Helloworld Trailer Script/Outline
Cooperating Systems, a communications software company in Santa Barbara, wanted to promote the release of their product HelloWorld with a movie trailer style video. I co-wrote this script/outline in collaboration with the HelloWorld designers and the director of the video. It is being used as a guide for the final video, which is still in production.
The trailer begins with a customized version of the standard Green Screen.

Cut to a shot of a DOS command-prompt with a blinking green text prompt. We hear slow, almost too slow, heartbeats. Text is typed in, appearing in an aliased terminal font:

is your computer (dramatic pause) dead

Cut to CU on "dead." The heartbeats stop, and the silence is painful.

Cut to rapid-fire images of Windows, Mac, and Linux desktops, at oblique angles and various magnifications. We hear the alarm of a heart monitor registering a flatline.

Fade to black. (The Cooperating Systems logo would go here if we follow the traditional trailer format.)

Cut to CU on the words "or alive?" They are lovely, large, crisp, anti-aliased. We zoom out to reveal the entire phrase is a Whisper within an active HelloWorld desktop. The IP nodes are sparkling, flags and people come and go, files move across the screen, and a kiss arrives. The zoom-out accompanies the fade-up of the music.

VO: "What if there were no boundaries?"

We follow a download scooting across the screen.

VO: "What if you were in control?"

A postie arrives, with a sound effect, preferably whatever sound goes with postie-arrival in HW. It reads:

1. Stay calm.
2. Keep breathing.

We zoom in on the postie, and it pulses just slightly, like a heart. Beside the postie, a German flag glows into existence and we pan over to it, getting even closer. We then back out to reveal a chat window, with a Byteburg photo at top. We pan down slightly to see text:

NowHere: Any news? Pins and needles over here...

As we watch, the response is typed in:

MySelf: It's amazing!

A file moving across the screen provides the transition from this chat to the next. As it passes a user icon, a close up of a female eye, we see the mouse click on the icon to start a chat. The chat window has the same image at top. We watch the following typed in:

MySelf: Are you there?

The reply arrives quickly:

ElseWhere: You'll never believe what I found!

We cut to a montage of the designer's credits.

VO: "From award winning designers, Kai Gradert and Phil Clevenger..."

The next visual should be the most beautiful, the most iconic visual possible for HelloWorld.

VO: "... a communications revelation."

We see a montage of HelloWorld screen shots. This montage should include as many aspects of the program as possible: posties, kisses, chats, moving files, customization, etc. The montage comes at us faster and faster, then lands on a large HelloWorld logo.

VO: "Your world will never be the same."

We zoom out from the HelloWorld desktop to reveal a DeskNode.

We cut to a screen that reads (with icons):

Now available: Windows XP and Windows 98.
Coming soon: Macintosh OSX and Jaguar.
Future Releases: Linux, PS2, XBox.

One more brief flash of the HelloWorld desktop then fade up on the credit screen, which in turn fades to the Cooperating Systems URL.