Task: Storyboard an Existing Film Trailer

Taking the last task a step further, you could always create a storyboard for an existing film trailer. This will help demonstrate the type of camera shot/angles/movement that are typical of trailers of that genre, but it was also show you how pace is created through editing and sound.

Depending on the genre you think you'll choose for your A2 piece, a really good example is the trailer for The Lovely Bones. The trailer begins like a teenage romantic comedy or family film, but the tone quickly changes around 0.34 when the character's narration reveals that she was murdered. This is then followed by a black screen, but when the moving image continues the colour-palette is of a noticeably darker hue. This is paralleled with the change in soundtrack and the slow-motion shots of the main character with the diegetic sound of a gentleman's voice off-screen. From then on, the tone is more sombre, but in true trailer fashion the pace increases towards 1.30 to mirror the panic of her father as he tries to solve the mystery of what has happened to his daughter. As the intensity of the soundtrack increases, so does the speed of the montage of shots until it comes to its climax at the same time the screen turns black at 2.21, before a final teaser shot and the title of the film.



This is a typical structure of a horror/thriller, but other genres follow a similar narrative structure. Have a go and see for yourselves!