What Makes A Convincing Movie Trailer?
I love movie trailers. On one hand, I love the hype that surrounds block buster trailers like “Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness” that aired during the Super Bowl. These trailers play up the hype and excitement of the movie by teasing plot points, action sequences, and surprise cameos. On the other hand, there are trailers that I can watch over and over again, because of the way they make me feel. They draw me in using more than just overwhelming special effects and the potential of celebrity castings.
Condensing a 2 hr movie into 2 minutes while also hooking the audience, explaining the synopsis, but not giving away too much is an immense challenge. But the truly exception trailers are the ones that also make the audience feel something. In fact, I think some of these trailers tell a better story than their feature length counterparts (though most of the time the movie is just as good. But can you guess which of these movies I actually haven’t even seen?)
While there are surface level components that make a good movie trailer (like teasing the plot and explaining the characters), I believe the most important part to trailers is ensuring the viewer feels the vital emotions that drive the narrative. The best trailers utilize everything in their editing arsenal (from the music, selection of shots, voice over, etc) to shift between the story’s vital emotions in a short amount of time. Given how they are more concise, can movie trailers tell better stories than feature length films?
Here are some movie trailers that truly drew me in:
The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019) - Masterly shifting mood and emotion
I’m not sure how many times I played this trailer in a row when I first saw it. Admittedly, I may have been swayed by the nostalgic themes of this San Francisco movie as I watched this trailer longingly from the East Coast. But years later, I still feel like this trailer accomplishes so much. The powerful music themes cycle through to create energetic weight, untamable joy, and sorrowful longing. The collage of playful powerful shots tell us more about the movie than the voice overs do. And the concise turns in mood tell us everything we need to know about what drives these characters (even though we just met them). All these elements create a powerful 2 minutes of storytelling that breathes energy and emotion to a San Francisco narrative that few others like to talk about.
Logan (2017) - Not just a superhero movie
I admittedly hadn’t seen a single X-Men film when I first saw this trailer (I believe there were around 9 other X-Men titles in the franchise at this time). Although I love the fandom of superhero movies, I frequently dismiss them as the most undifferentiated and unoriginal movies in existence. However, I appreciate how this trailer boldly centers a different narrative; one that focuses on the un-flashy twilight of a character. While first minute is patient and doesn’t show much, it carefully sets up a powerful shift at the :59 second mark. Again, music and the mix of “Hurt” by Johnny Cash play a large role in shifting us through several distinct emotions of retrospection, tenacity, and regret, even at a short run time of under 2 minutes.
The Goldfinch (2019) - Trauma and poetry
I remember this trailer way more than the movie itself (I think I saw the movie on a plane and don’t remember much else about it). Either way, the trailer moved me more than the movie. If you haven’t read the book, this trailer shows how you can tell a compelling story without explaining much of the plot. I likewise hadn’t read the book, but I thought that the trailer poetically framed a narrative steeped in trauma and the past.
Creed II (2018) - More than a boxing movie
I think about fighting movies like I do with superhero movies; they feel overly predictable without much differentiation. However, I was drawn to the way Creed II told the story of a familiar trope. Contrary to what is on the surface, I believe that the silences and quiet moments are what give this trailer weight. While you might think turning the sound up would help the narrative, I think the editors cleverly employed the silent spaces in between to contrast the emotions in this short amount of time. The silent pauses allow the more exciting shots to have more weight. Even though the trailer crescendos early at :68 seconds, I think the lead in from :50 - :67 is the strongest part of this trailer. It reminds me of how Martin Scorsese approached the boxing film “Raging Bull” (1980) by embracing silence to create even more powerful sequences (Scorsese breakdown video here)
Waves (2019) - Withholding the plot beautifully
I watched this trailer over and over when I first saw it. Even though I still didn’t understand the plot, I knew that it was a movie that I needed to see because of the way it teased these emotional themes around family, expectations, and love (It’s also a little unfair when the editors employee Frank Ocean to bolster the etherial mood of the story). I remember being shocked when I saw the actual film; the exact plot and sequence of events that transpired blindsided me and was much heavier and darker than I expected (I still recommend the film though). However, looking back on the trailer, I realize that it successfully plants the seed for every vital emotion for the full length feature fill even though it hardly explains any of the plot.
In closing: the purpose of these trailers
This is not a scientific breakdown of advertising strategy, marketing tactics, and successful conversions. In an attention economy where we’re constantly inundating with messages screaming for our attention, we rarely get the opportunity to question why something moved us. What really draws us in? What does it mean when something resonates emotionally with us? What are those emotions? I like examining trailers because it is a way to think about crafting emotions that matter.