Why Are Most Indie Film Trailers Horrible?

rockerrockstar

rockerrockstar

I have watched a lot of Indie Film trailers and they are all Horible. Why because they lack the professionalism of a Feature Film trailer. They mostly fail to keep me interested in watching the movie.

First I think any film maker that is serious about their moive should spend a lot of time on a trailer. It may actually take weeks or more to get a good one. Don't just do one in a hour. The trailer should be professional unless you plan on just hoping some one watches the movie for Free on Youtube or something. If you are looking to actually promote your movie with a Trailer make a good one. Ask your self if you were watching it would you want to watch the movie? Bench mark your trailer to other trailers out there. How good is yours compared to real movie trailers? Get some good music to make your trailer more interesting. Look at real movie trailers for ideas on how to make yours better. The faster the trailer the better in my mind. It should cover a lot in a short period of time to keep the attention of the viewer. Something interesting must happen in the trailer.

Ask your self what is good about your movie. What is unique. What would make you want to watch it. Then make sure it shows in the trailer.

Consider making several trailers and having them rated. You could ask friends to decide which is good. Or try uploading them to you tube and ask subscribers and viewers to decide which is best.
 
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I think the main reason above all is simply this: There are so many terrible indie trailers, because there are so many terrible indie films.
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True, but as we found on this thread, you can make a good trailer from a bad movie and have a bad trailer for a good movie.
 
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srbclarke said:
I think the main reason above all is simply this: There are so many terrible indie trailers, because there are so many terrible indie films.
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Yes. I fully agree with this. Ask yourself: How many trailers can you name where the trailer was absolutely terrible but the movie was awesome? Maybe a handfull? At least this is my opinion.
 
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Kind of an interesting (I hope) aside...

I was working on a screenplay concept that involved a detective investigating a mystery. It involved a twist where we find out that there is an extraterrestrial element involved. I ultimately had to abandon it because my manager - who deals with the major studios - said I was wasting my time inserting that sort of twist because, even if the movie got made the trailer would give the twist away. I have no doubt he was right.

Talk about the tail wagging the dog.
 
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Cracker Funk said:
Yeah, what he said. I also liked the "Bone Cave" trailer.

On a side-note -- one of my biggest pet peeves are those stupid trailers for movies that haven't been made (not even written)! Making a good trailer is NOT the same thing as making a good movie, so why in the world would a fake trailer somehow get you funding for the larger project?

Here's the best indie trailer ever made:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFicqklGuB0
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One reason would be to test the market to see if people are interested in the movie before commiting to the movie fully. If it gets a lot of interest the project may have potential if not they may just drop the idea and try something else. If the trailer gets some buzz it is possible that getting the more talented people or funding could be easier.

Another way of attracting talent or funding is to film the begingin or a portion of the movie to use for a sample of the quality and what the movie will be. This has been done to attract famous actors, etc...
 
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2001 Productions said:
Kind of an interesting (I hope) aside...

I was working on a screenplay concept that involved a detective investigating a mystery. It involved a twist where we find out that there is an extraterrestrial element involved. I ultimately had to abandon it because my manager - who deals with the major studios - said I was wasting my time inserting that sort of twist because, even if the movie got made the trailer would give the twist away. I have no doubt he was right.

Talk about the tail wagging the dog.
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And yet the trailer for "The Sixth Sense" gave away the entire movie ("I see dead people") and very few figured out what it meant until they were well into the movie itself. Even the director and editor thought that they gave it away too soon during the film; but it was still a surprise to me.
 
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I ultimately had to abandon it because my manager - who deals with the major studios - said I was wasting my time inserting that sort of twist because, even if the movie got made the trailer would give the twist away. I have no doubt he was right.
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Maybe check out the trailer for Dusk til Dawn, with a late twist they'll have dealt with the same issues.
 
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2001 Productions said:
Kind of an interesting (I hope) aside...

I was working on a screenplay concept that involved a detective investigating a mystery. It involved a twist where we find out that there is an extraterrestrial element involved. I ultimately had to abandon it because my manager - who deals with the major studios - said I was wasting my time inserting that sort of twist because, even if the movie got made the trailer would give the twist away. I have no doubt he was right.

Talk about the tail wagging the dog.
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There are thousands of movies that have trailers in which the entire movie is given away. They still get made and people still see the movie. I would get a new manager. He doesn't sound like he knows what he is doing. I mean what is the point of a trailer anyway? To show what the movie is about and get people excited to see it, right? If that means giving some plot points away then so be it. Other thoughts?
 
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said I was wasting my time inserting that sort of twist because, even if the movie got made the trailer would give the twist away. I have no doubt he was right.
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Plenty of movies don't get developed cos some guy doesn't think they'll work. Was reading yesterday about how Pulp Fiction was rejected at least once for being 'unfilmmable'
 
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Alcove Audio said:
And yet the trailer for "The Sixth Sense" gave away the entire movie ("I see dead people") and very few figured out what it meant until they were well into the movie itself. Even the director and editor thought that they gave it away too soon during the film; but it was still a surprise to me.
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That wasn't the twist in Sixth Sense, though. That was the setup for the twist. If the trailer had told you
Bruce Willis was a ghost
, Shyamalan would've gone postal.

Brooksy said:
There are thousands of movies that have trailers in which the entire movie is given away. They still get made and people still see the movie. I would get a new manager. He doesn't sound like he knows what he is doing. I mean what is the point of a trailer anyway? To show what the movie is about and get people excited to see it, right? If that means giving some plot points away then so be it.
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Let me clarify something. It was my choice to abandon the script, not my manager's. He was fine with my creating a sci-fi movie, just wanted to warn me ahead of time that its secrets would not be preserved, and he was 100% correct. I chose to move on because I didn't want my twist given away in a trailer and the way this screenplay was structured it was inevitable.

Trust me, he knows what he's doing. He's gotten me meetings at Spielberg's company, James Cameron's company, Adam Sandler's company, Toby Maguire's company, etc. etc. I'd be a damned fool not to trust him.

At any rate, all of this sort of misses my point, which was that - in Hollywood at least - the needs of the studio marketing departments have an inordinate amount of influence on content, which is tragic.
 
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