The beautiful and cinematic trailer for Neal Shusterman’s new novel, Scythe, was created by his son, and we spoke to him about the creative process.
About ‘Scythe’ by Neal Shusterman
In a world where disease has been eliminated, the only way to die is to be randomly killed (“gleaned”) by professional reapers (“scythes”). Citra and Rowan are teenagers who have been selected to be scythe’s apprentices, and — despite wanting nothing to do with the vocation — they must learn the art of killing and come to understand the necessity of what they do.
Only one of them will be chosen as a scythe’s apprentice. And when it becomes clear that the winning apprentice’s first task will be to glean the loser, Citra and Rowan are pitted against one another in a fight for their lives.
‘Scythe’ book trailer
Interview with Jarrod Shusterman
What interested you in creating this trailer? Do you have a background in this sort of thing?
I’ve been making movies since as long as I can remember, and I now work as a Writer and Director — so when I found out that there would be a trailer for Scythe, and that I’d get to direct it, I was absolutely thrilled and couldn’t wait to get started.
What aspects of the book were important for you to capture in this trailer?
The novel poses some really interesting questions about both the light and dark sides of humanity, particularly portrayed by the way each Scythe chooses to glean (or kill) — with compassion or lack thereof. We felt it was important to play with this dichotomy in every possible way, in terms of music, production design, and cinematography.
What books, movies, or video games inspired the look and feel of the trailer? (I got a pretty big ‘Assassin’s Creed’ vibe!)
For us the trailer was really about the juxtaposition of many styles. Our soundtrack was influenced a lot by ’80s futurism electronica, but at the same time using musical elements of an orchestra. We love the florescent throwback feel of Tron Legacy — and Assassin’s Creed was definitely an undeniable reference!
What was the most difficult aspect of the trailer to put together?
The hardest part is balancing the budget, which is pretty much always the case with projects, but especially this one. Because with so many varied shots, six hours of shooting can translate into six seconds of runtime. Since the goal is to represent the world imagined in the novel, we often have a large number of set ups and large set pieces for a commercial with just a one minute runtime.
What was your father’s reaction when he first saw it?
Whenever you send a final product to a client, there’s always that moment where you’re waiting in anxious anticipation. But I think those types of moments are amplified even more so when it’s your own father who’s approval you’re hoping to receive. So it was really an amazing feeling when I got the text that read “Brilliant” from my dad — but I think what felt even better was the fact that he didn’t have any notes for me on how to make it better. So in this case I suppose it was the absence of words that really made the most impact.