Thoughts behind cutting the trailer (2)

Despite all my best efforts however, whatever I think rarely hits the target. Hence the trailer that I successfully cut on Wednesday, was re-cut again on Thhursday.

Damned second opinions!

Thoughts behind cutting the trailer

All right, so I cut a trailer for 'Jay and Kay Save the World', finally, after racking my brains out for what seemed an eternity. SO what was going through my mind.

1) The right sound.

Believe it or not, sound is crucial during a trailer. Do I have music and a deep bass like voiceover or insert witty snippets from the film? In one minute, sound can have a crucial impact on the style of a trailer.


2) How much of the story do I give away?

Without revealing the 'plot' of 'Jay and Kay Save the World', I had to calculate, what could go in and what could not.


3) The iconic shots.

Without revealing the context in which they were shot, what 'beauty' shots do I put into the trailer. They have to be alluring, without revealing exactly what they are.


4) Graphics.

Finally, what graphics do I use to represent the titles of the film. Each font, each effect used gives a difference appearance to the trailer and must be carefully chosen.


5) The length.

Considering the film is ten minutes long, the trailer itself should not be too long. SOmething just over a minute should be fine.




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The biggest constriction is actually the time. Both of the short film (ten minutes) and of the trailer itself. A 90 second trailer is not a long time and with only ten minutes of actual film to gleam footage from, there is a lot of scope for repetition in the trailer - something that must be avoided. But I managed to do it, and so...well, let us see...

Now what?

That's it. It is official. Two days of rendering, burning DVD's, correcting last minute mistakes and then wholesale re-cutting of the pice has left me feeling kin od numb as I have actually finished editing Jay and Kay Save the World, which for anyone who has just joined us, is the very first outing of Caution Wet Paint in HD. It is my film festival offering for 2009-2010, and at ten minutes long, it is pretty impressive for a short film. I rather look at it as a featurette rather than just a mere short.

Anyhow, what now? Well, first send off the films to film festivals whose deadlines are fast approaching. That is the priorty. Thankfully, my preparation in terms of press packs and posters earlier this month really means that I can drop the letter in the mailbox and let it et to the festivals. A lot of the groundwork is already done.

Next send a bunch of DVD's to the cast and crew and open the swearbox in order to meet up with everyone again.

But it is a weird feeling. This film has been in the planning since late summer last year and part of the sequences were shot in October, some nine moths ago (although the main shooting took place in March). That means, for the best part of a year, Caution Wet Paint has been my life.

So what now? Do I go onto another project? Hell no. Here comes the hardest part. To continue with Caution Wet Pant, but this time follow it up with marketing alongside distribution to festivals. Now this is the tricky bit. How do I market? Well, like all aspects of film making, I am learning as I go along. Slowly, but surely, I will figure this one out. But definitely is to spruce up and update our website, which I have already begun to do...

A significant milestone for El Director

This image could be one of the most important points along the road of Jay and Kay Save the World. For at long last, I have finished the editing. Five weeks after the final live action shooting days, along with a few re-shoots and voice overs the editing process has pretty much come to an end.

And yep, this film hits the ten minute mark including credits. That is a phenomenally huge short film. But for me, I have always viewed this project as a featurette, something which shows the potential of CWP as something more than a series of shorts. Hence the almost epic lengths I am so far tackling.

But this does not mean that the post production sequence is finished. Next comes the colour correction and just as importantly the cleaning up of the soundtrack.

In the editing process I get the final picture that I want, the pace of the film and the sound at an appropriate level. For the colour correction, I had a little life into the picture quality and in the sound correction, I smooth out the bumps and clean up the background static that is prevalent in the recording process. That is going to be a hard task, but it is something I will do after my holiday...