THE LEVELLING – making the trailer

Mike Tang

A trailer is about 90 seconds.  Sounds easy right?  Nope.

Trailers are hard – which is why we hand the work off to our super-talented editor Claire!  (Joking aside, we here at Peccadillo do have some input…)  So, to take you into the magic of what goes on here, this is a quick rundown on how we do it and some of the thoughts that go into it.

Watch the film
It always starts with the film.  We watch it, watch it again and then again.

This lets us decide on the direction we want to take it in terms of marketing.  Is there anything there we’d like to highlight and show off in a trailer?  Lines of dialogue, scenes, getting the tone and emotion spot on.  We’re trying to set the appropriate tone and feel that will show the film off at its best.

Editing, editing, still editing…
Then we call in our editor, Claire.  (Fans of lesbian film and culture, you really have to take a look at her work.)

We give her our take on the film and she can add her input.  Claire stitches together the scenes and music that puts our vision into 90 seconds.  It’s not a quick process and we may work through several versions before we’re happy.

For THE LEVELLING, the film’s a stunning drama powered by the towering performances of Ellie Kendrick (Game of Thrones) and David Troughton (The Archers).  We wanted to highlight that.  The mood, the beauty of the film, the interplay and inherent drama between Ellie and David’s characters, the feelings we had when we first watched the film.

In the edit suite to finalise the trailer.

Finishing touches
We add in some strong review quotes for the film.  Why?  Well, we think our films are pretty good and so we’re going to shout about it.

Next is the sound.  It’s here that we sometimes work with a sound studio.  For THE LEVELLING, the wizards at Tamborine have been working their magic.  They work on effects, the dialogue, the music – anything that you can hear, they can work on and improve.  It’s about creating the mood to match the video, to fit the mood and direction that we want.

We took a trip to Tamborine’s studio to review their work and the difference it makes is incredible.  As any cinephile will tell you, sound adds a huge dimension of atmosphere to images on screen.

Harder than it looks
Did you notice a theme?  One word: we.  It’s a team effort, both from technical and creative standpoints.

The trailer for THE LEVELLING is out now.  Hopefully, you’ll have an insight into what we were thinking when it came to putting it together.

In the meantime, keep up with news on THE LEVELLING on Facebook and Twitter.

Blimey, this was a bit long-winded
Just wait till I write about how we do posters.

Ellie Kendrick