Almost Done!!!!!

I'm making headway into my second trailer, and I'm really pleased with how it's turning out. I want to spend a significant portion of this blog talking about the song selection and that process (which took surprisingly less time than usual) and how I managed to come away with two really great choices. I'll get right to it. 

"Dead Forest" was a great choice for the back end of my trailer. It automatically brings to mind "thriller", so it fit my genre really well. I really lucked out in finding it, because it's not too dramatic, and it doesn't feel too rushed. It brings in tons of suspense and has a more natural sound to it, so I can contrast it with some unnatural sounds for the demons and the demon transformation. I was about to disregard it initially, too, so I dodged a bullet by actually clicking on it to listen. My only critique of the song is that the name is misleading (it doesn't really feel woods-y). It also is almost perfectly timed with my clips already. Pretty much all of the beats fit in perfectly, and I don't have to adjust much. This is one of the few times where I actually like my music selection, so that in itself feels like an accomplishment. I should mention that I found it on the YouTube Audio Library, and that's what this is here. I listened to a few other options on this page and the next few pages (the YouTube Audio Library has a lot of options) and nothing else came close to "Dead Forest" in terms of feel, tempo, and clip compatibility. Again, this is for the latter half of the trailer (yes, I'm splitting up the sections again, but this time it's a little more cohesive). This part of the trailer is where all the best  thriller and horror shots are at. I'm hoping that it'll really be mind-boggling, and I want my music to reflect that. 

Here's the song that I chose for the beginning portion of the trailer:

"Oman Groomer" (great title, by the way) is not as dark as the other song, for sure. Though it's listed as classical and calm, it really does have a lot of hints of suspense. It has the juxtaposition of the higher melody with the darker notes of the upright bass. It just seems as though something is off, like it's telling you not to trust what you see and hear. Which is perfect for the first part of y trailer. For this one, there's pretense of happy atmosphere. It's straight to the creepy and the off-putting. I wanted my two trailers to be distinctly different in their feel, and this goes a long way in helping me achieve that. And for once, I had fun finding the music. That might be because I didn't have to search as meticulously as usual, because I found the songs I wanted pretty quickly this time around. I just fell in love with the two. 

I'm already putting in the other stings and sound effects, I have them all imported, I just need to actually put them in to my sequence. I'm having some trouble picking out other demon noises I can use, just so I don't have to reuse the demonic woman scream. Again, I don't just want to copy my first trailer. I might keep you posted on that, or I'll just leave it as a surprise for later. 

I'm also adding more transitions and correcting more of the audio. With the actual songs picked out, I can do that easier. I've already corrected most of the audio, I just have to finish up with the transitions. I still want to see if I can do something a little more creative with the transitions, or find some way to make them a little more stylized. I want my trailer to include this special sense of style, not just with the lighting, but the transitions, too.

I've also added some markers to remind myself where exactly to put the text cards:

There's some places where I'm still a little hesitant to put them, but I have a more detailed plan now. Unfortunately, I've been changing the text that I'm putting there around so much that I might just scrap what I already have written and start again. I'm beginning to hate text cards. I just don't want it to come off as tacky, but I know that some psychological thrillers use them to present an idea or theme. They might make my target audience more interested, so I'll try to figure it out. 

This is basically it for today. I really should get back to working on the media component and do a little more editing while I'm at it. Really excited for you guys to see it, and I'll be really relieved when I'm done.