Darkest Hour : "Deliver Us"
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» Background:
The SIlverstein Album Trailer took quite a long time to do. It didn't quite reach the ideal that i envisioned, but it was quite a step up from what i had done before.

So it came time to make my next one, for Darkest Hour's album "Deliver Us", which came out in July 10th. I really liked the band, and wanted to make an epic and earnest presentation for the album.

But everything fell apart.

I had to start it very late, and i didn't have time to do nearly half of the big things i wanted to do. Ideas we had to involve the band and get some exclusive content fell through, simply because of them being too busy to help out. I admit being a little burnt out, after doing Silverstein's trailer. Not to mention, that since i was the sole web guy at Victory, i had a million other things i had to take care of. All just as important, but all time consuming. The promotion behind it was also not as good as it could have been. It arrived later than i wanted it to, and few press releases were sent out.

As much as i love the band and the album, this is my least favorite Album Trailer. It is the most like a traditional e-card, since i had to fall back on tried and true ideas due to lack of time.

» The Idea
With that said, the trailer starts off as a mini game. It fades in on a fly that a user controls with their arrow keys.There is a growing ring inside a design from the CD face, where the user must move the fly on top. Once that happens, it unlocks the first half of the trailer. The fly becomes still.

I had our video guy speed up a DVD the band released, which kind of chronicles the band's history, to play in about 30 seconds, so it's like the band's history fast forwards to the new album. the idea was taken from something Metallica did during their Black Album tour, where they would play a little documentary about the band before they took the stage. As it's zipping by, the band's discography appears on the left, highlighting the idea of past to present.

When the video finishes, the new album cover shows up, and the fly springs to life again. The new album info appears to the right, in a way saying this is the future of the band, as another video plays. This one is a shortened 'medley' of studio webisodes the band produced, chronicling the studio work for the album. It led into a "making of" of the band's video for the first single, "Deliver Us".

After that happens, the rest of the trailer is a generic e-card. It's got all the normal tour, music, videos, etc., you'd expect.

There is a large image of a fly twitching periodically. Originally, i had grand ideas to make it so you had to dissect the fly removing various pieces to uncover the trailer's content. and if you were to remove a pin that is holding the fly down, it would fly away, and you'd have to start the trailer over again. Maybe i am just sadistic, but i like the idea of frustrating people during a game, cause i think it helps increase their motivation for sticking with the presentation you are trying to give.

The only thing i was satisfied with, is that at the top, a timer counts down to midnight every day. There is no explanation as to what it's counting down to, so of course, if you want to know, you have to wait.

At midnight, as you are viewing the trailer, it all goes black, and switches to a much darker/ominous background, with none of the other content whatsoever. A video of random stock footage as well as original footage (courtesy of our video guy) plays, as the entire album streams for whoever is viewing. Every song streams for one minute (echoing the compressed time of the video footage opening the main trailer), and if a user listens to the whole thing, a password appears, which could be used at Darkest Hour's main site to unlock an mp3 of the 11 minute album teaser.

This special content is only available for an hour every night, a play on the band's name. I really wanted it to be at around 4am or 5am, ala "the darkest hour is just before dawn", but was convinced to do otherwise. i figured it was summer and kids would stay up for it, but oh well.