Film Trailer Checklist

As I was searching online, I stumbled across a checklist about what is needed in a film trailer, that isn't too serious, but seems really quite relevant and helpful. The checklist speaks in quite a casual language, so is easy to follow.

Film Trailer ‘Checklist’

Through searching online, a film trailer checklist (for want of a better word) has been found, that pretty much outlines modern film trailers. The list was found The Guardian’s (Newspaper)website, meaning that I have a reasonable amount of trust in it, and I know that it’s not just a random article that could have been written by anybody. Because it’s written by a trusted source, we can look at it and almost use it as a guideline for creating the film trailer. Even though the whole thing is very informal, it strikes me as even more modern, as that is how things are worded in today’s society.

• "In a world ..." before those ironically grandiose E4 continuity announcements, all you needed was a strong, sonorous voiceover to set the tone for any big-budget actioner. Nowadays, you have to be more inventive. Try assembling fake news footage into a glitchy, distorted montage, and be sure to include words like "epidemic", "catastrophic" and "unexplained". The Cloverfield crowd will go apeshit.

• You haven't got much time to introduce your characters, so aim to sum each one up with a single line of stereotypical dialogue. Loose cannon? "I don't take orders from nobody!" Nerdy scientist? "You don't understand! It's simply not possible!" Female character? "I'll wait for you."

• When it comes to music, the old standards – please rise, Carmina Burana – just won't cut it any more. Dubstep is increasingly becoming a viable alternative, with sub-Skrillex warblings lazily plastered over trailers for films as disparate as franchise smash-'em-up Transformers: Dark Of The Moon and second world war race-relations epic Red Tails.

• Don't give too much away. Offer only brief glimpses of your most impressive CGI set pieces, accompanied by a quick fade-out and that irritating foghorn noise (or "BRRRRRRAHHHHMM" as it's become known) from the Inception soundtrack.

• Single words written massively across the screen are more impactful than whole sentences, so break your tagline up into its component parts and sprinkle them throughout the trailer. It doesn't matter if they're so far apart that nobody can piece together the meaning; chances are, they're not paying attention anyway.

• You don't want to blow your load too quickly, so take a brief pause for thought just before the climax and let one of your characters say something witty. Good luck bettering Jason Statham's timeless words from the new Expendables 2 trailer: "I now pronounce you man and knife."

• Don't forget, the title is the bit you want people to remember. Put aside at least ten seconds at the end for an agonisingly slow reveal.



After reading through the checklist, I have discovered many things with I otherwise may not have thought of. It’s not too extensive, but if it were then there would be risk of it dictating what I put in my film trailer. This makes it so the film trailer is still mine to work with, and leaves me to be able to put into my trailer whatever I want. However, this ‘checklist’ forms a perfect guide, as I can refer to it when creating my trailer, for inspiration, and to make sure I am on the right track.