High School Trailer

For our second project in entertainment, we were tasked with recreating a trailer for a high school movie shot for shot. The movies we could choose from were films like The Breakfast Club and High School Musical. My partner and I actually chose The DUFF, which, although not originally on the list, is still about high schoolers.

In order to storyboard this, I had to watch the trailer on YouTube and screenshot each shot. When I say each shot, I mean every single one; whenever the camera angle changed, I had to take another screenshot. It was tedious, but we had a solid storyboard at the end. My partner wrote the script, so we could give it to our actors.

Filming itself was, to be honest, sort of a disaster at times. It took way too long to get done with it and we ended up filming some on my phone, which was a good learning experience. I'll definitely make a schedule next time. Our actors were mostly chosen out of convenience, meaning they were all our friends; this was another mistake. Working with acquaintances is fine, because you can stay professional. With friends, however, it's difficult to say, "okay, we actually need to get this done" without sounding rude.

I don't think I've ever made a video this long before, but it's not too hard. I also had to implement music throughout the whole video while keeping the emphasis on the dialogue. Audio gain is a valuable tool in those situations for sure. One of the scenes we shot was on an extremely windy day, and I used Highpass to get rid of some of it, but it distorted the audio. Next time, I'll watch the weather.

Overall, this project was valuable to me because of the realization that came with it: I'm just not meant for film. After turning this project in, spring break started, and I spent the whole time reconsidering my decision for my classes for junior and senior year. When I got back, I changed my schedule from entertainment to graphic design. So, yeah; it may have sucked, but at least it was a wake-up call.