Spotlighting Our Contest Participants:
Alex Sturrup
We recently wrapped up The Great Movie Trailer Challenge. Five participants won an interview with The Refinery for their paid training program. Two runner-up winners were selected and could choose to win either a 3-month AMC Stubs A-List subscription or a $75 B&H certificate. Participants could choose to cut a trailer for one of three films: Ford vs. Ferrari, Bohemian Rhapsody, and Super Troopers 2.
Alex Sturrup, a photographer and video editor, submitted a trailer for Bohemian Rhapsody.
Bohemian Rhapsody re-edit trailer, Alex Sturrup
Alex was a runner-up winner for the contest. Here’s what The Refinery team had to say about his cut:
Overall this is cut really well. The music is cut well and incorporates the right Queen hits. It’s interesting to use score in the backend instead of a song from the band. It’s okay, but it would probably be stronger to use a Queen song there. The story is all over the place. There are a lot of good moments, but there isn’t one strong throughline to focus on. The cut often returns to moments that were shown earlier, which makes the movie feel smaller, like it’s run out of material. There is too much montaging to the point that not a lot is landing. The piece does build really well and ends in a great place with Freddy delivering a great line at the huge iconic concert. A bit of restructuring would sell that even better.
In summary, these are the areas suggested to Alex to focus on and improve his trailer-cutting skills:
- The open is nice. Good song choice and good coverage. Ending on the proposal is strong, but it doesn’t pay off until the backend of the trailer. If you start on Freddy’s romantic life like that, it need to be the focus of the story going forward, which might not be right to sell this movie.
- After the logos you have a line from Freddy’s father. The line is good, but it doesn’t relate to anything we’ve seen. It doesn’t land out of context and should probably just be cut.
- Once Freddy meets the band, the trailer hits a good stride. Recording Bohemian Rhapsody and arguing with the label exec are strong moments, but both feel a bit truncated. They both get set up but not paid off (until we return to them in the backend, which, again, makes the movie feel small). The payoffs should be right there with the setups. More moments, less montaging.
- I like the copy and the inclusion of copy. It helps to break up the piece and drive the story. Try a date card (ON JUNE 14th) before the card run to kick off a backend card run. It helps prime the viewer to be ready to read cards and breaks up the structure of the piece.
- Throughout the backend, there are too many ideas swirling. The trailer needs a solid story that tracks easily. Keep in mind that no one is supposed to have seen this movie yet so viewers will not know the story. It needs to be crystal clear.
- The emotional build in the end is good. The fighting and drama, it’s all in the right spot, just done in montage instead of with salient moments.
- The final lines and music are great, but the Main Title card should come at the absolute height of the last music build, not after the We Will Rock You moment. The We Will Rock You moment would make a great button after the Main Title graphic.
