Developing the Script

Some people recommend keeping trailers to under 1 minute. I knew that was going to be way too short to effectively tell this story. My goal was to keep the running time right around 1 ½ minutes. That’s about what the One Holy Night trailer came in at, and that felt not too long and not too short. To accomplish it, I needed to grab the high points of my copy, keeping in mind the images I’d need to illustrate them. After I condensed the wording somewhat, while adding a couple of important story elements, I ended up with this raw text:

“A spy for General Washington, Elizabeth Howard is drawn into the very maw of war where disaster all but ends the American rebellion. Yet her heart is fixed on Jonathan Carleton, still missing more than a year after he disappeared into the wilderness. Now the Shawnee war chief White Eagle, Carleton is caught in a bitter war of his own—against white settlers encroaching on Shawnee lands, the tender love of the beautiful widow Blue Sky, and the schemes of the vengeful shaman Wolfslayer. Can Elizabeth’s love bridge the miles that separate them and the savage bonds that threaten to tear him forever from her arms? The nation’s epic struggle for freedom continues . . . ”

After adding the introductory and concluding text, I created 18 frames:

1. Wind of the Spirit

2. The American Patriot Series Book 3

3. by J. M. Hochstetler

4. A spy for General Washington

5. Elizabeth Howard is drawn into the very maw of war

6. where disaster all but ends the American rebellion

7. Yet her heart is fixed on Jonathan Carleton

8. still missing more than a year after he disappeared into the wilderness

9. Now the Shawnee war chief White Eagle,

10. Carleton is caught in a bitter war of his own

11. against white settlers encroaching on Shawnee lands

12. the tender love of the beautiful widow Blue Sky

13. and the schemes of the vengeful shaman Wolfslayer

14. Can Elizabeth’s love bridge the miles that separate them

15. and the savage bonds that threaten to tear him forever from her arms?

16. The nation’s epic struggle for freedom continues . . .

17. Book cover

18. Credits

The text for a couple of the frames was a bit long, but I was pretty sure they were still short enough for viewers to read easily if the frame didn’t speed by too quickly. I knew I’d need to keep an eye on that.

Now that I had a script I was satisfied with, the next step was to determine the images I’d need for each frame. Most of them fell into place pretty quickly, but finding a couple I had to have gave me major fits. I’ll describe the process and the results tomorrow.