I
A movie trailer is a short advertisement for a feature film. According to Wikipedia, “trailers consist of a series of selected shots from the film being advertised. Since the purpose of the trailer is to attract an audience to the film, these excerpts are usually drawn from the film’s most exciting, funny, or otherwise noteworthy parts, but in abbreviated form and usually without producing spoilers.” Working like visual tone poems, they evoke the story’s moods and textures, while gesturing toward the film’s most essential narrative and cinematic points, condensed into a loosely connected, emotionally powerful montage.
In general, trailers have three parts. Within the first third, a trailer (1) establishes the film’s premise. In the second third, it (2) elaborates the story associated with this premise in an abridged, elliptical form. Often, this elaboration builds toward a shocking action or cliffhanger. Finally, in the last third, the trailer (3) shows a quickly paced montage of the film’s thrilling/horrifying/funny/beautiful moments. This montage is often accompanied by complementary music. Likewise, it might include a list of stars, critical blurbs, or other information. We can see these conventions played out in the trailer for Gillo Pontecorvo’s Battle of Algiers and Jennifer Phang’s Advantageous. For further examples, you might also see the trailer for Napoleon Dynamite and The Revenant.
For this assignment, you must make a trailer for a fake film adaptation of one literary work that we have read this semester. Drawing on the aesthetic possibilities of filmmaking that you’ve learned from our quarterly explorations of film (mise-en-scene, cinematography, and editing), the trailer should represent the literary work’s most crucial moments, while also evoking the textures of that work’s world. The assignment will require you to extensively collaborate with your peers. Likewise, it will require you to write, draw, film, act, edit, and make various other aesthetic choices. In the end, the trailer should be between 2 and 2 ½ minutes in length.
II
This project will involve multiple responsibilities:
Director: contributes to all phases of production. While the director collaborates with every member of the team, the trailer is largely the product of their creative vision. During the creative process, the director must constantly communicate their ideas to everyone else — the scriptwriter, the storyboard artist, the cinematographer, the actors, the editor, &c. — and adapt the crew’s ideas to their own. It’s a significant responsibility.
Scriptwriter: develops the screenplay for the trailer. While this responsibility involves isolating the most meaningful, interesting, or impressive scenes from the literary work, it also requires ordering these fragments into a condensed story that inspires audiences to see the film. During the project, the screenplay will likely evolve through several drafts. During filming, it will serve as a reference point for the film team, especially the director and actors.
Storyboard artist: visualizes the scriptwriter’s screenplay. Collaborating with the director and cinematographer, the storyboard artist sketches how the camera will frame a scene, paying especially close attention to where subjects (e.g. actors) are positioned within the frame and the camera’s orientation toward them (e.g., distance, angles, movement). The storyboard will guide the director and cinematographer during the creative process of shooting the film.
Actors: portray the characters from the literary work. They will perform the scenes isolated in the screenplay, and cooperate with the director and cinematographer to reproduce the plans visualized in the storyboard. They also get to dress up.
Costume designer, set designer, make-up artist (&c.): designs the actor’s wardrobe, physical appearance, and the visual elements in any given scene. The film crew (director excluded) will likely share these duties. Note that Fing respectfully prefers that we not use the costumes and props in the theater department for this project.
Cinematographer: operates the camera. The cinematographer interprets the director’s ideas for the trailer into a visual style that exploits different camera angles, movements, and effects. They work closely with the director and, in the early stages of the filmmaking process, with the storyboard artist (who sketches frames based on their visual style). Etymologically, “cinematography” means writing with movement.
Editor: creates a coherent montage of the filmed scenes. The editor creates this sense of continuity by juxtaposing one image with another. Further, they will add music, voice-over narration, and other features (e.g., the film’s title, critical blurbs). This position requires attention to very small details and comfort with computer technology. The editor engineers the final, polished trailer.
III
Furthermore, this project will involve multiple stages of production. Several days of class have been reserved to fulfill these stages. However, in order to complete this project by the deadline, you may also need to work outside of class, especially in order to plan and prepare for filming. To facilitate this process, I encourage you to start an email thread where the team’s ideas can be accessed and commented on by everyone. This correspondence fosters communication among the team members through every phase of production. These phases include:
Planning (pre-production): During this stage of production, the scriptwriter and the storyboard artist will be most busy. Cooperating with the director (and other team members), the scriptwriter should be drafting the “script” for the trailer (e.g., identifying the scenes that will be included, sequencing the scenes, isolating lines that will be acted out). Likewise, the storyboard artist should be visualizing these drafts through rough, frame-by-frame sketches. Storyboards often outline where the actor will stand in the frame, where the camera will be positioned in relation to the actor, and minimal script and extra diegetic information. (You can check out examples of storyboards here and here. See here for extra detailed examples.) Of course, during this stage, actors should be studying their characters and lines, and the cinematographer and editor should be contributing to the development of ideas. Everyone should help design a shooting schedule that identifies what scenes will be shot on which days. This stage will overlap with the research stage. Guidelines for this stage are available here.
Research: Your fake trailer should be informed by research. Your research may concern historical information about the literary work’s time period (e.g., fashionable clothing during the Harlem Renaissance), critical responses to texts (e.g., an analysis of “Sweat”), and/or filmmaking techniques (e.g., different cinematographic or editing conventions). This stage should expand and enrich your knowledge of the selected literary work and/or filmmaking conventions. Guidelines for this stage are available here.
Filming: Now the cinematographer, actors, and set/costume designers shine. Using the script and storyboard to guide the creative process, you must begin filming on location (around Uni High, inside or outside). Three class days have been reserved for the filming stage (see dates below). Try to follow your shooting schedule, and use this time wisely.
Editing: Now the editor takes the helm. During this stage, the editor splices the footage into a coherent whole. While this responsibility largely belongs to them, every member on the team should contribute ideas to the creative process. Three class days have also been reserved for this stage (see dates below). We will be using Adobe Premiere, which you’ve used in Computer Literacy too.
Exhibition: Once the trailer has been completed, you should share your final video with me. It’s easiest to upload your video to YouTube as an unlisted video. We will hold a screening of the trailers on the last day of class — Thursday (5/16) and Friday (5/17).
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As a group, you will also be required to submit a portfolio of your project. This portfolio should include artifacts of the creative process, e.g., (drafts of) the screenplay, (drafts of) the storyboard, (drafts of) the shooting schedule, notes, electronic exchanges — anything that demonstrates your groups’ collaboration. This portfolio should provide evidence of your group’s creative process and cooperation.
As an individual, you must submit one last personal reflection that explains your rhetorical choices and examines their effects. The guidelines for this self-reflection are available here.
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So, in a nutshell: make a fake trailer, then submit both a group portfolio demonstrating your collaborative creative process and an individual reflection essay examining your aesthetic choices. The schedule is
4/25 | 4/26 — select text to be adapted; assign responsibilities; brainstorm ideas for trailer (after PechaKuchas)
4/29 (⚓) — research and planning
4/30 | 5/1 — research and planning
5/2 | 5/3 — filming
5/6 (⚓) — filming
5/7 | 5/8 — filming / editing
5/9 | 5/10 — editing
5/13 (⚓) — editing
5/14 | 5/15 — writing self-reflection essay and compiling electronic group portfolio
5/16 | 5/17 — screening of fake trailers. Plus deadlines for complete fake trailer, self-reflection essay, and group portfolio
Assigned groups for this project are available here.
Language & Literature III 
