Post production of Jessica Lennon's movie trailer-VANISH

1. Post Production
Movie trailer

2. Editing Software
 It took me a while to find software that was suitable for putting together and editing my
movie trailer as many either did not work or were too complex.
 The first software that I attempted to use was Adobe Elements on the computers at
school.
 However while this was nice software to
navigate around, it was very slow and did not
play the video clips very smoothly, so I decided
to search for a different programme to use to
edit my trailer.

3. After effects
 After deciding to change from Adobe Elements I went home and did some research into
other video editing software, where I found Adobe After Effects.
 I tried to use this for a while finding it quite similar to ‘elements’. However as time went on I
found it to be incredibly complex and
watched several YouTube tutorials to try
and figure it out. This did not get me
very far and just made things even more
complicated for me so, once again, I
decided to search for a different video
editing software.

4. Movie Maker
 After doing extensive searching around, downloading various software onto my computer, I
eventually decided on using Windows Movie Maker.
 Movie Maker was very simple and effective to use on my home computer

5. First Draft
 So after I had gathered all of the footage that I needed for my trailer I began to edit it
using movie maker.
 I began by inserting the green audience card
 I sourced this by just screen shooting it from an existing film trailer, pasting it into a
PowerPoint document, cropping it and saving it as a picture
 I then just inserted it into movie maker as an image
 To know how long I should display the card for in my own trailer I did a bit of research and
found that most trailers usually display it for 3-4 seconds
 So I decided to display mine for 3 seconds

6.  I then had to go about selecting the transition from the card to the next shot
 After playing around with the various effects I selected a simple fade

7. Long Shot
 My next step was to insert the long shot of the house that I had filmed.
 I watched all of the footage that I had taken, including all of the different shots and
angles
 I then selected the footage that I thought was most suitable for my trailer
 I inserted it into movie maker and edited it down so that it was also an appropriate length
for the trailer
 I also went for a subtle fade transition for this clip to the next clip

8.  The long shot of the house then fades out into the institution identification ‘Illuminite
Pictures’ that I have already produced
 This ties in very nicely with the clip after it which is the clip of the intruder entering the
house, as we already know the house he/she is entering from the establishing shot
 The transition between the two is also a fading effect
 One decision I had when constructing/editing the trailer is how long each transition
should last; slow, medium or fast
 I decided to go for a slow effect as I did not want tension to build too quickly within the
trailer

9. Intruder
 For the clip with the intruder I had gathered a range of footage with my dad opening
the door at various speeds
 I selected the one that I though was most appropriate and then inserted it into movie
maker
 I had to crop the clip down as it was too long and so that only footage that was
necessary for the viewer was included
 However after this clip I added some variety to the type
of transition used, as I did not want to use the same
fading technique throughout

10. Transition
 For this transition I used a sort of a film burning effect, I feel that this effect adds to the
horror genre and fits with typical codes and conventions
 The clip of the intruder disappears into a clip of the text that reads ‘this fall’
 I tired to insert the image of the text straight into movie maker, however it was not central
and did not fit to the screen
 To overcome this issue I inserted the image of the text into a PowerPoint document and
placed it over a black square
 I then saved the red text and the black box as a single image
together
 I then inserted this new image into movie maker and it worked
perfectly

11.  This then cuts straight into the scene with the girls singing and dancing
 For this clip I watched all of the footage that I had gathered when filming this scene and
selected the one which I felt would be most appropriate for the trailer and fit my horror
genre
 In addition to this I also had to bear in mind which looked the most professional, with no
sudden jumps/slips of the camera and where all of the girls looked natural i.e. not fazed
by the presence of the camera
 Once I has selected the clip for the trailer I then inserted that into movie maker too
 Once this clip was in I wanted to insert, at two different intervals,
footage of the girls tied up

12.  I decided to let the footage of the girls singing and dancing play for several seconds
before displaying the footage of them tied up, so that the audience becomes
comfortable with the scene and so will be more shocked when they do see the girls tied
up
 To insert this footage in-between the footage of the singing and dancing I had to split the
clip
 I then inserted footage of the girls toed up and gagged between the newly split clip
 After messing around for a while I decided that instead of using moving footage of the
kidnapped girls it would be more effective to use still images
 This is because I wanted it to be shocking for the viewer and make them scared
 In addition I only wanted the scene to displayed for a very short period of time to add to
the viewers’ intrigue

13.  As a result instead of using the footage of the girls tied up and gagged that I had gathered I
decided to use the still images of them that I had also gathered instead
 Once I had made this decision I had to decide which two images to use as I had a number to
choose from, including the number of girls in the given image
 So, as a result, for the first image I selected one where all 5 girls were present as it
demonstrated that all 5 had been kidnapped and
were all still alive-to begin with
 I then had to make the decision of how long I
wanted the image to be displayed for
 I only wanted it to be displayed for a very short
period of time and to shock the audience
 For this reason I decided to display it for half a
second

14.  From the image of the girls tied up this then cuts straight back to the girls singing and
dancing in the bedroom
 The next place I wanted to include an image of the girls kidnapped was when all 5 girls
had been shown in the circle singing and dancing, so that we have gone full circle
 This slot would fall 5 seconds after the last
 The first image was shown half way around the circle, giving us 9 seconds of footage of
the girls singing and dancing
 The timing of the pictures of the kidnapped girls, I feel, was
essential in building tension as cuts become closer together

15.  The next image of the kidnapped girls to be shown would have to have fewer girls
included in it to show that they are been taken away
 However the decision that I was faced with was how many to include in this image
 To have 4 of them in it to show that one of them had been taken away or go for fewer
than 4 to show that more of them had been taken away
 I decided to go with showing 3 of the kidnapped girls with this image as it was in-between
the original 5 and the final girl left at the end, who would be on her own
 and I felt that it would give the same effect of someone taking the girls away one at a
time
 The reason for me not including images of the girls decreasing
in numbers one by one is that I did not feel that it would be
appropriate as the audience would become bored and it
would loos the shock factor for them

16.  To insert the image into movie maker I did a similar thing to the previous one
 I split the clip that I wanted to sandwich it in-between and just placed the image where
the split was
 This also then cuts straight back to the footage of the girls singing and dancing

17.  Once the camera has gone full circle and back to Sarah, it was then time to put in the
next piece of text, ‘5 girls’

18.  This was a similar process to inserting the previous text
 I created a new image with a black background on a PowerPoint document so that it
was central and fit to screen when I inserted it into my trailer on movie maker
 For the transition between the previous clip of the girls dancing and the text I decided to
use the burning film transition that I used for the first piece of text
 I feel that this adds an element of consistency to the trailer and does not make it appear
random and though it has just been thrown together
 This was a similar process to inserting the previous text
 I created a new image with a black background on a PowerPoint document so that it
was central and fit to screen when I inserted it into my trailer on movie maker
 For the transition between the previous clip of the girls dancing and the text I decided to
use the burning film transition that I used for the first piece of text
 I feel that this adds an element of consistency to the trailer and does not make it appear
random and though it has just been thrown together

19.  I used the same effect for the transition between the ‘5 girls’ text and the return to the girls
singing in the room
 The clip then continues with the girls singing and it cuts out when the verse comes to an
end
 The time period between this and the previous cut is seven seconds
 This again is building tension for viewers as the cuts are getting shorter and closer together
all the while
 This cuts to the text ‘mysteriously’, again using the burning film
effect for the transitions
 The text has so far read “this fall 5 girls mysteriously…” leaving
the audience hanging each time and the mysteriously part
leaves the audience hanging for the ultimate climax as they
want to know what mysteriously happened

20.  This then cuts to the clip of Ellie saying ‘did you shut the front door?’
 However this clip is very short and the word ‘did’ is not very clear in her speech
 In addition to this there is a strange background noise towards the end of the clip
 I used various software to try to get rid of this noise from the clip, but unfortunately had little
success
 To try to overcome this I tried to cut the clip down to
as short as possible without loosing any of the
dialogue
 However I still don’t think that this is perfect so I will go
to peer assessment and see what feedback I get
regarding it

21.  The shot of Ellie then moves into the final piece of text of the trailer-the title of the film
 I decided to use a new effect for this transition as I felt that the title of the film was the
most important feature of it
 The effect that I decided to use for this transition was a sort of swiping effect as sown in
the image below
 I feel that this effect adds emphasis to the word VANISH
and to the title as a whole
 Another tool that I have used for emphasis of the title is
the time that it is displayed for-5 seconds, which is a
considerable amount of time after the previously used
fast cuts which were building tension
 I also added an effect to the text while it was on screen,
whereby the text appears to enlarge or get closer to the
audience
 This adds more interest to the title so that the audience
does not become bored

22.  Just like the rest of the text throughout the trailer I also had to put the title onto a black
background in a PowerPoint document before putting it into movie maker so that it was
central to the screen

23.  Before producing my trailer my teacher gave me the suggestion of listing the name of the
actors at the end of my trailer in order to ‘seal the deal’ for the audience and make them
want to go and see the film
 I decided to take up this suggestion and so thought that the best way to do it was to take
individual screen shots of the girls from the footage that I had recorded
 Once I had one image for each of the girls I then pasted them, one by one into a
PowerPoint document
 Next I inserted each of their surnames over their images
using word art
 I thought that it would be more effective to just use their
surnames as oppose to using their full names as they are
all supposed to be well established actresses that the
audience will recognise

24.  The pictures of the girls were only displayed for a second each
 For the transitions between the pictures I used the same effect used for the title, the
swiping effect
 By doing this the viewer can establish the five central characters of the film and by putting
‘AND Pocock’ at the end can assume that she will be the overall main character
 I purposefully didn’t include the actor who plays the kidnapper as it would ruin the mystery
of the film
 I am unsure about the text and the font of the text that I
have used for the actors’ names, so this can be another
thing that I can evaluate after my feedback from peers

25.  The final image of ‘and Pocock’ fades out into the final clip
 For the final clip I selected the most appropriate clip out of all the footage that I had
gather during filming and inserted it into my movie maker document
 The start was okay, however, it went on a little longer than necessary, so all I had to was
to trim the end down

27. Background
 For the background music for my trailer I wanted something slightly chilling
and that would build tension at the same time
 For this music I decided to search the internet for copyright free material
that would be suitable for me to use
 By this I found a website called ‘copyright free music and sound’ the link to
which is given below
http://copyrightfriendly.wikispaces.com/Copyright-friendly+music+and+sound
 This website gave a number of links to other websites where copyright free
music is available
 After exploring a few of these website I found one that I liked called free
sound
 And decided to use this website to source all of my music from
 Again a link to this website is given below
http://www.freesound.org/

28.  I found the website really nice to navigate around and also found it to
have an extensive range of copyright free music available to use
 I found the track that I wanted to use for my background music pretty
much straight away, so downloaded it
 While searching for the backing music I also found a sound effect that
would go really well with the instances where the images of the girls
kidnapped pop up as I felt that it would enhance the shock factor for the
viewer straight away. I then downloaded that effect too
 My next task was to insert these to audio files into the movie maker
document where I was producing the trailer

29.  I put the background music into movie maker first and the concentrated
on how to introduce it and when it was going to start
 I thought that the most effective way to do this was to introduce it, fading
in slowly, with the first clip-the long shot of the house
 I also had to decide what volume I wanted the background music to be as
I did not want it to be too loud so that it would detract attention away from
other elements of the trailer-for example when the girls start singing
 I feel that the slight fade-in and the volume of the music, along with its
construction effectively begin to (slowly) build tension within the trailer

30.  The background music plays throughout the trailer building tension and
adding intrigue and mystery for the viewer especially when it is playing in
the background of the girls singing
 It makes the audience want to know what is going to happen next as they
can physically hear and feel that tension building up
 It was quite difficult to put this music in throughout as it ended
half way through so I had to make sure that there were no
sudden jumps in the sound

31.  I next had to put in the sound effect that I wanted to go over the images of
the girls tied up and gagged
 Because these clips only last half a second the sound effect needed to be
very hard hitting so I turned the volume up to maximum so that it adds
emphasis to the clips and shock the viewer

32. Completed Trailer
VANISH