1) The trailer will tell the story of Willow discovering a historical love story from the 1940s through reading a diary from that time period in her school library.
2) It will show the romance between Walter and Judith from the 1940s through flashbacks as Willow reads about their relationship, which included dates, letters, and a love triangle when Walter went to war.
3) Editing techniques like flashbacks, graphic matches, and fades will be used to draw parallels between Willow discovering the story in the present and the historical romance of Walter and Judith in the 1940s.
2. TRAILER PLOT
The trailer begins with the voiceover of Willow’s teacher, setting the history
assignment. This fades out into Willow walking through the library, as she skims
her fingers across the books. She sets her finger on a book which captures her
interest. She takes the book and proceeds to sit down at a desk. A birds-eye shot
of the table is shown featuring the book and a mug of coffee. Through a graphic
match, we flashback to the past where the book is displayed to be new, alongside
a ceramic teacup. This leads into portraying the historical side to the plot, which
involves Walter and Judith’s love story.
The trailer proceeds to show a montage of Walter and Judith’s journey, which
consists of dates, dances, long walks, letters, arguments and a love triangle. The
love triangle consists of a third party character named, John – A business man.
The love triangle occurs due to Walter no longer responding to letters, as he is
out at war. Judith believes that Walter has been killed in battle, and therefore
decides to move on, since this is a necessity at the time. Walter is pictured as a
kind-hearted lovable soul, he whisked Judith off her feet at a bar/restaurant. John
is present during this scene.
The ending of the trailer, consists of a scene of Willow closing the book. However,
we have decided not to refer to her paralleling personal love story within the
trailer. This is due to our belief that keeping the love story a mystery to the
audience, will result in a much more enjoyable and enticing full length feature.
3. CINEMATOGRAPHY
Within the trailer we have decided to use a range of tracking shots, mid shots,
close ups and establishing shots. This is in order to represent our genre and
showcase our trailer in the best way we can.
The use of tracking shots will show the movements of the protagonists, which
portray a whimsical/fairytale atmosphere, as the camera ‘smoothly glides’.
The use of mid shots and close ups within conversations is a common factor
throughout all romance trailers. These shots enable the audience to understand
the emotion/body language of the protagonists. Therefore, the audience are able
to gage a sense of the relationships between characters far more easily.
The use of establishing shots help visually in showing the audience the locations,
and the relation to the time period. This is an important factor within our
trailer/genre/plot. We feel the location is a key aspect within the romance genre –
such a dates/dances etc.
4. SOUND
The use of voiceovers will allow us to represent the emotions and characteristics
of the protagonists. The voiceover will consist of words read from the diary of
Judith. We are going to try to merge the voices of the two female protagonists –
Willow begins reading the diary, which then fades into Judith thoughts.
We have noticed a recurring theme throughout romance trailers, is the use of
instrumental tracks. The use of such sound, represents the change in moods/
creates an atmosphere within the audience.
We have also noticed that the chime of cymbals are used within text transactions
shown within the trailer, therefore, we believe we should incorporate this feature.
We are going to refer to music tracks such as war songs or popular sounds of the
time, when creating our soundtrack. We are also going to attempt to modernize
the soundtrack using present popular sounds, in order to establish the two
periods of time within the plot.
The use of diegetic sounds is mainly to emphasize the surroundings of the scene.
For example, birds tweeting in a park scene.
5. EDITING
The key editing technique within the trailer will be the use of flashback. This will
showcase the love story of Walter and Judith during the 1940’s as Willow proceed
to read Judith’s diary, in the present day.
The use of a graphic match will show the similarities between Willow and Judith’s
life. For example, the birds-eye shot of the coffee and the diary.
We are considering to place a split-screen of Judith and Willow towards the end of
our trailer. This is due to our research into romance trailers, and this being a
repetitive feature. It will also show the parallel between the lives of Judith/Willow.
Throughout our research we have noticed fades play a key factor within the
editing of romance trailers. This editing technique, is soft and provides a
dreamlike visual for the audience.
We believe the use of a montage will represent Judith and Walter’s relationship
well, this can also be visualized as Willow flickers through Judith’s diary.
6. MIS EN SCENE
The past:
The past will consist of common
1940’s trends, in order for the
audience to easily relate to the period
time. Certain costume ideas consist of:
tea dresses, fedora hats, white gloves,
long fur coats, and kitten heels. The
visual of the past will have a slight
colour tint, so that the audience is
again able to easily differentiate
between time periods of the
past/present. A number of locations
are needed for the trailer, including
park scenes/restaurants.
The present:
Bringing the 1940’s fashion into the
present e.g. gingham print and mid
length skirts. This will create a clear
link between the two female
characters, which the audience can
easily relate to. The hair styles will be
similar but with a slight modern twist.
There will be only one location needed
for the present, which is the library
Willow finds Judith’s diary.