The Ultimate Guide To Making Film Trailers: by nikhara korpal

The Purpose Of Film Trailers

nikhara_korpal — 2015-10-06 08:55:31 UTC

Makes people want to go and see a film.
The Trailer presents a narrative image of the film.

It tells us what the film is like and gives us an idea of the film.
Theorist John Ellis suggests trailers offer a promise of what the film will deliver to an audience and what pleasures the film offers.
It offers something new and builds knowledge and experience of other films.
Tailer creates a number of enigmas which are solved by seeing the film.

Constructing a film trailer

nikhara_korpal — 2015-10-06 09:10:49 UTC

A film Distributor must consider two things.

The Unique Selling Point of a film
The Target Audience

The Unique Selling Point

nikhara_korpal — 2015-10-06 09:12:05 UTC

The film distributor has to decide how to present a film to an audience.
It is essentially what sets the film apart from others and makes it special.
The Distributor will look at the storyline and the key elements of the story.
Stars,director and Special Effects used.
Distributor decides elements to stress through marketing so how to position the film in the market place.
USP helps the audience understand what they might expect when they see a film.
Gives the audience a 'Narrative Image' of film.

Target Audience

nikhara_korpal — 2015-10-06 09:18:15 UTC

Target audience best defined as the specific largest group of people who may go and see the film.
Things to consider:
Where to advertise and promote film.
How to reach defined target audience.
Understanding age,gender,lifestyles and activities of audience.
Target audiences vary for each film.
Compare audiences with Previous Films.
Distributor try to attract a wide range of people.
Refer to films as crossover or break out films which attract more people to the cinema,especially infreqent cinemagoers.

The Trailer

nikhara_korpal — 2015-10-06 09:25:17 UTC

Cost effective advertising technique to film distributor.
Trailer reflect what people may expect to see at a cinema.
Extracts used from the finished film can excite an audience through creating awareness.
Trailer works through a combination of moving images,graphics and voice-overs to give a 'Narrative Image'.
Trailers give audiences sense of genre,what the story is about,who is in the film and when it opens.
Shown in cinema before film so attracts a similar type of audience,reaches cinema goers and persuades them to come back.

Creating a Trailer

nikhara_korpal — 2015-10-06 09:33:00 UTC

Starting point is knowing the complete story of your film.
Consider the narrative image you wish to convey.
Include the idea of the film and the message behind the story that you want the audience to know.
Write up basic guidelines of what you want to include in your trailer.
Need to introduce characters,genre of the film and key moments from the story.

Creative Choices

nikhara_korpal — 2015-10-06 09:38:53 UTC

How are you going to create the overall feel of the trailer?
Decide how everything will link together.
Genre
Shots/Camera
Voiceover
Captions
Background Music
Stars
Directors

Important Parts Of Trailer

nikhara_korpal — 2015-10-06 09:41:44 UTC

Filming

Choices of shots in order making editing process easy.
Different shots/options to present a scene.
Story-boarded trailer providing different options in editing choice is everything.
Think about how to vary visual appearance of story(windows,doors)

Music

Should reflect genre,mood and feel of the film.

The Edit

Know the music before editing images,the beat will help construct trailer(Cut on the beat)
Make sure music level is dipped so dialogue can be heard.
Edit shots and pay attention to length,short shorts are more impactful than a few long shots.

When Finshed Trailer:

nikhara_korpal — 2015-10-06 09:49:12 UTC

Look at the timeline
Close eyes and listen to trailer
Time your trailer
Compare Trailer with your short synopsis

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Biblography

nikhara_korpal — 2015-10-08 11:00:21 UTC

Booklet from the Media Magazine April 2014 edition called "The Ultimate Guide to Making Trailers"
http://www.filmeducation.org/teachingtrailers/secondary/
http://www.npr.org/sections/monkeysee/2012/01/15/145227280/the-art-of-the-modern-movie-trailer
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/06/art-of-movie-trailer