Well, here’s the thing, I recently mentioned that I had a problem with one of the actors (an actress who had quite a big and important role) and after discussing this problem with her it appeared to be the fact that she hasn’t got much time available to do some filming that was preventing her parts from getting shot. This has created quite a problem as my trailer pretty much revolved around her character. So at first I was unable to think of what to do, but after a little thought I realised that if I based the trailer around another character, of whom the actress had more free time to use for filming, this would allow me to get the filming for my trailer completed.
So, instead of having a trailer revolving around the character of Alice (which I thought was true because most of the shots/dialogue involved her) I am going to replace this with the character of Kitty and her story: most of this being what Jack does to her to get his revenge. This I think will help to make the trailer more interesting and tense as the audience will wonder what is happening to Kitty (is she going insane, is someone trying to kill her, why etc) and what will happen to her in the film itself (which thus will get them to want to watch the film, which is my main goal). I will still use Alice still in my trailer, but instead of a formal introduction I was thinking of introducing her through Kitty’s apparent struggle as Kitty’s problems will show her eventually going to Alice for help. This will then make the audience insinuate that Alice will be the hero of the film and leave them wondering if she will be able to help Kitty (which tricks the audience into thinking Kitty is a victim when really she is kind of a villain and deserves what she gets) and therefore establishes Alice’s character just as well, or even better than, how the original trailer did.
Then
So instead of having the trailer open with shots of Alice walking to/out of the youth club and an introduction through Dom/Alice’s dialogue:
Dom:‘Are you alright Alice?’
Alice:‘I’m fine. As long as I have you lot, as long as I have the club, I’ll always be fine..’
I thought this was good and informative about the film itself, but sounded a little flat and not very interesting– not something that would immediately catch the audience’s attention.
Now
I’m going to open with similar shots: a shot of Alice walking (to the youth club) and then the ‘knock at the door’ scene (there’s a knock at Kitty’s door and she answers but no one appears to be there) which was initially planned to be put in the trailer at a later stage. There will be dialogue played over this to catch the audience’s attention more and introduce the character’s better than the original planned dialogue did. It goes as follows:
Kitty: ‘Alice you have to help me’
Alice: ‘What is it? What’s wrong?’
There will then be shots implying either Kitty is paranoid someone is after her or that someone is really after her depending on each audience’s personal point of view ( shots implying this will be like the locking of doors etc). This idea of Kitty being paranoid and later, Alice’s suspicions, will be prolonged to heighten tension– revealing shots of Jack intimidating her through messages which sometimes are seen to disappear to make the audience question Kitty’s sanity or whether she is really telling the truth.
Then
Instead of the normal reaction shots of Alice I had planned, showing her scared reactions to the things Jack does and were supposed to be used for making the audience tense (which can be see below, well drawings of them can):
Now
There will be more of her looking around or reflecting, insinuating to the audience that she is the hero of the film and is trying to solve out who is doing this to Kitty and why. This will ultimately make the audience wonder if she’ll be succesful and will of course make them want to see the film itself to find out:
Kitty: ‘It’s you!’ (this dialogue choice is the same, when she realises who the killer is)
Alice: ‘I have to stop him’.
Here there will also be the previously planned shots of Jack’s past: the flashbacks hinting to the revenge theme of the film itself and the shots of Alice creeping around his house– making the audience tense as to whether she’ll discover the truth and will stop the killer. This new dialogue will also be included:
Kitty: ‘No you can’t. Nothing can stop him.’ (in reply to Alice’s previous statement. Feelings of helplessness- will Alice be strong enough to win and stop the killer?)
Alice: ‘What did they do to you?’ (Intentionally thought to be aimed at Kitty this question, but when the film plays out it would be revealed to be secretly addressed to Jack– for when she discovers that Jack wants revenge on Kitty/Dom/Pete and it’s clear they did something awful to him)
The trailer is planned to end in the same way: except I am cutting Jack’s dialogue as I want to keep his identity a complete mystery for the audience– it’s more shocking when he’s revealed in the film that way (if there was a film that is)…no point in giving away the twist in the film is there?
Anyway, here’s my new storyboard in film form (edits and all) to give a full idea of what the final outcome should look like (may be more edits in there too that I haven’t fully explained yet…sorry. I’ll do this at a later date as the notes above are just a simple and basic explanation of what I’m planning to do/change.):
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