3 Ways To Make A Movie Trailer

Note, though, that you don’t necessarily have to wait until these images have finished displaying to start introducing your audience to your film. In fact, most trailers use the precious seconds spent showing these logos to start playing music that establishes the mood of the trailer (more on this below) and/or playing audio dialog from the film. Note also that, in rare cases, the standard logos of the studio and/or production company are creatively modified to fit the mood of the trailer. For instance, the original trailer for Office Space (1999) displays the iconic “gold-text-and-spotlights” 20th Century Fox logo by having it print from an office Xerox machine.

For example, let’s look at the first 20 seconds or so for the trailer for the 2014 film Whiplash starring J. K. Simmons and Miles Teller. We open with a shot of a New York City street at night. We see Andrew Neyman (Miles Teller), a college-age young man, talking to Nicole (Melissa Benoist), a woman of similar age, in a deli. NICOLEThis place is nice. ANDREWI really like the music that they play - Bob Ellis on the drums. Nicole laughs, we see the couple’s feet touch under the table. ANDREW (Voiceover) I’m part of Shaffer’s top jazz orchestra - it’s the best music school in the countryAs Andrew speaks, we see brief clips of him standing outside of his school, then see him practicing drums. As he continues, we see a clip of Terence Fletcher (J. K. Simmons), an older man, walking into a room and hanging up his coat and hat. We cut to Fletcher talking to Andrew as he leans against a wall. FLETCHER The key is to just relax. Don’t worry about the numbers, don’t worry about what the other guys are thinking. You’re here for a reason. Have fun. We cut to Fletcher cuing his band to start playing. FLETCHER Ah-five, six, and. . . In just twenty seconds, the Whiplash trailer tells us a wealth of information about the movie: that Andrew is the focus of the film, that Andrew is a young musical prodigy, that the film has a romantic component, and that Fletcher has a teacher/mentor relationship with Andrew.

Let’s return to the trailer for Whiplash to continue with our example. After the trailer establishes the film’s foundation, it quickly reveals its central conflict. We see Andrew confidently playing drums in a jazz band while Fletcher conducts. Upbeat jazz music plays on the soundtrack. FLETCHER (Praising Andrew) We got Buddy Rich here! The band resumes playing. Suddenly, Fletcher signals the band to stop. FLETCHER (To Andrew) Little trouble there. You’re rushing. Here we go! (Fletcher cues the band to start playing) Five, six, and. . . Andrew and the rest of the band resume the song. Without warning, Fletcher hurls a chair at Andrew, who ducks out of the way at the last second. FLETCHER (Angrily) Were you rushing, or were you dragging? ANDREW (Meekly) Uh, I don’t know. We cut to a closeup of Fletcher leaning over Andrew. Fletcher slaps Andrew hard in his face. FLETCHER (Furiously) If you deliberately sabotage my band, I will gut you like a pig! Andrew starts to cry. FLETCHER Oh my dear God. Are you one of those “single tear” people? You are a worthless pansy who is now weeping and slobbering all over my drumset like a nine year-old girl! The Whiplash trailer establishes the film’s central conflict to shocking effect. Fletcher, who at first appears to be a normal teacher, is revealed to be a cruel, ruthless, and abusive tormentor. The conflict is clear without the film having to spell it out explicitly: will Andrew, who wants to be a great musician, be able to survive the extreme stress of tutelage under Fletcher?

The Whiplash trailer explores the basic plot beats of the movie while revealing surprisingly few specifics. The brief snippets below are taken from the trailer; to keep the length of this article manageable, some snippets have been omitted:Andrew and his father Jim (Paul Reiser) are shown talking in a dimly-lit kitchen. JIM So how’s it going with studio band?ANDREW (Subtly ill-at-ease) Good! Yeah, I think he. . . likes me more now. We cut to a clip of Fletcher screaming at Andrew as he plays drums. No lines are heard; only the grim, driving score plays. Various short clips play as Fletcher speaks in voiceover: Andrew walks down a dark concrete hallway; Andrew drums furiously onstage, dripping with sweat; Andrew runs through a parking lot with his equipment bag; Andrew punches through a snare drum in a fit of rage while practicing. FLETCHER (Voiceover) I push people beyond what’s expected of them. I believe that is. . . an absolute necessity. Andrew and Nicole sit in a restaurant. ANDREW I want to be one of the greats. And, because I’m doing that, it’s going to take up more of my time. . . and this is why I don’t think that we should be together. Nicole looks on, stunned. These brief clips give us a good idea of how the plot is going to progress in Whiplash without spoiling any big reveals for us. We now know that the stress of drumming under Fletcher is going to gradually creep into Andrew’s home life, we know that Fletcher views his harsh teaching philosophy as a way to push young talented musicians to greatness, and we know that Andrew and Nicole will begin to experience romantic tensions as drumming eats up more and more of Andrew’s time. We don’t know, however, exactly how Andrew’s relationships with Nicole and his family members will be affected in the long run. Most crucially, we don’t know whether Andrew will truly become “great” by the movie’s end.

The “central” moment of the Whiplash trailer comes near the end:Various clips play as Fletcher slowly speaks in voiceover: Andrew sits in a long dorm hallway alone; Andrew leaves a building late at night; Andrew stares with a worried expression in a drab band room. Finally, we join Fletcher and Andrew in a dark room — Fletcher’s final lines come from him directly as the score swells. FLETCHER (Partial voiceover) There are no two words in the English language more harmful than “good job. " Here, the trailer hints at the thematic question at the heart of Whiplash: Are Fletcher’s cruel methods justified if he is able to produce truly great musicians? If our young, promising musician doesn’t have to go through this metaphorical hell, is he somehow less likely to achieve the greatness he longs for? The trailer wisely chooses not to answer these questions — we’ll just have to see the movie to find out!

Whiplash takes a somewhat unique approach here — rather than ending with a single clip, it ends with a flurry of fast cuts that build in a crescendo of speed and tension. There is no dialogue — just the slow, steady beat of a snare drum that gradually gets faster and faster as the cuts between clips become more and more frequent. The drumming reaches a loud, powerful zenith, then stops suddenly — we are left with a close-up of Andrew at his drum set, sweating, with an implacable look on his face as a single piano cord reverberates on the soundtrack. This crescendo of action leaves us tense, exhilarated, and wanting more, though it reveals no plot details.

Note that, in the United States, the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) has a comprehensive system of rules in place for assigning credits on films that fall under its jurisdiction. Other movie-related guilds and unions, like, for example, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), have their own similar rules. Major film releases must adhere to these rules — it is not enough to simply display as much information as the creator of the trailer believes to be sufficient. Films and trailers that break these rules may have difficulties being released due to lack of support from these organizations.

Note that trailers are usually (but not always) pieced together from footage from the movie, not shot on their own. Thus, to be clear, it’s often best to shoot the movie itself with this high-end equipment, rather than reserve this equipment for the trailer alone.

This being said, it’s important not to devote yourself too heavily to your storyboard. In the world of cinema, plans are meant to be adjusted on the fly occasionally. You may, for instance, find that certain clips that you thought would play perfectly just don’t “work” in the greater context of the trailer — in this case, be prepared to adjust your plan to correct these errors and make your trailer as good as possible. Never created a storyboard before? See our storyboarding article to get started.

Because of the time and energy required to carefully edit a movie trailer together, many studios now hire third party companies to do some or all of the work of creating the trailer. If you have the money, consider contacting one of these firms (or an experienced freelancer) about helping you with your trailer. You may find that you even saver money in the long run by reducing the development time of the trailer. [2] X Research source

One example of a great use of sound and music in a movie trailer is in the third official trailer for Nicolas Winding Refn’s 2013 crime drama Only God Forgives. While the movie itself was met with middling-to-negative reviews, the trailer is truly memorable. [3] X Research source The trailer opens with images of confrontations between criminals, complete with implied violence. These shots are accompanied by a 1980s-inspired, driving, arpeggiated synth line that perfectly fits the retro, neon-drenched aesthetic while conveying a sickening sense of dread. Later, the sound cuts out during slow-motion footage of a gang shooting except for the twinkling, almost childlike keyboard melody of a ballad by Thai indie band P. R. O. U. D. for a truly chilling effect.

One trailer that uses voiceover work in a restrained way that compliments the trailer itself is the trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2014 adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice. In the trailer, a coy female voice relays the basic plot of the film in a humorous, deliberately campy fashion that fits the early 70s California setting and the comedic tone of the film. The narration appears only at the beginning and end of the trailer and never distracts from the action. The narrator sleepily delivers sarcastic lines like “Doc [the main character, a “slacker” detective] may not be a do-gooder, but he’s done good . . . good luck, Doc!” and ends the trailer with the self-aware “Coming just in time for Christmas. "

Trailers longer than three minutes are very few and far between. One semi-recent example of this type of long-form trailer is the nearly six-minute “Extended” trailer for the Wachoski sibling’s 2012 adaptation of David Mitchell’s novel Cloud Atlas. Though the longer format does lend itself to the film’s complex narrative, which is woven between six different settings and time periods, the creators wisely chose to also release a standard-length version.

One great example of a trailer that pushed the boundaries of the art form when it was released decades ago and that has retained its status as one of the greatest trailers of all time (if not the greatest) is the trailer for Ridley Scott’s Alien. The trailer is more a disjointed collage of unsettling images from the film than a traditional trailer, but the impression they give is one that’s unforgettable. The only bit of guidance the trailer gives the audience is in the now-iconic tagline that appears in the uneasy silence at the end of the trailer: “In space, no one can hear you scream. " The connection between the images and the film is (ingeniously) left to the audience’s imagination.

One good piece of reading to start with is John Long’s 9 (Short) Storytelling Tips From A Master Of Movie Trailers, an article written for fastcocreate. com. [5] X Research source In the article, Long, who is a co-founder of a trailer production house, discusses the techniques his company uses to create trailers. Several free podcasts discuss the film-making aspects of modern and classic trailers. Among them are The Trailer Home Podcast, an up-to-date Iowa-based podcast, and Trailerclash, a podcast available through iTunes. [6] X Research source Many more can easily be found with a quick search engine query. Finally, community sites like Reddit usually are home to lively discussions as soon as a new film trailer is released — consider joining one of these communities and stirring the pot!

Alien (1979) — discussed above. Watchmen (2009) — great use of music, atmosphere. The Social Network (2010) — subtle tension, eerie atmosphere. Cloverfield (2008) — establishes the non-traditional shooting style of the film, creates an air of mystery. The Minus Man (1999) — uses a conceptual trick to spark interest in the film. The trailer isn’t about the film itself, but, rather, about a fictional couple that has just seen the film and can’t stop talking about it. Sleeper (1973) — noteworthy for its bizarre quality: director Woody Allen talks about his new movie in detached, pretentiously intellectual terms. This discussion is inter-cut with footage of outrageous, silly slapstick comedy from the film.