A trailer is a short, artfully edited clip that piques interest and sets up excitement for a film. It’s not just for blockbusters; it can help bring a small independent film to life, as well. But it’s no easy task to create a trailer that is both enticing and accurate to the full film. Even for big studios, creating a trailer that meets the demands of picky sponsors and ravenous franchise fans is an exercise in careful precision. Every split second of your trailer is watched under a microscope, so even small hiccups will be scrutinized with surgical accuracy.
Impactful trailers often share a few key traits: tantalizing glimpses that hint at larger stories, hooks like surprising twists or payoffs, seamless editing in line with music or dialogue, and clear communication of genre, tone, and stakes. They also promote the key cast, directors, and producers, along with a memorable final sell including logo and release date.
Ultimately, a great trailer aims to transport the audience into the world of the movie and immerse them in its emotional ride. It can evoke feelings of fear, love, or anticipation and leave the viewer hungry for more. Ideally, it will be so effective that the viewer can’t help but book a ticket to see the full film and experience those emotions in their entirety.
In the early days of film trailers, the industry was dominated by star-driven trailers that used a star’s reputation to promote a new movie. Then filmmakers such as Blood Simple and Evil Dead inverted the formula by presenting a montage of tense, bloody scenes from their films, without revealing any plot details. This was a bold move that shook up the conventions of the industry and helped to revolutionize film marketing.
Currently, there are several different types of film trailers in use, each designed to cater to the needs of different audiences. The most common type is the action-oriented trailer, which emphasizes the film’s genre and demonstrates the main characters’ actions in a sequence of fast-paced shots. This style of trailer is often accompanied by an energetic and dramatic soundtrack.
Romantic comedy film trailers, on the other hand, tend to focus more on establishing a comedic character and developing a set of funny moments. They may use a more lighthearted style of editing with a catchy song or a few laugh-worthy lines of dialog.
Lastly, drama and mystery film trailers typically begin by establishing the setting and characters’ aspirations and conflicts. They then reveal more of the storyline through a series of carefully paced, tease-filled cuts. They may include a narration or on-screen text to provide the backstory, and they generally feature a more nuanced portrayal of characters than the two-dimensional figures commonly encountered in genre movies.