Editing Video

Not much editing was required because of the style I chose for this trailer. If it was intended to be fast paced, I'd need shots with really dynamic movements and to cut between clips very frequently.

Instead I have used more dissolves, but simple cutting is done where necessary. If all clip transitions where dissolves it would be too slow.

The trailer BEGINS with the 'GREEN BAND' approval notice. Most standard film trailers begin with this, to confirm that the material is appropriate to the given audience. I clocked the time period which this is shown to be around 4 seconds. If the trailer were to contain material which was too extreme for younger audiences, then it would instead open with the 'RED BAND' notice, which informs viewers if the material is restricted.

In the TIMELINE, you can see the opening logo's follow this approval board after a period of blackness - this dark period is where the music builds up and then the logos begin to show, TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX first, which then fades into my-own MIDNIGHT PICTURES.

The first shot of the trailer had to be eye catching. I was lucky enough to find a disused coldwar BUNKER on Helsby Hill in which I could get footage similar to what I had story-boarded, only with the character ascending a grotty ladder instead of leaving a door, which bleaches out to white,

The editing process from here on out was fairly repetative. I used the footage I had gathered and created to splice together in an order which felt appropriate to the soundtrack and made sure there was no break in continuity. 

Trailer Inspiration

There is a video I found on YouTube which is part of an exclusive 'terminal' scene in the 2011 xbox 360 game 'Halo: Combat Evolved - Anniversary'. It caught my attention as a veryt enigmatic scene and I could even imagine this being a teaser trailer in it's own right. The soundtrack which accompanies it, called 'High Charity' from the Halo 2 soundtrack, has also caught my attention. This soundtrack may be well suited to my own trailer.

CLIP WHICH INSPIRED ME:


Another trailer which has been some inspiration to me is the 1979 teaser for Ridley Scott's 'Alien'. I specifically like the way the suns glow is eclipsed by the planet at the end (@ 1:51), fading out to reveal the 'A' in the films title.



I would like to recreate this effect in the title of my own trailer, perhaps with the 'Q' in REQUIEM.

Soundtrack Selection

Here are some of the soundtracks which I am considering to use in the trailer.

KING KONG (Video Game) Soundtrack - TWO WORLDS


AUDIOMACHINE (Trailer Score) Soundtrack - KNIGTHTS AND LORDS

HALO 2 (Video Game) Soundtrack - HIGH CHARITY

Filming Location - Field

This is a screenshot of an image from Google Maps where I filmed some clips in the trailer - Below are some images of the shots which were filmed here in this location, in a field somewhere near Lydiate, Lancashire.

I spent a couple of hours at this location filming - collecting a lot of material. In the end, most of it was rejected and I felt these shots were the best. Here they are seen after effects and colour correction have been applied, including the final 'shard collision' shot, which was originally just a simple establishing shot of the flat landscape.


























There was one shot in the trailer I had planned, where I was going to show one of the 'shards' which were scattered across the world - I was going to try and combine by artistic skill with film and create something like a 'matt' painting, using green-screen. I created this test image on 'Paint', but quickly felt it wouldn't turn out how I had imagined, so I scrapped the idea. This image however, will be the main theme in the poster I create, as an ancillary text.

Filming Location - Back Garden

There is one specific shot in the film which I have had in mind, one which needs to be filmed outdoors and at night. I originally intended to travel to some local woods, set up a small fire and use the rifle prop as I walked towards the camera through a cloud of smoke. But upon realising the limits of light-sensitivity on the camera, I figured I could do this quite simply in my back Garden and it would create the same effect.

The character (name not revealed) is supposed to seemingly be in some kind of barren wasteland, wandering through smoke in the night after a battle - in the background, the light source (Heavy Duty Torch) is supposed to look like a flood-light, on the walls of a military outpost. I wanted to create an ambiguous aesthetic illusion that this film was much bigger than it really is - to get 'lots' out of 'little.'

THIS IS THE FINAL SHOT: (No effects needed to be applied)

This shot was so important because I really wanted to get the light source to dissolve out as the title dissolves in - REQUIEM. The 'Q' would be the focus point for of the light, with no specific reason, other than aesthetic choice.

REJECTED Filming Location - Abandoned Asylum

I recorded footage from Whittingham Asylum in hope of using it as a shooting location but unfortunately it turned out too dangerous. I edited what footage I collected and uploaded a small video, see it bellow:

Filming Location - Helsby Hill

Here is a screenshot of the location, Helsby Hill, as seen from Google Maps. On a visit to Wales, I used my older brother to film a certain scene in the trailer. I was aware of the Cold War nuclear Bunker which has been abandoned for a long time up there, we managed to get inside easily and I used the footage as the opening material in my teaser. No effects were required to this shot either, the bunker room was decaying and run-down, the light coming in from above, a pale over-cast white glow, so the footage had no intense colour saturation. I made sure he was wearing a dark coat and trousers also, to fit in with the mise-en-scene (costumes) the character plays in other scenes. I my-self and two of my brothers make up this character in different scenes.

Here are the final shots filmed at Helsby Hill for the teaser opening:

Trailer Storyboard and TITLE - Requiem

TITLE - REQUIEM

I have decided to call the film 'Requiem', because it is short, punchy and meaningful. Requiem by definition is:

1. 'a song or hymn of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person'
2. 'a Mass celebrated for the dead'

Source: (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/requiem)

By this definition the title becomes an effective juxtaposition - it implies some sort of religious celebration to the dead. Yes, in this film almost everybody on earth is dead (billions), but that's not something to celebrate about, so it's also an unsettling title - a dark title, exactly what I'm looking for.


Below is the story Board I've been working on which will help me out when it comes to shooting film for this teaser trailer, next week.

Trailer Script and Backstory

I want the trailer to be really mysterious so I wrote a passage of text to be spoken by one person, a sort of monologue which would reveal something about the world in which the film is to be set.

EXPOSITION
The Back-story in the film trailer is one of post-apocalypse and world-wide devastation. Shards of a gigantic alien object have been scattered across the northern hemisphere, turning the entire region into a desolate wasteland. The shards contained extra-terrestrial diseases which began to infect humans and also emitted an unknown radiation that mutated people into blood-thirsty creatures. Massive Evacuations took place in the past, to escape the chaos, and the number of humans living in the ruins of the old North is not very large. I like the term 'Autumn of Mankind' to describe the state of the world in this film. I have not thought much about a title yet, but would like a short catchy one with meaning and relevance to this plot idea.

PROTAGONIST
One of my favourite characters in film is 'The Man with No Name' from Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns' portrayed by Clint Eastwood. The character in this film would resemble Eastwood in many ways, but instead obviously taking a futurist role, a post-modern angle. The film is not a Western, but may have some similar qualities - essentially it is an Apocalypse Film. The reason this character would be alive in this world and not dead like the rest could be for example that he was immune and found away inside one of the shards, which gave him powers such as increased strength and reaction time, which could also have changed his physical appearance. I don't feel that I need to show much about the main character in this trailer because it is going to be so enigmatic anyway - In the teaser for 'THE HOST', there is absolutely no implication to whom the protagonist is, in fact it is just a dialogue track running along a single shot of the Earth - Looks Nice, Sounds Interesting but is anything but revealing.

SCRIPT
-Opening Logo (TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX)
-Opening Logo (MIDNIGHT PICTURES)
-Enigmatic, shadowed shot of the protagonist, in an abandoned location of some sort.
-Close up Stock Footage of an Eye opening, or a low angle shot through some grass at the clouds.
-Interesting cloud footage, long (10 minute) takes to be made into time-lapses showing the transition of time since the Great Disaster.
-Character watching the sun-set, preferably with a storm looming over head.
-Character Loading Rifle (CLOSE UP)
-Shot of light beam from Heavy Duty Torch lighting up a stream through dense smoke, with character approaching through this smoke towards the camera.
-Other Stock Footage of Close up's; Hands, Walking through puddles, grasping a dagger.

NEXT I WILL STORY BOARD THE TEASER TRAILER - To use as a guideline when filming.