My Finished Trailer: Endgame: Oath of the Dagger

Trailer 1: Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes – Awakened Rivals (Nintendo of America, 2022)

Visuals:

Mid shot of Shez (the protagonist) summoning his power and sword for the first time.

Close up of Shez preparing to re-engage Byleth (an antagonist) after summoning his power.

Multiple mid shot cuts introducing the Ashen Wolves (Hapi, Yuri, Constance & Balthus). This technique is used multiple times during the trailer to show the characters of the different routes of the game.

This mid shot of a character during a social part of the game showing features and character tendencies.

Dramatic cut showing the Fire Emblem to demonstrating Byleth’s power which will be the focus of the next section of the trailer.

Close up of Byleth pointing her sword towards the camera threatening the protagonist.

This is closest to an over the shoulder shot to show Byleth intimidating Shez.

A cowboy shot of Shez setting the stage for the final fight between Shez and Byleth.

A wide shot of Shez and Byleth fighting with Shez having the upper hand. This shows parallels to the start where he was the weaker of the two.

Audio timeline:

0.03: Nintendo Switch snap
0.04 – 0.08: Shimmering and rushing wind
0.05 – 0.16: In-game ialogue from Arval and Byleth
0.10 – 1.06: Music plays (Apex of the World, Three Hopes variant)
0.12: Magic flourish sound
0.13 & 0.14: Metal sword clink x2
0.16: Sword swinging
0.21: Magic energy
0.22 – 0.28: Voice of from Shez
0.23- 0.28: Sword slashing sounds
0.30 – 0.51: Dialogue from the Ashen Wolves
0.31 – 0.36: Slashing sounds
0.38 – 0.41: Thunder Crashing
0.44 – 0.46: Smashing and grunting
0.51: Dark energy noise
0.52 – 0.57: Dialogue from Claude, Edelgard and Dimitri
1.00: Whooshing noise
1.00 – 1.03: Dialogue from Dimitri
1.05: Glass shattering
1.06: Reverse whoosh
1.08 – 1.56: Music plays (Melody of Clarity)
1.11 – 1.53: Dialogue from multiple characters
1.16: Sword clink
1.55: Sword Slashing
2.00 – 2.16:
Orchestral music

Trailer 2: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Official Trailer #3 (Nintendo of America, 2023)

Visuals:

An extreme wide shot to show off the world, this makes up a lot of the first part of the trailer.

Wide shot of Ganondorf during his ascent to power.

A wide shot of Zelda falling and Link trying to catch her.

A very wide shot of Link fighting and protecting the citizens of Hyrule.

An over the shoulder shot of Raru comforting Zelda.

I think this is a wide shot of Link flying through the skies of Hyrule as it shows his whole body as well as some environment.

A very wide shot of Link using the new rewind mechanic.

A close up of Ganondorf at the moment of his ascension.

An over the shoulder shot of Link fighting a Gleeok.

audio Timeline:

0.01: Nintendo Switch snap
0.02 – 0.16: Wind rushing
0.12 – 0.38: Soft clarinet that progresses into a grandiose orchestral piece
0.17 – 0.25: Axe swinging and hitting
0.32 – 0.38: Wind rushing as Link falls
0.38 – 0.50: Legend of Zelda Fanfare
0.47: Flap of cloth as Link deploys his glider
0.50 – 1.07: Hopeful orchestral music plays
0.53: Bird tweeting
1.00: Slight clapping as Link climbs a mountain
1.03 – 1.05: Water rushing down a stream
1.09 – 1.18: Ominous reverse singing/humming and piano
1.09: Loud thumping and sand rushing sound
1.10 – 1.18: Rumbling noises
1.18 – 1.20: Ominous music builds
1.20 – 1.50: Villainous orchestral music plays
1.28 – 1.29: Boots stomping as Link runs
1.30 – 1.32: Wind rushing
1.32: Stomp as Link jumps
1.33: Splashing sounds
1.34 – 1.35: Wind rushing
1.35 – 1.36: Stone on stone grinding
1.36 – 1.37: Wind flapping cloth
1.38: Whipping wind as Link swings a spear
1.39 – 1.41: Distorted singing
1.43 – 1.44: Horse snorts and then whinnies
1.45: Ground rumbling
1.51 – 2.06: Peaceful orchestral music
1.53 – 2.09: Voiceover from Raru and Zelda
2.06 – 2.10: Music builds
2.10 – 2.43: Intense orchestral music
2.14: Magical sound as Link parries an attack
2.15 – 2.16: Wind rushing
2.17: Whizzing and pops like fireworks
2.19 – 2.20 : Hoofs thumping on the ground
2.22: Magical noises as Link uses rewind
2.25: Explosion noises
2.35: Talus stomping
2.41: Monstrosity roaring
2.43 – 2.49: Soft xylophone music
2.44 – 2.49: Zelda dialogue
2.50 – 3.05: Ominous music builds
2.53 – 2.57: Monsters roaring
2.54 – 3.05: Ganondorf dialogue and then roaring
3.05 – 3.30: Full Legend of Zelda fanfare
3.08: Tulin dialogue
3.12: Lightning strikes
3.16: Dialouge from unknown character
3.18- 3.21: Zelda telling Link that he is the final hope
3.39 -2.43: Zelda calls out to Link
3.45 – 3.50: Soft piano

Research EVALUATION

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes is an action roleplaying game and Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is an adventure roleplaying game. I selected these trailers as they both are high energy, engaging and introduce the basic conflict of their games, Shez vs Byleth in Fire Emblem, and Link & Zelda vs Ganondorf in The Legend of Zelda. These are key factors I seek to replicate in my trailer.

Some of most effective parts of the Fire Emblem trailer were:

• The opening; dramatic cut-scene shots, started by Arval’s voice over, with the rivalry as the headlining factor. This sets the scene of the game, the setting, the characters and establishes their rivalry.
• The splice shots showing the games characters in action. This shows the large roster of characters quickly.
• The smash cut in theme with Byleth’s temporal manipulation powers. This builds tension as it shows the antagonist as a even greater threat than before.
• The two part split and change of tone indicated and driven by the two pieces of music. As the trailer somewhat slows to show off features it uses the dramatic transition, both audio and visual to re-engage the viewer.
• The way the trailer show Shez growing in strength, enough to beat Byleth at her strongest. This draws in the viewer to buy the game and learn the result of this climatic fight.

For the most effective parts of The Legend of Zelda trailer were:

• The beautiful extreme wide shots showing the vast world of Hyrule and the sky islands; a great way to set the scene and show off the open world.
• The clever uses of music building tension draws in the viewer to encourage continued viewing.
• The way the trailer tries to build hope for Link to save the day. The hope is something for the viewer to latch onto and keep them watching for the rest of the trailer.
• The way it shows off the game changes and new features from the previous game Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, gives the viewer reasoning to purchase the new game to continue their enjoyment of the series.
• Finally, the way the music fits in with the Foley sounds, the wind is almost signing with the music. It makes the music feel part of what you see and makes it feel immersive.

There are similarities between the two trailers, such as there are parts with just music and limited Foley sounds that tease of the story. The parts of these trailers I want to use are the two phases, one phase exploratory with some scene setting and another phase hopeful with building, dramatic music. I also want to tell a story with my trailer or at least set up one like these trailers do.

I will create a trailer for Fire Emblem: Three Houses, specifically for the end of the Blue Lions route of the game. I chose this game as it has a dynamic story and characters that you go on a journey with. I also chose it as I have a lot of knowledge of the game making it easier for me to know where to focus on my recording. I intend to emulate the fierce rivalry between Shez and Byleth in the Fire Emblem trailer I researched. In my trailer Dimitri and Edelgard will be the rivalry, the former being the protagonist of the Azure Moon route of the game and Edelgard being the antagonist. I want to show the difficulties of overcoming loss and how new connections in life can give us hope, this will hopefully draw in the audience. I want to continue from that to show Dimitri gaining strength and confidence for his final battle with Edelgard. I feel the key target audience of my trailer will be teens to adults that enjoy story games as well as fans of the Fire Emblem game series. I intend for this trailer to be displayed on a YouTuber’s/content creator’s page to advertise and build excitement for the finale of their gameplay series. This is because the purpose of trailers to build engagement and excitement for a event, film or game. I intend to use a variety of shots to create and dynamic feel for the trailer, this will include wide shots, close ups and over the shoulder shots as illustrated in my storyboard.

STORY-BOARDING

Audio Plan

As part of this assignment I had to make Foley sounds to use in my trailer. We were split into groups for making the Foley sounds. Here is the sound of a sword swinging created using a shower hose and edited to remove background noise and increased the tempo to make the sound better fit the scenario.

Whole timeline

The timeline where I was having issues transtioning the audio between sections of the Trailer (for further details see relfection)

The timeline where masked the two clips to create a better visual transition

I feel my research helped me learn how to build some kind of structure to my trailer and what makes a trailer engaging. I opened the trailer and focused a good amount of the trailer on Dimitri’s rivalry with Edelgard. I showed how Byleth pulled Dimitri out of his despair spiral, showing hope to the viewer as something to latch onto. I then showed how Dimitri lost his last father figure in Rodrigue and how this helps him become king and face his demons and Edelgard. I found making the storyboard made me consider how the trailer would flow earlier in the production process so I could figure out its pacing. I also found the audio planning useful to set out what I would need to create even though that list expanded as I built my trailer.

Working in Adobe Premiere Pro was the most interesting and enjoyable part as it pushed me to learn how to use an industry standard software application and develop new skills in video editing. An audio challenge I faced was a transition between two music tracks, one high energy, one low. I didn’t like the abrupt stop there was in the earliest version. I experimented first in Premiere Pro with the audio effects available. I tried fading it out, I tried a horn over a fade out to make to improve it. At this point I moved into Adobe Audition to make options available including more dynamic control over the audio. In this application I tried combining other parts of the music track where it felt more conclusive and after changing it around further to a point where I felt satisfied with it. I exported it back to Premiere Pro and fitted it into my timeline. A visual challenge I faced was that I needed to amplify the energy going into the final part of the trailer. A simple transition did not achieve this and I did research on ways to create better video transitions in Premiere Pro. I learnt that masking possible in Premiere Pro; I had learnt about the concept of masking earlier in lessons about Adobe Photoshop. This is where you can remove elements from a clip to hide equipment of other things in shot you do not want the audience to see. I used it to overlay another clip of one of the main characters performing a critical hit and masked it so only the splice in was visible which I felt made a far better transition than a simple dissolve transition and might help maintain engagement in the trailer towards the end. I have developed a wide range of skills in different Adobe software including Premiere Pro, After Effects, Photoshop and Audition. With hindsight I feel I should have used Adobe Illustrator for the storyboard for a better quality product. I learned how to use different tools in these applications such as cutting footage and audio, masking visuals, cleaning up audio and timing transitions.

With reflection on the feedback I received:

• I need ensure visual transitions flow nicely, are not sudden and feel earnt for the viewer.
• I need more actual gameplay footage to make it feel more like a game and not just a visual novel.
• I should consider how to get the character’s personalities across to the viewer.
• I need make sure the start of the trailer outlines the story so the viewer understands the rest of the trailer and does not feel confused.
• I need to ensure use of sounds is consistent as some feedback noted there are swinging sounds for weapons in some places but not in others.
• I should consider including head-shots of the core characters to assist understanding and to increase interest in the game.

To make a future trailer better:

• I would make more frames in my storyboard and have a story written out so I know how it should flow better.
• I would consult with a music student or someone with music experience to make my audio overall better and suit the trailer more effectively as I felt like I did not understand basic music concepts which someone with a better understanding could have helped me with.
• I would use an equal split of cinematics and gameplay as I felt I leant to hard on cinematics this time.
• Finally, I would like to make a trailer about an original game made either by me or someone I personally know so I can create a trailer that is new to all.

BBC (2024). BBC Sound Effects. [online] sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk. Available at: https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/.

Nintendo of America (2022) Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes – Awakened Rivals Trailer – Nintendo Switch. 8th June, Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f91wvxXAEXw (Accessed: 18/11/24)

Nintendo of America (2023) The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Official Trailer #3. 13th April, Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHGShqcAHlQ (Accessed: 18/11/24)