Trailer

[Ilidrake]

Any pointers on making a good trailer?

[robcat2075]

I like the ones that don't give the story away.

[Ilidrake]

Same here. I need to create one for my script but am at a lose as to where to begin. I want to make one with real quality but I don't think I have the time or resources. Maybe I can interest some of you Hashers with a paid gig to help out?

[robcat2075]

Trailers are tough things. Most of them make we not want to see the movie.

 

I don't like the ones that have the movie-trailer-voice-guy narrating them and I really hate the ones that have overly dramatic movie-trailer music.

 

I prefer the ones where Alfred Hitchcock steps in and gives you no clues whatsoever.

[largento]

I've struggled with this myself. I've long-wanted a trailer for Stalled Trek, but how do you do a trailer for a 15 minute movie? Do you not give away the funniest jokes, or do you and risk giving everything away?

 

I made that Paunk pilot, which has the first three minutes of the movie (albeit minus final sound), which I've kind of let be a trailer-substitute. I don't think I've put any of the planet-side animation out there in anything, so I've at least kept the biggest portion of the movie a surprise for the viewer.

 

In the end, a trailer is just an advertisement and the same rules apply. What are you trying to communicate to your audience? If the movie doesn't exist, a trailer trying to get people to go see the movie doesn't seem to make sense. If the goal is for someone to think, hey that's neat, reinforce that idea with every image and scene you show.

[Rodney]

You could always go for a trailer where one of the characters (or several) discuss the merits of the movie. This could come from many different angles but as an example:

 

The chracters are sitting around a table with script in hand (Those that aren't fully modeled and textured might have their backs facing the camera). Lamiter says his line. Edgar says a line. Death says something that breaks out the script but reveals some of his character.

 

Stepping farther awhile from dialogue you might have them discussing motivation or some other angle that suggests they are real actors performing their roles in the movie.

 

Other than that, trailers usually consist of something that is already made so you'd have to inventory what you currently have available. That's is what you will then use to make your trailer.

 

Personally, I think something with one of the characters we are less likely to see could appear or narrate the synopsis of the movie itself. If this was Gravedigger the set might only have to consist of him in a graveyard. The trailer might actually be a part of the movie we don't get to see such as the few moments right before Latimer wakes up in the land of the dead. He might be talking, talking, talking and then Latimer pokes his head up with a wide-eyed 'where the heck am I' look. Cue title and narrate out on more stuff to grab the audience's attention. (I'm tempted to suggest Gravedigger would pop him on the head and knock him out, then say, "It's not time for you to wake up yet." but... that might be out of character.

 

Ultimately, my suggestion would be to inventory your current resources and then work backward from there.

Keep it simple and resist straying from the trailer you plan.

If you have additional time consider making a second trailer.

 

There is no end to the number of trailers you could come up with but you need to narrow it down and deliver one.

What about a series of trailers with all black backgrounds like each character is delivering a monologue on a stage?

One focusing on Cleopatra? One with Edgar's head? One with Latimer? One with Death?

Trailers like that might grab some attention if they reveal something interesting about the character.

(If you can I'd make those a plausible occurrence from the movie itself (maybe in an unguarded moment when the character didn't realize they were being recorded live on camera). For instance, it could be Edgar reciting poetry on stage at the Raven. The camera might then pull back to reveal Death clapping (without much enthusiasm and the only one in the house) and end with some witty exchange.

 

When thinking of a trailer this is your opportunity to say 'hey look at these characters' in a way that you cannot in the movie itself. I say just have fun with it while keeping each of your characters in character. The exception to this would be one of the characters (perhaps Death) suggesting something isn't going as planned, ala "You've got to be kidding. There is no possible way my character would say this". As a cautionary note, I would be careful though not to denigrate the script or movie itself. Don't cheapen it for a laugh. Maintain its integrity.

 

If you have some of the background created then you could go for more moody scenes but otherwise I'd go with stark (perhaps black) backgrounds with spotlit characters.

[Ilidrake]

I like the idea of the Gravedigger idea. Rodney, just wondering but would you be interested in being a partner in this thing? We split things 50 50. I realize you probably have a lot on your plate but I think your interesting views and ideas would be invaluable.

[Rodney]

Rodney, just wondering but would you be interested in being a partner in this thing? We split things 50 50. I realize you probably have a lot on your plate but I think your interesting views and ideas would be invaluable.

 

I could easily be talked into it.

 

For what it's worth I'm looking for work that is fairly directive in nature.

I'm particularly interested in something with a beginning, a middle and an end.

[Ilidrake]

Well as you have read so far I have all three of those. I see you are following my project on AmazonStudios so you know where I am already. I'll see about adding you as co-creator. As I was saying I like your idea about Gravedigger. He has such a short spot in th entire picture but he is a rich, and colorful character. I have concept drawings of him and will be starting on creating him tomorrow. Should have him finished within the week. My gal at this point is just getting the script recognized and improving it to the point where it would actually be purchased for production. As I have said if you want aboard I would welcome the feedback and help. I'm not sure how to start with this trailer but I would like to do that and a mock-up of the entire movie to upload. And I promise this will be on the up and up. 50-50...we split everything if this goes gold.

[Rodney]

And I promise this will be on the up and up. 50-50...we split everything if this goes gold.

 

I'm not going to hold you to any 50-50 split but any nod of thanks pointed my way when you get all rich and famous will be appreciated.

Personally I'd reserve some of that other 50 for others who will also want to work with you.

 

How about you pull a George Lucas, retain 100% and just let others join in?

When you get to a critical point then you can consider sharing some of your interest in it.

Bottom line: No one is going to be more dedicated to your film/idea than you will be.

If you really want to go the 50/50 split route I'd suggest putting that other 50% into a 'trust' (or the ideological equivalent thereof). In this way you can modify and disperse that trust when you get to the finish line (and with full knowledge of how the whole production went). The key then would be to keep track of all contributions so that when all is said and done no one feels slighted who significantly contributed to 'Woke Up Dead'.

 

I'm not sure if you are familiar with the old method of animating where they used 'drafts' to assign animated segments but that is a prime way of keeping track of contributions. It's not foolproof as sometimes things do change late in the game but an initial draft lets everyone know where and what their responsibility is going into the production. It's best to completely nail those responsibilities down in order to avoid guess work and confusion.

 

Here's an example from very early Disney... their first Mickey short even... (it'd be a lot easier to track with one or two people animating. ) :

 

[googledoc]0Av8FWlQMMCJYdGNjWVo4X0ZoMDhzekxvQ2tVVHl1X0E#gid=0[/googledoc]

 

Excel or Googledocs isn't strictly necessary. You can always use pencil and paper.

[Ilidrake]

Okay. Good info. So, my question is how involved would you like to be? Believe me when I say I really value your insights and opinins. I would really like you taking a more direct role in this. Your good at what you do, no doubt about it and I could really use the help. I have the creative knack just not so good at organising large projects. I say we start with the trailer idea first. I'm still writing on the script, mainly touching up a few things near the end but overall it's pretty much 100%.

[Rodney]

how involved would you like to be?

 

One of the reasons I don't commit to a lot of community projects is that once I am in I am 'all in' and I hate to commit to something that I don't think I can finish. As forum admin I also like to avoid even the perception of any conflict of interest.

 

If the consensus is that devoting myself to 'Woke Up Dead' isn't a conflict of interest then I think you could say that I am 'all in' for the trailer. We'd have to stare pretty hard at the whole movie and consider that separately because that constitutes a considerable commitment (at a guess I'd say two to five years worth of commitment even if the film itself (theoretically) could be completed in a year).

 

So to answer your question... Let's brainstorm a trailer (or even short series of trailers) and if that seems workable I will wholeheartedly commit to that. It's hard to commit to the idea of a trailer that isn't really fleshed out but as much as I can at this point, consider me committed.

 

Here's a question right back at you:

 

How much of this trailer do you want to work out in a public venue?

(I'm not trying to sway you one way or the other but if it's forum related that pretty much guarantees that I will have no conflict of interest)

 

also

 

What are we looking at for a deadline? (That'd be good to know if you've already got that)

[Ilidrake]

As it stands I was thinking 6 months. That should be more than long enough to do a trailer. I would like to start with the Gravedigger idea first because that is the most interesting idea I have heard thus far. I mean I've been throwing other ideas around, but they have all been cliche. Yours is the first original piece I have heard to date. I have Gravedigger's general perosnality worked out, even though his appearance is brief. But to be fair to ourselves, let's go with 6 months for a good solid trailer. That gives me time to finish the gravedigger model and any other props that pop up.

 

So for the Gravedigger idea we need a length of time and we need to consider dialogue and what exactly it will encompass.

[Rodney]

I would like to start with the Gravedigger idea first because that is the most interesting idea I have heard thus far.

 

I think you've already got some of the grave side set completed right?

Didn't I see some of that over at Amazon?

 

Six months seems more than enough time.

I'd say enough time to make it a quality trailer.

 

Where possible I'd say to use that time also as a testing ground to work out any kinks in workflow and to test out production ideas (identifying key areas of your film where you can streamline production). Then as the trailers gets finalized you'll already be well on set for your film's production.

 

Of course if Amazon picks up your property... you may have to come up with another project.

[Ilidrake]

I'f Amazon picks it up all the better. I do have the living side graveyard assets done and I'm wrking on concepts for the Land of the Dead side. I think that would be the appropriate setting for Gravedigger's trailer speech. The question of course is what does he say? I have some ideas but nothing solid or written down yet. How long should it run? I think a minute and a half? Would that be enough time for him to say what he needs to or should we just wait and see what we come up with creativly?

[Rodney]

How long should it run? I think a minute and a half?

 

I see the 'Toy Story 3' trailer (at least one of them) was 1:11 long so I think 1 minute would be a good target (for a really long trailer). The shorter the better because (in theory) you could mix shorter trailers into a longer trailer that would still clock in at a decent length. Consier for instance the short outtakes/bloopers at the end of 'A Bugs Life' or the short sound bites at the beginning of 'The Incredibles'. They were long enough to grab the viewers attention which is the whole point of a trailer.

 

Some questions/observations you want the viewer to ask/see:

 

Interest: Who are these people?

Speculation: What are those cool things? (Interesting, What does that mean?)

Intrigue: What's that all about?

 

One minute is quite a long time. For instance, consider how much dialogue usually gets animated over at the 11 Second Club in... um... 11 seconds.

 

Added: This long 'trailer' from 'Boids of a Feather' seems closer to being a combo of three trailers and additional credits. It basically tells the whole story that would have been in the movie in abbreviated form and therefore clocks in at 2:14:

(apologies for the low quality. I didn't see a higher quality setting)

 

1tIyEDyeo84

[Ilidrake]

Good points! Okay, so we shoot for 1 minute, give or take. Next thing, which is probably the most important. What does he say? This is the substance or meat of the entire thing. If it fails, the trailer fails. I'm gonna work on the dialogue tonight, but please go a head and see what you can come up with as well. I'll email mine to you tomorrow once I have something roughed out.

[Rodney]

What does he say? This is the substance or meat of the entire thing. If it fails, the trailer fails.

 

I'd go back to your script and ask him.

 

Seriously though, your script does an excellent job of hinting at who he is. Weave that into him saying something related to telling the audience what they will see in the film and that might make a decent trailer. My initial thoughts are to consider what questions are asked/answered in the movie. Gravedigger might ask those question outright so that anyone that sees the movie has a guaranteed 'in' into the movie itself.

 

I suppose there is something of a danger here that in using Gravedigger for the trailer you might force yourself to have him appear elsewhere in the movie as well... even if only at the very end (perhaps within or after the credits). In other words, the audience is going to be wondering about this character and how he fits into the over all scheme of things.

 

I look forward to your email.