1201 fm trailer howtos

7/31/2019 1201 FM Trailer HowTos

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90 FILMMAKER WINTER 2012

Its only two minutes long. Butits the way a film greets the world. For a self-

distributor, it can mean getting 100,000 hits

on YouTube within a week. For indie film-

makers trying to make an impression, its a

chance to have their no-budget D.I.Y. movies

stand shoulder-to-shoulder with The Hobbit

and Avatar 2 on iTunes. And it has a long

shelf life; years after a theatrical release is over,

it will be one of the first things to pop up on

a Google word search.

The humble movie trailer, once a delight-

ful distraction seen only by punctual filmgo-

ers exclusively in movie houses, is now theprincipal way most movies get exposure and

remain in the public conscience. And as long

as there is a computer and an Internet con-

nection, it can be watched anytime, anywhere,

indefinitely. Along with the movie poster, it is

arguably the most important marketing tool

available to a filmmaker.

A bad trailer wont automatically hurt a

film. Strong reviews and terrific word-of-

mouth can make uninspired advertising irrel-

evant. Then again, not all films are bulletproof

success stories. What about that promisingfirst feature? That peculiar but compelling

foreign language film? That oddball docu-

mentary with seemingly banal subject matter

yet an undeniably hypnotic style? These kinds

of movies can really benefit from a memora-

ble piece of advertising. (And, oddly enough,

a bad flick can occasionally make for a fantas-

tic trailer. More on that later.)

Studio films typically break down into a

handful of genres: action, drama, comedy,

horror, sci-fi, fantasy. They all have their con-

ventions, and their trailers have a similarly

categorized look and sound. Thick sans-seriffont with jaunty music? Comedy. Elegant

serif font with dour orchestral cue? Drama.

These are mass-produced goods, and they are

by definition formulaic. This is not necessar-

ily criticism; there are excellent studio films

that have accordingly superlative trailer work.

(Trailer campaigns for huge franchises such

as The Matrix, Harry Potterand Spider-Man

are particularly well-crafted.) But indepen-

dent and foreign language releases are usually

hard to categorize. They often mix genres,

subvert them or ignore them completely.

Documentaries, too, can defy definition. Is it

an essay film, an experiential meditation, agit-

prop, social commentary or all of the above?

At Kinetic, the company my partner Christy

Wilson and I co-founded 10 years ago, we have

had the opportunity to work on tremendous

non-studio movies that arent the easiest to

categorize; over 300 films, most recently Cary

Fukunagas Jane Eyre, Agnieszka Hollands

In Darkness, Constance Marks Being Elmo: A

Puppeteers Journey, and Tom Sixs The Human

Centipede 2: Full Sequence. From a marketing

point of view, the options are wide open

which can be either intimidating or liberating,depending on your point of view.

GETTING STARTED

So you have a movie and you need a trailer.

Put very simply, a trailer is a condensed ver-

sion of a feature, so it should be a collection of

its greatest elements. The best way to evaluate

your film is to see it first not as a genre but in

terms of its fundamental characteristics. Does

it have arresting dialogue? Great cinematog-

raphy? Searing performances? Memorable

production design? Lead with its merits.

Of course genre will guide the trailer pro-

cess. But which aspects are the best ones to

market? If it s a comedy/drama, do you make

it funny with some gravitas, or serious with a

few zingers for levity? Do you let genre define

the film? Doing so might attract more ticket

buyers, but could also alienate those people if

the movie they see doesnt match their pre-

sumptions. Also, if the film has played on the

festival circuit, consider using laurels to tout

its pedigree. Are there good reviews, and do

you want to add them to the mix? Or will

laurels and reviews attract only a highbrowaudience and alienate the general market?

Do you think the trailer would benefit from

a narrator? What kind of music is available

are there cues specifically composed for the

film that would be appropriate, or is outside

music a possibility? Do you want a copywriter

to get involved, or does the film have enough

explanatory dialogue to sustain itself? Now

that youve unpacked your elements, decide

on a creative approach.

RHYTHM AND STRUCTURE

Above all, and without exception, trailer

editing is about rhythm. If you dont have an

innate sense of it, then your trailer will not sing.

A trailer, cut well, will have a flowing motion

to it, a sense that everything plays off every-

thing else, and will propel the viewer through

the experience of the film. Trailers build up ex-

citement and anticipation, and a keen sense of

rhythm heightens those sensations.

While you may not choose for music to be

the defining characteristic of your trailer, it still

plays an important role in its basic construc-

tion. It literally sets the tone and the rhythm. Iusually start every trailer by building my mu-

sic bed, and that bed is generally composed of

three music cues. Why three? Because trailers

lend themselves to a three-act structure.

Act One: Introduce the films characters

and environment. Act Two: Complicate their

world with obstacles to overcome. Act Three:

Intensify the conflicts and ratchet up the ten-

sion/excitement/humor. (Montages invari-

ably end up in Act Three.) There can be four

acts, there can be one it really just depends

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

LINE ITEMS

A TRAILER, CUT

WELL, WILL HAVE

A FLOWING MOTION

TO IT, A SENSE THAT

EVERYTHING PLAYS

OFF EVERYTHING

ELSE, AND WILL

PROPEL THE VIEWER

THROUGH THE

EXPERIENCE OF

THE FILM.

STEPHEN GARRETT ON CRAFTING A WINNING TRAILER.


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91FILMMAKER WINTER 2012

on the material. But three acts is a good place

to start. Most importantly: never resolve any-

thing! Whenever possible, leave questions

unanswered. Dont tie up loose ends. Keep the

audience wanting more.

I mentioned before that bad movies can have

great trailers. Thats because trailers are about

raising expectations. Films are made because a

group of people really believe in the ideas be-

hind that movie. All films start out being poten-

tially great. By the time the filmmaking process

is over, reality has intervened. Is it still great?

Thats open to debate. But a trailer doesnt reveal

the whole movie. It just reveals the movies po-

tential to be great. It pitches the promise of the

premise. And if the trailer has seductive rhythm

and an arresting structure, then any movie can

look like a winner.

DISASSEMBLING YOUR FILM AND

CONSTRUCTING YOUR TRAILER

In order to make a trailer for your film,

youhave to take it apart. Every trailer editorgoes through the film meticulously, breaking

it down and turning it into basic building

blocks. The main way to do this is to create

two sequences: a dialogue string and a visual

string. These are highlight reels. But theyre

also like basic ingredients. Imagine taking a

cake and reverse-engineering it, extracting

the eggs, flour, sugar and butter.

Editors are like tailors. They cut materi-

als and shape them, letting them out here and

tucking them in there, until they make a perfect

fit. But editors, particularly trailer editors, are

also cooks. They take their materials and they

boil them down, condense them and extract

their essence in order to flavor the overall meal.

Common sense might suggest that the edi-

tor who cut your feature should cut your trailer,

too. But in certain ways they are the least quali-

fied. Yes, they are familiar with the footage, and

trailer editors need to be, too. But feature edi-

tors are too familiar. They have lived with the

footage for months, sweated over the choices

and labored to make every shot fit perfectly

into the specific context of the film.

Trailer editors, on the other hand, are dis-

respectful. They de-contextualize everything.

That half-smile the heroine gives to her boy-

friend that secretly devastates him? The trailer

editor only sees a smile. A dog bark is a dog

bark. Its not Spots excited howl that saves the

life of his master its just a dog bark. Trailer

editors have to see everything for what they are

inherently, not how they function in the fea-

ture film. They have to unpack the feature inorder to repack it and turn it into a trailer.

There are also many familiar editing tropes

in trailers: dissolves, fades from black, fades

to black, white flashes with the metal-door

slams, fast-paced flutter-cuts, double expo-

sures, speed adjustments, audio rises, audio

drones, audio stings. These effects are like the

images from the film itself: they are tools in a

toolbox. Got something lush and romantic?

Use dissolves and fades. Got something fast-

paced and tense? Use increasingly faster hard

cuts that crescendo in a metal-door slam and

a white flash. This is simplistic, but the basic

message is this: Use these tools (the sound

effects, the editing tricks, etc.) to tell a story.

And to sella story.

STRIKING THE RIGHT TONE

Certain films have subject matter that might

turn off audiences who think theyve seen

that type of movie before. Myles Bender, se-

nior vice president of creative advertising at

Focus Features, was concerned that their new

production ofJane Eyrewould be perceived as

too literary, too outdated and be viewed as a

chick flick. He requested a trailer that played

down the traditional romantic melodrama

and emphasized something else: horror. So

Wilson mined and exploited the darker, eerier

aspects of the film and treated the story not as

a treasured classic but as a very modern tale of

madness and obsession.

Lets say your film deals with controversial

issues. Some people who might really love themovie may recoil when they learn what its

about. Respect that. Dont rub peoples noses

in it. Be subtle. Or at least be tactful. In Ryan

Flecks feature debut Half Nelson, released by

THINKFilm, Ryan Gosling plays a beloved

high school teacher who is also a crack head.

When we did the trailer, we were very con-

scious of not naming what drug he was using.

We alluded to drug use, but we werent specific.

Also, this movie is about so much more than

drug use. Its also about adults inspiring teen-

ENTER THE VOID.


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agers, having human weaknesses and getting

second chances in life. So we underlined the

tragic parts, emphasized the positive and didntdwell on the more salacious, negative aspects.

Before we started Kinetic, Wilson cut the

trailer for L.I.E., a critically acclaimed drama

about pedophilia on Long Island, released

by Lot 47. In this case, the material is so po-

tentially toxic that its difficult to explain the

story without it seeming lurid. But the movie

had a melodic yet sinister song (Donovans

Hurdy-Gurdy Man), sumptuous cinema-

tography (courtesy of Romeo Tirone) and

evocative shots (thanks to director Michael

Cuesta). Lot 47 co-founder Jeff Lipsky asked

Wilson to make a trailer using only the one

song, drop all the dialogue, and cut a montagepeppered with critics quotes and laurels. He

asked her to create a mood instead of a narra-

tive; something that was by turns alienating,

thrilling, dangerous and ultimately haunting.

Without saying a word, it is an incredibly

faithful reflection of the film.

MUSIC-DRIVEN (AND MONTAGE-

DRIVEN) TRAILERS

L.I.E. is essentially a music-driven montage

trailer. The song and images dictate the feeling

and structure, but dont reveal a story. Certain

filmmakers have such a distinct visual style

and use of music that the best sort of trailer

for their films is usually a music-driven mon-

tage. Gaspar Nos Enter the Void is a perfect

example. The trippy film about the ghost

of a junkie watching over his stripper sister

in the neon-drenched city of Tokyo practi-

cally begs to be a visual head-trip trailer. IFC

Films, who released the film, totally supported

that approach, but vice president of market-

ing Ryan Werner and director of marketing

Shani Ankori wanted to make sure the two

main characters were also established. So the

montage is book-ended with the two of them

talking to each other and promising to always

be together no matter what. Along with be-

ing a string of trippy images set to a pounding

techno cue, the trailer also has an emotional

undercurrent that humanizes the material and

makes the psychedelica oddly poignant.

Another incredibly visceral filmmaker isLynne Ramsay, whose 2002 film Morvern

Callar, released by Cowboy Pictures, fol-

lows Samantha Morton as she assumes her

dead boyfriends identity, claims his book as

her own and becomes a celebrated author.

Cowboys co-heads, Noah Cowan and John

Vanco, wanted the trailer to tell that story, but

they also wanted it to be impressionistic and to

showcase the visuals and the music. The film

has an incredibly eclectic soundtrack (Aphex

Twin, Stereolab, Lee Hazlewood, Ween), and

I used four different cues throughout. The

story is about, essentially, an identity crisis, so

the music keeps getting interrupted by stray

bits of dialogue that are jolting realizations.

The structure of the trailer is one of disrup-

tion and deliberately jerks from exultation to

anxiety and introspection.

DOCUMENTARIES

Although documentaries are technically

non-fiction, they usually abide by the same

rules as fiction films. They tell a story.

The trailer for the Zeitgeist release Bill

Cunningham New York, cut by our junioreditor Laura Tomaselli, is absolutely about

fashion, since the subject is a fashion pho-

tographer. But its also about the sacrifices

one person makes in order to do what he

loves. She makes his story compelling in two

minutes because she captures his monastic,

Spartan lifestyle and contrasts it with flam-

boyant wealth. And she shows how this man

has just as much individuality, taste and style

as the most outrageous clotheshorse. Its an

eloquent ode to having the courage of ones

THE REALITIES OF TRAILER MARKETING

For independent filmmakers hoping to use an appealing trailerto create interest in their undistributed film, the process of getting a trailer into a movie

theater or onto a mainstream digital platform like iTunes or Yahoo is something of a

Catch-22. Independent filmmakers want their trailers seen in these venues in order to

increase exposure for their projects, but its nearly impossible to get placement in either

venue unless a project is already quite exposed.

Lets start with theaters. Filmmakers going the DIY route, or who have partnerships

with small, niche distributors, should all but count out the possibility of getting their

trailers into the major theatrical chains. These theaters generally show four to six trailers

before a feature. Two of these slots are allotted to the studio releasing the feature, and the

remaining trailers are decided on by theater executives based on demographic research.

Its a well-oiled system, with no clear entry point for small independent filmmakers

especially if their films arent playing at the chains in question.

Independently owned theaters provide an entirely different quandary. These theaters

generally only show trailers for films that they will be playing. Elliott Kanbar of Manhat-

tans Quad Cinema elaborated on this practice in an e-mail to Filmmaker, explaining, Its

an important aspect of marketing films. Trailers are owned by the filmmakers/distributors

and they require the exhibitor to play them in advance of the film opening. Filmmakers

four-walling a theater should expect that theater to play their trailer in advance of the run;

again, though, others will have a hard time.It can be just as difficult and costly to get a trailer into the mainstream digital realm.

Yes, iTunes and Yahoo both allow open trailer submissions. (iTunes contact address is

[email protected], and Yahoos is [email protected], but note that each site has specific

instructions about what details to send.) Both sites are also quite selective about the trail-

ers that they accept. As a prerequisite for consideration, iTunes requires that films already

have a theatrical run planned, or have been accepted to a major film festival. Meanwhile,

Yahoos submission form asks the filmmaker to specify release date and distributor, two

fields that should give an idea as to how far along they expect their trailer submissions to

be. A simple perusal of either sites current trailer roster confirms that both iTunes and

Yahoo favor studio films and indies being released by large distributors almost unilaterally.

The rare self-distributed title does make it onto iTunes (recent examples being Jennifer

FoxsMy Reincarnation

and Tze ChunsChildren of Invention

), but these projects generally

have a good deal of hype behind them before they reach Apple. In an e-mail, Invention

producer Mynette Louie discussed how that films festival run was an asset in getting it on

iTunes. They actually first posted our [trailer] in May 09, four months after we played

Sundance, while we were in the thick of the fest circuit, Louie explained. Then when we

did a theatrical release in Feb 10, we just e-mailed again to ask to repost on their homep-

age, but offered them two exclusive clips of the film as well. When you do this, they have

more incentive to post/feature [your film]. Dan Schoenbrun


4/6


convictionswhether its what you wear or

how you choose to live. And the opening

line is a killer set-up. IcyVogue editrix Anna

Wintour says, Ive said many times that we

all get dressed for Bill. A power-broker like

her, bowing to one man? Tell me more.

While Sundance winner and Oscar

nominee Trouble the Water, also released by

Zeitgeist, has compelling protagonists, its

fundamentally about Hurricane Katrina. But

what makes the film riveting is the you-are-

there video footage that was shot during and

immediately after the storm. Zeitgeist co-

presidents Nancy Gerstman and Emily Russo

wanted to play that up, so the trailer focuses

mainly on that; the stylistic flourish of white

flashes with thunderclaps, used metaphori-

cally in other trailers, is used here literally, to

recreate the ravages of the hurricane. You see

the main characters, but the focus is on the

storm and the governments reaction to the

storm. Its a classic case of show, dont tell.Sometimes, the most obvious marketing an-

gle isnt always the right one. Werner Herzogs

Encounters at the End of the World, an affec-

tionate and near-mystical portrait of a group

of scientists living in the extreme climates of

Antarctica, is narrated by the Bavarian direc-

tor and is rife with his trademark Teutonic ca-

dence. When I cut the trailer for THINKFilm

and Image Entertainment, I saw Herzog as a

major selling point; so, using the eerie choral

music from the film, I cut together a series of

arresting images and accompanied them with

Herzogs joyfully nihilistic ruminations. But

THINKFilm president Mark Urman surpris-

ingly suggested that I drop Herzogs voice.

What remained, just the images and the music,

became far more intriguing and absorbing, and

ultimately far more powerful.

USING SUBTITLES

Years ago, distributors were wary of using

subtitles in their trailers for foreign language

films and relied on a narrator instead of dia-

logue to explain the story. More cynical minds

might say that it was a lack of faith that audi-ence members didnt want to see something

that wasnt in English. But theres a more

practical reason: trailers go quickly, and its

hard to read while so many images are flash-

ing by. These days, trailers now happily carry

subtitles. In this digital age, one could argue

that people are far more adept at processing

a barrage of information quickly. Regardless,

subtitles are another tool for trailer editors.

The question is, how to use them effectively?

For the most part, I treat foreign language

dialogue the same way I treat English dia-

logue: to advance a story, set a mood and share

emotion. The trailer for Cristian Mungius 4

Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, released by IFC

Films, has 20 subtitles in it. But they convey

urgency and tension (What are you going to

do?, Once we start, theres no turning back,

Want to tell me what s going on?). The dia-

logue doesnt actually reveal information. It

raises questions. The more subtitles, the more

tense the trailer gets. (The trailer is also a

good example of how to handle sensitive ma-

terial; nowhere does it mention that the film

is an abortion drama. The images hint at the

plot, but nothing is explicit).

In the trailer for Tomas Alfredsons Swedish

vampire thriller Let The Right One In, distrib-

uted by Magnolias genre arm Magnet, I only

use three subtitles. Halfway through, theres a

quick exchange: Are you a vampire? / Would

you like me anyway?; and at the end, Will

you be my girlfriend? Otherwise, the story inthe trailer is told wordlessly, which Magnolia

president Eamonn Bowles, as well as former

senior vice presidents Tom Quinn and Jeff

Reichert, completely supported. The econo-

my of dialogue is helpful from a marketing

point of view theres a good chance that

U.S. horror fans with no knowledge of inter-

national cinema might give this one a look,

even if they usually avoid subtitles. But less

is also more; the spare dialogue increases the

dramatic tension in a lovely, somber way.

USING COPY AND NARRATION

Copy and narration are an acquired taste.

Because Hollywood movies overuse copy and

narration, they can look and feel tired and un-

inspired. They are also literally disruptive; youre

watching a great image or listening to a line

of dialogue, and then suddenly its interrupted

by some deep bass voice or a card full of text.

Conversely, if you can cut a trailer without copy

or narration, then the movie is explaining its

own story organically. Showing rather than tell-

ing is always more interesting, so I try my best

to avoid copy and narration whenever possible.That said, there are always exceptions

to the rule. Copy is a great way to set up a

premise quickly and economically. In the


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trailer for Carlos, Olivier Assayass sweep-

ing five-hour epic about an international

terrorist, released by IFC Films, it helped

immensely to have three copy cards at the

beginning: IN THE 1970s AND 1980s /ONLY ONE MAN / COULD HIJACK

THE WORLD. That sets the time, place

and global impact within seconds. Because

Bill Cunningham New York is an episodic por-

trait of a man, the trailer uses one-word copy

cards that allow an impressionistic structure

while reinforcing Cunninghams identity:

PHOTOGRAPHER. / PERFECTIONIST.

/ LONER. / MAVERICK. / VISIONARY.

When the premise is more complicated,

narration is actually more expedient. Copy

cards are good if they are brief. Its difficult to

sustain an idea over multiple cards; after three

cards, you risk losing the train of thought.

Thats where a narrator is ideal. He or she can

express a paragraph in a few seconds, while al-lowing the audience to focus on a related visual

montage that strengthens the trailers overall

message. IFC Films documentary The Black

Power Mixtape: 1967-1975 is an electrifyingly

immediate work of cinema vrit that relies

on a few very long copy cards at the begin-

ning to explain that this is long-lost footage

shot by a Swedish TV crew during the black

power movement in the U.S. But for the trail-

er, no one on screen says that, and telling all

of that exposition on copy cards would slow

things down. Instead, Ryan Werner and Shani

Ankori requested a narration that delivered the

summary context quickly and compellingly.

MAKING A TRAILER ECONOMICALLY

Lets say theres just no budget to pay for

music (either from a composer or from a mu-

sic library). Or, even more importantly, the

director chose not to use music for thematic

reasons. Also, lets say that theres no budget

for a copywriter or a narrator, either. None of

these things is necessarily bad. Practically 99

percent of trailers have music, copy or narra-

tion, so those few trailers without them actu-

ally have an advantage in terms of standing

out from all the others.

Kelly Reichardts Wendy and Lucy, about

a down-and-out woman and her dog try-

ing to get to Alaska, deliberately had no

music, to accentuate the films stark, unsen-

timental mood. David Fenkel, president of

Oscilliscope Laboratories, the films distribu-tor, wanted Reichardt to be involved with the

marketing, and she and I quickly decided not

to use music in the trailer. We also both prefer

not to use copy or narration. So that just left

the films strongest asset: Michelle Williams.

But her performance in the film is so rivet-

ing that we used her dramatic predicament to

create the music and rhythms of the trailer.

Her escalating desperation and increasingly

extreme circumstances formed the structure

of the trailer, and key bits of dialogue accen-

tuated her stress and anxiety. There is innate

music in the spoken word, if you listen for it.

IFC Films Day Night Day Night was an-

other extreme situation. Julia Loktevs harrow-

ing depiction of a suicide bomber preparing

to sacrifice herself is so narrowly experiential

that the viewer never really knows what is hap-

pening at any given time. The movie is disori-

enting, so I tried my best to make the trailer

equally so. I found structure in repetition; as

the main character goes through her training,

she repeats phrases and words that others give

her. The natural rhythms that arose were the

material that I used to give the trailer a shapeand a sense of danger and emotional vertigo.

No copy, narration or music was necessary.

REFERENCING THE TITLE

It sounds silly and even somewhat obvious,

but if someone in the movie says the title of

the film, you should consider using it in the

trailer. If the films title is cryptic or somewhat

elusive, then that dialogue can give it context

and possibly even a sense of poetry. Why risk

a ticket sale due to confusion about the title?

TRAILER JARGONThanks to the increased prevalence of digital trailer platforms like iTunes and Yahoo,

the days when editors could deliver trailers entirely on celluloid are long past. Nowadays,

in order to cut a trailer for both theatrical and digital use, editors require a long list of

costly deliverables. To give filmmakers an idea of the complexity of this process, heres a

brief glossary of items and terms used by the trailer editor. D.S.

HDCAM MASTERThe HDCAM Master is what an editor will create the trailers various

video elements from, including the DCP (digital cinema projection file), the current stan-

dard for digital projections in movie theaters. Its also the version that will eventually be

used to create the trailers 35mm theatrical print. The standard HDCAM Master features

four tracks of audio, but one can also use an HDCAM SR, which features 12 tracks.

Be sure to include a time-coded version of the trailer on your HDCAM Master, as well as a

textless version (one that includes graphics, but no actual text). This will come in handy when the

trailer is needed for overseas use or if the distributor requires a clip for inclusion on a tribute reel.

PRORES QUICKTIME FILEMost trailer editors dont own HDCAM decks, so they need to

edit from a ProRes Quicktime file. Make sure youre editing on a time-coded export, as all

non-HD footage will eventually need to be matched back to the original HDCAM Master,

a process that requires the rental of a post-production facility with an HD editing bay.

ASPECT RATIOIf your trailer will be shown theatrically, the editor must create two versions in

order to conform to both flat (1.85) and scope (2.35) aspect ratios. Its cost-effective for editors

to first create a version in the flat aspect ratio and then simply pillar-box, a process in whichblack bars are added to the left and right sides of the screen in order to expand it to scope.

AUDIO MIXEditors must create two audio mixes for a trailer: one in 5:1 and one in stereo. A

5:1 mix is required in most movie theaters and is three times more complicated to create than

a stereo mix. Stereo is preferred across digital platforms. For most theatrical screenings, the

trailer also needs to be certified by Dolby. Filmmakers should also make sure that their Pro-

Tools audio-mixing session is saved, in case an element (such as a song with an expired license)

needs to be replaced later on.

AUDIO STEMSDistribution companies commonly require editors to create different versions

of the trailers audio, each one lacking certain elements. Most common is an M&E stem,

a version of the trailer that contains music and effects only and which needs to be created

in both 5:1 and stereo. Also commonly required is a dialogue-only stem, but this stem is

needed in stereo only. These stems are necessary if the trailer is to play on a program like

Access Hollywood, or as part of an EPK, where only certain audio elements are featured.

35MM PRINTMany theaters dont screen DCPs, so the editor will need to create a 35mm

print from the HDCAM Master. For 35mm, an optical soundtrack must be created and then

wedded to the print. Luckily, though, both stereo and 5:1 mixes can be embedded onto the

same print, so if the trailer is screened in a smaller, non-Dolby theater, it will still sound fine.


6/6


No one in Half Nelson explains the title. But

when we were working on the trailer, we were

allowed to use an outtake that explains it: a

snippet of audio that intros a piece of music

(This song is called Half Nelson, for those

times when youre feeling kind of stuck). Its

at the beginning of the trailer and was used as

a cheat to seem as though Gosling is hearing

it on his clock radio.

Morvern Callarhas such a strange title that

one could be forgiven for not thinking of it

as a womans name. So at the beginning of

the trailer, we use a piece of a phone conver-

sation from the film (Mervill Coller? No,

Morvern Callar) that makes light of the

name and we also show a computer screen

where the name is being typed.

NO RULES, ONLY GUIDELINES

Everything I have written so far can be

disproved by another trailer that I (or some-

one else) has done. My ideal trailer doesnt

have copy, narration or subtitles. But one of

my favorite trailers is for Matteo Garrones

Gomorrah, which I cut for IFC Films and

which has guess what? Very lengthy copy

cards, a healthy dollop of narration and loads

of subtitles. Its incredibly helpful to have a

three-act structure, with three distinct music

cues. But the trailer for L.I.E. has exactly one

song and only one act.

You never really know what shape a trailer

will take until you start cutting it. Look at the

films assets, weigh its limitations, and then

find a rhythm and structure that works best.

There is no one perfect way to cut a trailer.

A movie can have five different trailers, all

of which take a different approach and all of

which do a great job selling the product.

A TRAILER IS ITS OWN FILM

Trailers have their own internal logic and

should function separately from the movie

they are promoting. If cut well, a trailer can

be something you want to watch again and

again. But (of course!) it should also make you

want to see more.

In most cases, unfortunately, people may only

ever see the trailer. Thats why trailers should

never resolve anything. If a trailer gives too

much away, then viewers might feel like theyve

already seen the whole movie and dont need

to look at the film. Always leave them wanting

more. A trailer, cut well, needs to arouse, pro-

voke, seduce and beguile. These are romantic

adjectives, which is the point; you need to make

viewers fall in love with your film even before

they have seen it. Again, trailers are about

promise and possibility. They have to tap into

irrational and emotional impulses. They have to

invoke a sense of want and need. To paraphrase

Shakespeare by way of John Huston, they are

the stuff that dreams are made of.

THE BLACK POWER MIXTAPE 1967-1975. BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK.

PHOTO

BY:FIRSTTHOUGHTFILMS/ZEITGEISTFILM

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