Trailer Competition: The Winners
We had 57 official entries. That’s a lot, and it’s about the most I could handle without my eyeballs exploding.1 I’m happy to report that many of the entries were quite good, and it was genuinely a pleasure to watch them. Most of them.
I feel like I should pad this opening bit with a few more paragraphs explaining the organizational process (a shared Google spreadsheet), judging criteria (uniqueness > believability) and common elements (nearly every trailer had Hope Davis’s boobs getting groped). But all you really want to know is who won.
So without ado…
Best “Pure” Trailer
“City of Untamed Lust” by Michael Bell
Note that the “pure” category means trailers that use only the footage provided, not that they’re necessarily true to the spirit of the movie. The latter really deserves its own category, so I’m going to use executive privilege to create one.
Could Have Been The Actual Trailer Award
The Nines Trailer by Ed Jones
You can see a much higher-res version of the trailer here.
Best Mash-Up
The Nines (Holiday Version) by cmikes
While these are the award-winners, there are a lot of honorable mentions and notable efforts:
- Most Lynchian: DougJ
- Best Tone Poem: Jeff Campbell
- Best Music Video: Klaudio
- Notable Achievement in Cutting: chicago3j
- Most Merchant/Ivory: Andreas Climent
- The “Without A Trace” Award for Aggressive Color-Timing: gpschnyder
- Best Tic-Tac-Toe: joelarue
- Most Punk Rock: takahlah
- Props for the French New Wave: CostaBravler
- Feels Small But Good Award: joelnorn
- Best Sitcom: Marcelo Iglesias
- The KevanRCraft Award for Generosity in Commenting: KevanRCraft
There were at least another half-dozen that were solid, mostly ones that played it fairly straight. They didn’t stand out because, well, they didn’t stand out. As much as one tries to keep fresh eyes, after the first 20, it’s the novel ones that get noticed.
A general observation is that the successful trailers were the ones that picked a simple concept and stuck with it. Many trailers felt like they were driven by what footage was left in the bin.
Even though the official contest is over, I’ll keep seeding the footage, so if seeing these trailers has inspired any non-participants to try their mouse at it, by all means go ahead. There’s a new thread set up to keep track of post-competition entries. I’ll be checking in occasionally, and if one catches my eye I may post it here (and at lookforthenines.com).
Thanks and congrats to all who participated. It was really refreshing to see the movie cut to ribbons reinterpreted.
- Someone asked yesterday what I would have done if a thousand people entered. I would have curled into a fetal ball and rocked myself through tears. ↩
Articles
September 26th, 2007 at 5:16 am
After looking through all, or at least most, of the videos yesterday, these were my exact same picks (except I didn’t see the holiday mash-up). I figured it would be a toss up between the most original/entertaining trailer by Michael Bell and the most professional trailer from Ed Jones. Glad to see they were both awarded. Congrats guys.
Good call on the honorable mention to KevanRCraft, as well.
September 26th, 2007 at 5:43 am
Congratulations, Michael, Ed & cmikes! And thank you, John, for this really great competition. I hope The Nines come to Germany - after all those trailers I’m dying to see it…
September 26th, 2007 at 6:05 am
Yay, I got a honorable mention! Had to look up Merchant & Ivory and it turns out I’ve never seen any of their films so I feel really compelled to check them out now!
Congrats to everyone, a lot of the trailers are great. I especially enjoyed cmikes Holiday mashup, nice work.
Thanks John for hosting the competition and working your way through all the entries. I had a lot of fun both working on my trailer and checking out what everyone else came up with.
September 26th, 2007 at 6:19 am
I would have loved to have given this a go, but a combination of not having seen the film yet, and work keeping me busy (bloody dust!) meant that I couldn’t quite bring myself to do it…
I downloaded the footage, though, so I’m going to hold onto it and have a play for my own purposes once I’ve seen the actual film!
September 26th, 2007 at 6:30 am
Thank you John. This is a really cool honor. It was a pleasure to have such great material to work from. I’d like to send you an un-youtube-compressed version if I can. Contact me and I’ll overnight a DVD for you.
September 26th, 2007 at 6:48 am
Congratulations to the winners!
This competition seems to have spawned a lot of enthusiasm…at least it did with me. Now I’m really looking forward to seeing the movie.
September 26th, 2007 at 7:05 am
Yeah, got a honorable mention. But “The “Without A Traceâ€? Award for Aggressive Color-Timing”?
Like it
This was a lot of fun.
Thanks
September 26th, 2007 at 7:42 am
Good gravy. I have to say: Ed Jones - well done.
September 26th, 2007 at 8:07 am
Congrats to the winners! They were really good, i have a few more ideas now of what i could do so i may even end up doing some more trailers. Got the editing bug now! I’d like to try and do the effects with the words and flashes that people managed to include, that was the one thing i regretted now having on mine.
September 26th, 2007 at 8:17 am
Best Tic-Tac-Toe, woohoo!! This was so much fun to work on - now I’m really curious about the process that led to the official trailer. How many versions of -that- did you have to watch?
September 26th, 2007 at 8:46 am
Merci bien, John!
September 26th, 2007 at 9:00 am
I hope that mine wasn’t one of the ones you didn’t enjoy watching, but thanks for the opportunity, really enjoyed it.
September 26th, 2007 at 9:22 am
Thanks for this opportunity, John. And thanks for the honorable mention
This was a terrific challenge and so much fun.
September 26th, 2007 at 9:25 am
a higher res version for anyone who’s interested…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3Kdldk_GEI
merci encore, john!
September 26th, 2007 at 10:06 am
Thanks John, I really enjoyed making this and the one week deadline kept the pressure on. I can’t wait for the UK release; it’ll be strange watching the film and seeing all the clips in context. Also, thanks for all the positive comments…
September 26th, 2007 at 10:28 am
Very cool stuff, and that´s not restricted to the mentioned folks - thanks for that everybody!
September 26th, 2007 at 11:08 am
Thanks a lot for the honorable mention!!! It was really a pleasure to participate in the competition, very fun and interesting. A great idea!
Congratulations to the winners, they’re fantastic.
I’m waiting with expectation for the movie, I hope we can enjoy it soon down here.
Thank you again, John.
Marcelo Iglesias, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
September 26th, 2007 at 11:12 am
Thanks John for the honourable mention and hosting the contest. I’m a newbie editor in the world of post and the contest was a worthwile challenge/exercise. The footage was not easy to put together in a new light, as just about the only thing you could do with it was create the “it’s-a-thriller-but-not mood”. After organizing and screening all the footage, I knew titles or a narrator was going to be the only way to get a successful narrative out of this thing so props to Michael Bell for getting it done in an entertaining fashion.
Next time around (that’s right John, we need you to make more features so you can host more contests) the only thing I would suggest is handles…we NEEEEED handles……(i.e. an extra 2 to 4 seconds on the heads and tails of your clips).
Had fun and look forward to seeing the movie. I was hoping it would be at VIFF (vancouver) but I don’t see it. Ah well, the new Gus Van Sant will have to do for now until The Nines gets to our little art houses on the east side.
September 26th, 2007 at 11:43 am
Great job guys and congrats to Michael Bell, Ed Jones, and cmikes! Excellent!
Woo hoo, I got Best Music Video! Dances
Can’t wait to see the movie John, it looks amazing!
September 26th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
Joe (#10):
The “official” trailer was done by Mojo, a production house who does a lot of trailers. We (the producers and I) saw a pretty early cut, and offered them some stuff that our editor, Doug Crise and I had done for a temp trailer. So the result is kind of a combination. I like it a lot, but there are certainly other ways we could have gone.
There’s a version that uses better music, but we couldn’t afford to license those songs. One challenge of a little indie movie is that there’s only X dollars to do everything, so priorities have to be made.
September 26th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
Hey John,
I’m sure at least a few readers would have interest in this query:
Does the studio REQUIRE an ad company like Mojo create the trailer? You would think the best team of people to make a trailer would be the editor and director of the film, but is the problem that you and doug would only end up making an intriguing and smart trailer that beautifully compliments the film? I.E. Is the studio (or whoever is in financial control of the film) more reassured by an ad company that can guarantee mass appeal and provide projections on hitting target demo’s, etc. etc.
Is it as simple as the idea “a trailer is a commercial, hence you go to an ad company to get your trailer”?
September 26th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
“The Lovers who Loved that Love!” hilarious Michael, nice job. Great music choice, too.
Congrats to all! I’d love to see a 30 second version of the Holiday mash-up if CMikes is up for it?
JOHN, a question: what was your procedure for shooting the “love scene” with your actors? Did they have enough time with each other to get in a comfort zone where they can simulate that kind of intimacy, or do pro actors like them just flip a switch and suddenly they’re making love to the greatest love of their life? I always wonder about that, especially if they don’t know each other before the movie, which I’m sure happens all the time. Thanks, Dan.
September 26th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
Congratulations to the winners. Really impressive.
September 26th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
Wow, Ed Jones’ one was AWESOME! I’m really desperate to see the film now. I can’t believe you hadn’t seen it when you made the trailer, Ed!
Congrats.
September 26th, 2007 at 10:31 pm
Hi #21 As someone who commissions the MOJO’s of the world to make trailers/posters, I must say at the end of the day, it’s all in the contract as to who gets to make the trailer. The movies at our studio all have a budget. How much that budget is depends on what type of film we are marketing. Most of the time it’s us marketing folks who hire an agency. Sometimes we get it right and other times well, sometimes no matter what you do you can’t make a film look good. And yes, there are time when we f*** it up because there’s no firm decision on how to market the thing (hey, we are all human). We do have to run each trailer/poster, by the studio, filmmakers and major talent (exactly who you show it to for each film varies but sometimes you also rely on relationships too). It’s usually when you have a hopeful blockbuster that a director/editor will be involved. Sometimes it’s a pleasure, sometimes not. You would think that a director/editor would be the best person to make the trailer but really that is naive. Unless you are one of two directors who personally deliver final cuts of their trailer to your doorstep, most studios want to be involved in making the trailer or rather “selling the movie” cuz, at the end of the day they are the one’s paying salaries and they are the one’s beholden to the stockholders. Sometimes we start out with a good idea and then countless opinions and revisions due to testing ruin the darn thing. But every once in a while when the stars align a true creative piece of work gets approved and that’s when its really fun.
September 27th, 2007 at 7:38 am
Directors and producers don’t always have the best sense of what the trailer should be. After all, they know the movie. Trailers are designed to attract people who have no idea what the movie is.
I thought Mojo did a good job. I didn’t really interact with them until the end, but they were smart, fast, and seemed to genuninely dig the movie. When I would give a pretty broad note through a third party (”Maybe a lot of quick cuts after he crosses the line”) they would implement it extremely well.
On big blockbuster movies, it’s not uncommon for several vendors to be working on trailers/posters/artwork at once. The marketing department at the studio will pick their favorites and show them to the filmmakers.
September 27th, 2007 at 9:13 am
Thanks Lollipop and John for taking the time. Much appreciated.
September 28th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
Yes, thanks, John — and great job everyone. I enjoyed watching the winning and honorably mentioned clips this morning. (Loved that sitcom laughtrack!)
October 1st, 2007 at 7:12 pm
OMG, the City of Untamed Lust trailer is the only one that would actually get me into the theater!