The ultimate how-to guide to making trailers

This source is written by Ian Wall, who is the director of The Film Space.

The purpose of the trailer
Make people want to go and watch the film. A film theorist called John Ellis has said a trailer is a presentation of a narrative image of the film. So a trailer gives the audience a feel of what the film is going to be like. Types of Media like trailers and posters are marketing materials that give a promise on what the film is going to be. For example, the latest Fast and Furious film gave a promise on that it has more action than the last film.

A good trailer will give the audience a number of enigmas which makes the audience want to go and watch the film, so they can solve it. These enigmas include; Who is that character? What might happen? Why does that event happen?

The unique selling point
What sets the film apart from other films, in that genre? Unique selling points are used in the marketing campaign as it gives the audience an idea of of the story.

The target audience
Is the specific group of people who might want to go and watch the film. This will affect where to advertise the film and how to reach the target audience. Even though it is important to focus on a specific group, it is equally important to attract a wider range of people so more people will want to go and watch the film.

The trailer
Most cost-effective advertising technique. Is shown in cinema's before other the start of a different film, is also shown on web-sites and social media. The trailer is constructed by using a combination of moving images and voiceovers so it gives the audience an idea of the; narrative, genre, main actors and the date released. By showing a trailer before the start of a film that has a similar target audience, this will appeal to cinema goers and persuade them to return to the cinema experience. The cinema experience includes having a big screen and a massive speaker system.

Most common mistakes of trailers
They are the trailer is; too long, shots are too long, lack of variety of shots, lack a change in editing pace, sound dialogue is poor, no voiceovers and there is no clear film narrative.

Filming
It is important to have lots of possible shots to use from so the editing stage is a lot easier. Trailers that only use one or two shot types are boring to the audience. However, if there is a mixture of long shots, extreme close ups and establishing shots it makes it more interesting to the audience because they don't know what will happen.

Music
The music that is in the trailer should reflect the genre and target audience, because music can be used to keep the audiences attention if it has a beat which songs that they normally listen to have. A good chose of music will give a real feel for the film.

Editing 
If you chose the music before you start editing, you can cut from one shot to another on a beat. When using music and dialogue, it is important to lower the sound of the music when dialogue is used so the audience can hear it. When adding shot it is important to look at the length of the clip so it does no boar the audience. Therefore cut the clip down as much as possible which gives the most amount of effect.