Trailer Design Process: Storyboard

Now I have had a look at an existing trailer I am now going to be putting my ideas to pen and paper and create a storyboard for the trailer. A lot of major film companies use storyboards to show what will happen within each scene to the producers and actors or even animation artists which is why I am going to be using a storyboard. This is because I feel this will be the best way to express the idea that I have for the trailer as well as just explaining it, as it would be a visual way of showing what will happen but also will act like a plan for me to say this is what you are doing.

Storyboard

Storyboard for the Trailer

     Here is my storyboard. As you can see it is not as detailed or as well laid out as a professional would have it, but it gives both me and the audience the idea I have. So, to start off the first few seconds will be based on the parental awareness. I used the parental awareness at the start of the trailer because I felt that it was mandatory to have this at the start of the trailer. I am not sure if this is used on the television advertisement for a trailer. However, I know this is used on all trailers on the internet. I thought I would have this because I think it is responsible to have this on a trailer because of the age rating I actually have the film at which is 15.

The next part on the storyboard is where I will have a monologue (idea from the Inkheart trailer but done in my own way). I am not sure how long this will technically last for but I am hoping that this will take up about 20 seconds. I want this monologue to be based on the main character talking about maybe her life or quoting it in some way. I thought this might be quite and effective way to start the trailer. On top of this monologue I plan to have clips of landscapes. I thought this might be a good idea and a good way to gradually open the trailer to action later on in the trailer. I also feel that the landscapes clips will also be able to give the audience and idea of the kind of atmosphere and landscapes that would be used 'technically within the movie'.

After the monologue I want a clip of the main character falling. I thought this would help start to make the trailer become more exciting give the audience a bit more suspense. I thought this would make them question why the main character is falling. The next part after this clip would be based on titles. I wanted to add in titles for the production companies. Some trailer usually have them at the start of the trailers, but I thought they would look quite effective within the middle of the trailer after the character falling. I also have mentioned about these titles being on pieces of paper. I thought this would then bring in the book/page idea into affect into the trailer also I thought it would look effective especially with the writing on the title. This would kind of make it look like writing on a book or a piece of paper.

As you can see from the storyboard that I have the first half of my trailer all planned out from the beginning. However, the second half I was not really sure what to do. On the storyboard all I really have on the story board was rest of trailer made up of action clips. So, I think at this point when creating the trailer I will just be experimenting with different clips and see what kind of order they fall in and one which I am happy with.

However, at the end of the trailer I am wanting a clip where the character is then going to be jumping at the end of the trailer. I think this will be a good way to end the trailer because the character will be jumping and I think it would make people think will they make it!? and I also feel a stunt like that is always the best way to end a trailer as it gives off more suspense. At the very end I then want another title, this title will then state that the film will be coming out soon. I want this clip to only last about 1 second as I do not really want this to last too long that it will take up some time I could use for other clips.

Gathering Sources

At this point I have decided to look up some sources for the trailer. This is where I have decided to use the tombraider walkthough and the film Snow White and the Huntsman. I choose to use these sources as I have used imagery in the DVD inlay which are characters from both of these sources, so I only thought it was only wise to use these clips. I thought it was to make it look more realistic and also it would look a little weird that I had certain images on the DVD inlay and completely different characters on the trailer.