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Film Journal

13 Months of Sunshine Trailer

By jelewis8 ⋅ July 4, 2006 ⋅ Post a comment
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The wait is over. I’m proud to offer you the trailer for 13 Months of Sunshine, the Ethiopian film I’ve been working on for about eight months. Everything in the trailer that you see was put together in just over a week, with pre-production and prep work to capture and collect necessary clips and talking over ideas with Bobby (director) taking place over a four day period. I edited the entire trailer on Saturday, with a fair amount of tweaking over the next two days, along with animation and graphics and colour correcting taking up the rest of the time. Finally, subtitles were added this evening, but even that took a tad longer because I had never used the subtitle software before.
This was a very fun, very difficult project, but one I’m pretty proud of, despite its deficiencies. The footage looks great, and the volume of material I had to work with was a boon, and Bobby pretty much gave me creative freedom, so I had a lot of room in the sandbox. There’s something to be said for creative constraints, but the technical challenges more than made up for the wide berth I was given in putting this together.
Depending on the response I receive from this, I may post details about the process of editing; how I went from a blank canvas to finished product, how I created the animated graphics, how colour correction really is the star of this entire thing, etc. Let me know if you’re interested in that sort of thing.
Finally, please let me know what you think of the movie based on the trailer–is it something you’d be interested in seeing (and not just because someone you know is working on it!)? Please leave your comments. I really would appreciate your input.
View the slightly compressed Quicktime 6 version (19MB). It will load in a new browser window or tab.
Have a happy 4th. I’ll be posting something patriotic at some point, though if you’re reading my blog on your day off, you’ve got some serious problems. That, or you just really love me and can’t stand to miss me even for one day. And that is okay, my friends.

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Discussion

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  1. Based on the trailer, I’d see the movie, for one because I’m interested in arranged marriage (well, not me personally) and two, because the chick is hot and becomes a model. Also good selection of music for the trailer.

    Posted by Greg | July 4, 2006, 9:22 am

  2. I guess we really love you because it’s our day off and we’re reading fringeblog.

    Posted by steph | July 4, 2006, 12:58 pm

  3. You are too funny. Anyway, I want to see this movie now. So you better let me know when and how to make that happen. I’m not above driving to LA. Any excuse to come down and see my fabulous Angelino friends.

    Posted by Lauren | July 5, 2006, 5:29 pm

  4. I would be interested to know how you came up with the structure of this trailer and how you completed the title screens. As for if I would see this movie, I’m not sure. I wonder if the characters would really treat these arranged marriages so callously. Then again I’m not Ethiopian. Overall I liked it, thanks for putting it up.

    Posted by charlesb | July 5, 2006, 8:34 pm

  5. Seems like another blog post is something people might like to read. I’ll get to work on it.

    Posted by Jeremiah | July 7, 2006, 8:49 am

  6. Very well done trailer, J. I’ll give you the feedback from the perspective of me, the moviegoer.
    I thought the production was at least an 8 or 9 of out 10 with what I’m used to seeing in the theatres. I hope this is a compliment because that’s what it’s meant to be! The music cues and editing were great. I might turn up the music a bit here and there. Also, there’s at least one spot where I have to read the title screen and dialougue at the same time.
    The storyline is compelling… I usually don’t get into the romantic storyline – guy-meets-girl, guy-screws-it-up, girl-goes-off, guy-chases-girl… now watch the movie to see if they get back together (and 99 times out of 100 they do!) – but this one had a couple of interesting twists: the “green-card” marriage, the subject of immigration, and the modeling career for a recent immigrant. It was a bit more compelling, so I might see it on more than just a slow movie night… Which is to say that someone who likes those types of movies would definately want to see it, as would others interested in immigration topics. And speaking as an immigrant myself, I appreciated the mixed use of Etheopian and English.
    To be more constructively critical, the flow of the trailer was best towards the middle/end. It may be best to either rearrange things or discard some things at the beginning… you want to be compelling from the get-go… I felt like it took a while to get into the trailer. Don’t get me wrong – it was captivating and fantastic then. A few problem areas: The opening scene was OK, but then the parents aren’t part of his life anymore… and he’s getting married? I would expect to see them again. Does he trick them into believing he’s getting married for love? Or does he try to hide it from them? There were a couple of scenes at the beginning where the acting and/or script was a bit forced (the first girlfriend and the loan officer) Can this be cut down somehow so we can speed through that?
    These are minor, tho… I think overall it’s a great effort and I would pay big money to see the movie premier at The Lyric! :)

    Posted by cspew | July 12, 2006, 12:44 pm