Jun 30, 2023 08:00:00

What are the various techniques used in good movie trailers?

Trailers (trailers) for movies, anime, dramas, etc. need to show attractive scenes that make you want to see the work while avoiding important spoilers of the story. Online media

Vox explains in movies about various methods for making attractive trailers and the characteristics of trailers for each era.

Iconic movie trailers, explained by a trailer editor-YouTube


Mr. Bill Neil, who is the editor of the trailer at Buddha Jones , an advertising and design agency, tells us the characteristics of an excellent trailer.

First, Mr. Neil talks about how to make a trailer, citing the project of the American horror movie `

` NOPE '' released in 2022 as an example.

Movie `` NOPE / Nope '' latest notice [National release on Friday, August 26]-YouTube


In the trailer of 'NOPE / Nope', there was no cut of the movie at first, and it seems that the trailer producers grasped the work by seeing the information sent every day like a daily newspaper. At the trailer production stage, it is often the case that there are almost no cuts during production, let alone the main part of the movie. When we started to get a sense of what the movie was going to look like, it was decided by the director's suggestion that Stevie Wonder 's song ' Fingertips ' should be used for the NOPE trailer.

The music in the 'NOPE' trailer is a so-called '

diajetic sound ' that refers to 'the music in the movie that the characters in the movie are listening to,' and appears in time with the scene. Techniques such as the characters dancing and taking steps, and the sound of the horse's hooves to the beat create momentum and fun. And when the excitement of the music reaches its peak, by switching to a fairly quiet and large wide shot, the tension is instantly generated and the audience's interest is drawn. In the scene where the music stops and it becomes quiet, crickets chirping are included, and even the chirping suddenly stops, further heightening the tension. In the trailer, after that, the name of Mr. Jordan Peele, who directed the movie, is displayed, but the display method is also devised according to the atmosphere of the work.

The music and sound effects can be made fun or exciting with rhythm and melody, and by gradually increasing the tone, you can bring the movie to its peak. According to Mr. Neil, in the early days there were no music samples that could be used for trailers, and he often imagined a specific song title, such as 'I want to use the excitement of that Beatles song.' Now you can choose music and sound effects from a sound library of about 1 billion to color your movie.

Next, Mr. Neil talks about old movie trailers. Mr. Neil describes Mr.

Stanley Kubrick as 'the person who was making the best trailer ever.' It seems that crazy and indirect strange editing was an epoch-making method for movies at that time.

Also, regarding the trailer for Brian De Palma's horror movie '

Carrie ' based on Stephen King 's novel, Mr. Neil said, 'It's an excellent trailer that conveys all the important moments of the movie.' I'm talking

CARRIE (1976) | Official Trailer | MGM Studios-YouTube


'Carrie' is a horror work in which a high school girl who was bullied by her classmates awakens to her supernatural powers from the sadness and anger at the painful bullying, and uses her supernatural powers to mass murder. Most of the information about who was killed in the movie and the scene where he felt despair due to the terrible treatment is revealed. But it's still a pretty good trailer, with Neil saying, 'I'd say to people complaining that the trailer contains a lot of spoilers, watch the Carrie trailer.' .

Another interesting point in the trailer of 'Carrie' is that Mr. Neil uses a method called '

wipe ' to change the scene to wipe out the previous screen by inserting a new screen. It's a point. When Carrie, who has a timid and shy personality, is in a happy moment, a large amount of pig blood is sprinkled on Carrie due to terrible bullying. However, in the trailer, the red effect effect wipes in. According to Neil, the Motion Picture Association, Inc. (MPAA) , which sets the production code for the movie, requires trailers to be approved for general audiences, so they must show actual blood-like footage. It is said that it was a device that could not be done.

In addition, Mr. Neil cites 'one of the best trailers ever' as a trailer for the 1979 sci-fi horror movie '

Alien '.

Alien (1979) Trailer-YouTube


Mr. Neil points out that the 'Alien' trailer has a particularly good sound design, and the point that the BGM is raised while projecting the alien eggs and making the high-pitched howl of the alien resonate is the sound. I appreciate the point that it lives as a 'signature sound' that shows the characteristics of the movie.

As a feature of an excellent trailer, Mr. Neil continues to cite 'VO (voice over)'. VO is a method that has become popular since the 1990s, in which words are added to the trailer as narration instead of the dialogue or audio of the main part of the movie. Mr. Neil named the American male voice actor

Don Lafontaine as the 'King of VO' and said, 'Compared to other projects that include similar narration, Mr. Lafontaine's work draws a line. I was there,” he said. According to Neil, LaFontaine was able to take any nuance the filmmakers wanted and make the audio compelling for those watching the trailer.

In addition, Mr. Neil explains the technique of the trailer called 'Rug pull'. Even though the trailer starts off with fun and goofy music and progresses without any major changes, if you slowly pull the rug, at some point the things on the rug will collapse and become a mess. A clear tipping point emerges. In this way, the production of switching the atmosphere from a cheerful development to a tense development without a clear trigger cut can be effectively used in the trailers of horror and panic action movies.

On the other hand, there is also a method of showing short cuts one after another, rather than slowly changing the atmosphere in a series of scenes. As seen in '

Mission: Impossible / Fallout ', action movies often have trailers that include actions such as sound effects, movements, and punches according to beats and music.

Movie 'Mission: Impossible / Fallout' Book Notice-YouTube


Mr. Neil said, ``Rhythm is a basic human sense. By doing so, you can make a cool impression,” he explains.

Neil concludes with a metaphor that studio execs have previously said about trailers: 'It's like trying to sell a jigsaw puzzle.' In order to sell a jigsaw puzzle that cannot show the whole picture and only a few pieces can be seen, it is necessary to devise a number of ways to assemble the pieces.