How would you direct the 30-second trailer and the 1-minute trailer?

[spikebrennan]

We're all reasonably familiar with the content of the pilot (at least the leaked script). Assuming that filming for the rest of the season doesn't start filming until June (so the pilot is all that you would have to work with), how would you edit together a 30-second trailer and a 1-minute trailer for the show?

[fitheach]

Slow montage and then quick action for the 60 sec.

Quick, harsh, brutal, for the 30 sec.

Oh I wish I still edited... :bawl:

[Jaime L]

147 quick cuts to introduce every single character that appears in GoT down to Jory Cassel and Khal Ogo.

[Prince Rhaegar Targaryen]

Hm, getting a little more specific, on one hand it would be really cool to do some slow, horror-movie-like sweeps with Will, Waymar and Gared in the dark, snowy forest, finishing with a close-up of a terrible, rising wildling-wight with blazing blue eyes and then a hard cut to Eddard Stark saying (kinda out of context story-wise, but reasonable for the audience) "Winter is coming." (there's at least one scene of him doing that in the pilot). And then end/walls of text/"Winter is coming to HBO".

On the other hand, this would be wrong for the series' premise, with magic actually only playing a very little role, in the beginning anyway... also you probably reach a wider audience if you play down the magic parts for the start...

[Mongrel]

I think I wouldn't play the magic card. Some good lines for a trailer, from the leaked script:

JAIME: The King has chosen his Hand. And no one's going to be happy about it.

CATELYN: You can always say no.

NED: You don't know the king very well.

ROBERT: In my dreams, I kill him every night.

NED: The King shits, and the Hand wipes.

ROBERT: I'm not the most patient man.

NED: The man who passes the sentence should be the one who swings the sword.

TYRION: All dwarves are bastards in their fathers' eyes.

DAENERYS: I want to go home.

VISERYS: How? They took it from us.

SANDOR: How old are you, boy?

ROBB: Sixteen.

SANDOR: I killed a man at twelve. And not with a blunt sword.

[Kinski]

I think I wouldn't play the magic card. Some good lines for a trailer, from the leaked script:

JAIME: The King has chosen his Hand. And no one's going to be happy about it.

CATELYN: You can always say no.

NED: You don't know the king very well.

ROBERT: In my dreams, I kill him every night.

NED: The King shits, and the Hand wipes.

ROBERT: I'm not the most patient man.

NED: The man who passes the sentence should be the one who swings the sword.

TYRION: All dwarves are bastards in their fathers' eyes.

DAENERYS: I want to go home.

VISERYS: How? They took it from us.

SANDOR: How old are you, boy?

ROBB: Sixteen.

SANDOR: I killed a man at twelve. And not with a blunt sword.

I had something similar in mind myself.

[red snow]

"Winter is coming... Coming Spring 2011"

Joking aside, I'd probably go for moody shots of the core cast for a short trailer with some good dialogue. A lot of it depends on whether they are going for a fantasy crowd or a medieval drama crowd. For the Fantasy approach clips from the prologue chapter would do. For the longer trailer i think they would do well to have a shot looking up at a tower with Jaime and Cersei in it and the "things we do for love" as it wouldn't be a spoiler.

[Rockroi]

(This "trailer" assumes that we only use lines and shots from the original pilot only).

Exterior shot: Winterfell, large, looming great castle with foggy exterior.

Music is a slow dirge, sort of like the music from Fargo; old, slow, haunting, creaking.

Dany looks up at her brother, a beautiful dress dangling between them, super-imposed is Viserys’ voice saying “When they write the history of my reign they will say it began tonight.”

FADE TO-

Interior shot of Jon Arryn’s dead body, the completely inappropriately beautiful Cersei Lannister sits at his foot. Her superimposed voice says voice “Surely the dead will wait.”

As if in glib response, Waymar Royce’s voice echoes, as Cersei’s face fades, “Do the dead frighten you?”

FADE TO-

Ned and Robert look at one another, a single flame between their faces, his super-imposed voice says “You’re a loyal friend… the last one I got.”

FADE TO-

Jaime Lannister looks down at an almost naked Tyrion and says, “The King has chosen a Hand and nobody is going to be happy with it. Quick Cut to Ned, back to Tyrion as he drinks from a flagon.

(the music, inexplicably, picks up)

Back to Robert and Ned in the crypt, “Be my Hand, Ned. We were meant to Rule together.” (this line is not directly from the leaked script)

CUT TO -

Jaime Lannister looks at Ned Stark, the two men lock eyes and Robert’s voice is overheard saying “In my dreams I kill him every night.”

FAST CUT TO-

Khal Dragon’s large frame Fills the shot.

Dany shivers begs her brother, “I want to go home.”

Bran Stark begins to climb up an abandoned tower.

Viserys grabs Dany, “Home?” How do we go home?

Cut to Jaime Lannister looking past Cersei at Robert at the Wedding feast Viserys’ voice echoes “They took it from us!”

(Music picks up far too fast, far too loud)

CUT TO Ned looking at a statue in a crypt, a direwolf wrapped around the statue’s leg, Jaime Lannister’s voice “We all know the Court has not been kind to Starks.”

CUT TO Bran ascending the wall higher.

CUT TO three men in a forest clearing; a troop of dead men at their feet.

CUT TO Jon Snow looking sullen in the yard that he was not asked to join the hunting party.

(Music is now screeching, very hard to ignore).

CUT TO Ned Stark as he grips Ice and raises it above his head, his super-imposed voice says “They may die anyway despite all you do.”

CUT TO Bran, Jon and Robb at the beheading.

CUT TO Tyrion Lannister’s smirking, mismatched eyes.

CUT TO a single word, capital, white letters on a black background “WINTER”

CUT TO Ned as he brings the sword down; cut to Jaime Lannister, naked from the waist up, smirking

CUT TO two Dothrakai clashing swords at Dany’s wedding, Dany petrified in the back.

CUT TO “IS”

CUT TO Robert laughing (terribly inappropriately)

CUT TO Bran looking into a window.

CUT TO Viserys twisting his fingers into Dany

CUT TO Ned’s Sword (Ice) Striking something

CUT TO “COMING”

DEAD STOP

CUT TO a group pf Shadows moving from a dark forest… and then to Will as he whispers “Gods…”

A GAME OF THRONES SPRING 2011…

Jaime Lannister’s voice “The things I do for love.”

BLACK

[Erik of Hazelfield]

That's pretty awesome, Rockroi! That's about what I had in mind as well.

I'm not particularly fond of the sudden stop-and-silence though, especially not when followed by one or (even worse) several "creepy" one-liners. It's quite overdone and too gimmicky for my taste. Have the music end on a high note instead and give a splendid view of the Wall or something.

[spikebrennan]

(This "trailer" assumes that we only use lines and shots from the original pilot only).

Bravo!

The only thing I'd caution about is the use of the phrase "hand of the King" in the trailer. In the actual show, the audience can figure out from context that "hand" is being used in the sense of an official title. In a trailer, this is not at all obvious.

[Rockroi]

I thought about the whole "Hand" thing and I just thought that its akin to asking somebody to be "my right hand man" and that I thought was close enough.

[About Yea High]

That's pretty damned good, though another thing that has been done to death for movies and shows (and if SNL has parodied it--you know it's played out) is the:

"WINTER"

pow!

"IS"

POW!

"COMING"

POW!!!

It can still hit you right in the jaw, don't get me wrong... but it's been done. Let's find a new way.

[Rockroi]

Well- yeah I decided that "Over the Top" was just far enough.

I also like that HBO has fully embraced the "Winter is Coming" tag (on IMDB is the sub-title to the series itself). Also, and this is key, if you look back on the leaked script, its not entirely clear that seasons in Westeros last an indeterminably long time. Thus, I think having a reminder to the audience that "Winter is important and something to dread" is not a bad idea.

I also had the death sub-theme, but working within the confines of the one episode makes extrapolation more challenging.

If I was a harsh critic of what I wrote, here is what I did not like:

1) I forgot about Viserys half way through the trailer. If I had to do it over again, I would have had Viserys says something towards the very end to make it seem like he was the threat (when he is not); instead Viserys sort of disappears which is not good craftsmanship.

2) I would have the children more prominently focused. I could not do this because with the exception of Bran and Robb, the children barely have any face time (Sansa doesn't even speak; we see Rickon once). However, the underlying message in my trailer is... well... death.

3) I SHOULD have found a place for... Robert gently stroking Lyanna's statue's face. That I enjoyed a lot; I am happy its in the show (in theory). In my head, that vision speaks volumes, but I could not find a place for it.

Yeah, I went a little overboard with the fast cuts, but in doing a 30 second trailer FROM ONE episode, you have to do two things: 1) Keep it interesting but also 2) not give too much away. I think a BETTER trailer would be starting with Bran's fall from the top of the tower and then continuing with cuts interspersed over Bran's fall... but that basically gives the whole episode away, and Bran's fall maybe makes the whole show. So, its off limits (But I sneak it in there; just him going up, not falling down).

Finally, my "dream" trailer is one I did in a previous incantation of these boards: its basically a tight shot on an old man's face with a voice over saying "My name is Aerys Targaryen the Second..." and then interspersed with scenes from the whole first season, with Aerys basically describing, from his POV, all that happened to him and his family prior to the Start of GoT- as the trailer goes on, the viewer reaslizes that Aerys is actually falling, and when the trailer ends, Aerys is flat on his back, bleeding to death, a blond man in golden armor standing above him.

But that's REALLY high-minded and maybe not very good.

[Loras]

Having not actually been party to the leaked episode script :( - I can't give all that much in terms of the actual dialogue of the trailer...

But I think that there should be three 30 second promos: One for the Starks, One for the Lannisters and One for the Targs. The Stark promo would be the main promo and should be centric to EDDARD STARK. If there is a monologue then they could use this as part of the promo. Ultimately the focus should be on the beheading scene and feature flashes from that point. With the end of the promo featuring Eddard striking off Gared's head - and he simply says... "Winter is Coming" - as the screen cuts to the game of thrones title - which becomes frosted?

Rock Roi - I think your promo works really well - but maybe more for the 1 minute long promo - I don't think all the characters should be focussed in the 30 second promo, because there are just too many to give anyone any focus.

[Praetor]

Rockroi's promo sounds great!

But I also like the idea of having a separate promo for each of the major Houses. Not only would it distinguish/divide the characters for the readers, but, later on (Gods be willing), we might get a Baratheon, Greyjoy, Tyrell etc. for the subsequent seasons.

[spikebrennan]

Film studios frequently cut multiple versions of trailers for use in different contexts, to appeal to different audiences. For example, a Spiderman movie might have three trailers cut:

- one that highlights the romantic/love story aspects of the film, which would be used as a TV commercial during TV shows that have high ratings among teenaged girls and young women

- an "action" trailer focusing fight scenes, to appeal to teenaged boys

- a trailer that focuses on iconic characters who appear in the movie but are based in the comic book source material, to appeal to geeks who are sticklers for canon.

An HBO show, of course, uses its trailers only on its own programming network. This means that the kinds of shows that a potential Game of Thrones trailer woudl be broadcast before or after would be HBO shows like _True Blood_, _Boardwalk Empire_, _Treme_, _Entourage_, etc.

So I would foresee an action/swashbuckling trailer to be placed near Boardwalk Empire; perhaps an intrigue/cast of thousands trailer to be placed near Treme (*) or Luck; a "witty lines by Peter Dinklage" trailer near Entourage; and a "costumed women and Richard Madden/Nikolaj Coster-Waldau/Jason Momoa eye-candy for the ladies" trailer near True Blood.

I would _not_ expect the young children to be prominently shown in the trailers at all-- some of the audience would see a trailer with kids in it and conclude that this is a show _for_ kids.

(*) Intrigue is not what Treme is supposed to be about, as far as I know, but it will draw some of its appeal from fans of The Wire.