I found creating my trailer to be extremely beneficial, in both the promotion of the film and the post production of the film as when i created it I actually was still editing the major film. I started out with the idea of using snippets of conversations between the two characters (Tilly and Stevie) focusing more on the toxic friendship and the escape to leave the small town, I decided against this idea as I remembered back to a few months ago where we discussed my research and development film during talent lab with festival curators, One said to me that the film being about a young girl being stalked was what captivated him the most, with this in mind I decided the trailer should focus on the stalking aspect rather than the Toxic friendship within.
When beginning to edit the trailer I decided to start by speaking directly to the stalker, this way the audience immediately knows the main plot of the film, I go on to address via voice over the story that unfolds, using visually impactful shots from the film, There were two things I battled with a lot when editing the trailer one was if I was to leave screenshots within the trailer, this is a big part of the film, showing the message Tilly is receiving and I wasn't too sure if this was something I needed to leave for people to see within the film, I decided against this and added a shot including screenshots of messages, I did this as another trigger to the audience, to show the main plot of the film and the harassment Tilly is receiving. The second being if I wanted to show Tilly speaking directly to the camera, agains his is another big part of the film that really connects the audience to the character, Tilly speaking directly to them, after reviewing the situation I decided against adding this aspect into the trailer as I felt this could be left for the film.
Once i had created the first trailer and reviewed it several times I decided I wanted to add different shots, shots I felt would capture audiences attention, although I then moved on to create the second trailer that inserted different shots going at a slightly faster pace, I felt really confident about this version, I then sent it out to a few people to review one of them being [R E T R E A T ] who made the music for us, we decided in a change in there logo so I set out to re design them multiple logos from which they picked the best one, I then changed certain parts of the trailer again, adding different shots, and the new ending titles.
Following this I knew I wanted to get feedback although I wasn't personally ready to share the trailer as I wanted the official release date to be 3rd May 2019,at this point certain family members had seen the trailer and asked to share on there own personal facebooks without tagging me in, I jumped at this oppertunity and we received so many amazing comments, one that stood out to me the most was from H.R. they replied to my trailer saying:
"I think it’s really impressive, very powerful words and imagery. The introduction is moody and hooks you in very quickly and then you’re taken to a different setting, you could actually watch it several times over picking up new elements each time. I thought each different setting was really visually clear, even in the darker settings, clever changes in the scenes in the grasses etc when watching over her shoulder. Vocals were very clear to listen too as well." and also "Amazing trailer, os that already out? I'm sure I saw it advertised yesterday on Bee TV on fire stick under HD releases".
Please play in (1080p HD)
Final Version: