Oh
most people don't even know that we
exist
everybody thinks that the studios do the
trailers they have no idea that there's
this entire industry built around movie
trailers in 2017 movie theater
attendants hit its lowest point in 25
years but the movie trailer industry is
experiencing a golden age just over a
century ago promo screened at the end of
films earning them the name trailer soon
they were in front of the movies and the
trailers themselves started to evolve
today more people are watching trailers
than ever before in the early 2000s
about a dozen companies produce movie
trailers now there are more than a
hundred trailers are something you go
when you seek out particularly on on
YouTube that one form of advertising
that you want more studies of the brain
have found a connection between
reactions to trailers and a film's
box-office success and people trust
trailers more than Rotten Tomatoes and
even their own friends trailers have
become their own form of entertainment
right the dissection process that
happens it never used to happen before
of analyzing every frame
the end of this trailer was I was like
rain I was like like the movies they're
promoting trailers have premieres
critics and even their own award show we
attended the trailer industry's version
of the Oscars and visited the most
prestigious trailer house in LA to find
out what goes into crafting two minutes
that will make you laugh cry and most of
all get you to cough up 15 bucks for a
movie ticket there's the classic rides
that happens in every single trailer and
it's called sixty voices rising when it
goes getting the intensity going up
until that one big shot before you go
into town
[Applause]
there's lots of Rises but that's one of
them maybe that's a big one lots of
power downs and bass drops to make a big
power down and then you throw an
impactful line in there this is homicide
[Music]
you can just insert interesting sounds
like if you have an explosion you can
put in like the sound of an eagle just
to kind of give it a bigger feel this
trailer for baby driver a woman turns
around and in the backseat of a car and
there's just like a jungle cat that just
goes it adds to all the cool factor of
that trailer whenever you see somebody
reacting to something on a trailer
that's the emotion that we're trying to
give you so you see somebody crying
shock laughing those are all things that
are being done deliberately when you're
dealing with international a joke that
works really well in dialogue doesn't
translate necessarily so well but a nut
punch that always works
[Music]
music is one of the most important
ingredients in an enticing trailer there
are even composers who specialize in
creating bespoke trailer music as well
as juicing up well-known songs there is
an industry term that we use called
trailer ization that can enhance the
song that already exists when you play
the originals even though that amazing
tracks they don't necessarily work for
the trailer and then they enhanced it by
adding some the orchestral elements and
big drums that the song didn't have
while trigger ization seeks to enhance
classic tracks a different technique is
re-recording a song in a way that
completely changes its tone the trend
last couple years has been here that the
dark creepy cover of a song that you
know already so we provide that as well
covers like these have replaced the
narrated in a world style as the most
widely mocked trailer trope even by the
man who popularized it when we did the
trailer for the social network that used
a cover song of Radiohead screep that
then became a thing that you started
hearing more and more of afterwards I
was just like okay no we don't do that
anymore it can kind of finish its cycles
there Mark Williams been behind the
trailers for over 40 oscar-winning films
as well as countless arthouse classics
I think we're constantly trying to find
out what the new new thing is we did a
trailer for they used kind of a rhythmic
device of a guy's head getting pounded
against the wall
with something like the revenant we used
the sound of DiCaprio's breath repeating
the sound of his grave Bing Doug is
giving it the counter rhythm it's all
about serving the character in the story
I'm now starting to see a lots of things
of rhythms and trailers and just for the
sake of repeating sounds a lot of
click-click-boom trailers yeah very
sound design heavy gun gun left
and right people kicking each other that
is hopefully going to die this year
because it's boring once it becomes a
formula you want to find something else
so that oh look at that movie look what
they did but we don't get too invested
because it is definitely not fine art it
is commercial art every trailer is a
collaboration between ourselves Studios
filmmakers and so you are trying to make
a lot of people happy sometimes we're
working in here in advance on a film
which is crazy no one thinks that we
spend that much time on these things
wrong before a trailer can play in
theaters it needs to contend with the
expansive and vague rules of the MPAA a
green band trailer is what you would
usually see in front of a movie it's
rated for pretty much all audiences and
is relatively tame blood is just the big
no-no what you do is you change the
color of the blood to look like mud
that's done in a lot of horror films so
if you see people looking extra dirty
that's usually blood no thrusting no
thrust is the roll can't can't thrust
you can moan you can grunt no thrusting
up but if it's a red band whatever you
want red band trailers which can show
explicit content specialize in targeting
more mature audiences there one example
of the multiple versions of trailers
Studios often create to target different
demographic
trailers are no longer just for theaters
and television thanks to an increase in
online viewing they now have to be made
for a variety of different platforms
including YouTube Twitter Instagram and
Facebook if you're trying to watch a
trailer online advertising algorithms
may note your interest in trailers and
make you watch a different trailer
before your trailer this is often
followed by another mini trailer called
a bumper which is a six second trailer
for the trailer you're about to watch
with trailers popping up everywhere it
seems like the perfect time to be in the
business but for some the best trailer
is no trailer at all I mean I'll be
honest it's still my favorite
experiences are when I never see a
trailer for a movie or see any bit of
advertising like those are the best
experiences just at the movies that's
one of the funny things about the job
like literally everything we work on you
know there's been no advertising before
we see it I actually get to enjoy all
these movies without ever being exposed
to movie trailers we done I think so
you