The Engagement

The Engagement Poster

Some people make fancy cards for their Engagement Party invitations… We decided to make a movie trailer!

For anyone involved in filmmaking, whether it be amateur, semi-pro or full blown professional, the passion is always there. It invades every part of their lives, whether it be letting your imagination run wild with everyday scenarios, to turning a simple outing to the movies into an intense visual analysis. You learn to live, breathe and occasionally eat film. So when I asked my partner Mel (or girlfriend for those who don’t like the word ‘partner’) of 1.5 years to marry me, she knew she was in for an action adventure science fiction comedy romance of a future with me.

So it was no surprise that many facets of our lives together would revolve around film. Interestingly enough, it was Mel who came to me in the lead up to the engagement party and suggested we should do something creative for the invitations. It was then that I realised just how much I love this girl: not only has she always been in full support of my dreams, but she is an endless supply of inspiration. How about a movie trailer? AWESOME idea!

What happened next was a weeks worth brainstorming, planning and excitement (with a healthy dose of getting carried away for good measure). The hardest part about cutting together a trailer for a film that doesn’t exist is figuring out how to piece it all together. What makes a normal film trailer relatively easy to cut is the already finished product you are given to work with. There’s no question about what is happening in the story, and pretty much everything is developed and polished so you are simply extracting the best bits and combining them into a melange of awesomeness. But when you haven’t even got a script for the film you are cutting a trailer to, you have to make everything up on the spot, relying on your imagination for what the grand picture will be. Thankfully, imagination is one thing we have an abundance of.

Filming The Engagement

Each of the bridal party members were given a unique character profile (The Pyro, The Unit, The Maid of Horror, etc.), and no movie would be complete without a super-villain (who we have aptly named: the Divorcer, played by our good friend Ken Abbot). Throw in some guns, explosions, fire, swords, lasers and a space ship and we had the basic ingredients for an epic trailer. We scripted scenes, dialogue and a general mish-mash of shots that we thought would look good in the finished product, never really allowing any possible technical constraints to encroach on the ideas. All of this was pretty much achieved whilst not really knowing what the finished product would actually be!

We then spent a whole day with the members of the Bridal Party filming all the shots we could get. I was extremely impressed with how well they all got into character (none being professional actors). I can only imagine what it would’ve been like to be told something along the lines of: “Ok, here is where the explosion is going to be so jump back when I say so and we’ll add it all in post”, or “he’s going to swing the sword at you” (the same sword we later found out was actually sharp!) “and you must pretend like your are throwing out this bright force field for it to clash with”. Thankfully some of them were already used to me giving them obscure instructions from behind the camera, having known me as the “movie guy” for many years, but everybody went along with it and performed admirably.

For those of you who are interested in the technical walk-though of the filming, editing, special effects, sound design or any other process related to the trailer’s production, you can read part 2 of this article, ‘Under The Hood’, coming soon. But for the sake of this article, I will gloss over the finer details…

Cast members lend a hand

Once the trailer was filmed, next came the editing, special effects, sound design and music. This took about 3 weeks to complete. The finished product was then turned into a DVD, fully authored, complete with menu, personalised cover art and disc art, and posted to everyone on the guest list. A few of our friends actually came over to our place to pick up their DVDs and we got a real kick out of watching it with them and seeing their reactions. The rest of the recipients expressed their surprise, shock and sometimes awe for the effort we put into the invitations, and appreciated the truly unique idea. I was even informed that my soon to be Grandfather-in-law screened it at his Lion’s Club meeting in which now we have made a name for ourselves.

For the actual party itself, the theme of the evening will be a movie premiere for ‘The Engagement’ where we will have the main poster for the film (featured on the DVD cover art), as well as individual character posters on the walls. It’s also a great opportunity for the ladies to dress up in those elaborate frocks that would otherwise remain in the cupboard never to be worn again and experience a taste of Hollywood movie magic (or at least, what I imagine it would be like).

Of course we had to wait until all of our guest’s copies had made it to them via mail first before putting it on-line… but now that that’s all done; Mel and I are proud to present you with the trailer for The Engagement… an epic adventure about love, and how to beat the odds when faced with guns, swords, fire, explosions and an intergalactic bounty hunter trying to steal your ring. Hope you enjoy it!

-Mat.