A movie trailer is a snippet of your film that’s designed to intrigue viewers and get them to the theater. It’s a tool that takes advantage of your audience’s attention span and emotions by using action, plot, characters, music and editing techniques to create tension, anticipation and a sense of escapism. It’s important to consider all the elements that make up a trailer before you start shooting.
The origins of the trailer go back to Broadway producer Nils Granlund, who created a short film featuring rehearsal footage of his play The Pleasure Seekers to run in between movie screening rotations at the theater. Granlund unintentionally revolutionized cinema marketing with his slick teaser, and the format quickly caught on. Soon, studios were cutting their own trailers for their upcoming releases. These were rudimentary at first, with actual movie clips overlaid with dramatic text and big-name stars to garner audience interest. Over time, the trailer evolved into the form that’s familiar to audiences today, with the emphasis on showing just enough of the story to draw audiences in and leave them wanting more.
While some trailers give away too much of the movie, most effectively zig where the film zags to create empathy for the character and build suspense that’s not easily satisfied. The best trailers also end on a dramatic cliffhanger, allowing the viewer to only speculate how the protagonist will overcome his or her conflict in the feature film.
Whether you’re promoting a documentary, drama, romance or science fiction film, a trailer should reflect the genre to establish audience expectations and draw them in. For example, an emotional, dramatic trailer that opens with a close-up of a tearful, devastated face works well for a heartbreaking drama. In contrast, a funny, lighthearted comedy trailer might begin with a group of friends laughing at a joke.
The use of voiceover and on-screen graphic overlays is another classic feature of the trailer, allowing the director to convey the basic premise of the film in a few words. The traditional Don LaFontaine deep-voice narration style and “in a world where…” slogan are still widely used today, but modern trailers also frequently use some sort of hybrid of musical score and onscreen text to tell the story.
As with any film project, you should approach making a trailer with the same level of care and attention to detail that you would apply to a feature film. This includes script breakdown software, labeling key scenes to help you accurately budget your abridged shoot. You’ll also want to consider the best way to edit your scenes together, keeping in mind that most successful trailers follow a three-act structure (albeit an abridged one): Setup, introduce the central conflict, then raise the stakes to tease a final conclusion. The best trailers also take advantage of sound effects to amplify the emotion and accentuate key moments.