The Antigone Movie Trailer Project
Movie trailers give a hint of the characters and conflicts that the viewer can expect in the
full movie. Trailers are highly polished pieces of advertising that attempt to present even
the worst movies in the most attractive light. With an emphasis on drama, conflict, action
and memorable or quotable lines of dialogue, trailers work hard to entice viewers to go
see the movie.
Good Trailers will:
1. Leave the viewer wanting more! Build the viewers’ curiosity!
2. Emphasize the strongest aspect of the movie: action, actors, dialogue, setting, etc.
3. Sell the sizzle, not the steak!
a. Put the coolest shots, the best lines of dialog, the very best of everything in
the trailer. Do not explain the plot. People in marketing always say, “Sell
the sizzle, not the steak”. The sizzle is the really cool stuff that makes
your movie look awesome. The steak is the plot.
4. Move quickly! Most shots in a trailer are under 5 seconds long. This rapid style
of editing gives the viewer a sense of rapid pace… of action even if the images
are of people sitting still.
Bad Trailers will:
1. Give away the entire plot(the steak)
2. Move too slowly (they make 3 minutes seem like an eternity)
3. Be poorly made(shaky camera, music doesn’t fit mood, terrible audio, awful
editing[distracting special transitions], have unreadable text)
4. Be unnecessarily confusing or make no sense at all
5. Plagiarize and use existing video footage
Your Task
Create a 2-4 minute trailer for a completely new film adaptation of the classic Greek
tragedy Antigone by Sophocles. Your story can be set at any time past, present or future
and at any location you can imagine. The key requirement is to illustrate the central
conflict of Antigone: Man’s law vs. God’s law.
Imagine how this timless moral conflict could play itself out in the war torn South during
the US Civil War, the ghettoes of Warsaw, Poland during World War II, or in the distant
future on an as yet undiscovered world.
Keep the characters, plot, setting or not as you choose, but your story cannot be a simple
rehashing of Sophocles. Be creative!
Rubric Checklist
The written plot of the movie:
____ is 1-2 pages in length (typed, double spaced preferred)
____ includes the entire movie(beginning, middle, and end)
____Plot deals with the Man’s Law/God’s Law conflict central to Antigone
____is serious in tone(remember we’re interpreting a tragedy)
____ is due_______________
The Trailer:
____ includes equal participation of all members of the group
____ is 2-4 minutes in length
____ is serious in tone
____ the text(if used) is easy to read, spelled correctly, and grammatically correct
____ hints at, but does not reveal too much of the plot(leaves some mystery)
____ is school appropriate (violence is hinted at, but not explicit; no blood; will offend no
one)
____ is in a viewable format(best options: DVD, or post on YouTube)
____ is due______________________.