Above is the fourth cut of my trailer. I corrected the mistake with the "S" in the last sequence. To add something extra and more edgy, I tried increasing the contrasts of the shots, but that didn't really seemed to work and it lost the look that it had before, so I reverted back to the previous settings. I invited people who could be in my target audience to comment it on youtube, to give me some audience feedback. I have gained some feedback that it is still a bit long and that there is a shot near the end (1:47) that features the subject talking, but there is no audible dialogue. I don't think this is a negative point, as there is a dialogue over the top, and it could be read as him not being paid attention to/ being ignored, which would again echo the purpose/ idea behind the film. Below are some comments that I received in response to this cut of the trailer and nobody seemed to have any criticisms of the trailer when I showed it to them.
Below is a short clip of one person in my target audience who I asked their opinion of regarding my trailer. The clip isn't very long, but they didn't have any criticisms and their feedback was very positive. They understood the message and meaning of the trailer straight away - also commenting that it appealed to trendies and indie scenesters and explaining why. I also had other chats like this one with other people who could be in my target audience to find out the strengths and weaknesses of my work, but sadly I didn't film them.
This is the third rough cut of my trailer. I have gotten rid of the soundtrack that I made in Garageband, and imported some sound files that I recorded myself; one on an acoustic guitar and one on an electric using a "FuzzBrite" and "Danelectro" pedal. These pedals gave quite a good 60s/garage sound, which sadly became slightly distorted when I recorded it through an amplifier using a microphone. Below is a picture of the guitar and equipment I used, recording the sound into a laptop.
Despite this fact, I still think it sounds much better than the Garageband soundtracks and I think it fits in with the tone of the trailer much better, giving a more gritty and home-made sound. I used one acoustic and one electric track to reflect the variation of emotions that would be in the film really; low feelings like sadness and despair, and more edgier, hard-hitting feelings like anger or happiness. I also managed to cut down 27 seconds of the trailer, making it more the length of a real trailer. I got rid of a few shots which I thought could be irrelevant and hinder the audience understanding it, such as the shot of the sky turning round and this also helped me to make the trailer more like a real trailer length. I lost the rest of the time by cutting shots down to the bare minimum that they needed to be seen. I think I have improved it a lot from the last rough cut and I'm pleased with the outcome.
However, after asking my peers what they thought of it, a couple of people pointed out that they aren't sure what the story-line actually is. This could be a problem, because the point or the idea of the film was that there was no story-line; it is just about a young boy growing up but not identifying with anything and trying to find a way through that - it's meant to be like real life. So, I think this problem could be solved by creating or inserting some text to create a bit of a narrative thread throughout the trailer. I could possibly add another voiceover, with a different speaker to give the audience an idea of some kind of narrative, but I don't want to over-complicate things, I want to keep a kind of simplicity that mirrors the life of the character in the trailer. Also, I don't want there to be too many sounds; when there was no soundtrack, the trailer seemed dull, but it seemed acceptable and I liked the background noise in everything, but if I add too many sounds, I don't want to lose that feel. I have also noticed that the in the end sequence of letters and short shots, the "S" is too big for the area it is in, so is cut off and then fades out, which I will need to go back to and correct.
This is the second rough cut of my trailer. I corrected the colour issue that was present in the first rough cut, and added a soundtrack. I created the soundtrack using Garageband, but I'm not really very happy with it. Below is a screenshot of me using the software to create a trailer song.
It sounds really dull and I'm not very competent at using the software at all, so I ended up looping the same instrumental sections over and over, which I don't think sounds great. There also weren't any sounds that I could find that sounded especially 60s or nostalgic. I think that to overcome this I will try recording myself playing the songs that I originally wanted to use on the guitar and see what they sound like in the trailer. I also added a shot saying "presents" after someone commented that it would enhance the trailer and make it look more professional. However, after seeing in the trailer after uploading it into my blog, I have to say that I disagree and I don't think it really fits as I had to use the font Arial to have continuation with the text at the end of the trailer, and it just looks dull and unnecessary. In addition to this the trailers that I used in my textual analysis did not contain this feature, so I think I will cut this out of my trailer.
This is the first rough cut of my trailer. Basically, so far I've captured/imported the footage and institutional logos, putting them in order in coordance with my storyboards and uploaded it to see what it looks like so far. I used the "desaturate" tool in Final Cut Express to make the footage greyscale, but as you can see I missed out one shot by mistake. There also isn't any soundtrack, so it looks a bit dull and boring, which I will try to change. It's quite long at the moment, at 2 minutes 32 seconds, so I may have to shorten some shots as trailers aren't really that long normally. I think there are some good shots in my trailer however, and I am pleased with the voice-overs/monologues and how they fit with the footage. I need to alter the sequence of shots towards the end of the trailer, which I can't do until I have a soundtrack, because I intended them to be fast-paced and in time to some 60s sounding music. I like that the look of the trailer is quite rough and plain and I think it fits in well with the narrative.
This is the first rough cut of my trailer. Basically, so far I've captured/imported the footage and institutional logos, putting them in order in coordance with my storyboards and uploaded it to see what it looks like so far. I used the "desaturate" tool in Final Cut Express to make the footage greyscale, but as you can see I missed out one shot by mistake. There also isn't any soundtrack, so it looks a bit dull and boring, which I will try to change. It's quite long at the moment, at 2 minutes 32 seconds, so I may have to shorten some shots as trailers aren't really that long normally. I think there are some good shots in my trailer however, and I am pleased with the voice-overs/monologues and how they fit with the footage. I need to alter the sequence of shots towards the end of the trailer, which I can't do until I have a soundtrack, because I intended them to be fast-paced and in time to some 60s sounding music. I like that the look of the trailer is quite rough and plain and I think it fits in well with the narrative.
This is a screengrab of using Final Cut Express, which I am using to create my trailer. I'm suprised at how quick and easy the process of getting used to the software has been and I enjoy using the programme. However, there are still alot of features that I have not used, or featured in my trailer. I plan to do so during the process of making the trailer.
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