Pre-Production: Trailer

A trailer is a commercial advertisement that can be exhibited on television, online or in cinemas. With our chosen platform Netflix being online, they will usually advertise their upcoming programme trailers online with advertising on websites such as YouTube. Because of they style documentary I am going for, I decided to look into other similar style trailers that are available on the same or similar platforms.

Netflix being online, they will usually advertise their upcoming programme trailers online with advertising on websites such as YouTube. Because of they style documentary we are going for, I decided to look into other similar style trailers that are available on the same or similar platforms. I went for a trailer which would hopefully attract viewers into watching the documentary with engaging clips and music and a strong use of archive footage, I want to make sure people know its current relevance with footage from the news. It's something not many talk about and is something the CPS doesn’t want to talk about. An original topic will engage peoples interest and hopefully pull on their heartstrings when they listen to Eddie and his key quotes in the trailer like “I haven’t got a normal life, I don’t know what normal is. I exist.” I used a letterbox to give the cinematic feel, which is something not typically done in documentaries. I wanted to emphasize this in the trailer.


A lot of trailers use audio to really grab peoples attention which is why for me the music, dialogue and sound effects were so important to the editing process. Sound really made this piece come to life.  For our trailer, I wanted the boom sound to be very striking. The Jump form Eddie now to an archive photo when he says ‘They Killed Eddie Gilfoyel” is a really key quote we captured form the Innovation Of Justice Shoot’ and put in sequence with the video and photo creates a dramatic statement, especially with the flash and boom sound effect. It was able to visually show eddie before 16 years ago and now to show the jump in time and how much he has changed, indicative of his long prison sentence.

One trailer that was great for inspiration was 'Making a Murderer'. Whilst we have very little footage at this point given we are in pre-production, it was interesting to test ideas and styles we wanted to go for. Below is the final version of the edited trailer. I made a few changes to the edit after getting some feedback from Jack I also changed a few little bits myself as well. Originally it didn't really flow too well and the archive footage was such poor quality it was almost unidentifiable. Jack said to try and find some more images of the higher resolution of Eddie and his wife and to also change the Royal Court of justice image into a higher quality one as there are definitely more out there. I completely agreed with this feedback and realised it is something I only quickly put in sequence at the beginning of the edit to see how it would look in the timeline as a posed to keep the images. Because I had seen it so many times, it was only from having a fresh pair of eyes on it that I came to realise that. "Proofreading is the final stage of the editing process"(Rx Communications, 2018).

Whilst I am satisfied with this trailer and the style projected, I feel it would be a lot better with more footage. Having our own interviews and more archive access would be useful here and is something I would consider for the final trailer.

What I Like

-I like the use of archive footage as I believe it added context to the trailer and made it seem more professional.

-The footage form 'The Innovation Of Justice' came out real well also, and after colour correcting it it had a more cinematic feel.

-I think it still gives a little taster of the documentary and the style we are going for. More cinematic shots would look good and I could play with diabetic sound more with the sound of prison doors and buzzers etc to really create a feel. 

What Could Improve

-The music was good and worked well but I believe it could be improved. I would consider having the music for this piece tailored to  it specifically. I would like to try and get as much clearance on archive footage. 

-Include more interview shots

Alongside the trailer I would like to include micro moments once the final documentary is released. Micro moments are very important to video content today as it gives people a quick teaser of what its about. It is typical with many television shows and on online platforms.  "As mobile has become an indispensable part of our daily lives, we're witnessing a fundamental change in the way people consume media. What used to be our predictable, daily sessions online have been replaced by many fragmented interactions that now occur instantaneously."(Ramaswamy, 2015). The micro moments would be put on platforms like YouTube where people can get a taster and be tempted to watch the full thing on Netflix. 

Here is an example of a micro moment:

Whilst this is a different genre and on a different platform, First Dates, a show I have worked on uses micro moments all the time when each of the episodes have been released. The idea is to get people watching and interesting and being so condensed down in time, it makes you want to keep watching video after video. These are good teasers for the full show and whilst it is something I cannon make in pre-production I would lvoe to make these in post. This will of course depend on the footage and what we film. 

References:
Ramaswamy, S. (2015). How Micro-Moments Are Changing the Rules. [online] Think with Google. Available at: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-resources/micro-moments/how-micromoments-are-changing-rules/ [Accessed 2 Dec. 2018].

Rx Communications. (2018). The essentials of foolproof proofreading | Rx Communications. [online] Available at: https://www.rxcomms.com/archives/the-essentials-of-foolproof-proofreading/ [Accessed 6 Dec. 2018].