Story Line - LEXUS

The storyline for my trailer is very simple, because for one, I don't have alot of time since I've been working on my own to come up with very elaborate trailer plots like Mean Girls, but this is a blessing in disguise since I didn't want that clinical 'big production' feel to my trailer anyway.

Lexus

My actual film focuses on a girl - the main character, Nancy - and how she lives her life. It shows her living, at first carelessly and only for a good time, but then she meets a girl whilst out one night, and things start to change. She starts to harbour an unhealthy obsession with this new girl, called Lexus, and with this infatuation comes her demise; she is sucked into the darker side of adolescence and starts to dabble in things that will eventually bring her down, like drink and drugs, sex and many other trials it seems most teenagers now go through. Lexus knows how much Nancy looks up to her, and tests the waters with her new sidekick by treating her in a way most girls wouldn't stand for (she takes her boyfriend from her, bullies her into taking drugs and getting loaded etc), but Nancy only sees this as a test of friendship, something unavoidable, and so dives in headfirst. Lexus is manipulative and cruel, but in such a way that we start to find her lovable and fun, just as Nancy. It's only until Nancy starts to drive ahead of her in the 'cool' stakes, where Nancy takes Lexus' crown as the girl everyone wants, that things start to get serious. The girls are thrown into a duel against eachother, but it isn't like the petty fighting in Angus... and Mean Girls. This is where real friendship is put to the test, where the material things are weapons, and where the boy isn't the main goal - though certainly important.

What Nancy doesn't realise is that all of these things she's doing to herself are bringing her down notch by notch, and when she overdoses at a party, it's up to Lexus, who finds her slumped in a toilet, to decided whether Nancy's life is worth being queen bee.

My trailer isn't going to be passive, and it isn't going to give the entire plot line away, like in most teen movies. It will force the viewers into thinking, putting themselves in the position of the protagonists and deciding what path they would take. It will be provocative and cold, and it's this that I want to use to set it aside from other teen drama based films. Whilst most are 'cookie-cutter' and clean and perfect, Lexus will be a film that breaks rules and shows the darker side of life in all its painful glory.


Trailer story line

My trailer will still be as provocative and packed with social realism, like my movie would as a whole, but as storylines go, it doesn't have a set one. I see my trailer more as a sneak preview, not a mini of the film, and so my idea is to show clips of what would, or might, be in the actual movie, but not in any coherent order. Just showing integral parts to Lexus and Nancy's tumultuous relationship, and this will give the trailer an icy demeanour that mimicks that of the film. We get a window into their lives through the trailer, but by no means a story.

I will have it starting with a close-up on Nancy's lips, with smudged lipstick, quietly and slowly smoking a cigarette in the dark, the only light coming from the embers. She will then say the tagline "you can't always blame it on bad luck" through the smoke, and it will then cut to show a party scene, where Nancy first meets Lexus. From then on the editing will be cut fast and quick, with scenes like Nancy taking her first drug, downing a bottle of alcohol with Lexus egging her on, and walking in on Lexus and Nancy's boyfriend. I want these partying scenes to be really quick, so you can't really tell what's going on, much like you would feel at a party. After the party, it will then cut to show Nancy sobbing on her own, slumped in a corner with a cigarette, screaming at nothing in particular. Through this scene I will have words coming up on the screen showing statistics of teenagers who die through peer pressure, drug taking and depression. It will then cut to the final scene, with Lexus and Nancy squaring silently up to eachother, Lexus seeming completely at ease whereas Nancy looks as if she's been on a hard night out, with smudged make up and wild hair, tear streaks on her cheeks etc. As they dive for eachother, like a duel, it cuts to a plain black screen, with smoke swirling the background (if I can work out how to do that!) with the film's title, Lexus, in grey, maybe silver, lettering.