Today's Blog: Movie Trailers

Now folks, you may notice that I don't have a specific time set aside for writing blogs, I just write when I write. Just sayin'.


Have you heard about that new movie coming out? It has "so and so" in it, it's a new film, it looks really cool! Have you seen the trailer?

Yes, and it's too damn long.

Well now, have I ever struck a nerve. The almighty movie trailer/teaser/preview. Action packed, dashing and full of information...too much information. When we watch a movie trailer, we are excited to see what the film is all about. That's fine and dandy but I've noticed that sometimes it's a bit much.

A movie trailer in my opinion should be about a minute to a minute and a half long max. That's plenty of time to share what the film is basically about. If it's any more than that, say 2 - 5 minutes, hell, I've seen the movie! (and yes I've seen 5 minute trailers. *snooze*)

You can imagine where I'm going from here; yep, they always show the "good parts". A car jump, a hot babe, gun play, the bloody kill scene, the sexual gobbledygook, some karate or at least some type of fighting action, and...that's it. You've seen the good stuff. So, when you get to the film, there isn't much left.

Everything else is dialogue, smaller pieces of action, more nudity and/or sex scenes and fillers. Hmmm...kind of spoiled the meat there professor. You have basically turned your feature length fantasy into a short film fumble by exposing the best parts of the movie in hopes of gaining everyone's interest.

How about we take half of the action out of it, half the time length, and make the audience want to spread the word that your trailer is on YouTube and should be seen.

You have to leave the audience wanting more. If the teaser is too long, it's a spoiler. As a filmmaker myself, I have to study what draws a crowd in. I have to find out what entertains them, and that is not easy, but at least I know not to go over the minute and a half mark. I at least have that one down.

As a viewer, hell, I want to be entertained!

With the change of cinema over the years, the editing of the teaser has become lengthy. I actually went to a site once just to watch some previews to see what was out there. Anything over 2 minutes bored me. Get to the point already.

Ok, a hot babe wearing a bra is involved in some drama, a tough guy who saves the day makes a move, a car races down the road, a killer scares someone and some clever dialogue is exchanged between the lead characters. The End. Thank you, now 60 seconds later I actually want to see the movie to find out what happens.

Somehow, we seem to forget about movies that have those 2 -5 minute wonders. Your friend mentions it to you and you say, "Oh yeah, I saw that one", or you at least feel that way.

A movie preview should leave you wanting more. It's a marketing tool, a way of drawing interest to your feature presentation. Tell the audience what they need to know, nothing more. If you have more "good parts" to show them when they watch the entire film, you have entertained them. If you have entertained them, you have done your job.



Just sayin'.