Originally published on FilmInquiry
There’s a film you’ve been following production on for months. You were so thrilled by the casting of your favorite actor or actress. They even got that cinematographer you love so much. Today’s the day you’ve been waiting for – you’re browsing Twitter as you sit on the toilet and you see it.
The trailer dropped. Let the hype begin.
You stop your scroll and click on the link. Before you can watch the trailer you’ve anticipated more than the birth of your older child, you have to watch a 15 second ad for a “Ron Howard Teaches Directing” Masterclass. A little annoying, but someone has to pay the bills. You get it. And you think to yourself during the seventh second, “Hmmm, maybe I could be the next great director if I take this online class.”
Okay, back to the trailer. Big bass hits come. Flashes of action. And then at exactly the :05 mark, it says, “[Film name] Watch The Trailer Now.”
Wait, what? You thought you clicked on the trailer. You double check. You did click on the trailer.
Welcome to the rise of the pretrailer mini trailer.
I get it – in a world of shortening attention spans, you have to get someone’s interest immediately. And it makes a little more sense if we’re talking about a new property or something that wouldn’t be conventionally appealing to a mass audience. But does the fifth Jason Bourne movie really need to tell anyone what they’re about to see in the trailer? I don’t think so.
Apparently, there’s a strategy behind it.
Business Insider wrote about the trend in 2016. It’s meant to stop people on social media (your aunt on Facebook who loves Green Book), in their scroll and get their attention. But isn’t that the purpose of copy and a trailer?
They even interviewed movie trailer professional Mark Woollen, who described the tease as “self-cannibalism.”
Really, it’s a lazy way to avoid cutting a better trailer.
For my day job, I work as a writer at an ad agency, so I’m familiar with the world of preroll video and short attention spans. The rule indeed is to catch someone’s attention early – roughly three to five seconds. But a mini trailer isn’t the way to do that. You should just make the first five seconds of the actual trailer compelling.
Think of it the same way you would use an exclamation point. If you need to use one, what you’re saying isn’t exciting enough by itself. Anything that’s actually exciting doesn’t need one to communicate that.
Five random shots don’t sell a film.
Okay, maybe if it’s an action flick or something as hyped as say Avengers: Endgame,you don’t need anything besides five shots. For most films, they’d be better off with a compelling setup of the situation. If it’s a mystery thriller, what are the stakes? Don’t just show me someone wrestling with uncertainty. If it’s a comedy, what’s the situation that’s driving humor for two hours? Don’t just show me Will Ferrell farting on John C. Reilly.
It’s probably not going away anytime soon.
With data driving every marketing decision, you would have to assume the five second tease is driving views. Does that mean it’s driving people to the box office? It’s hard to say. What would be even more interesting is to see at what point people drop off watching these videos. Do they make it past five seconds?
As long as studio executives are getting the number of views they want, it will look like success. And if Hollywood is known for anything, it’s following a formula for success and not taking chances.
What do you think of the pretrailer tease? Has it ever convinced you to watch a trailer you otherwise wouldn’t? Sound off in the comments.