Trailer for Oughties Big Rapids Living Stuff

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The trailer for The Sims 4: Oughties Big Rapids Living Stuff is a 6-minute, 45-second video released on August 22nd of 2020 to promote the unofficial stuff pack for The Sims 4 released earlier that year by Dozerfleet Labs. It featured various elements of the game, while telling its own story ending in a eulogy for the then-recently-deceased Merre Bowmaster.

Trailer plot
The trailer opens with a bored Meg, touring a generic, plush, soulless, generic college dorm from the Brichester University lots that come with The Sims 4: Discover University. She wants to attend college, and despairs that Brichester doesn't have more character.

She suddenly finds herself and her husband, Mike instantly teleported to Cramer Hall at Ferris State University - in 2009! The Ghost of Big Rapids Living Spirit Past, taking the form of the late Merre Bowmaster, promises the couple a tour of Ferris and Big Rapids. Intrigued by how rugged and crude the dorms are compared the Brichester's, Meg encourages Merre to begin the tour.

The trailer flashes images of the numerous new objects that are included with the pack, which include a Snakes on Plane: The Album CD stack, a Dark Knight movie poster, and many more objects - including custom signs from around town!

A small sampling of the locals are also featured, including Chris Kennal, Ashley Phillips, Monica Shelly, and Aaron Stefflin. Merre then transports the couple forward to 2010, to meet Marianne Evans-Christianson, the then-manager of Mancino's.

She takes them back to 2008, to meet Hadley Mint, and then takes them to October 5th of 2006 to meet Unlisted, while they are performing at the Flying Flamingo Casino Event at the Brophy-McNerney Hall complex's lobby. Jackie Blankenship (then known as Jackie Green) makes an appearance, dancing. Though, it's debatable if she ever danced like that at the actual event in real life.

An ecstatic Meg and Mike return to their own house near Brichester, and urge Merre to spread some of her Big Rapids magic on their home. A flash screen shows Mike and Meg being transformed in Create-A-Sim into bodily forms more consistent with a Ferris student of the 2000s, and their fashion sense is transformed to reflect them wearing clothes available in the pack (and on the Ferris State Bookstore's online catalog.) Mike briefly tries on a copy of Zach Foster's Placido Polanco shirt from Blood Over Water.

Mike and Meg then beg Merre to show them where they can reside in Big Rapids, and the residential lots in the pack are shown. North Bond Hall begins this segment of the tour. Mike notes that it's a great place "for singles," but not much use for a married couple. Merre shows them Hillcrest Oakwood Apartments, and several homes for rent around town.

Curious about the shops, Meg gets Merre to take them to Big Rapids Cinema in 2006, where they are able to watch Snakes on a Plane in theaters. Meg comments the movie was "only okay." This makes the couple hungry, so Merre shows them to 2010 Mancino's. Mike is eager to have a grinder; but Meg wants a cozy setting. Merre takes them to 2008 Szot's. While they are amused by the prospect of Szot's chili, they ultimately decide to get coffee at Biggby instead. With "Nothing Like Me" having run its course in the background, the music segues to "Ten Steps," also by Unlisted. Meg instantly falls in love with the Biggby store.

She shows her dedication to the idea of attending Ferris, by saying she wants to look at the 2021 majors catalog, and move to Big Rapids. Mike says he just wants to check out one more location before they commit. Merre lets them finish their coffee, and then they head to the Rapids Suds and Dry. Mike is convinced to give Big Rapids a chance.

The couple arrive at their home, and begin to revert to their pre-Merre physiques and fashion. Ready to move ASAP to Big Rapids, they turn to Merre to see if she will be joining them in 2021.

However, that's when the Ghost of Big Rapids Living Spirit Past is forced to show its true colors. "Ten Steps" is abruptly interrupted by what sounds like a record scratching, showing a very sudden, whiplash-inducing change in tone.

Since Merre died on July 16th of 2020, the Ghost begins losing its grip on her appearance, and fades away. Merre herself loses the ability to walk, collapses on the floor, loses her teeth and hair, and begins to resemble her bed-ridden self from July of 2019, before fading away completely, apologizing to Meg and Mike for being unable to join them. She can't, because her domain while visiting others, and endeavoring with them on journeys through time and space, can only extend up to the moment of her death.

The couple is devastated, and then learns about her life - and those she affected. They visit her tombstone at the cemetery, to pay respects to the woman determined to change their lives - even from beyond the grave!

The audience is told that they can honor her memory, by giving her the good life she was denied in real life, by downloading the pack and giving that better life to her.

Unlisted's song "Carry On" plays over Merre's eulogy, with its lyrics re-contextualized from being about overcoming a breakup, to being about overcoming a loved one's death. The pack's cover art displays, and then gives way to a few legal notices that wrap the video up.

Scrapped pitches
The initial premise for this trailer involved a post-apocalyptic wasteland, in the vein of Far Cry New Dawn, commenting on how Scamdemic policies were destroying society. A wasted future scape showed a young woman studying by a campfire, then asking her grandfather what life was like "back in the old days," when he was attending Ferris State. A dream wave effect transitioned to the pack contents. As grandpa finishes telling his tale, a shocked young woman stares blankly at what she's missed out on.

Later, it was pitched that a bored potential Brichester student and her potential roommate are greeted by Emmet from The Sims 3: Into the Future. He would take them back to Big Rapids in the 2000s via time machine.

Given what happened to Merre, however, a Charles Dickens-esque Christmas Carol-type plot was chosen instead. Much like the Ghost of Christmas Present from The Muppet Christmas Carol, Merre's apparition deteriorates the closer the clock gets to July 16th of 2020, past which she has no domain. Thus, she is able to sway Mike and Meg into attending Ferris, but can't join them for it.

Deleted scenes
Several scenes of the interior of Hillcrest Oakwood Apartments were shot for the trailer, but had to be cut for time. A few snippets of stock footage also had to be cut, due to game camera malfunctions or characters making random decisions that disrupted video flow.

Sound effects
Most sound effects were voice effects, edited and manipulated with Audacity to sound more mechanical. However, three sound effects were utilized from public domain and Creative Commons repositories. The record "cue" scratch effect, for example, came from this upload by Raccoonanimator to Freesound. "Missile Launch" by Kibblesbob at SoundBible was also used, as was "Daydreaming Sound" by Lisa Redfern, also at SoundBible.

These effects, like everything else in the video, were edited together using a copy of Adobe Premiere Elements 2020.

Music
Three different tracks are provided for players to add to the Alternative music station in their games, all of them off the Unlisted album She is Nectar from 2007. "Nothing Like Me" features in an ad for the pack on YouTube and Facebook, along with "Carry On" and "Ten Steps."

"Carry On" is a slower, more somber song about reflection on regret. It has that Big Rapids garage band sound that epitomizes the spirit of the time. The final song featured is "Ten Steps," an anti-suicide ballad.

Songs were approved for release in this pack by Jimmy Blankenship of Unlisted.