Making 2min trailers from classic feature films?

[Murray]

I have a movie club and screen trailers to our coming attractions of mostly classic films. Most of the trailers I take from youtube, convert them to mkvs and put them into a playlist with the mkv feature. I rip all out BDs to mkv and store them on the nas. We use JRiver and the playlist section from JR for our group screenings.... I often have to make a trailer on Movavi or Power Director 16 from the ripped feature on mkv as often there are no decent versions on youetube. Making a 2 min trailer is very time consuming from a feature film, it can take hours finding spots in the film to cut etc etc.... Is there any sort of software that could make trailers from a feature film guessing parts to cut into 2mins or so? I know this is a HUGE ask and Im sure there is nothing to make this job easier for me. Your thoughts please?

[butterw]

If I understand correctly you are trying to replicate an existing youtube trailer from a better source.
In a first step you should identify all the segments you intend to use (look at scene changes to speed things up) and make a lossless cut on keyframes.
It's always going to be time consuming to edit down to the final trailer.

A different/faster approach would be to randomly sample a couple of sequences and then keep/edit what seems the most relevant.

[jagabo]

Is there any sort of software that could make trailers from a feature film guessing parts to cut into 2mins or so?

Some artificial intelligence that would recognize what's germane to the film? That captures the feel and theme of the movie? The character of the characters? Which shots are most exciting? No.

[Murray]

Is there any sort of software that could make trailers from a feature film guessing parts to cut into 2mins or so?

Some artificial intelligence that would recognize what's germane to the film? That captures the feel and theme of the movie? The character of the characters? Which shots are most exciting? No.

Bingo thats what I want!

[Murray]

If I understand correctly you are trying to replicate an existing youtube trailer from a better source.
In a first step you should identify all the segments you intend to use (look at scene changes to speed things up) and make a lossless cut on keyframes.
It's always going to be time consuming to edit down to the final trailer.

A different/faster approach would be to randomly sample a couple of sequences and then keep/edit what seems the most relevant.

Im not trying to replicate the original trailer thats of poor qaulity on youtube, but that would be great if I could.... Wouldnt it be wonderful if there was some software where one could put the poor qaulity youtube trailer into the timeline, then the whole feature below it in the timeline then click GO! The end result a copy of the original trailer from the BD mkv @ 1080p. How amazing would that be wow!

At the moment what I have to do is look for parts in the movie that might be interesting, cut them out and join together in the timeline to make the new trailer of 2 mins, however it takes a very very long time cutting out 10sec segments to join together I just wish there was an easier way.

Some of the BD discs have the trailers on them and those I rip and save to use in the playlist. But many only have very poor qaulity 480p versions, the same that are on youtube. Lots of discs are now coming out without any trailers

Ive had this issue for years since running the film club and never asked as I never thought there was anything available. Looks like nothing has changed as few would ever want such a thing.... Strange Im always one of those that want something thats never been invented

[super8rescue]

the joy of video editing.
frame by frame by frame.

One would hope you would have a basic idea of the film you are making a trailer for, so you know roughly where to look for a good bit.
Or at least know the story line to construct some kind of timeline edit and slice it down to something more appropriate for a trailer.

There is no magic button in any software to do this for you.

I often spend 8 hours putting clips together, frame by frame, cut to music. It is a highly time consuming hobby.....

It has been invented, it's called video editing...........

It might take a month to edit a 40 minute tv drama, let alone a feature film

An example from game of thrones, a 2 minute screen time montage of Sam Tarly took three days to film and around a week to edit.

[Murray]

the joy of video editing.
frame by frame by frame.

One would hope you would have a basic idea of the film you are making a trailer for, so you know roughly where to look for a good bit.
There is no magic button in any software to do this for you.

.

Yes I understand all this and thats what Ive been doing for 5 years now for my film club, its tedious
I thought I would come in here and ask the experts, the answer is exactly as I thought....

[super8rescue]

If you find it tedious then perhaps it might be time to find a new hobby or new video edit software that you enjoy using.
Video editing is great fun and seriously enjoyable, the results can be most satisfying.
if you are finding it tedious it's quite possible you need some help to make it a more pleasurable experience.
I can't wait to sit at my screen and click away.......
Taking a cheeky day off work to video edit brings me a lot of anticipation of what I can throw on the screen later in the day.

Can you not just steal trailers from you tube and don't tell anyone?

[Murray]

noted thank you for your help!

[Murray]

Can you not just steal trailers from you tube and don't tell anyone?

As mentioned earlier here, I do use trailers from time to time from youtube but only if they are HD 1080. Everything below is poor on a 150" Scope screen, thats when I make my own. I dont hate making them as its very creative but I dont often have the luxury of time since a screening date is due. Its a private film club and only the members see the trailers, so using a decent qaulity one from youtube when they are there isnt really an issue...If I wasnt a perfectionist it would be easy, I would just use the crappy 480p versions that are easy to find, but since we only screen BDs, I dont like 480 in the mix

No problem all is good.... I will just continue to make my own trailers.... thank you...

[DB83]

Well surely the trailers exist on the original BD's.


Sarcasm mode on:


But I guess the law of 'public' (and a 'club' is in most people's eyes is public) screenings of copyright material (per the burb you see when you play the disk) is different in Nz to the rest of the free world.


Sarcasm mode off:

[Murray]

Well surely the trailers exist on the original BD's.


S:

As mentioned before not all classic films have 1080p trailers on the discs.

[lingyi]

You may not think so, but as you've found out, creating a trailer is an art, and in the case of professional trailers is made by someone or a crew of people well versed in marketing and creative editing. From your posts, it's apparent that your perfectionism is geared towards the technical and not the artistic aspect of the trailer and is the reason you find the process tedious.

I recommend taking a poll of your club and you may well find that the majority is satisfied with YouTube trailers and while your efforts for technical perfection is appreciated, it's not necessary.

[jagabo]

Just for laughs I wrote an automated AviSynth script that takes enough 3 second segments at equally spaced intervals over a movie to give a 2 minute trailer. I manually select the starting and ending points so as to avoid credits at the start and end. It wasn't as bad as I expected given there was context sensitivity.

[Murray]

Just for laughs I wrote an automated AviSynth script that takes enough 3 second segments at equally spaced intervals over a movie to give a 2 minute trailer. I manually select the starting and ending points so as to avoid credits at the start and end. It wasn't as bad as I expected given there was context sensitivity.

Very interesting and well done, this is almost the sort of thing I was describing If only there was interest in such a thing to refine it

[butterw]

Where to find high quality trailers ?

youtube is not the only place you can find trailers. Apple trailers may be less compressed.
This site links pretty much all available official US trailers: http://www.davestrailerpage.co.uk/

But trailers above 1080p are not readily available and for most films older released before 2000, only low quality trailers are available if at all.
If the only available trailer source is from DVD, AI upscaling could be used.
A UHD bluray source or regular bluray can be used to extract high quality clips or even make your own trailers.

[Hoser Rob]

Is there any sort of software that could make trailers from a feature film guessing parts to cut into 2mins or so?

Some artificial intelligence that would recognize what's germane to the film? That captures the feel and theme of the movie? The character of the characters? Which shots are most exciting? No.

+1 It amazes me what many people think AI really is. Hint: it can't even handle ordinary language as well as a 4 year old child.

[butterw]

Clips are also used for movie promotion (ex: two 1 min clips) and are much easier to cut than trailers.
You just need to get the title in, and feature the main stars.

For a trailer, doing a random cut isn't a bad starting point, it may speed things up or give inspiration. The obvious problem is you won't have proper transitions (video + audio).
- replacing the audio by a music track may simplify editing (you just need to edit the video).

Random cut tools:
- an AviSynth-Plus (.avs) script can be previewed using a video player such as mpc-hc. the duration of the sequences is the parameter you want to experiment with. Longer sequences means less transitions to handle. It's possible to overlay timestamps, the actual editing should be done in your video editor.
- An alternative tool would be ffmpeg: you can output a lossless keyframe cut video (ex: 20 segments of at least 10s). Keyframes get inserted on scene changes, and typically last 10s. The output can be further edited in your video editor.

[butterw]

Is there any sort of software that could make trailers from a feature film guessing parts to cut into 2mins or so?

Some artificial intelligence that would recognize what's germane to the film? That captures the feel and theme of the movie? The character of the characters? Which shots are most exciting? No.

+1 It amazes me what many people think AI really is. Hint: it can't even handle ordinary language as well as a 4 year old child.

AI can't do this YET.
Trailer making might be an art for some, but mostly it's technical and formulaic.

[lingyi]

Is there any sort of software that could make trailers from a feature film guessing parts to cut into 2mins or so?

Some artificial intelligence that would recognize what's germane to the film? That captures the feel and theme of the movie? The character of the characters? Which shots are most exciting? No.

+1 It amazes me what many people think AI really is. Hint: it can't even handle ordinary language as well as a 4 year old child.

AI can't do this YET.
Trailer making might be an art for some, but mostly it's technical and formulaic.

Tell that to the studios who spend millions on creating trailers that can make or break a film. Often creating multiple versions for artistic or marketing purposes or sometimes because the trailer conveys an inaccurate portrayal of the movie, drawing the wrong audience.

The Blair Witch Project is a prime example of a mediocre movie that became a hit because of the brilliant trailers and marketing. Far from technical and formulaic.

[lingyi]

As a fan of classic movies, I challenge you or future AI to make a trailer as brilliant as Alfred Hitch****'s trailers. His Psycho trailer is a classic example of his non-technical and non-formulaic brilliance. Something a fan of classic films should understand and appreciate.

[butterw]

If ever a movie was formulaic it's Blair Witch Project, and an AI could certainly analyse the style of Hitch****. That's not the topic of this thread however.

The OP is asking a relevant question about how to help him edit Movie trailers/clips efficiently, if you have any tips they are welcome.

[Murray]

As a fan of classic movies, I challenge you or future AI to make a trailer as brilliant as Alfred Hitch****'s trailers. His Psycho trailer is a classic example of his non-technical and non-formulaic brilliance. Something a fan of classic films should understand and appreciate.

This is one trailer that is very very poor qaulity on youtube, even the version on the BD disc is poor qaulity. There should have been a 1080p version somewhere. I worked at the 20th Century film vault years ago where we had thousands of old classic film trailers in 35mm, in the end I had the job of chopping them with an axe as storage was limited. Im happy with an original HD version of a trailer even with scratches. I was a projectionist for over 35+ years so Ive certainly seen alot of trailers in my time.....

[Murray]

Where to find high quality trailers ?

youtube is not the only place you can find trailers. Apple trailers may be less compressed.
This site links pretty much all available official US trailers: http://www.davestrailerpage.co.uk/

But trailers above 1080p are not readily available and for most films older released before 2000, only low quality trailers are available if at all.
If the only available trailer source is from DVD, AI upscaling could be used.
A UHD bluray source or regular bluray can be used to extract high quality clips or even make your own trailers.

I also use HD trailers for newer films but often its hard to find art films with subtitles, classics are impossible. The only classic film trailers from the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s etc etc are on youtube but mostly very low res versions....

I have AI upscaling from DVDfab, its useless really. My upscaling using madvr with my JVC NX9 on the 150" curved scope screen is actually better than AI.

But all your comments are greatly appreciated, thank you.

[Murray]

[B]
Random cut tools:
- an AviSynth-Plus (.avs) script can be previewed using a video player such as mpc-hc. the duration of the sequences is the parameter you want to experiment with. Longer sequences means less transitions to handle. It's possible to overlay timestamps, the actual editing should be done in your video editor.
- An alternative tool would be ffmpeg: you can output a lossless keyframe cut video (ex: 20 segments of at least 10s). Keyframes get inserted on scene changes, and typically last 10s. The output can be further edited in your video editor.

I really dont know what AviSynth-Plus is, I looked it up but couldnt find a good explaination on it.

[butterw]

Avisynth-plus is the tool jagabo used to generate his automatic.mkv sample. It requires a simple .avs script file that loads and processes the source video.

[jagabo]

Avisynth-plus is the tool jagabo used to generate his automatic.mkv sample.

Yes, the script looked like:

a = LSmashAudioSource("filename.mp4") 
v = LSmashVideoSource("filename.mp4")
AudioDub(v,a)

TrailerLength = 120.0 # desired length of trailer in seconds
SecPerSeg = 3.0 # seconds per segment
SegSize = SecPerSeg * framerate
Interval = framecount / (TrailerLength / SecPerSeg)

SelectRangeEvery(int(Interval), int(SegSize), 0, true)

I then encoded that with ffmpeg.

[Murray]

Avisynth-plus is the tool jagabo used to generate his automatic.mkv sample.

Yes, the script looked like:

a = LSmashAudioSource("filename.mp4") 
v = LSmashVideoSource("filename.mp4")
AudioDub(v,a)

TrailerLength = 120.0 # desired length of trailer in seconds
SecPerSeg = 3.0 # seconds per segment
SegSize = SecPerSeg * framerate
Interval = framecount / (TrailerLength / SecPerSeg)

SelectRangeEvery(int(Interval), int(SegSize), 0, true)

I then encoded that with ffmpeg.

This sort of thing is beyond me one needs to write or understand script. I just use Power Director 16 to make my trailers

[jagabo]

Avisynth-plus is the tool jagabo used to generate his automatic.mkv sample.

Yes, the script looked like:

a = LSmashAudioSource("filename.mp4") 
v = LSmashVideoSource("filename.mp4")
AudioDub(v,a)

TrailerLength = 120.0 # desired length of trailer in seconds
SecPerSeg = 3.0 # seconds per segment
SegSize = SecPerSeg * framerate
Interval = framecount / (TrailerLength / SecPerSeg)

SelectRangeEvery(int(Interval), int(SegSize), 0, true)

I then encoded that with ffmpeg.

This sort of thing is beyond me one needs to write or understand script. I just use Power Director 16 to make my trailers

The script is written to work with any mp4 or mov file as an input. All you have to do is change the filename in the first two lines of the script. If you want a different length trailer change the TrailerLength variable. If you want shorter or longer segments change the SecPerSeg variable. The script then calculates the other parameters it needs. As it's written it will generate a 2 minute (120 second) trailer with 3 second segments. That's 120/3 = 40 segments spaced equally throughout the movie.

As noted earlier, I did this mostly as a joke. It's not content sensitive. It doesn't know about shot changes, what's interesting, what's boring, or what makes sense. But one could automate the entire process with a batch file. Then you could just drag/drop a video onto the batch file and have it generate a nonsensical trailer.

[lingyi]

Where to find high quality trailers ?

youtube is not the only place you can find trailers. Apple trailers may be less compressed.
This site links pretty much all available official US trailers: http://www.davestrailerpage.co.uk/

But trailers above 1080p are not readily available and for most films older released before 2000, only low quality trailers are available if at all.
If the only available trailer source is from DVD, AI upscaling could be used.
A UHD bluray source or regular bluray can be used to extract high quality clips or even make your own trailers.

I also use HD trailers for newer films but often its hard to find art films with subtitles, classics are impossible. The only classic film trailers from the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s etc etc are on youtube but mostly very low res versions....

I have AI upscaling from DVDfab, its useless really. My upscaling using madvr with my JVC NX9 on the 150" curved scope screen is actually better than AI.

But all your comments are greatly appreciated, thank you.

YouTube is a terrible source for high quality video of anything that's not highly popular, because as discussed in numerous threads here and on the web, not only does YouTube reencode everything, but the less popular the video, the lower quality it likely will be. It's simple economics based on potential ad money.

In addition, it's not as if the YouTube posters are uploading trailers from the original prints. 99.9% of the uploaders use the trailers from DVDs or BDs at best , which is further degraded by the reencoding of YouTube.

Bottom line is, if you want high quality, the only option is to DIY.

AI capable of automating the process is a long, long, long way off, probably never for such a niche use. Understand that the learning part of AI is limited to what the developer(s) of the software is able to initially put in. Which means that person or team would need a through understanding and knowledge of movies and what the human mind finds engaging about a movie. There are people that have the knowledge, they're called directors and editors, but a very, very small handful of them would be capable of developing AI software capable of doing what they do.

jagabo's experiment is interesting and somewhat intelligible, but only because I'm familiar with the movie. If it was a series of snippets from a movie I wasn't familiar with, I'd be completely lost and disinterested.

I remember seeing the trailer for Cowboys and Aliens in a theater and I, my friend and the majority of the audience laughed with a collective WTF!!!??? The trailer was obviously geared to a niche audience familiar with the graphic novel. A prime example of the art of knowing what sells (a movie) and the intended audience. No amount of AI could account for that.