Little Problem In The Big Library - ID# 115
Morton East
Movie Trailer
Entry Description
"Movie Trailer for an upcoming film in which one Lego has to escape to a better life." Music Resources: Manchester Music Library, Volume 17, Tracks 7 and 14. License was purchased from Production Garden Music on January 31, 2007. Unlimited Usage Lifetime Blanket/Royalty-Free.
Recent Teacher Comments
- 4/25 10:39 am - The concept for this film is very creative. The "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" plot always makes for grand scale adventures in a relatively normal space. I was hoping to see more of the scale dilemma in the trailer because those challenges would be the selling point of the film. The main character, being a lego, was hard to connect with because it is a partially-animate object, with no dialogue or expression to its face.
- 4/23 12:48 pm - Very creative idea, I'll give you that! Graphics need improvement, as does the voice over of the narrator. Needs a bit more passion in the voice to make it work. Love the fact that you did this in stop motion for parts- and the little charcater was a great idea. The story itself just needs more development and more action with the small guy. Span this shoot out to a couple weeks where you can really get lots of quick scenes done and you would have something! That way we can really see he is small and see some of the adventures he is going to get into while in the libraray.
- 4/7 8:33 pm - The stop motion with the lego was an interesting choice and some of your shots were fun to realize the small lego and the big library. The story needed more. An effective movie trailer needs to introduce characters and give the audience a reason to care. It has to have a clearly defined conflict, build rising action, and reveal a title. I didn't know enough about your protagonist. Instead of "what seemed like a normal day," why not something in the voice over that more clearly defines the protagonist so the audience feels like they "know" that person. That's the trick. If I don't know or connect with the character, I won't care about the story. The production value had some interesting shots of the lego man, but work on focus and steady camera work. Audio levels need work. See the other comments for suggestions on this. If anything audio is more important in a movie trailer than the visuals. Also, from a production design standpoint, why not have the protagonist dressed to match the lego outfit or vice versa? It would have made for better consistency.
- 3/4 9:00 am - I like the concept of using the lego guy and scale for a trailer idea. Show more scale comparison in the opening shots of the lego guy (for example next to a book). Out of focus library shot, voiceover sounds muffled and/or is overtaken by the background music.
- 2/26 9:15 am - Camera: first shot of your guy at :15 is out of focus. Sound: Back up off the mic! That opening voice over almost blew out my speakers. Audio levels weren't mixed appropriately; music bed was too loud in many parts. Make sure you're watching the VU meter when you're recording AND editing. Dialogue levels should be between -6 and -12 db, sound effects between -12 and -18 db, and music beds should be around -24 db. Editing: the pace was fine, but the constant flipping back and forth between the titles with the voice over and the action was annoying. If you have a voice over, then you don't necessarily need the titles. The VO can go over action. Story: creative idea for integrating live action with stop motion. But from a story perspective, not too sure HOW the Lego guy became alive, how he got to the library, why he's in the library, why it's a problem for him to be in the library, why he needs to get out of the library, and how he will do it. A lot of unanswered questions, and not in a good way.
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