Trailer Lengths for Marketing

[Kholi]

Been mullin' this one for a few days now.

Seems like no budgeters go for the 1:00~1:30 mark.

Traditional, and Major Motion pictures, are still 2:30 mark.

Now, I get why the no budgets are one minute and a few seconds, there just isn't enough content to sustain the two minute pitch. Not enough variation in location, not enough trailer moments in particular.

I am curious as to how the short trailer changes the interests and/or perception of the movie to potential buyers AND audience members, versus the traditional two to two-and-a-halfer.

Personally, me thinks that one to one-and-a-half is cheap, but that's a personal preference and I can see the massive benefit of chiseling out that length, hiding the shortcomings etc.

Has anyone had any experiences with distros on the topic? With audience members?

 

[bruceallen]

OK since this is my area of expertise, I'll be glad to answer questions anyone has

I've worked at mOcean for around 6 years (where we've been privileged to work on a ton of awesome things, both studio and indie... most recently the teaser and trailer for The Avengers) and before that Goodspot (doing more indie stuff).

Three rules:
1. These are my opinions, not representative of the company I work for.
2. I can't discuss current or recent projects we're working on.
3. The major studios (all of them) are our clients. There are a lot of very nice and very hard-working people there, trusting us with their movies and paying us money. So please no Hollywood bashing. That's just... rude.

So, with that said, maybe I can help with folks' questions if they are looking at making an awesome trailer for their own projects (and if they're not really concerned about this, THEY ARE NUTS).

First off, a major motion picture marketing campaign consists of a LOT of stuff:
- viral sneak peeks (at Comicon etc): from fake websites... to 10-minute movie excerpts shown to core fans, made to generate excitement and core fan base
- theatrical teaser: shorter, often there have only been a few days shot and the rest is good graphics, clever copy and great sound & music, to announce the movie to general public
- theatrical trailer: longer, hints more at story / characters, show the general public why they want to see this movie and remind them at the end when it is opening (called a call to action)
- tv & web spots: catering to specific audience, showing off great reviews, etc
Then you have the websites, interactive stuff, apps, computer games, product and merchandising tie ins... print ads, theatrical standees, feature press kits, featurettes, movie reviewer junkets... AND TONS MORE.

So... when it comes down to no-budget stuff:

The main problem with doing a trailer for something no-budget is not just lack of cool footage. The issue is that there also often just isn't a cool story/concept/character to sell.

That said... let's say you actually have something good to sell. Then you need two things:
1. a few moments of really awesome footage that support this thing you're selling
2. a serious music / sound / graphics budget to make the bits without footage where you communicate the rest of the concept look... awesome

Sadly, most no-budget movies TOTALLY LACK a graphics and music budget for the trailer. BTW, if you lack a budget, just make it simple and clean. Cheesy is death, unless you're going for comedy. AND they do not have a single sequence that is awesome. This is a major perplexing thing - how can someone shoot AN ENTIRE MOVIE and not have a single sequence that's trailer-worthy? But then you start to understand that perhaps the movie was shot on a combination of talent, resources and time that wasn't even sufficient to make a single thing look good. I dunno. To me, people should think about this before they make the film. They need to write at least one sequence that makes you go WOW, I WANT TO SEE THIS.

OK, that's my opening salvo. Questions?

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com

 

[Gary Huff]

A lot of "low-budget" teasers/trailers don't look anything like the kind of trailer you would see in a theater in the first place from a basic foundation: editing and "storyline". I don't care what the source is you have to work with, there's definitely something there, most people, I guess, either don't know how to edit a trailer (or at least mimic what they've seen), or don't care.