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

Now, where were we?

Okay, I love having ALL my S & B stuff on one giant (but so small!) hard drive, instead of spread out over no fewer than FOUR drives.  And now everything is a .mov file, as well, for added, well, for functionality.

My back is not great.  6-12-hour editing sessions are not on the menu yet.  Considering pulling your latissimus dorsi muscle?  Do not.  No, don't argue, just >do not< do it.  I mean, if it's a Hobson's choice between that and _breaking_ your back well, you know, context is everything, but I must say, this really sucks -- not least because it has meant I can't play tennis. 

Anyway -- Three pieces of updatey news:

1.  I mentioned a while back that cool Katelyn Whitehead, a former student, was going to be helping me put together the Montage of Humanity.  She has given me a first draft for comment, including a really neat shot of an older guy playing cards, and although it's still a ways from completion, there has been a little movement there.  Unfortunately, she is pretty busy and I'm not sure how fast that will go now.  I may end up taking it back from her.  We shall see.

2.  I have enlisted the help of a Nother former student, as well:  this joe's name is, er, Joe Mischo (one has former students in order to make them work for one -- sort of like why farmers have lots of kids).  He is giving a go at (to? with?) editing of Scene 45, because I was having trouble refraining from throwing the computer across the room when I would try to do this scene.  I splurged TWENTY-SEVEN WHOLE DOLLARS on six months of "Media Fire" at the "pro" level so that we could exchange some video files online (Drop Box is just too small) (although it didn't occur to me until after I'd paid for Media Fire to see if DB had a better paid version -- whatever).  Didn't buy many groceries that week. 

What?  Yes, I'm still unemployed.  Getting a little panicked about it, actually, but let's ignore that for the moment.

3.  What am I doing?  Well, with the time that I can sit and edit and fend off the no-job anxiety, I have begun to pull together

a trailer.

That's right:  a trailer.  I watched a bunch of indie trailers and found that they almost all use VO or title cards to explain what the hell is going on, since there's so little clear sound-bitey action, but I don't wantto use a VO, so I'm not doing that.  I haven't quite decided about the title card thing.  At the moment I am structuring it around the piano room daydream that Larry has, in which Marissa says,

"Do you remember that game?... How do you remember it?"

And then Larry says,

"How do you remember it?"

And she answers,

"I asked you first."

I'm intercutting some stuff in there.  So far, it's not amazing, but it's early.

I will keep you posted!!

I wonder if anyone's actually going to read this.... oh, well, as ever!

Love and perseverance,
Rachel

Dance! Dance! Dance!

I believe the technical problems have been FIXED!!!!

I can't say much more right now, because I hurt my back and really shouldn't be sitting up, but I wanted to NOTE IT and say, 

Of course, the "no sitting" rule means "no editing," as well -- but hopefully only for another week. 

'Til then...