Select the most memorable sequences
You have a very limited amount of time to convince the viewer that your movie is worth watching. That’s why you need to choose really spectacular segments for your trailer. But it’s a balancing act – you don’t want to reveal too much and spoil the fun. Hook the viewer, but leave key questions unanswered and vital secrets unrevealed.
Maintain the 3-act structure
A trailer is a story. The classic way to tell a story is in three acts:
Exposition: introduce the main characters and the environment in which they exist
Development (growing action and intensity): introduce conflict and complications
Climax: intensify the storyline and bring it to a resolution.
Choose appropriate music
Often, well-chosen music can be half, or even more than half, the victory. Music binds all the building blocks of your story together; it defines the mood of your trailer, creates the appropriate atmosphere, and can have a big impact on the audience.
Use your sense of rhythm
An effective trailer always involves rhythmic editing. If the story in your trailer is developing rhythmically, it creates a sense of flow, eliciting more emotions from viewers and making them feel connected to the characters. Cut your trailer into fragments so that the changing frames synchronizes with the rhythm of the music and it will look and feel very natural.
Apply tried-and-tested tricks
Last but not least, there are some specific techniques used in most trailers that add to its effectiveness:
Fades to and from black
Atmospheric sound effects like droning, blasts, whooshes, etc.
Voiceover or text on screen highlighting the movie’s key themes
Fast cutting (for fast-paced action)
Quiet music at the beginning, building to a crescendo towards the end
Abrupt dramatic endings that are almost silent
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