How do authors use text to teach us more about ourselves?

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Over the past 2 months my group and I have read the book More Happy Than Not. My group consisted of Adlih, Kailey, Luca, Melika and Isabelle. While we read the book we worked on a number of mini challenges that tested our knowledge of our books as well as our filmmaking and storytelling ability. I went more in depth in our first challenge that we accomplished in my premonitions post. When reading the book we were supposed to keep the driving question How do authors use text to teach us more about ourselves? 

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Pre-production

Our project goal was to create a trailer for our book with our group playing the characters in the books. Before we could film and create our trailers we first had study what makes a good trailer. We watched some of the top viewed trailers to help deduce some of the recurring elements.

The Eighth Grade trailer is an example of how trailers can follow a story structure without giving away the plot of the movie. This kind of trailer was one of the most common styles. We watched a number of other trailers and we came up with a good list of the most important elements of a good trailer

1. Title Screen
2. Quotes
3. Fast paced
4. Including a climax of some sort
5. Variety of shots
6. Introduces characters
7. Hints at conflict
8. Audio supports the visuals
9. Great music

The next priority was to plan the shots we needed to make the trailer we wanted for our book. We decided early on that we wanted a large amount of B-roll so we could play fast paced shots in the trailer that complimented our voice over storytelling. We choose to shoot that B-roll downtown as it best simulated the setting of the book, the Bronx. We needed a number of night B-roll shots as well. One of had a deck that would that had adequate lighting as well aesthetics to simulate the setting we wanted. We had a plan and it was now time to put it into action

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Production

When filming we wanted to ensure we had enough scenes and more importantly shots to create the fast paced trailer that we wanted. To ensure we had enough footage we overshot at every location.

Our first filming location was downtown. Our goals were to gather some city and park B-roll while downtown. Along the way we stopped at Melika’s mother’s clinic and Tasmanian Comics.

After filming downtown we gathered some more local scenes at myrtle park, the seycove basketball court and a bedroom scene. During the myrtle park scene we used microphones to ensure clear and consistent sound. The Myrtle park scene and the rooftop scene were the only 2 scenes to include audio from the clips not from the voice over. After collecting the B-roll from these locations we were ready to film at our second big filming location on the night scenes. We filmed this on Adlih’s deck shortly after dusk. Through hospitable weather we filmed what I think are the best shots of our entire trailer.

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Post-production

When it was time to edit it was important to remember the important trailer elements. So far we have fast paced clips and a variety of shots. It was time to add quality music, quotes/reviews, title and most of all supportive audio. We choose to use Luca’s music that he created himself. The music fit the casual yet down to earth mood we were trying to create with our trailer. When choosing on ways to present the quotes and titles to add we used my graphic arts experience to create a visually pleasing quotes and more importantly titles.

 

Lastly we worked on voice over that was powerful in content and even more well fit to our trailer. When writing the script we ensured that the words used and timing fit the trailer. We again used microphones to ensure crisp and consistent audio. With all this work we were finally ready to complete draft one for peer critique.

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Critique and Improvement

We received critique on our first video from not only our classmates but our teacher as well. The majority of people said our trailer was looking very good and could incredible with a few minor changes.

1. The voice over audio sounds off
2. Quote style doesn’t fit the trailer
3. Ken burns doesn’t look good in the trailer

After receiving this feedback we set about fixing the video and completing our final draft. We recorded our audio again and changed the style of the quotes. We adjusted some of the clips to better fit our new audio and finished with a strong final product.

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My Thoughts

I thought our trailer was quite stunning all in all. Not to say I wouldn’t do anything different next time but I was extremely impressed with our final product. One of the major things I would do next time is be more effective when filming. Our time to get one shot was extremely long and when we are on the clock we can’t have that happen. Another failure I think we dealt with was acting; Embioding your character is hard especially when the scenes are awkward but it is what must be done to create a great film. More Happy Than Not was a very revealing book and a very interesting read to say the least. It gave me insights into many aspects of life and I recommend if you want a powerful story to read choose, More Happy Than Not. Don’t forget to watch our trailer first to see if it’s something you’ll enjoy!