Are You Making These Movie Trailer Mistakes?

By Tom Getty

You've spent a lot of money in getting a movie trailer, or spent a lot of time in MAKING one. You get some nice compliments, a few, "can't wait to see it"s, but you don't get the most important thing trailers are supposed to get:

SALES.

Sales. And good trailers get them.

But this raises a problem. How do you know if a trailer is bad or not? There are a number of signs. Here are just a few.

1) The studio logo dominates. When a bad trailer starts, typically the studio’s logo—studios’ logos—hang on screen for longer than, call it…48 frames. Frankly, this is even too long for most indie studios, and I would recommend no longer than 24 frames. If you’re Warner Brothers, then fine. But most blockbuster movie trailers don’t show the logo longer than around 48 frames. In all fairness, this is sometimes out of the trailer editor’s hands, the distributor DEMANDING a royal entry of actually playing the studio’s ENTIRE logo BEFORE the trailer even begins, as if it's introducing a very important guest. In practice, have the studio logo on screen no longer than 24 frames.

2) The trailer starts twice. That is, the logo appears, fades—and then disappears, all sound goes out—and THEN the trailer begins. I’m not sure what production companies, studios, distributors are trying to say when doing this, but it never, ever, ever happens with blockbuster, real studio movie trailers. The trailer starts—and it goes.

3) The audio isn’t “mastered.” Movie trailers should be loud—and they are loud because studios walk their finished audio mixes through what’s called a “mastering” process before unleashing the trailer. It’s similar to what record labels do with their music to make sure their tunes have “competitive loudness.” That is, the thing is question is loud without being loud. Admittedly, this is kind of a difficult concept to explain as it’s borrowed from the music world. But to be sure, it’s a process that’s done on all blockbuster movie trailers. There’s so much to be said with this, and we’ll follow up sometime. But it’s just important to know the process of “mastering.” Hint: look up iZotope Ozone. If you’re a trailer editor, explore that program!

4) Shots last longer than “X” number of frames. This one is difficult to make a hard and fast rule for because it depends on the ACTUAL cache of the movie itself, and the studio itself. In other words, more expensive, studio fare can afford (indulge) shots longer than 96 frames. Which should be a good rule-of-thumb-limit for trailer makers and filmmakers of indie and no budget productions. Not because those films’ visuals are uninteresting. But because, obviously, the audience, not seeing any familiar movie stars, is already tapping their watch. Of course, it goes deeper than that. It speaks to attention spans and their limits. Thankfully, most low budget and no budget films can utilize this to cover up a bereft of production value. More shots give the impression of greater value. Not ALWAYS, of course. But more often than not.

5) The dialogue and the music (and sound effects) fight one another. Simply, the trailer’s audio is not well mixed. What’s “not well mixed” is not easy to articulate. But let’s just say that someone watching the trailer struggles to hear what’s been said. This is always evident in the tail end of an actor’s piece of dialogue—the actor trails off in volume, as most people tend to do in real life. And so just as the editor is raising back the music, the last bit of information in the dialogue (usually the most important bit of information) drowns. This isn’t so much a matter of not adjusting the volume, as it is not knowing about the use of an audio tool called a “compressor.” That is, a tool that can give you an even, consistent volume.

6) Unlicensed Copyrighted Music. This isn’t so common, but it’s an immediate disqualifier. If the trailer has copyrighted music in it (music that is not licensed), then there’s no point in making a trailer. Especially now a days where YouTube can track (and block, and mute) audio tracks like a hawk. You could get away with this years and years ago. And, admittedly, I always used copyrighted music as a teenager. Not just in making trailers with unlicensed music (my favorite track was from the score to The Fugitive), but in falling in love with how GOOD the song made my trailer. The truth of the matter was my trailers weren’t built on anything BUT the song. So, in a sense, that’s why it's a mistake. Using copyrighted music—usually, good music—is just an unconscious crutch because the trailer editor doesn’t know what else to build the trailer on.

7) No Clear Plot. That is, the trailer leaves the audience confused about the plot of the movie. Or worse, leaves the audience with “mystery.” Which is never good for a sales piece. You want the audience to know EXACTLY what they’re getting into, already formulating in their minds a mental model of what the movie WILL be. It’s what Robert Zemeckis said about trailers: “What I relate it to is McDonald’s. The reason McDonald’s is a tremendous success is that you don’t have any surprises. You know exactly what it is going to taste like. Everybody knows the menu.” Take Robert Zemeckis’ advice—clearly define what the audience is going to get.

8) The trailer is a montage—not a trailer. This shows up when a trailer is just a collection of images stitched together over a good piece of music. Again—not a trailer. If you’ve seen this done at the blockbuster level, it’s because the director strong-armed the studio into them letting him or her make the trailer. So, not knowing sales principles, he or she makes an ode to their movie. Not a sales asset that directs, guides, instructs, and calls an audience to action.

9) The trailer holds back some of the goods.Yes, that is the trailer doesn’t put in EVERYTHING and the kitchen sink. This will drive filmmakers nuts, but it’s true. The idea speaks to sales. Remember—people pay to SEE a movie. Not to have seen it. The audience thinks, “Wow, if the trailer is that good—then surely there must be more.” And so, they buy a ticket. Most times they don’t even remember everything they’ve seen in the trailer (let alone the movie itself). And if they do, and complain, no one listens to them. Why? Because everyone is TOO busy buying a ticket for the movie and they don’t want to hear anything bad about what’s popular. “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” What about word-of-mouth? That’s the movie’s job.

In short, watch out for the above signs that a trailer isn’t any good, and you’ll do well to make a great movie trailer!