How To Make A Successful Trailer

To go along with our current project of creating spoof trailers, I found a blog that gives tips on how to make a successful trailer. In it, film maker and trailer editor Ross Evison gives his advice on how to make a trailer that works. Though a trailer will not necessarily make or break your film, it definitely can have a huge impact on the hype, anticipation, word of mouth, and turn out of your movie. Evison explains that one of the biggest mistakes filmmakers make is putting too much footage in their trailers, often because they are so attached to everything they film and, thus, are slightly biased. I can see how this would apply because even in my high school film classes, my teacher would always tell us our videos were too long. She, too, said that because we loved and worked so hard on everything we filmed, the most difficult part was cutting some of it. However, having too much footage can hinder your film more than help it. And this is even more so with trailers because if you show all of the good things in the trailer, no one will want to go see your movie. Thus, the best thing to do is hire a third party to cut your trailer if you can afford to do so. An ideal length for a trailer is ninety-seconds to two minutes, or two minutes and thirty-seconds at most. Evison also stresses that your trailer does not need to be exactly like your film. You can change things in your trailer to even give the movie a slightly different feel if you think it will be more appealing to people. At the end of the day, trailers are simply marketing tools. A musical score can also have a big effect on your trailer; it completely alters the feel of it. Evison suggests trying to find eager musicians looking to get their names out there. Perhaps offer to film their music video for them in compensation; that way you both get something out of it! Pick a storyline and tell it, without introducing a bunch of unnecessary characters or showing too much, and play to your film’s strengths. Above all, Evison gives this very wise advice: “Never forget you’re telling and selling the story. If you’re still having trouble, imagine you’ve made your film and someone asks you what it’s about – listen to how you explain it, did you get it across, was it engaging for the listener, do they want to see it? If so, then that’s your trailer, you just told it to someone, now go cut it.”
http://www.chrisjonesblog.com/2012/02/how-to-edit-a-trailer-for-your-movie…-but-the-guy-who-cuts-trailers-for-movies.html