Working with someone else for a project is always fun and interesting, but with someone across an ocean? Dang, that’s INSANE! Thanks to this movie trailer project, I was able to get to know and collaborate with such a wonderful person and partner like Ella from BMSA (Bio-Med Science Academy). Can you imagine a reply coming after 6 hours? haha, that’s how I and Ella managed to get our work done.

Pretty Little Liars: Perfect

“Pretty Little Liars”

Pretty Little Liars via TNT Glitz Blog

I’ve always enjoyed reading mysterious novels with suspicious elements that create undulating plots and make readers super nervous. When I heard about this project, I was so determined to make a movie trailer based on this series of novels. Not only because of my personal obsession with suspicious film trailers have inspired me to take a role in making this trailer, the pre-existing trailer that had been officially released can also give me some ideas about the camera angles and et cetera.

A Director For Once!

Without a script, a movie is like a pen without ink; like how words cannot be written down to express thoughts, actors could not convey the meaning of the plot without having a script. A detailed script should give plenty of information about the background context of the play (the narration), scenes, the character’s actions, the character’s lines, and the stage flow. After all, a script outlines every detail in the play beforehand to make it flow smoothly.

“Script Essentials”

BET Wants to Buy Your Script and Make Your Film Through Project CRE8 from V Renée via No Film School

During my scriptwriting process, I’ve found New York Film Academy to be especially useful. Not only did it break down the script into its key parts to make the readers better understand, it also provided pieces of examples to demonstrate its explanation. I strongly recommend script-writing beginners to look it up as it contains a lot of helpful information. Finally, after doing some research and revision, I managed to pull my script through the time limit.

One challenge immediately came from the way regarding the conciseness of my script. It was totally unanticipated and it spent me quite a while to solve the problem. A trailer is supposed to contain a few scenes only in order to heighten the audience’s reaction and excitement to the maximum; however, I did not quite understand the concept and included too many details in my script. In fact, since I’m an indecisive person, constantly facing the difficulty of choosing what to say have developed my personal tendency to lay out every piece of detail I know about the object to avoid having to make decisions. Therefore, I really had to thank this project for forcing me to make decisions and training my decision-making skills.

“Me in a Nutshell”

Maze from Christel via theperfectd™️

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words.

Without a storyboard, it’s like an explanation of a basketball drill written on the paper with no demonstrations. A storyboard serves as a visual communication and planning tool that is equal in importance to a script. While a script might be a bit wordy and misleading sometimes, a storyboard demonstrates perfectly how the scene should look like in addition to the script, and shows how the camera should transition into the next scene. On the other hand, since storyboard is a form of art, many people believe good artists produce good storyboards. However, that is totally a misbelief. Instead, a good storyboard is determined by its clearness to the audience, whether it distinctly displays the character movements, actions, appearance, dialogue, and other essential elements to illustrate the script clearly, or not. Together with a script, a storyboard and a script merge to produce a unified play.

“Starting With Sketches”

The Art of Totoro – The Storyboard Book from yonghow via Halcyon Realms

With all the efforts I’ve put into my script in order to turn my visual thoughts into words, transforming them back into graphics became fairly easy. After referring to EnvatoTuts to understand the elements and tips of a storyboard, I worked it out while enduring my awful drawing skills (sigh😩). It went surprisingly fast and short which was totally unexpected. Taking a break from our usual written assignments, the storyboard drawing process was rather enjoyable and stressfree. It was the most interesting part of the project, and I really liked it. Take a look below.

Dream Come True!

A trailer introduces a good story; however, it would not be considered a good story. The reason is that a trailer is a video that only gives the audience partial context of the movie, in order to provoke their desire of watching the entirety. Therefore, instead of a story with a complete storyline (of exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and a denouement), a trailer usually includes a climax only.

“Basics of a Story”

Climax of a Story from testeach via Pinterest

After weeks of waiting and communication, the trailer finally made its first appearance! Although it was a bit far from what I expected, I can really see the hard work and efforts Ella has put in to achieve the effect I want. Meanwhile, it has also made me realize some insufficiencies in my script and storyboard, which I was quite satisfied in the beginning. Thus, one of the most precious lessons I have learned from this project is how only the things are written down will be judged and considered. “Let the plot speak for itself”, it is quite ironic of how easy it could be said yet how hard and effort-consuming it actually takes to do so.

Overloading Thankfulness

It was just another ordinary point in my life that made me significantly realize the value of the process over the importance of the result. It was just another point, in which I realize that after all, what I cared and cherished the most is not the final trailer anymore, but the fascinating teamwork experience that was underwent, the challenging process to reach a consensus that was done, and the exciting moment generated from a new inbox message that was felt. This was unquestionably the most unexpected learning lesson this project has taught me, and I’m so deeply thankful for this experience.

“legends”

Teamwork makes the dream work from a dead soul via Amino Apps