Practical Text Write-Up

Another text we had to do was create a trailer based upon a fairy tale, because trailers were the medium for our main piece. Our chosen one was 'Red Riding Hood'. We had to use careful camera shots in order to create the feeling of being in a forest setting, as well as changing the lighting and tone, to make the trailer seem as close to the source material as possible, without spoiling the narrative, in the same way as real trailers. As well as this we had to add in background music which we believed would add to the tension of the trailer.
Although some of the trailer can be slow paced, we managed to set up the plot without giving too much away, such as the end resolution, while keeping the atmosphere and tension of the original story.
By doing this exercise it shows the elements needed to create an effective trailer. The trailer and footage could be edited in different ways to create a different trailer, but keeping the atmosphere. One way of doing this could be a succession of quick cuts (as seen in 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' teaser trailer) or by using voice-over.
The trailer focussed on the beginning and middle of the story, starting with 'Red Riding Hood' being given a basket of food, and then cutting between shots of 'Red Riding Hood' and the wolf. Cross cutting between the two in the same locations and the use of music created tension, and made the character roles clear to the audience. Because it was a trailer for a relatively short story, the trailer wasn't much longer than 30 seconds long, but it did feature many typical trailer conventions, and introduced the story with few spoilers. Doing this task allowed me to get a feel for making my own original trailer, and showed me things like how to use Final Cut Pro effectively, and what to include/not include in order to make the trailer effective (get people watching the actual film).

Unfortunately we were unable to put a copy of this trailer online, as the file could not be found at a later date.