PAPER CRANES.
Trailer planning
I came up with a few scripted ideas for my trailer.
However, I attempted to script a voiceover for the rest of the trailer, but everything I tried felt too obvious and as if it would be giving too much of the plot away, because of the nature of my film, where the plot isn't thick with action, per se.
I really liked this Terence Malick trailer for "Knight of Cups:" not the subject matter, necessarily, but the way that music is used and cut to the beat, with quick cuts and a variety of shot types and moments throughout the film that create a nice buildup that suggests plot thickness and creates a sense for the mood of the film without really telling the audience much of anything, and therefore not spoiling anything. I also liked the shift in tone towards the end facilitated by the change in music and cutting speed and shot colour/mise-en-scene.
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So, I aimed to achieve this by cutting to the music, and choosing music with a good buildup that I felt portrayed the mood of the film, simply heightened. I had flashes of shots to create a surge in energy, and then attempted to have a fade towards the end with slower cutting and a winding down of the music. I also tried to introduce the character with an interesting line of dialogue at the beginning, which is a trailer convention.
Rough cut
This rough cut has no names/titles on it, or production company titles or anything of that nature that makes it look like a "real" film, so that is definitely next on the agenda. Also, the music itself is not mine, and so this is a major adjustment that needs to be made: actually creating the music with the musician I worked with before, and re-editing it so it fits that length and needs of the trailer perfectly and the cutting is on beat. The ending might also be a bit abrupt at the moment which could be fixed by shortening the music when it is composed. I could aim for 10 seconds introducing the dialogue and character, 12 seconds easing into the music and mood, 30 seconds building up/at peak energy, and 8 seconds easing down.
I originally contacted Chloe Fung, the musician that had made the motif for my film. She was going to work on it over the summer holidays but she found it too consuming - she recommended another musician to me, and I gave him a synopsis of my film, the sample music I wanted him to imitate, and my trailer for him to watch. He eventually composed a 55 second track that fit my trailer perfectly, with a gentle start, a slow buildup, a moment of percussion and melody combined to create tension, and a more melancholy-sounding chord to give the trailer an air of ambiguity and mystery that I had been aiming for all along in using minimal dialogue.
Once I had my music that was copyright free and the perfect length, I started to edit the footage to fit the new song. Because the music was such a prominent feature in the total absence of dialogue, it was important that I paid attention to it and made sure it worked seamlessly with the visuals.
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I also noticed that the rough cut was, in terms of ideas, quite confusing and vague - too ambiguous, with no clear focus to any sequence of the images. So, I made a mapping of the sequence of ideas and tensions that would unfold in my trailer, and I tried to edit to that effect, taking footage from various areas of the film.
Then, after I had done the bulk of the editing, I made some production titles. I watched several trailers and noticed 4 key elements I would need:
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Production company name and logo "presents"
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Name of the film
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Key "stars"
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End credit page with a very specific layout
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I made all of these on illustrator, as you can see below: (I reused the title "Paper cranes" from my film so it would be consistent)
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And then, I had my final cut, which is embedded below (I added a "this preview is approved" official-looking screen because it made it look more like a real trailer).