archived-videos The Beginning Trailer

J

jj4vr

Well, decided to post up the trailer to our first attempt at a short.

We are a small church in Oregon and decided to start creating our own shorts for our congregation to enjoy. We learned a lot from this attempt and hope to continue to improve as we move forward.

As for the trailer, it's not your typical trailer. We wanted to ensure everyone that was in the movie had a moment in the trailer so they could point themselves out to their friends/family when they showed them.

This short was based off of a play we found online by the same name. it was more difficult to translate to the screen then I first envisioned. I will say though,I think the biggest excitement/rush from this whole project was when things on set didn't go according to plan. Having to think outside the box/script so quickly to save the shooting day, so exhilarating.

Technical side, this was shot with a Panasonic GH2..using the 14-45mm kit lens and the 20mm. Used Sanity 5 hack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuTtyZkUaI8&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Thanks for your time!

Justin
 
Upvote 0
You passed the first test by keeping the intro credits short -- a big thumbs up here.

I only got to :38 and quit watching. It became predictable and, well, boring. Nobody outside of your congregation is going to willingly sit through the whole thing.

Did a robot edit your film? The repetitive slow fade out to black, fade in to black is the major audience killer here. Rule #1: don't bore your audience.

Use quick crossfades, or straight cuts. Mix it up a bit. Keep things happening on the screen so the audience doesn't have time to think about anything else.

Sorry to be so harsh to a fellow Oregonian, but good luck though.
 
Thank you very much for the comments. I appreciate your time and opinion!

When I first cut it together, the group we showed it to felt like it moved too quickly without the slight "pauses" in between. Once I added in the fades we got more positive responses. I will definitely keep this is mind though for future trailers as we move forward.

Hehe you got far enough to quit when I was on screen :P I guess I need to fire that actor :lol:

Again, appreciate the input!
 
LOL, no, it was not you at all. :)

Here's something to think about and it's true for all films -- actors aren't the best people to ask for feedback. Perfect strangers are better -- they've no vested interest in the project.

There's nothing wrong with having more than one trailer -- one to please your congregation and another a bit more snappier to get the attention of people outside your circle if you're trying to get their interest in your project.

Good luck.
 
Well we are done with this project. Time to reflect on what went well, and what didn't.

Be wary, the opening credits are way too long for my liking, so I failed that first test there :). Again, it's because it was a production for church, so everyone liked to see themselves in the opening credits. The target audience didn't mind so much, but for me and general purposes I would like a quicker opening. Skip to about 2 minutes in. I've been meaning to re-cut the opening, make it shorter, for youtube but decided to just move on. I could spend months fixing/cleaning/playing with it at this point.

Personal reflection, I didn't do a very good job with pacing. Two many moments that seemed to drag. I hope this feel for pacing will get better over time. This was our first attempt at this, so all in all I am happy. I think the next one we need to spend more time in pre-production working out the blocking/pacing.

We unfortunately had to reshoot a few moments, and I messed up the lighting when we set up again weeks later. Didn't match up very well to scenes around it. Something I need to work on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OOIANcCqQs&sns=em

I want to thank everyone on this forum for all the great advice.

Hope everyone has a great New Years!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top