The document outlines key elements to consider when planning a student film trailer project. It discusses planning dialogue, music, editing, camerawork, costumes/props, and locations. Voiceovers, diegetic dialogue, and incidental music are identified as important elements. The students will record voiceovers professionally and rehearse dialogue. Transitional effects and text will be used in editing. Shots including close-ups and tracking shots will be explored. Costumes will distinguish character groups and a few props like a symbol will be featured. Interior sets will be built while following exterior filming schedules.

1. Key Elements For Planning
Elliot Grater

2. AUDIO

3. Dialogue
• Considering our trailer has to give hints to the
story as well as revealing some plot ideas
dialogue is a key factor.
• There are two mains areas of dialogue for us:
voice-overs and diegetic, both of which we
want to incorporate into our project.

4. Voice-Overs
• Voice-overs will play a key part in our project, as we hope
to layer them over clips, a feature often seen in trailers.
• None of us are proficient voice-actors, so we are trying to
enlist several friends to help, along with adult teaching staff
who are proficient in acting. This will give us a wider range
of possible dialogue and characters, much more so than in
our first project.
• Our camera has no great sound recording, so I suggested
we record the voice overs by microphone instead. This
would give us a more professional recording and also allow
us to manipulate the audio easier. I suggested using the
schools music recording studio, because Matt knows how
to operate the sound mixer, and it would be free unlike an
out-of-school recording.

5. Diegetic Dialogue
• It will be important for us to carefully plan where
and when we film speaking scenes, because we
will need to have no background sound so it
doesn’t sound tacky and amateurish.
• Using actors will be more difficult at this stage, as
it has to be one of us, because there is a much
large time commitment to film outside of school,
much more so than a voice-over.
• The best way to do this (with our limited acting
talent), would be to rehearse lines before hand,
to prevent time being wasted on excess takes.

6. Music
• Music is a key part of the trailer, and will
feature throughout the piece. Currently we
feel we will have a consistent soundtrack
throughout the piece to help with the general
flow of the trailer, and also to reflect the pace
of the action.
• There will possibly be Incidental music as well
in key parts of the trailer.

7. Soundtrack
• The music we use will definitely be serious, and most
likely instrumental. I have been looking at film score
composers such as Hans Zimmer, who use simple
repeating ideas, generally on strings, to build up the
action, and to reflect the mood of the piece.
• We will be looking for original pieces like last year, but
will also study more well known pieces if we feel they
are appropriate.
• Alternatively to a more orchestral vibe, we could use a
piece of more modern music which is familiar to the
audience to give them an understanding about what
the film is about.

8. Incidental Music
• We used incidental music frequently on our first
project, where it worked effectively to emphasis
important moments in the piece, specifically
parts to make the audience jump.
• I want to use incidental music again, because it
can play a key role in identifying the protagonist,
antagonist, and also what is happening in a
scene, which is important in a trailer where very
little information is simply given to the viewer.

9. EDITING

10. Responsibilities
• This year, we decided we need to all get involved
in editing the film together so as we don’t leave it
all up to one person before deadlines.
• It has been decided that we would all do rough
edits of each scene, then compare them before
deciding on who will complete that section. This
will allow us to critically evaluate our own work
to achieve a higher standard of editing.

11. Programs
• We have decided to use programs which suit us
best, iMovie for me and Dylan, and Windows
Movie Maker for Matt. The decision for using
these programs is simple; they are easy to use,
familiar, and have enough content for the limited
editing we need to use.
• We have decided to use these over technically
superior software such as Final Cut, because we
do not need the advanced editing for a small
project such as ours.

12. Effects and Transitions
• We plan to use more professional editing
techniques in this project, and refine what we
have always used.
• We will have to experiment on the different
software we want to use for this, and already
we have looked into voice editing programs,
and also effects we can create on our own
computers.

13. Editing Clips
• As we are doing a trailer, we plan to use more
transitional effects between shots, to show progression
and a time-lapse. We also plan to have text woven
throughout the trailer, to slowly reveal actors names
and the movie name.
• As we are not filming just one scene, we have a
broader scope in the editing of clips we can do. Last
year I used a filter on the clips to make them seem
darker, and I would like to re-use something similar,
especially in out-door scenes, to make sure the trailer
keeps the more serious mood.

14. Other Editing
• I have previously mentioned voice editing,
which we want to use to change voices to
either make them seem deliberately distorted,
to disguise their identity, or simply deeper to
make it seem less like teenagers and more like
adults.

15. CAMERA

16. Shots
• This year we want to explore new shots to
use, such as tracking shots, long distance
shots etc. whilst still thinking about using the
more intimate close up shots we used on our
first project.
• We want to avoid shaky-cam and POV shots
this year, because we feel they are over-used
in amateur film and without a very good
camera seem confusing.

17. Scenes in the trailer
• So far we have decided on several scenes in
the trailer, the main two being the discovery
of a body by the protagonist, filmed close up,
possibly with an establishing shot at the start,
and a scene where the protagonist examines
evidence pasted all over a wall, which could
feature panning shots and close up shots.

18. Other Camera Shots
• We want to add other shots to the trailer, not just
vital scenes, such as long distance shots of people
walking etc. to go alongside voice-overs, allowing
for people to absorb the dialogue without
focusing on the shot.
• Another idea I had was for several shots of our
protagonist filmed and edited to make it seem
like it was being recorded on CCTV, though the
shots would be form hidden locations, to make it
seem like the person is being watched.

19. Camera Equipment
• As with last year, we will be using a FlipCam to
film our shots, because whilst it doesn’t have
much in the way of zoom, the quality of the
shots is good for its price.
• We want to utilize a tri-pod this time as well,
and whilst I have one, it will need fixing to
allow for smooth movement of shots. A tri-
pod will allow us to perform more
professional static shots throughout the piece.

20. MISE-EN-SCENE

21. Costumes and Props
• We will need a more detailed look at
costumes once all characters are decided, but
it is likely that there will be only a few
variations of clothing.
• This is the same with props, because most of
our scenes will either involve static shots or
dialogue, and there will be little action

22. Costume
• There are several groups in our piece who have to be
dressed in a certain way:
• Protagonist & Friend – Their costumes will consist of
ordinary teenage clothing, which will gradually get more
ragged throughout the piece.
• The Organisation – Whilst this group will most not likely be
fully on screen at any one time, they will need to be
dressed in full suits with dark glasses, gloves etc. to make
them seem mysterious.
• Dead man – Ordinary clothing, a white shirt/t-shirt stained
with blood.
• Informant – Ragged and unkempt clothing, stained and
wrinkled.

23. Props
• There will only be a few props featured in our piece, not
including incidental objects such as cups and items of
clothing. These include:
• Symbol – We have decided that the dead man at the
beginning would have a symbol either embedded in him or
attached onto him. A suggestion for this was the Impossible
Triangle. We also thought that we could use the tea staining
technique to make paper look old.
• Weapons? – Whilst there won’t be any violent scenes in
our piece there is a possibility that we will have to hint at
violence and so knives, guns etc. will be useful in this case.
However, we will have to be careful with guns, as none of
us have access to realistic looking fire-arms, so any shots of
them will have to be very brief.

24. Sets & Locations
• We will be using a large amount of sets for our
piece, most of them being public. These will
be filmed locally, and we will use times when
people are less likely to be out in great
numbers, such as during school hours and
Sundays. A lot of our shots will be weather
dependent, so we will need to set up several
film schedules to use as back-up.

25. Sets
• We have one primary set in mind; either a bedroom or
living room of our main protagonist. One wall will be
covered in newspaper cuttings linked with string. This
will form a large part of the trailer. We also will use
other rooms in the house to film small scenes.
• Because this set will be specifically designed, we will
have to keep it assembled until our final draft is
finished just in case we have to re-shoot anything. This
means that it will have to be built in someone’s private
room, to not disrupt anyone.

26. Locations
• Our outdoor locations will often be featured only
for a few seconds, so should be easily filmed each
in one day. However, for the more important
outdoor locations we will need to plan ahead
much more, finding quiet areas to film in,
especially for the dead body scene, which can’t
be filmed around the public.
• There is a possibility of us using night-scenes
outside, but to do that we will have to test the
camera first to make sure it can film at night and
still produce visible footage.