Social Media Update: Teaser + New Poster

Hey!

Last night, I uploaded a teaser trailer for Keep Watching, as well as a new poster to promote the film! 

Teaser Trailer (find on @keepwatching_shortfilm on Instagram!)

    With the trailer, I wanted to remain as suspenseful as possible, not giving away any spoilers from the film, but at least hinting at the premise of it. I decided to use Katie and Alex for the teaser since their roles become slightly more prominent later within the film. In this particular thirty second glimpse, Katie and Alex's characters are walking down the stairs, talking about normal, everyday topics, in this case school. However, Katie notices something halfway through her conversation, and she stops to stare at the camera. Who she's staring at or why she is staring at the camera is unknown, but it is implied that her observation is not good because when Alex notices, the setting and characters start to glitch, promptly ending the scene. 

Editing the Teaser

When editing the glitch towards the end of the scene, I used "VR Digital Glitch" on Adobe Premiere, and adjusted the settings depending on the type of shot. The glitch started to occur when Alex breaks the fourth wall, so I timed the effect so that it would slowly appear rather than abruptly. 

As for the music within the trailer, I decided to look on Youtube MP4 first, and I was juggling between Mystery, and an instrumental track that was labeled as "Nervous Worried Anxious Scene". However, I felt that these two tracks didn't capture the suspicion or eerieness of the scene, so I decided to keep looking. After countless searches on Google for a free MP3 downloading service with royalty free music, I came across Drone, and once I heard the faint bell noise that plays fifteen seconds after the track starts, I knew that this was the one. What I liked about Drone was the low registered instrumentals it had, which brought in the frightening factor I was looking for, and it was ominous enough where it didn't seem too foward or cheesy, which is typically what I find with most royalty free tracks. Plus, I felt that the beginning of Mystery sounded a little too close to the Harry Potter theme, and while I love Harry Potter, this short film is nowhere near it. 

Links to Music Choices:

Nervous Worried Anxious Scene

Mystery

Drone

Movie Poster

As I mentioned in a previous blog, (Starting My Social Media Page!), I wanted to create another poster to promote the film alongside the original I had made. 

    With this poster, I decided to use Canva, which is what I have been using for my Instagram posts. With the text, I simply copy and pasted the text I had used for the first poster, "Year 3000", so that the title and the contents that appear on this poster are in coherrence with the the first promo poster. The tagline at the bottom is also in the same text as before, "Lastica Light", in order to maintain that vintage television/futuristic aesthetic. 

    Along with the text, I wanted the image to present the same vibe, so I decided to screenshot a scene from a certain part of Keep Watching (no I won't tell you this is a spoiler free zone...) that I felt captured the darkness of the film. In order to maintain a vintage/televised look, I edited the photo on Canva using a combination of "Radiate" and "Canvas", and adjusted the settings to my liking. 

    My toughest challenge when making this poster were the names of the actors, specifically the color they should be and where to place them. I juggled between white and red because I couldn't tell which one would be easier to read, but as you can see, I eventually choose white because I felt that the red overlapped with the title, and it was too much color overall. Originally, I had also had the last names placed on top, but due to spacing issues, I decided that having both names, first on top and last on the bottom, looked more organized. 

To see both the poster and teaster uploaded, click below!

Keep Watching Instagram