Saturday, July 19th, 2008...11:06 am
We are really, actually home and we cut a trailer for Three: Stories From the Struggle for Girls’ Education
It has been two weeks and it is feeling that finally we are really, actually home. The first week was like being underwater– words came out of my mouth, but I didn’t really expect them to reach people’s ears, so I didn’t, couldn’t really spend too much energy on being coherent. The afternoons were spent battling the urge to curl into bed and stay there.
Then after that, came the week of editing the trailer–a different kind of blur. The kind where we didn’t collect our mail and ate off the same pizza for breakfast and dinner. After three long days including two very late nights, we finished it and are continuing to finish it. It is difficult not to pick at–like a scab or zit–no, it is more like a painting on the wall that never looks straight, so you keep gently adjusting its placing and then move back to take a look at it again.
However, it is time for the trailer to stop being babied by us and for it to leave the nest for the real world. We would like to invite all of you to give us feedback. We would like this trailer to continue to change and get better and better. We need ya’lls comments to do that.
We need to look at it with some new eyeballs. YOUR EYEBALLS. What do you see? Hear? Feel? When you watch this thing? Let us know.
Three: Stories From The Struggle For Girls’ Education from NonFiction Media on Vimeo.
A note on Vimeo viewing: If you have a fast computer, you can expand the screen by clicking on the little four-outward-pointing-arrows glyph on the lower right of the viewer window. Make sure HD is on and scaling is off. Also, probably best to let the whole thing load in first (hit ‘pause’ if needed). This will give you the best viewing experience (we’re still experimenting with the best way to output stuff for internet viewing).
4 Comments
July 19th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Wow! The images are beautiful. I especially like the 4-screen shots and how you jumped different scenes in the transitions. Also, that scene where the girl kinda tickles her fingers against the door and then slams her hand against it was excellent.
If I had a suggestion, it would be to reconsider the statistic titles that you play in the beginning. I think letting the story tell itself without intruding with numbers is more powerful. But that might be my idiosyncratic reaction.
July 20th, 2008 at 1:46 am
I like the edit but my only suggestion would be to try and have all the subtitles in one line. Living in a country where most of the programs are subtitled, it is the normal practice (where ever possible) to have just one line.
I would suggest that you do a test, make a DVD or however you are releasing the production and then view and check title size
July 22nd, 2008 at 3:49 pm
I just watched your trailer again, 3 times in a row, showing it to two others. The third time, I had tears in my eyes. The music seems perfect. I got a lot of story information from your choice of images and can’t wait to hear / see the rest. While I heard and saw your presentation last night and got some more info there, the trailer still leaves me hanging and yearning for more.
The numbers are important to me, I’m shocked out of my comfortable life by, respond to and move into action with those kinds of facts.
One thing, I’m wondering what the trailer would look like if there was color or texture (print) instead of the white background? Sometimes it felt like too much white space, and my eye wanted something to be counterpoint to the powerful photography and for me the white space detracted from the images.
It was beautiful watching you two present last night. Congratulations - this is an incredible film-to-be!
July 26th, 2008 at 6:19 am
Amy and Scott: This is a film I can’t wait to see! Your trailer is beautiful - I loved especially the juxtaposition of landscape images with the one in the lower right corner of the girls in the classroom. I loved the images of the girls in their home spaces, and of working in the field, winnowing wheat, walking to school. I definitely get a sense of social and cultural context, of place. The images made me curious and the statistics made me feel it was important.
At the same time, and the only thought I can come up with in terms of a suggestion: there are a lot of different images and it was really on the third viewing I started to have a sense of all the threads of the story you’re trying to suggest here - the work they do, poverty, the difficult environment, how hard it is to actually get to school and be prepared, combined with the difficulties they face as girls. I found myself wanting more of each tiny story or feeling introduced by each image, and then feeling distracted by the next one that would come, especially when there were several on a screen at once. I wanted to be introduced to something I could devote myself to for a little bit longer so I could see and hear more, and so I felt more connected later when you open it up to focus on each of the three girls. I wonder what it might be like to have longer, more sustained images at the beginning, but slightly fewer of them?
I have loved reading your blog throughout your journey and will continue to check in. Thanks for giving us such rich food for thought and feeling!
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