Evaluating the Trailer

For the assignment, I've created a minute long trailer to accompany the DVD label and the DVD inlay. This trailer is 60 seconds long, in a Quicktime widescreen format. I have taken clips from various Archer episodes from a variety of seasons.

My final design was a success. It took a lot of work to get to a point where I am happy with it. I have gone through a variety of ideas and different designs to follow throughout this process, and I am pleased with the final result. I have successfully used the tools in premiere to create a final video that stays true to the source material, even utilising a song from the series. Editing the song proved difficult, as the editing tools only allowed for a minimum edit, which was not quite accurate enough to get seamless transition between clips. If I had more time, I would have used some other software to complete this transition, allowing me a seamless change between the two. As it stands, it is barely noticeable and still works adequately for the trailer. 

Editing some of the clips provided more trouble than I expected. Especially trying to get a copy of the scene I wanted without any TV logos or similar on them. In the end I've had to include clips with this in place, as I did not have the time to address this issue. If I had to do this again, and I used the same premise, I would make sure I could obtain all of the source material I needed without such logos being in place. One way I would attempt this, would be to use some screen capture software to copy the scene I needed from a DVD or even a streaming service such as Netflix. This could have added to the trailer, but unfortunately I could not complete it this time due to time constraints. 

Another option could have been to make use of the Isis logo to try to cover over any issues such as these. While this would have provided an easy way of covering the unwanted logos, sadly they were in a position that would have obscured the clips I am using to too great of a degree. I have used images within the trailer already, so the process of placing them in would not have caused an issue. The border I used is an image that was taken from the clip, and altered. 

During the creation of the trailer, I used a lot of existing archer footage, this may have been an issue if I was creating this for another project. As the film would be created by whoever held the rights to the franchise, it would not be an issue of using copyrighted work. The only sections of the trailer that wasn't original footage was the background track and the initial few seconds of the trailer where the computer terminal appears to initialise. This was taken from a video on YouTube that was created to achieve a similar effect. This could be an issue for copyright, although should this have been made for a real film, the effect would have been used in the film already, so would have tied in better with the art style of the animations. The backing music track is actually part of season 5 of Archer, where Carol/Sheryl/Crystal/Cherlene has a singing career as a country singer. This would also cause no issues with copyright as it would also be owned by the company holding the rights. 

Overall there isn't much I would change with the trailer, although I would have liked to have given myself more time to put finishing touches in places, such as removing the company logos and editing the soundtrack as mentioned. I like the clips I have chosen, and although I regrettably missed out 2 characters I would have liked to have feature, Krieger and Woodhouse, I feel the trailer is a good introduction to the show, and serves it's purpose of showing the film, without giving away much beyond the initial plot and the setting. While it would have been hard to give away spoilers to the plot using original footage, even with fresh footage available, I would have kept a very similar script for the trailer, to entice fans, without ruining the experience.

 

I think I used the time I allocated to the trailer well, as I am happy with the final product. I would have liked to spend more time correcting the issues already mentioned, perhaps changing a few minor other details, like exploring more techniques with transitions to try to make the trailer seem more exciting or dynamic in places. Overall I am happy with my progress on the trailer, as I have found the entire module rather difficult. I should perhaps have dedicated more time in total to the assignment, as the creativity required and the broad scope of it was daunting at first and hindered my decision making, but once I had started to make progress, I found it moved along rather quickly.