Part of Lesson Plan: The Trailer Park

Activity Overview / Details

For the last portion of this lesson students will be creating and editing their own trailer. There are 2 different choices for this part of the unit, so you the instructor will have to choose which is most appropriate for your class and students.

Choice #1: Choose an appropriate full length Hollywood film to show in class.  Tell students to look for parts of the movie which they might want to incorporate into their trailer.  After watching the film tell students that they will make a trailer from the original footage of the film. The catch is that they have to change the mood & tone from the original movie genre to make it look and sound totally different.  An example would be watching a serious drama and making the trailer look like a comedy, horror, romance, or musical. The final trailer should be no longer than 2 1/2 minutes in length and should include:  appropriate audio, transitions, video fx, text, and not produce any spoilers. Students should select which new "genre" their trailer will be before they start the editing process.  The instructor will have to be able to give all students the entire digital copy, so they can edit on individual workstations. This can be accomplished by using a dvd ripper or by using the digital copy that can accompany some new release Blu Ray movies. This is a challenging assignment because they are taking about 2 hours of footage and cutting it down to about 2 minutes. After completing the trailers students should show their trailer to the class and teacher for final assessment.

Show the Trailer : Son of Rambow created by one of my past students which makes the original action/adventure movie look more like a dramatic/comedy through the editing process.