Raiders of the Lost Ark - Fan-Made Trailer

For my very first post I'd like to announce a fan trailer I made. Here's the link, I hope you enjoy!

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&n=2&videoID=982630785

You may need to have Flash 9 to view.

Welcome RR! Enjoy your stay at the Raven. Watch for flying furniture. Don't say I didn't warn you!

Welcome to the Raven, Rod the Raider!!! I'd would comment on your trailer, but the computer I'm on at the moment doesn't have Flash 9.

Thanks for the welcome!

Since making this Raiders fan trailer I have been bitten by the bug and are doing some more of other films from the 80's. On the table are:

Back to the Future
Ghostbusters
Beverly Hills Cop

After that there may be more, depends on which I choose, lol!

Cheers!

Sounds awesome. Always great to see another budding filmmaker around here.

Rod The Raider said:

Thanks for the welcome!

Since making this Raiders fan trailer I have been bitten by the bug and are doing some more of other films from the 80's. On the table are:

Back to the Future
Ghostbusters
Beverly Hills Cop

After that there may be more, depends on which I choose, lol!

Cheers!

Click to expand...

I couldn't view the trailer either but that's a nice selection of movies. Doing trailers is always fun. I've never done any myself because I'm failure, but I can imagine how they would be if I really did some trailers and trust me, they look pretty good. Have you ever seen those trailers that AMC does for older movies? I don't know where you live so you may not know what I'm talking about. Well they're more like T.V. spots because they're so short; they do them whenever they are doing a station premiere. I think my favourite one was for The French Connection. The original trailer was boring and sort of had bad timing like most trailers did in and before the 70's, but they made that movie look so cool with their T.V. spot. Almost better than the movie actually is.

You're not a failure. You've more chance than I have at making it. You're a native of the right country with a big industry.

Well it sounds like the only person stopping you is yourself. If you can imagine how your trailers would be then go ahead and make them.

I want to be a filmmaker and even though I'm not working on professional projects or in film school, I am doing what I can until that time.

Making trailers is great practice for editing as it helps you see how things flow, it gives you a sense of pacing and helps you see that changing things can create different effects.

So if you want to be a filmmaker or even if you just want to do a trailer for fun, then go ahead and make one. Don't let people say you're not doing anything constructive because I think it is a great exercise in problem solving too.

Thanks for the encouragement Rod and Violet, but really the main thing stopping me is not having enough money. I also have no intention of trying to dive right into Hollywood. That would be like throwing myself to the dogs. Rod, what kind of software do you use for your trailers?

No problem about the encouragement. Its nice to know that my comments are appreciated and are positive.

I use a ripping program called Glarysoft and it allows you to jump to any point on the track by simply clicking on jump and punching in the hour/minute/second. You can also rip whole chapters or the film as a whole.

My first step is to mark out the finish and ending times for each bit of footage I want to use by watching it through a DVD player on my computer and typing the data into a word processor. The second step is then capturing the footage.

The third step is to insert the media into an editing program. I use Ulead Video Studio 8, which isn't a top of the line editor like Adobe Premiere but it does the job. I have the full version which was included on a CD with a magazine.

Then you just go through your footage and make deletions on what isn't appropriate and I then trim clips where needed and mix and match till I get it flowing well. You'll be able to tell if the pacing needs changing.

In the meantime, if you wanted to save money for top of the line editing software, you can just watch films and pay attention to cutting and pacing. Watch docos on DVD's about editing and listening to how editors work with footage and how they perceive pacing and whatnot.

Even if you don't have loads of money you can still do things associated with the skill. Thats what I've done. I only have a medium quality video camera in terms of image but that doesn't stop me from learning how to capture footage and making short films.

I do many other things that are associated with film. For instance I do voice acting. I do stage acting but since I haven't done any for a year, I resorted to voice acting online. So for filmmaking, you can do other things associated with what you want to do, which will help you.

So don't let money be a hinderance, just see it as a way for you to be challenged and find other methods. Afterall, a lot of learning is trial and error!

Hope this helps a little.

I'm no expert, lol but some of what I say is important

My biggest prob is timing. I do have people I can work with and I make films with film school but, many are busy with jobs and stuff. That's why I've gone to film school to be able to make films and to immerse myself in knowledge from experienced people from the industry. Money is something I have learnt my way around. Ok, my films in high school may not look like a Spielberg film, but it's done and dusted and move on to the next project. So I have done what yu're talking about, Rod. All the time. I just make the best of what I've got and go on.

Glarysoft??? I haven't heard of that one. I use Final Cut Pro, Premiere and sometimes Avid. Final Cut the easiest to learn one's way around and comes out rather professional looking. Your words are also encouraging to me as are those of my lecturers.

I just want to enter a large film industry where there are jobs. Australia doesn't have that. I don't necessarily mean Hollywood either.

Glarysoft is just the program I use to grab the clips off the DVD's and I'd love to have a computer that can handle Adobe Premiere or any other great editing programs. What I'm using now is okay for what I'm doing.

I'm going to film school to learn the technicalities not their way of making films necessarily. I don't want to be another add water and stir Director. I want to be an independent filmmaker who makes films on their terms. Of course that doesn't mean I'll be a selfish director, it just means that I won't lower my standards or my artisitic merit for others.

I'm glad my words are encouraging and its something that I'm going to continue to do because one of my goals is to own my own production company that mentors independent filmmakers. I believe that there's a lot of talent out there, people who just want to get things made to show they can acheive results, and I want to be able to give them those chances.

I know how frustrating it is to be so knowledgeable and have all these ideas, passion and enthusiasm and not having an outlet.

I don't want to be an "add water and stir" director either. I just want to do films that have humanity in it. I don't mean melodramas. I just mean a kind of film that actually has spirit. That's what I see in the Indiana Jones films.