Firstly, I imported the film into Premiere Pro. I then went through the whole thing, and cut out small clips that I thought would be good in a trailer, and then it was simply a case of editing them together, and adding a soundtrack.
This first part, the advert for Lacuna Inc., doesn't actually appear in the film, but it is in the bonus part of the DVD. I wanted to put this at the start, as it is an effective way of telling the viewer about the main concept of the film, without having to use extended clips from the actual film, which could make it confusing/really long. I then had to think about what kind of story I wanted to tell - whether my trailer focussed more on the darker aspect, or the relationship aspect, or both - I decided to have a transition from one to the other.
So, with this in mind, to start off with, I decided to tell the story from the start. I used short clips from when they met, and then broke up, and then showed the card saying Clementine had gotten her memory erased. The main bulk of the trailer then showed the process of Joel having his memory erased. I decided to make the mood get darker and darker as it went through - as he is happy to have the procedure to begin with, his mood shown by the happy clips, but then once he experiences all these he changes his mind and wants to call it off. This is shown by the darker clips, of Clementine disappearing and also the addition of Patrick. I think the clips used in my trailer don't give too much away, but they tell the audience enough to want to watch the film to know how it ends - I wanted the narrative structure of it to be much like a real film description, in terms of not telling them too much about the plot.
Toward the end, I thought that 3 minutes of solid music and short clips may be too much, so I decided to add in a break. I tried to make the clips toward that point get scarier, and more intense, and I timed it so the music was the same - as soon as it peaks, it cuts to silence, and the clip where Patrick hits his head on the table. This also sort of matches with what actually happens in the film, as Joel's memories are getting out of control and almost painful for him, until it cuts to that point and it all goes calm. I think this is effective as it breaks up the continuous music, and provides a bit of extra interest as it's not expected.
Finally, I decided to end the trailer with the part where both Joel and Clem (quite a prominent point in the film) figure out that they have both had their memories erased when they meet again, and they say, 'Okay' to each other. I wanted this as it's a very significant point in the film - it doesn't provide an actual closed ending where we know what will happen, it's really more down to us to guess. However, I also wanted to merge this somehow with the final moments of Joel's memory erasure - when I found both these clips, and put them together, it just so happened that Howard said 'Okay', before shutting his laptop, too. So, I decided to keep these together as I thought it sounded interesting, and put Joel and Clem's clip first, and Howard's after - I just kept the video when it was focussed on the laptop, and then had it cut to black after. The titles then pop up at the sound of him shutting his laptop. I think this was an effective way to end it, because not only is it the ending of Joel's memory erasure and their ambiguous ending as a couple, but it finishes on a laptop shutting, and 3 final closing statements using the same word.
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