How are movie trailers made?

July 2, 2008 12:01 PM

What creative process is used to make professional movie trailers and how long does it take? Do the people making the trailer see the whole movie and pick the clips they want? Who picks the music? Is a specialized company hired to make it? I want to know as much as you can tell me!
posted by alitorbati to media & arts (3 comments total)

There was a long piece in the New York Times Magazine a few years ago about the making of the trailer for the movie Signs. It goes into a lot of the detail you're asking about.
posted by jjg at 12:19 PM on July 2 [2 favorites]

Is a specialized company hired to make it?
Some are done in-house but most are handed off to companies that specialize in theatrical trailers and other marketing materials. Here is a directory of trailer houses and sound companies from the website for the industry Golden Trailer Awards.
posted by junesix at 9:24 PM on July 2

Several years ago a friend of mine who did this and some normal editing would tell when movies were expected to stink - they would get very tight NDA agreements and people stomping around telling them to keep their mouths shut. There was generally no relationship between my estimation of the finished product and distributor view of how much it was going to suck. Always thought that was weird. Although not entirely an answer to your question....

At that time, and this was at least ten years ago, when I complained bitterly about scenes in trailers that were not in the movie he said that some were cut at that last minute, some were shot especially for the trailers, and some were specially edited as shorter versions of "real" scenes for preview audiences. He refused to admit that in some cases trailers were created to sell an apple when everyone involved knew the movie was an orange. I still have doubts.
posted by Lesser Shrew at 3:30 PM on July 3