Crafting a Compelling Movie Mini-Epic

Hello guys, it is nearly impossible if you haven’t ever wondered about trailers if you are a movie lover. Whether it is a best romantic movie or a comedy genre, the trailer is one of the most fundamental things a production has to care about. Usually, the trailer consists of short clips from a movie to attract the audience to watch the whole movie. Confused about how to make a compelling trailer. No worries, today we will discuss in detail the best tips to make a fantastic movie trailer.

Part 1. Best 4 tips for a movie trailer

Here are a few essential tips to make a fantastic trailer that attracts viewers to watch your full movie.

1. Choose movie footage

Selecting the movie footage is the first step in editing a trailer, which truly puts the viewer’s understanding and assessment of the film to the test. You need to quickly identify the movie’s main selling features and pick the most exciting content by watching the original film. These core selling points from the movie must immediately draw the audience’s attention to the movie.

In choosing material, try to pay attention to:

First of all, you should choose the content that can represent the era and the subject matter of the movie. Secondly, pick images that show the protagonist’s personality and action-packed scenes. Finally, use as many of the major dramatic lines from the movie as you can, but also pay attention to the choice of shots; they should be longer than usual.

In exploring the selling point or breaking point, try to start from:

1. Movie Type

Find the core highlights in the movie according to its genre, then decide whether it’s a comedy, drama, or successful IP adaptation. For instance, comedies must have humorous components, whereas dramas may have complex character dynamics, etc. The trailer below shows the top action scenes of the footage indicating the movie type.

2. Images and Scene

Cool special effects in the movie, lovely or make a big impression on viewers; dazzling or filled with new things. Shots are intended to grab the attention of the viewer.

3. Protagonist

It would help if you also kept an eye on the main character of your movie, the social value embodied by the identity of the characters in the movie, the relationship between the characters. And whether the movie stars artists with fan appeal or box office appeal in the movie.

4. Director awards

It’s the thing you’ve seen in almost every trailer, and you know why? Because it is a crucial breaking point of the whole movie. Moreover, it’s a great way to attract the viewer’s attention. So, you should also add the Director awards while editing the trailer. Widely regarded producers and directors have a special allure and selling point based on the “golden symbol” gathered by the producer’s or director’s work. The example trailer contains the Director’s most successful works as a reference.

2. Structural Design

One of the main tips is structural design. While making a trailer, it’s not the only issue to select the matter; instead, the structure should also need attention. You should think about and create a structure of frames for your trailer.

The traditional trailer typically follows a three-act structure: the first act introduces the setting and main characters. The second act introduces the most exciting parts of the movie (such as jaw-dropping special effects scenes, intense action sequences, etc.). And the third act moves the second act’s elements toward the climax (such as an intense confrontation plot or suspenseful stagnation). It’s vital to keep in mind that the climax scene from the trailer is not always the same as the movie’s climactic scene—in fact, it almost isn’t. That explains why so many movies are terrible, but the trailers edit them to look good.

A well-structured trailer is more interesting to watch than one that’s not. Look at a well-structured trailer below.

3. Subtitles

Subtitles are a great add-on to your trailer and can help broaden your audience as they help in more precise understanding and catch audiences from all over the world, not only from your region. If you don’t know how to handle it, we recommend using the simplest white text on a black background to set the subtitles apart from the background; if you want to add some of your own personality, start with elements like fonts, strokes, and shadows. You should set the appropriate subtitle style according to the style of the film. The most common types of subtitles used in trailers are closed caption and open caption.

By type of subtitles:

Closed Caption:

The closed caption is the type of subtitle that allow a viewer to turn it on or off according to the need. However, sometimes it requires decoders to use closed caption subtitles.

Open Caption:

In open captions, the subtitles always show, and the viewer can’t turn them off.

By contents of subtitles:

Theme subtitles, introduce the theme of the film.

Interpreting subtitles, explain the content of the footage.

Promotional subtitles, using advertising-style words and phrases to get viewers’ attention.

4. Sound editing

Sound editing also impacts the quality of the trailer. It is generally expressed in the form of background music, plus a combination of character language (dialogue, monologue, narration) and sound effects. Among these, the selection of background music is an important step in the editing process since it helps to create the mood of the movie, portray the characters’ feelings, and improve the pace of the movie. One may say that the background music selection makes up more than 70% of a successful trailer.

Part 2. How to make a movie trailer?

Now it’s time to give your trailer a fantastic touch using the advanced features of Wondershare Filmora .

Auto Beat Sync

Using Filmora’s Auto Beat Sync feature, you can easily match the background music of your movie trailer with the video footage. When you choose both of the inputs and pick Auto Synchronization in Filmora, it will automatically synchronize the video of the person speaking with the audio that was recorded using a lapel microphone and a separate file. All you have to do is choose the function and tap the analyze button. Auto Beat Sync can also add effects and delete the lousy footage clips to enhance your trailer.

Video Effects

You can use the advanced video effect of Wondershare Filmora to make your movie trailer more cinematic and fantastic. You can use LUTs to enhance the trailer with unbelievable filters. Just choose any effect from the vast library of Filmora and then drag and drop to apply.

Conclusion

The conclusion is that the trailer is undoubtedly an integral part of any movie production process. It helps a lot in increasing the movie’s public interest. However, to make a fantastic movie trailer, you should have to follow these best tips and take care of the things we’ve shared with you. Moreover, the Wondershare Filmora is the best choice to make your trailer more amazing. Thanks for Reading.

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Cool special effects in the movie, lovely or make a big impression on viewers; dazzling or filled with new things. Shots are intended to grab the attention of the viewer.