I recently took on a small but very interesting
assignment for a production company I’d worked with before. The assignment was to write the trailer for a
movie BEFORE the screenplay was written.
The idea was to produce the trailer in order to convince a particular
studio to make the whole film.
Producing a trailer as a sales tool is not a new
idea; it’s been done before, but I think usually AFTER a script has been
completed. It got me thinking that, even
if you have no plans to produce it, writing a trailer first -- before the
screenplay -- might be a great way to test every idea a writer has.
Here are a few reasons why that may be true:
Trailers Crystalize Story
We’ve all seen lots of trailers. They’re short -- usually not more than two and
a half minutes. That’s not much time. And within that time limit, a trailer has to
explain what the story is about AND demonstrate why that story is worth watching. Due to these serous time constraints, just
about every good trailer manages to give its audience a clear sense of the
storyline very quickly, so it can move on to selling that story to the viewing
public.
If you have an overly complex premise that you
can’t squish into trailer format, you might not have a viable movie idea. Does that mean you should abandon the
project? Not necessarily. If you choose to write a trailer before
tackling your script and you realize your story isn’t coming across easily,
you’ll get the chance to simplify your concept prior to wasting a lot of time
and effort.
Trailers Highlight Key Characters
Trailers need to focus on the main characters of
a film. There isn’t time to delve into
the lives of minor players. For that
reason, writing a trailer can help you figure out which few characters really
matter.
It also helps you figure out which role each
character is playing, because if your characters aren’t playing clearly defined
roles in your trailer, they’re probably going to be murky in your script.
Trailers Establish Tone
Trailers are usually crystal clear about
tone. You can often tell from the first
few notes of music what the general tone of the film is going to be.
If you’re having trouble zeroing in on the right
tone for your screenplay, try writing the trailer and then imagining what songs
would accompany it. The trailer and its
soundtrack can then serve as a reminder throughout the scripting process of the
consistent tone you want to keep.
Trailers Are Excellent Litmus Tests
The thing about trailers is that they’re highlight
reels. They’re meant to show some of the
best moments and lines of dialogue in a movie. Writing a trailer first forces you as a writer
to ask yourself: What are the truly entertaining elements of this story that
make it worth writing (and watching)?
And you can get feedback on your trailer
script. If you have the money to produce
it, that’s great. But you don’t have to
produce it. You can ask trusted sources
to give you an opinion on your very brief trailer script. If it’s not a movie people would want to see,
isn’t it good to know that BEFORE you write the whole thing?
So after that great new movie idea pops into your
head, why not spend some time scripting the trailer? It just might help you figure out what your
idea really is and point you in all the right directions.
