How to make a game or movie trailer
A lot of trailers will suffer from one of these afflictions:
it will tell you the whole story up front, spoilers included, instead of getting you interested to find out more
no pace, very flat, no tension, nothing really happens
pretending to be what it isn’t (for example, Joker: Folie À Deux where you feel like you’re watching something very different from what the trailer and the marketing promised – and it is reflected in how the audiences reacted to the movie and the reviews from cinema-goers).
A good trailer can…
drive interest for viewers and players to consume the work, with enthusiasm and social praise.
It can present the work to big festivals, judges, and investors.
It’s a promise to an audience, it’s a way to define what to expect, and this can affect how good the end product will be considered.
But, what makes a trailer good? Better yet, how should you make a trailer if you’re not an editor or can’t hire one before you raise more money?
Me, I will always look at the underlying structure and that’s how I’ll start to work on one. To get quality down, you need a vision with a super solid structure first, and surface-level work second.
This is what I mean, in as few steps as possible.
List all interesting, memorable, or exciting moments that don’t uncover the whole story or spoil anything when taken out of context. This is all the material you have to work with. Use a folder on your computer, a list in a notes app, or cardboard cards to do this.
Rearrange your material from less intensive to more intensive.
Decide on the pace in advance, and that pace will depend on what kind of a project you’re working on, what’s the theme and genre. Pace is rhythm, how fast and how intense things happen, if they go from 0 to 10 or from 2 to 5 before they go back down to 2 and then to 8 and 10 before they drop again. If your thing is a slow burn gothic drama, of course you’re going to reflect that in the trailer by picking the proper rhythm.
The first moment is always an intro to the ordinary, everyday world in the context of your game or movie. Although it’s something ordinary for your characters, it’s going to be out of the ordinary for your audiences, have those two perspectives in mind.
After that, you want to show when something happens that changes everything and it’s this wild ride you’re promising to the viewer.
Continue riding that wave by intensifying the pressure, the mystery, the core theme behind everything. Make sure that you’re posing a question you will only partially answer by the end of the trailer. Leave room for mystery, always.
Think about these steps by watching the trailer for Stranger Things. Pay special attention to the amount of withheld information.
Watch:
Season 1 dropped out of nowhere, audiences had no knowledge about the world or characters.
Season 5 is working with an established fanbase so the newest trailer will be able to use that as leverage. Meaning, having less worldbuilding info to communicate and focus on the action and vibes a lot more, we’ll see what happens when Netflix decides to drop it.
