Hey everyone! Ever since I decided upon the plot for my film, my week has consisted of research, research, and more research. I've researched what makes great trailers, examples, and drama film conventions and have a bit more to go. Surprisingly, I found more information than what I was expecting and found very helpful tips.
One of the first websites that gave me wonderful information was the WikiHow page titled "How to Make a Movie Trailer." Here's a summary of the information/tips that I found on the site:
The website said that one of the most components of a great trailer was the "teasing," in other words a great trailer is one that shows the full movie without revealing too much, builds excitement and gives the audience an alluring taste of the final product leaving the audience wanting more. It also mentioned that trailers tend to start out with separated clips of the film's producers, and studio logos, which tend to be brief and can be used to fit the mood of the trailer. Most trailers also use those starting seconds to introduce music or dialogue that establishes the mood of the trailer. It's important that within those first few seconds the audience has a rough idea about the various elements that your film will include/ will be about (e.g. genre, main character, mood). After the most important elements of your film are established, introduce the main conflict. The conflict is very important to introduce because, "without conflict there's no drama." Showing them the conflict will help explain to the audience why they should care about everything that the trailer has just introduced to them. The website says that one should strive to answer questions like "What dramatic thing happens to set the plot in motion?", "How does this make the characters feel?", and "How does the main character try to solve the conflict?"
Many modern trailers choose to hint at the plot's progression by showing quick, snappy clips of key lines or events in the film in a rough order of their appearance. Although the plot may intrigue and interest the viewers, it's important not to reveal too much about film's plot. This includes any plot twists because it would take away the film's element of surprise and would keep viewers from wanting to watch the full film. The most important thing to remember is to acknowledge your film's main theme in an exciting or compelling way and not to overuse any music and dialogue. The idea is to leave the viewers with questions and wanting more.
One of the films that clearly follows this structure through its trailer is the Academy Award winning film, Whiplash. Throughout the whole trailer, the music and instruments work to move the mood. Within the first 20 seconds, the trailer introduces a grand amount of information about the movie: the main character, his passion, the film's romantic component, and the teacher-student relationship. After all of those were introduced the conflict was brought into the equation, by revealing that one of the characters that was shown earlier is actually ruthless. One of the things that are important for me to keep in mind is that style, to strive to establish the conflict without it being explicitly stated. As the trailer came to an end the shots increased speed with the music, ending the trailer with a memorable phrase and the title. Another thing that I noticed, was that the trailer's very last shot was of the film's website and all of its social media, which is a very important element considering that my film trailer is going to be targeting a portion of today's tech savvy society.
Like I mentioned earlier in this post, I also did some research on drama film conventions to help guide me with this creative process. Watch out for that and much more in my next blog posts!
