A movie trailer,hope you can give some advice

[Mark Suszko]

It may be a side-effect of posting it online, but the audio is over-modulated and distorted in my media player. From an American viewpoint, the English translations need some more sophistication and an improvement in choice of expressions. But I understand the movie premise even without them, so that means your trailer is succeeding.

There are a lot of quick cuts, frankly, I think a few too many of them are locked into the tempo of the music track, which is a little bit bombastic and over-the-top. It is maybe more suitable for Michael Bay Explosion movies than a political/relationship thriller. Now, you know your audience better than I do, so the music may be fine, but I think I would like to see more variation in the rythm of the cutting, and a slower pace in the beginning gives you more room at the end for the rapid-fire cutting style to have the proper dramatic effect. Music that starts low, and with few instruments, and sneaks up on you over time, is what I think you want for this.

I liked the photography overall, effective mood setting through lighting and camera placement. I think you may be giving away too much story in the trailer. As a guy, this movie doesn’t appeal that much to me, but I imagine women will go see this for sure, as it is very soap-opera-like, and I mean that in a positive way. Play up to that by choosing a few more tight close-ups, I noticed a certain lack of them.

But overall, it is good, and the number one problem from my viewpoint is that the translated English captions are too poorly translated, and the unintentional humor that causes would distract an American audience and break the nmood you aer working so hard to establish.

[Zhang Sandy]

Thank you very much for your advice,and I hope we can been friend,do u mind leave your MSN or Facebook?zflong2009@163.com,this is my MSN

[Zhang Sandy]

“more variation in the rythm of the cutting” how i cut it will make the trailer become more variation in the tythm,can you give an example?

[Mark Suszko]

A lot of your cuts are on the beat of the music, and that gets tiring after a short time. Deliberately cut off the beat sometimes.

Also, if you have a sequence of medium-medium-medium-medium shots, consider changing that to wide shot, medium-medium-closeup- close-up, instead.

A trailer should hint at the overall form of the plot, but not give away too many details. An example is the trailer for “Prometheus”, where if you look at it critically, they give away the fact that they will be sacrificing their ship to knock the alien ship out of the sky as it is taking off. That was a stupid reveal to put in the trailer, even if it was spectacular footage. If you want to put a spectacular shot in a trailer, it should be free of context, or it gives away too much.

In your film, the plot revolves around a powerful person with many resources, versus some journalists/media people, who are short on resources but can wield public opinion as a weapon or a shield. In the middle of this you have a plot of unfaithful marriage and blackmail. Two parallel tracks of action and plot that overlap. The marriage/blackmail plot can disrupt the media versus powerful person plot if it backfires. The personal relationships of the stars are threatend by the fallout from this overall battle, as all the pieces of the game begin to move on their independent courses. Am I reading the movie correctly?

If so, then the trailer should hint at the relatiionship, establish the romantic relationship first, then, hint at the uncovering of scandal, the decision of if and how much to use/abuse the power of media on this situation, the powerful man’s reactions to it, the implied threats to the two lovers, and a hint of a dangerous confrontation. Boom, you have a Western-styled trailer. Does that work as well in Asia? I don’t know. But it is how I think I would structure the trailer.

[Zhang Sandy]

I’m so appreciate of you,from my trailer you can analysis so much.Yes ,I’m from China,and I like movie and movie trailer so much.I have a good job work with Television drama,but I found that I’m more interested in movie and movie trailer,so I quit my job,i wanna been a movie trailer cutter.So glad to meet you.At the forum, can not timely communication,I am so hope to leave your contact information,If you don’t mind.

The plot is about “the woman do not seat to an old man,and she said the surprise words,so led to a series of things which changed the three women’s life.The hero is not the powerful man,is the young one”.

” hint at the uncovering of scandal, the decision of if and how much to use/abuse the power of media on this situation,a hint of a dangerous confrontation” I think this is a very good advice,but how do I display such a sight in my film?

[Mark Suszko]

” hint at the uncovering of scandal, the decision of if and how much to use/abuse the power of media on this situation,a hint of a dangerous confrontation” I think this is a very good advice,but how do I display such a sight in my film?”

I think you have all the elements of footage you need to do that already in this trailer, more or less; just re-sequence them as discussed. The way you have it sequenced, the young man’s role is not as clear, nor as large, if he’s supposed to be a hero. Really, the women in your trailer seem to have the most effective screen time, are you sure who your real hero and real villains are?

Good luck with the project, persistence is key.

[Zhang Sandy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuIH9qR4h2E&feature=youtu.be
This is my new trailer,i add new music track and some structure have been rearranged,hope your advice ,hehe.

[Mark Suszko]

It is visually still very much all about the women; the men have comparatively little screen time. I do think it hints more clearly at a war of blackmail threats and counter-threats, conducted online and in the electronic media. Is this the point you were trying to make?

What would you write for a “log line”, that is, a one-sentence description of what the movie is really about?

[Zhang Sandy]

Do you think if I should change another music track to fit my film?

[Mark Suszko]

Perhaps it would help. Something like a string quartet playing pizzicato strings, starting with just a violin, then adding in the other instruments along the path in layers.