"VO"

Hi -

Just briefly letting all my avid readers know that I have decided to add a voice-over (VO) to the trailer, after all, despite my earlier rejection of such an idea.

Since I didn't really know what to try next, I decided I might as well try a VO, and see how dumb I thought it was.  I could immediately see that it helped.  The next question was the approach -- Explain the plot?  Be mysterious and alluring?  Hey - how about BOTH??  That is, I'm using plot-relating rhetorical questions (for now):

"What if you remembered something

That you didn't want to remember

Because you met someone

Who was there?"

That's Larry's half; I'm still working on Marissa's.  

This will mean less dialogue in the trailer, more images.  I am leaving in some of the "Remember that game?" exchange because I feel that it is quintessential. 

A byproduct of deciding to do a VO has been that I am now very aware of how few female VO's there are!  Like - none!  Sucky!

Unfortunately, I am no VO artist (it's harder than you think), so I am unlikely to change this gender imbalance.

I might do it anyway.  For now, at least, I will use myself for timing and planning.  Then, we'll see.

I definitely feel more positive about things since making this choice, which feels like a mini-break-through. 

Trailer - Not

Nobody has commented on the trailer on Youtube (linked last post), yet I can tell that it has been viewed, so I can only assume this means that YOU TOO think it was awful.

My "second opinion" gave me a little feedback, and the third opinion never responded.

Trying to get feedback on this trailer has made me realize how out of touch I am with all the film people I used to know.  Hmph.

So I brought the trailer with me last night to my "Artists and Writers" monthly group (at the Quaker meeting, in fact, where we shot the worship scene) -- in which none of the other participants are the slightest bit narrative-film-oriented, but they like to be helpful, so what the heck?

In sum:  they thought is was too long and too confusing. They told me which clips they thought were most compelling. 

So there you go.

I am starting over.

Blah.

Oh, also, I mentioned a few updates ago that someone else was going to be helping out with a scene -- for which I splurged my $27 to get a 6-mo MediaFire account -- and now it seems as if that's not happening either.  D'oh!

IF I JUST HAD $5,000 I COULD PAY SOMEONE TO FINISH THIS FRICKING THING.

But -- onward we go.

I do not think it means what you think it means.

Well, my film-teacher friend watched my rough cut of the trailer and she found it so cryptic as to be completely unintelligible.  Basically, without using this word, she said it was awful.

I am discouraged.

I have sought second & third opinions.

If you'd like to check it out -- and answer the questions for direction that I have come up with with -- you may do so at the link below.  If you do this, please watch the trailer once before reading the questions so that you can gauge your immediate reaction before being pointed at specific issues. 

Without further suggestion, I am basically at a standstill, trailer-wise, and will have to abandon it for a while.  I'll go back to doing scenes, which is productive, of course, but -- argh.

Here's the link to the trailer: 

http://youtu.be/hcmBZa1uKBI

Or You Can Click on These Words

Trailer - Stage 1

Hi -

I don't have anything clever or earth-shattering to say, I just wanted to record that the 1st rough cut of the trailer is DONE.  I will be getting some feedback from a film-teaching friend this weekend, and then will revise.

I'm finding that I am clueless about soundtrack music.  Honestly, I always thought I'd have someone else doing that for me, so I've never really paid a whole lot of attention to it.  The trailer needs music, though, and I Do Not Know what sort of music it should have.  I mean, I can cut a montage to music that already exists -- music video as trailer -- but this trailer has a lot of dialogue, so I... I'm just kind of.... clueless.  Hmmmm....

So that's the biggest challenge.

I'm wondering if I should take some of the dialogue out and replace it with Cool Images.  Do more "music video" within the trailer.  I thought I'd get the tire swing in there, but I didna.

One of the questions I haven't answered -- and admittedly would do well to answer before revising, I reluctantly admit -- is:  Who is the audience for this trailer?  Is it potential editors, or is it potential audience, or potential funders, festival judges, Kickstarter donors....

Would the trailer be the same for potential editors as it would be for Kickstarter donors?

I was originally thinking that I was making it for Kickstarter, seeking to raise some funds to get a real editor or two (two because one might be a sound specialist).  Does that mean I should try to make it look COOLER THAN IT REALLY IS?????  Hmmm....

Hmmmm.....

I'd love your two cents on the matter.  Whoever you are.

REA