of the locations — look at them with your team and the storyboard. See if you can match locations to the events in your storyboard.
- Prepare a shooting schedule. An example can be found here. You should be able to shoot your trailer in 2—4 days. Use daylight as much as possible. Remember that you may need some time for your actors to rehearse.
- Prepare a risk assessment of any possible dangers that you can foresee — this means listing ALL locations as potential hazards, and then saying whether there is any real risk of injury to anyone — be especially careful if you are shooting on or near water. An example can be found here.
- Book equipment — camera, lights, microphone, etc.
- Get props, costumes, make up (if appropriate)
- Plan and book your editing time as well as your shooting schedule. Leave plenty of time for editing — three weeks at least — you will be doing several versions if you want to get a good mark as each version should be better than the last.
- Practice using the camera, and using the lights and especially the mic. You will not have much dialogue for a trailer but you will need diagetic sound. Diegetic sound is the sound that is heard in the fictional world. Non-diegetic sound is the sound that is outside the fictional world, and that characters in the fictional world cannot hear. This would include overlays of soundtrack music and any voice over narration.
- Any dialogue you are using will need to be scripted before the shoot. An example of a drama script can be found here
Production
- Make sure your shooting schedule is bullet proof — what do you do in bad weather? Have you got permission to shoot in the local churchyard? Are your actors/friends booked for that day? Can everyone make the dates?
- Tip — it's a good idea to make a simple contract with your fellow students in your group so that you agree to help each other, and have something on paper to put in your portfolio, that shows your crew are committed to your production and you are committed to help them with their production.
- Shoot much more than you need — check you have covered each scene with different shots in different shot sizes (what are these? See table below)
| Shot Size | Standard Shot Sizes Used by TV & Film |
|---|---|
| Big Close Up (BCU) |  |
| Close Up (CU) |  |
| Mid Close Up (MCU) |  |
| Mid Shot (MS) |  |
| Long Shot (LS) |  |
- It is best to shoot each scene of a drama in at least three ways — a wide shot of all the action, and close ups of each character
- Pay attention to careful framing of each shot and make sure there are no miscellaneous items or people in the background!
- It is best to shoot all the material in your trailer before you start post production — in a real film production time is expensive and it may be difficult and expensive to visit some locations again or to recreate the lighting/weather of the original shoot
Basic shooting rules
- Always use a tripod to support the camera, unless you have a specific reason for wanting the shaky look that hand-held will give you. This can be dynamic in certain situations (chase sequences for example) but often it simply makes a production seem lazy or amateurish.
- If something is wrong in shot, call ‘cut’ and re-take the shot. If you accept a shot that has problems, then that will be the shot that creates problems for you in Post-production.
- Always adhere to the 30° Rule. This states that to avoid ‘jump cuts’ (where the camera appears to lurch towards a subject or the subject appears to ‘jump’ position between shots) any shots that are intended to be joined with each other in editing should be shot from camera positions that have at least 30° between them.
- Avoid cutting whilst in mid-camera movement — let the shot come to a ‘rest’ position as this will benefit the editing.
- Let the camera run for five seconds prior to calling ‘Action’ and after calling ‘cut’. This not only serves the editing, but it also gives some ‘moments’ where the actors’ bodies and expressions are relaxed — these are often valuable.
- Always adhere to the 180° rule. This rule is often complex to understand and even more complex to implement. The ‘line of action’ is an imaginary line — usually between two people, but it can run through one person — that the camera must stay one side of. The camera can travel anywhere on a 180° axis as long as it does not ‘cross the line’; as soon as it does that then all spatial continuity is lost and editing becomes an exercise in confusion.
- Film the person reading the voice over. Do several versions of the voice over. It is easier to edit the sound with the pictures at first, and then you cut the pictures and just leave the sound.
- Make sure the sound on any dialogue pieces filmed is clear — this will save you re-recording audio later and the possibility of bad synching.
- Take some still photographs during the shoot. These may be posed to get the best look. These can be used in any print promotional material.
- You will need a contributor release form, also called a model release for anyone who appears in your shoot. An example can be found here. The only time when you do not require people to sign a release form is when filming in public places. This applies only to non-speaking members of the public who are filmed in public places going about their rightful business. Public places mean streets and roads and shopping areas, and other areas owned by the community.
Postproduction
This is where you do the editing.
- Start by putting your video rushes into video editing software such as Avid, Final Cut, Pinnacle or Premiere.
- Do a rough cut that is long in duration using all the useable material. For a 2 minute trailer a long rough cut is about 3–4 minutes. Do not use out of focus shots or wobblyscope shots.
Basic options in Editing
- Dissolve — an image fades out as another fades in making a connection between the two (girlfriend fades out as mother fades in)
- Fade — often to black but can be to any colour. The duration of screen time given over to the fade and the end colour can suggest particular meanings.
- Graphic Match — two shots can be connected through shapes within the frame (a clock matched to a car wheel)
- Match on Action — two shots can be connected by the replication of an action across each (character begins putting drink down in seedy Soho bar, and cuts to drink reaching bar counter of Caribbean beach bar)
- Montage — placing one image next to another creates meaning (person's face with apple pie = hungry, person's face with coffin = sadness).
- Look carefully at the rough cut, and make a two minute version and include any voice over.
- There is further information here on logging shots and editing film for news stories that may be of use to you.
- Add the music — you may need to use audio editing software. Remember to acknowledge the use of any copyright material such as songs. On a real film this use would need to be cleared with the rights holders for all regions where the film would be available.
- Discuss it with your group — at some point you are all going to have to agree on a final version
- Download to DVD — technical quality is very important
TIP — Leave twice as much time for everything in postproduction as you imagine you need.
Timescale
This whole production has to be done in one term — this is approx 8 weeks of work time. Do a critical phase path:
- Script/storyboard by week 2.
- Shooting by week 5.
- Leave at least 3 weeks for post production and then do evaluation in holidays.
Evaluation
The spec says:
“A combined evaluation will be submitted for both the production pieces and it will be original to each candidate, with a word limit of 1500 words. Each piece should be word-processed and word counted. The evaluation should engage with the intentions for the pieces in terms of the candidates research, but the body of the text should consist of an analysis of how the productions themselves work in the light of their specific target audiences; and relate to the research, media concepts and contexts. ”
This means that you are asked to write about how your film trailer and e-page or print reviews affect an audience and how they relate to professional products you researched. Don't forget context; this usually means seeing how your products fits into the context of the time. For example, a film trailer advertising a film about a terrorist attack should have as its context the fact that it was made post 9/11, or with reference to the London underground bombings. This is the context of terrorism in the UK in 2008. You can also include social customs, language, clothes and the way people look and act.
Film Trailer Evaluation:
Look at your trailer in comparison to some of the trailers you looked at in your research for preproduction in terms of the key concepts especially media language, genre, narrative, audience, institution, and representation. For higher marks make sure you place your trailer in the context of its time and culture, and compare this with a professional text. For example if you made a trailer for a horror film which is set on Halloween night and includes elements of the unseen horror in our midst as in the original film Halloween:
- You should be able to evaluate the differences between your text and the Hollywood Halloween in terms of time then (1978) and now, and the cultural differences in terms of dress, and place in America then, and the UK now in 2008.
- Write about how you have kept the codes and conventions of the original but made a wholly original version.
- Write about why your trailer should excite a modern audience
- Write about how genres adapt and change.
- remember the hypothetical institution of your trailer should not just be a copy of Warner Bros or Disney.
