Film Courage: What's the first thing we should see in a movie or television trailer?
Thomas Verrette, Filmmaker: It has to just be something that provokes you to keep watching
really it could be a line of dialogue I guess or an opening shot that's what is that or if it's
recognizable you can get away with it if it's IP you can probably do
kind of more creative ways into a trailer because the audience is already there right waiting for it
I don't know if that's a because it just depends on what it is that you're cutting and what the
style of it even is does it yeah I think generally it's just let's just get into it with something
that that makes me want to keep watching really that's the easiest way to say it but it really is
it could be so many things depending on what it is that you're cutting how do you keep a
movie trailer interesting without revealing everything but keeping it true to the film
well okay so I have a lot of experience doing promos which makes it a lot easier than doing full
trailers there's a a trailer format a theatrical trailer let's call it that's anything that's two
minutes let's say those are 90 seconds to two minutes those become a little increasingly more
difficult to hold things back to sustain and I think that's part of partially because of what
people are used to seeing these days I think but promos if you're gonna if you're doing a
30 second spot on one you can definitely do that in in and they're way more fun in a way because
you get to actually kind of just tease somebody to want to watch it whereas in I I do find that
sometimes trailers give away everything sometimes I don't care and sometimes I really hate it it's
just it it just depends sometimes on the on the movie but I've heard a lot of people talk about
trailers just always doing this always giving them boys things away and for instance for me I saw the
teaser of Dune and I refuse to watch anything more because I know I'm gonna go see it so
maybe it's just give it up to the to the audience to decide if they need to see the if if they need
to see the full trailer or not to keep them from being spoiled but I have to do that
myself so as a trailer editor sometimes how many trailers have you edited I don't know 200 plus
maybe when I say trailers really what is trailers promos and spots because they're all related
and actually and if I really was going to do throw cut Downs in from a full trailer to a 30 then it
probably would be even higher too so yeah quite a few what's the average length of the trailers or
promos that you edit most I would be I would say well okay promos are always going to be 30 seconds
sometimes they're 15s everyone's want to get a 60. trailers or 90s 90 seconds to two minutes usually
and do you have a rule for how many shots or frames or whatever you use within those time
no no I think it's just the the project that you're cutting will inform the style and
well not always but mostly mostly most of the time the the project you're working on
will inform you what kind of approach you take to create that trailer so if the film is slow
as in a long burn then the trailer is probably not going to be a fast paced kind of trailer
unless they're trying to disguise something the about that film or or trick an audience into
watching something that it's not but that's never usually the directive honestly when you watch
movie trailers do you often feel that the trailer misrepresents the film or doesn't do it justice
that's a good question I think most of the time the trailers that you see
are going to be an amalgamation of five different trailer editors who have cut versions and then
you're seeing one that has all the best spots that the executives have chosen to represent
right so it gets it gets tricky in that sense and then the other side of it is is well is that
representative The Suicide Squad trailer made a big splash because it was awesome and then they
changed the movie to be more it so the story goes so that may have something to do with that movies
panning critically I don't I can't speak to that because I wasn't involved in that project but is
it's something that that I would be devastated if somebody cut a trailer of my film that was
awesome and maybe different than what the movie was and then I was asked to make the movie more
the trailer can you imagine what that would probably feel but that's what they did with
that film and that just kind of shows you I guess that I don't know it's a business
at the end of the day and yeah sometimes movies don't or the trailers don't represent the films
I think oftentimes they probably do a decent job of that honestly there's always going to be
examples either way though that do one or the other so I think there's a format that
works essentially in and maybe it's a little too calculated now these days but it does the job and
and if you see a really exceptional trailer it's probably because it's doing something different
Each decade there's a different style of filmmaking would you say the same
with the trailers if we look back at trailers from let's say the 70s it
almost seems it's just one long scene from the movie yeah yeah no of course definitely
I also think that trailers are kind of a unique place to really do some creative editing it's a
it I to think that there is an art they're just as much of an art form as as anything else in a way
and I of course I think that because I have some experience working in that side of the industry
but there's the Promax BDA Awards which is mostly for promos and spots and stuff that but you go to
that and you see all of the nominations and stuff and and it's pretty cool to kind of get a sense
of wow they really did some crazy unique stuff for that show or this campaign or what it is a
fascinating place to be and I think it's a it's a great place as an editor actually to do stuff that
isn't you you can finish a trailer in two weeks where you're not on something you can
then you move on to the next one or something but there's some rewarding part of that process to to
start something and finish it in kind of a quick amount of time that you that you craft and create
as opposed to working on something for six months or two years or whatever there's
some value in that part of of the industry for sure even just that way can you take us through
the process of what it's to cut a trailer yeah so well the first step is you watch
down the series or the film depending on what it is
films I think sometimes are easier to to cut trailers for than than television series but I'll
get into that in a second for a film though you basically just watch the film down you make your
selects and what I do is once I've watched that film I usually kind of experiment with copy or
just ideas of what is what am I trying to say because sometimes you don't have somebody telling
you oh we're going to use this tagline or this tagline this tagline but you kind of have an
if it's a long trailer in particular you're gonna need it most often and so you're going to come up
with something as you've watched the film and then you're gonna play there's library music
either but obviously trailers are so heavily built around the music so you obviously have to choose
very wisely for that and the worst Trail worst note that you can ever get is hey the trailer's
great but let's change the music because really what that means is you have to redo everything
it's just yeah so so there's that and then for television it gets a little more tricky
because you more often than not don't have the entire full season to cut the trailer from
and yet you still have to make it maybe a minute a 90 second spot or trailer and make
it exciting because those episodes are still coming in they're still getting delivered
because they're not usually on a really basis I at least in my experience it's always been that way
so you kind of have to get a little bit more creative sometimes with how are you going to
rise up at the end to slam dunk this this series and get people to want to watch it but that the
process is generally the same you yeah you watch it down you get your selects you find your music
you cut it together and get your notes back and then make adjustments and go from there and
there is usually a process where once you've done your first cut there's usually a lot more
people that get involved for from that moment on until it gets completely approved sometimes
it's the directors or the show runners or the executive producers it just depends depending
on what project it is but there's a lot of hands in it because it's the marketing of
their baby or their money maker whatever it is so it's a you also have to definitely know
how to handle criticism and critiques and and how to how to be a good team player basically
sure and is the same process of figuring out what the note means and applies to trailers as
well yes it definitely does it always it applies to anything actually I don't I don't think that
there's any example where somebody's giving me a note unless they're where it's can you just
take two frames off of that that's when you're I'm gonna get a little a little irritated with
you but yeah because that then that's maybe one note where yeah that that's really what it means
probably but but how dare you I'm the editor and I could probably do a little finesse pass at the
end once I know it's approved but realistically though yeah any note that you get from anything
whether it's a script it's it doesn't matter and it trailer there's always usually
a general hey this is the note and then you have to be well is that it or is it is it the shot
that's before that or is it the moment before that or is it the character introduction as I
mentioned earlier it just you have to do that part of the process on your own but that is
I think maybe one of the things that that always always comes out on top in the end if you can
if you can nail it figure out what they're what they're actually getting at would you
see there's more hands involved at the end of the trailer being cut or it's consistent throughout so
do they kind of give you an idea show you what to do in in terms of what we want it from this
time code to this or whatever and then lets you run with it but then toward the end there's all
these hands that get involved or is it consistent no I think it's not all these hands all the time
it's just that you usually have some layers to to the process as in the structure of the of the
the company or the business or whatever that you're working with so it's not that you have all
these people it's more that you kind of are Pat it's you're passing the Donkey Kong levels oh okay
we got we we got this approval let's go up until it goes to the top of the company sometimes even
it just depends but that's always cool when that happens because then you're well yeah
the president of the company loved my trailer and then you may have met them you may have not
but it it's still where that people are seeing your work and that's that's that's pretty cool
do you go in and read the comments just to see did they this one section or once the trailer's
online well oh on that stuff yeah I did I used to do that not so much anymore but also I haven't I
did a lot of trailer and promo editing before I did Phenoms the soccer series I mentioned so
that was about two and a half years where I worked at Audience Network at DirecTV and ATT before they
closed down and that was one of those kind of that was my first time into that world actually where
where I kind of got used to cutting promos for shows and and how the process even even worked and
stuff but that the cool part about promo editing and trailers for anybody who's interested in that
stuff is again I said you're on your your takes a week or two weeks or it's a short amount of
time where you're on one project before the next one so there's always this kind of feeling that
you're accomplishing something and then it's kind of maybe the part of the industry at least what
I've found where the hours aren't super insane they're more they're kind of more structured in a
this has been my experience and that it's the least kind of stressful in that sense versus
doing production 18-hour days or 16 hour days or even editorial posts we're you're you're you're
hitting a schedule on a on a different process and that doesn't mean that you don't have long
hours and stuff every once in a while but at least in my experience it was it was no this
was structured and it was a really nice break for me for a while before it kind of got crazy again.