The following is an evaluation of the trailer I made for my short film 'Affiliation', the purpose of a trailer is to advertise a film and attract an audience towards it. I believe that I made the film seem attractive in the ways of which I edited it together. Also, I used the most cinematic shots of the film in the trailer so that I could showcase the level of artistic choices that were made and what the end result was of having this professional cinematic approach towards the film.
The trailer is an extremely short one, coming in at a total duration of only 51 seconds. The reason behind it being this short was because the film's plot is meant to be a mystery and I did not want to broadcast too much information from the trailer and give away the narrative. So i limited myself an how many shots I could use and I only used shots that did not contain any vital plot points. This decision to keep the storyline a mystery is very effective as it creates the desire to watch the film to see what happens, the only real plot point that is seen is at the end of the trailer but it is cut when Benjamin jumps out of his chair and aims his gun. This is to amplify the excitement of the film thus leading to a better advertisement as it draws people in.
I edited the trailer alongside the song 'God's Gonna Cut You Down' by Johnny Cash as I liked the tempo and style of the song as it matched the films perfectly. It starts off with a very basic beat but as it gets to the chorus of the song the musical elements are vamped up and the song feels more intense from what it was believed to be at the beginning. Which matches the plot points of the film itself, it starts off like a normal, boring evening in a pub but as the story progresses the tension rises and adrenaline is built.
There are some lyrics that are slight hints to certain points in the plot too. For example, the biggest hint is the cut to Benjamin turning to look at Spencer when the lyrics sang are 'what's done in the dark will be brought to the light' this was done to emphasise who the real villain of the film is. Which is something that was purposefully done in the film to constantly disturb the audience's perception of story roles and leaving them constantly asking, who is the protagonists and who is the antagonists?
I used a few jump cuts in the trailer to keep the tempo of the cuts matching the song beat, using this type of rhythmic editing keeps the viewer in tune with both visual and auditory elements and making the trailer more immersive and interesting.
The cufflinks are a vital part of the story, so throughout the trailer, we are shown them from different angles and they appear in almost every shot. This repetition of the cufflinks helps the viewer congregate an idea of what the story may be about and also adding to the excitement and anticipation to see the film.
The real question I ask myself at the end of each production does it fulfil it the purpose, I believe that i made this trailer to the best of my ability and it fully serves its purpose. It showcases the most beautiful shots from the film, it creates this uneasy tone whilst also creating excitement to see the film. In addition to all of this, if there was anything I would change it would be the title at the end, I wanted it to look vintage and simple but it does not match the style of the trailer but I would like to say that I believe the transitioning cut on beat to the title makes it seem much more impactful so I don't think it ruins the trailer but if Ic ould change anything it would be that.
No comments:
Post a Comment