create a movie trailer assignment

19 April 2021

The essential guide on how to make a movie trailer for fun, work, or school.

A movie trailer can stand on its own and attract as much interest and attention as the movie itself. Just like a good advertisement, a good movie trailer can make or break the movie's success ultimately . But what if you're looking for how to make a movie trailer for a school project or just for fun? Or a movie trailer teasing a longer video project for social media on your YouTube channel. Does it still need to be worked on at the level that a commercial movie release requires?

Making a movie trailer can be great fun and a learning experience for students looking to prepare for a cinema career. You don't have to have gone to film school yet in order to learn how to make a funny movie trailer or create a horror movie trailer for a Halloween prank. All these and more can be done with your mobile phone and a few good editing tricks. Here's how.

How to make your own movie trailer for fun

If you're just trying to create a fun video teasing a personal film about a holiday or making a movie trailer as a set-up for an invitation to a party, you can follow the same principles of a "serious" trailer. Here's how to make a movie trailer on an iPhone or other smartphone with the help of a video editing app.

Select your footage

The first thing you need is your movie footage, of course. Select the scenes that will go into your trailer , taking into account that a trailer is meant to tease the film without giving away the key plot twists. You should, however, include some conflict scenes to suggest there is more than one plot point and generate interest.

Organize your trailer in three acts

The three-act structure is a classic response if you search for how to cut a movie trailer on your own. Here it is in a nutshell:

The beginning should introduce the main characters, the setting, and the film's premise
The middle should create or heighten the conflict
The end should feature a climax

Show stunning scenes

One of the key ways in which trailers capture the audience's attention is by showing some of the most visually compelling shots of the film. This will whet your viewers' appetite for the movie.

While you need to select the most beautiful scenes, be careful not to use anything that gives away too much of the plot. You still want people to watch the final product!

One of the key principles of how to edit a movie trailer is to add music that matches the atmosphere of the film. You might be able to reuse some musical background from the film itself, and oftentimes it's great to have continuity by using the same key song in the trailer as on the movie soundtrack.

How to make a movie trailer voice

Another staple feature of movie trailers is the movie trailer voice. This can be achieved by using a video editing app, like Splice, with the right sound effects built-in. Or search for "how to movie trailer voice" online and you can download apps to help you.

Include text and transitions

To make your trailer more attractive and exciting, remember to add some text and transition slides . You can also add sound effects to heighten the suspense. Your video editing app will have several sound effects to choose from, as well as text formats to put across the screen. Remember the animation that text usually has in a movie trailer in the theater as well.

Control the pace of your movie trailer

Regardless of how the scenes were shot originally when you cut your movie trailer you can mix them up and render them faster or slower depending on the mood you want to convey to your audience. A quick cut between short scenes adds urgency and suggests a fast-paced film if you're looking at how to make an action movie trailer, for example.

How to make a movie trailer for a school project

In film school, you will certainly cover movie trailers as part of the filmmaking process. Their essential role in creating hype for a movie is usually best conveyed by creating a discussion around the purpose of movie trailers, the typical length and features, and the effects that movie trailers have traditionally had on audience numbers in the cinemas.

However, creating your own movie trailer can be an interesting school project even outside of film studies. Here's how to film a movie trailer about a historical topic for a school project and how to edit your movie trailer taking into account the advice above as well.

Refer to the script / facts

If you're putting together a movie trailer as an exercise in learning history, you'll want to film essential scenes around a historical event. This means there is a "script" already: the actual history books.

Study the events to understand the key moments which should go into your movie trailer. Then, create the trailer script separately, writing down what will go into each section.

Film your trailer scenes

Let's say you're learning how to create a movie trailer and using Henry VIII as the main subject. By reading about his life, you'll identify other key characters such as his wives, his key court members, the Pope... you get the idea!

Look at filming very short scenes teasing what happens in his relationships with each of these characters, imagining how they would be extracted from a wider film.

Use video editing for your special effects, music, and titles

Refer to the tips above on how to add music, text, and transitions in order to edit a movie trailer to perfection. Remember to highlight the key actors. As a humorous touch, you can create a credit roll where you present the historical figures "as themselves" in your cast list.

In your video editing app, use the movie trailer voice for the complete effect.

Include keywords

All movie trailers follow the concept of attracting the viewer into cinema by enticing their curiosity. This means that you should include some specific keywords such as "the biggest adventure" or "the scandal that was never talked about" - to suggest that something new or unusual will be revealed in your final movie.

Whether you are looking into how to make a good movie trailer as a fun personal project, for a school assignment, or genuinely for a movie you are looking to release, this guide will have you on your way to Hollywood in no time. Remember the popcorn and enjoy!

Enjoyed our writing? Share it!

How to Start Social Media Live Streaming

Why you should start live video streaming on social media...

How to Make a Wedding Video on Your Own - an Easy Guide

How to make a wedding video without hiring a professional. Create great memories on video from your wedding day.

Top Birthday Video Ideas to Delight and Amuse

Ready to start editing with Splice?

Join more than 70 million delighted Splicers. Download Splice video editor now, and share stunning videos on social media within minutes!

Copyright © AI Creativity S.r.l. | Via Nino Bonnet 10, 20154 Milan, Italy | VAT, tax code, and number of registration with the Milan Monza Brianza Lodi Company Register 13250480962 | REA number MI 2711925 | Contributed capital €10.000,00 | Sole shareholder company subject to the management and coordination of Bending Spoons S.p.A.

5 Easy Classroom Activities Involving Movie Trailers

Having originally studied Film at university I was always keen to use movies in class, and some years later I ran a series of workshops for teachers on the use of video in the classroom (‘video’ gives an idea of exactly how long ago that was) and how to maximise learning opportunities. I offered a selection of lesson ideas I’d used to good effect in my own classes and now 25 years later, with increased online access to materials that are often not subject to copyright issues within an educational context, I’m sharing a few of those ideas here!

Why use movie trailers?

These ideas will concentrate on movie trailers specifically as promotional tools studios use to get audiences interested in films coming soon. The interest level in trailers is unquestionable – being among the top five forms of video content viewed by users (as an example, Marvel’s Avengers Endgame trailer had 129,527,344 views at the time of writing).

You can find trailers on YouTube or sites like iTunes Movie Trailers. A typical trailer will be between 2 and 3 minutes long, although teaser trailers – those released sometime before the movie’s planned release – will be shorter, and typically give less of the plot away, aiming to create a general mood instead (these can be useful in their own right).

You should ensure you are not breaking any copyright laws in your use of movies in class and be aware of the suitability of the subject matter for the students you are teaching. Note that the majority of trailers will be suitable for class use, but ‘red band trailers’ are those which feature violence and/ or abusive language.

1) Pick a Movie

If you do show movies in your school, as part of a ‘movie club’ or similar, trailers can provide an excellent opportunity to decide what movies are shown, while encouraging students’ analytical and presentation skills!

Method: Show three trailers. Students divide into three groups according to which movie they would prefer to see. Within each group, they decide what it is about the choice that appeals to them. A help guide could be provided with keywords to assist them: words like genre/ stars/ director/ themes etc. After half an hour, selected representatives present their choice reasons to the broader group. After presentations, the choice is put to a class vote.

2) Film Pitch

This is a more ‘drama’ based version of the ‘pick a movie’ idea and uses the concept of familiar social events such as the Cannes Film Festival etc. where filmmakers will try to sell their films to would-be studio buyers.

Method: Show a trailer and ask the students to consider it along the lines of stars/ genre/ look and feel/ what they saw. Invite students to write a ‘pitch’ for the movie, as if they were the maker. Their job is to pick out the most positive points about it and why people would want to see it. The second group of two/ three students will act as a ‘movie producer panel’ who can buy a movie. Their job is to decide whether they would buy the film in question, based on the quality of the presenters’ persuasive powers.

3) Red Light/ Green Light

This is a variation on Film Pitch, which doesn’t even need a trailer!

Method: Students in small groups come up with their own ideas for a film, and present a 2-minute ‘pitch’ of it to a panel of students who will decide whether their ‘studio’ will give it the green light (make it), or a red light (turn it down).

4) What Happens Next

The point of a trailer is to give a feel for what the movie will be about, without giving the whole plot away (some do this better than others). They often use ‘tropes’ – a movie language shorthand that allows an audience to see there is enough in the movie that reminds them of things they have previously liked without being ‘exactly the same’. If you have students who are interested and watch movies in their own time and depending on your class subject, this can work as a fun ‘warmer’ exercise.

Method: Show a trailer and ask students what they think will happen in the movie. Students can work in pairs or individually and either fill in a response or call out suggestions (from experience these can be humorous or serious, depending on your class…). If you are using an old movie then you can tell them who was closest (although they may have seen it), if it’s a new film then there will be a period of waiting before the answer is revealed…

5) My Favorite Genre:

… a fun self-study preparation/ classroom presentation project for classes who have an interest in movies.

Method: explain to students what a ‘genre’ means in film terms. This can be a fun classroom warmer to encourage students to take part: in the past, I’ve put genre headings up on a board (e.g. Western, Sci-Fi, Horror etc.), and provided post-it notes of terms or words such as ‘Ghost’, ‘Horse’, ‘Time-travel’ etc. then asked students to put them under the appropriate genre. Students can then add their own elements under the genre they think is most fitting.

To extend this ask students to think about what their favourite genre is and tell them to find a trailer that they believe demonstrates this genre. Students can do this in their own time and present it to their classmates, pointing out what ‘genre’ elements it uses. This can lead to interesting discussions around cross-genres and storytelling techniques.

How do you use movies in the classroom? Let us know in the comments below!

Simon Bewick worked in ELT for 25 years and has watched movies for nearly 50. He is the author of several short story collections for both adults and young adults, available on Amazon. He writes about films, literature and culture on his website bewbob.com

Make a movie trailer that entices audiences.

Movie trailers can fill audiences with expectation and awe. the best ones reveal just enough to leave the audience wanting more., not sure which apps are best for you.

Take a minute. We'll help you figure it out.

Teasers, trailers, and previews.

The length of a trailer depends on where it’s going to live online or be shown to audiences, and also when in the cycle of a movie’s marketing campaign it will be released. Earlier previews are shorter and only a few seconds long, and later previews are longer, with narrative arcs of their own.

Teasers are very short, usually about 30 seconds to one minute long. Teasers are usually released early in a movie’s marketing campaign, and they give the audience just a small hint of what the movie will look like.

Trailer teasers

A trailer teaser is a new kind of teaser, meant to arouse interest in the release of an upcoming, longer trailer. It’s an ad for a future ad, essentially. Marketing campaigns for big-budget movies often put out a short clip to drum up excitement for a trailer prior to the release of a longer piece of video content.

These especially short trailers can be repurposed — and reoriented — for social media sites such as Instagram or Twitter, where audiences will see a single scene as they scroll through their feed. If the longer trailer has been released, a teaser trailer can be accompanied by a call to action (CTA) to view it. “Use a short trailer to drive traffic to a longer one,” says Martin.

Trailers are the most familiar kind of movie preview, usually 2 to 2.5 minutes long. They typically run prior to feature films, though they used to come after the feature, hence the name. Trailers contain the most information about a movie. They usually show moments from several scenes in the film and run the gamut in terms of emotion or mood. Full trailers also show off the cast more than other previews. A longer movie trailer often shows most or all of the film’s main cast, names the director, and mentions other relevant details, like if the movie is based on a popular book.

Editing, genre, and sound effects.

How you edit a trailer depends on what kind of movie it is. A slow-paced period drama uses slow transitions and dissolves, but trailers for action movies can smash cut to an explosion or other burst of activity. The intro of a horror trailer might start slow with more gradual edits to build tension, but then amp up the pace with a series of quick cuts featuring brief glimpses of the enticing frights to come.

Editing a video and audio in Adobe Premiere Pro

Image by Joshua Martin

Sound effects can also go a long way in conveying information to the audience about what type of film the trailer is for and how they are supposed to feel. The distant sounds of battle can let the audience know that this is a trailer for a war movie, and ambient futuristic noises can subtly suggest science fiction. “Sound effects are your best friend,” says Martin. “It’s another layer of storytelling.” Editing with sound effects or editing on beats can make transitions more natural and compelling — and better allow unrelated scenes to flow into each other.

There’s no single trailer template for shots or sound effects, but regardless of genre, trailers tend to start slow and have low stakes, yet end with greater energy and high stakes. Build up to an emotional or tense moment. The moment when a bit of the narrative might resolve is when the title should pop up instead. Make it clear to the audience that the trailer is only the setup, and the payoff can only be found in the feature film.

To voiceover or not to voiceover.

Voiceovers used to be an omnipresent part of movie trailers, with a deep-voiced narrator intoning what you’d see if you bought a ticket to an upcoming blockbuster. The narrator also announced who was in the movie, who directed it, and the release date.

For the most part, movie trailers have moved on from voiceovers. Part of the reason is that Hollywood’s most prominent voiceover narrator, Don LaFontaine, died in 2008. It’s also because many trailers today tell their story just by using audio from the film they’re promoting. Trailers without narrators seem different and more contemporary. If modern trailers do have narration, the voiceover usually just provides narration at the end of the trailer with basic info like "Now in theaters, rated PG-13," and not much else.

If you do decide to include a voiceover in a movie trailer, it will sound and feel like something from before 2000. If you’re deliberately trying to make a retro-seeming trailer, narration can go a long way to making it feel like it’s from another era. If you want a contemporary feel, a voiceover probably won’t help with that.

A person holding their phone and watching a movie trailer

Movie magic, two minutes at a time.

Trailers are popular, powerful, and memorable. So much so that recently they’ve moved beyond movies and into other media. Book trailers promote literary works, YouTube channel trailers show off vlogs and other content, and trailers for video games are just as strong and dynamic as trailers for major blockbusters.

Regardless of the movie or other media you’re promoting, the most important thing to do in a trailer is to tell a story, but not all the way. Get the audience invested with the action, plot, and characters, but leave them wanting more.

Contributor

Joshua Martin

Share this article

Do more with Adobe Premiere Pro.

How to Make a Movie Trailer that Grabs Attention

E veryone loves a great movie trailer. They help create a buzz about your project. They entertain crowds as stand-alone, short-form tidbits of cinematic excitement. And, if you haven’t even made a full film, a well-executed trailer can lead to successful financing.

But creating a great trailer that explains your project and excites the viewer is no easy task. The same storytelling elements and techniques that engage audiences in films and shows also need to hit all the marks in trailers — even more so, because in trailers every split second is watched under a microscope.

In this post, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about how to make a movie trailer for your project. You’ll come away ready to build short, effective trailers to get attention for your project no matter where you are in the filmmaking process .

Everything you need to know about making movie trailers.

Edit Your Movie Trailer
Avoid the Mini-Movie
Use Graphics & Voice-Over
Add Music & Sound Effects
Export and Send
Start With Your Script
Shoot a Setup Scene
Shoot a Flavor Scene
Add Key Elements
How To: Unscripted Trailers
Pre-Interview Cast
Shoot a Key Scene
Additional Footage
The Basics of Trailers
How to Build a Trailer
How to Shot List a Trailer

cutting your trailer

All the different ways to edit your trailer, 1.1 cutting your trailer, edit your movie trailer.

Once you’re done shooting, it’s time to cut your trailer.

Editing is where your trailer blossoms, because there are so many different ways to cut it together. The beauty is that there is no wrong way to do it. In fact, the more eye catching, the better. Test what works. Try everything. Go with your gut, and see where it leads.

Here's an eye-popping movie trailer example. It thrills the viewer and generates interest in the sci-fi action film The Matrix :

How to make a movie trailer that builds anticipation

Keep in mind that you don't have to make a linear edit of all your scenes chunked together.

Instead, experiment with creative editing techniques, such as bookending and intercutting your trailer.

You'll want to aim for a three-act structure, however abridged, in in your trailer. This means you'll establish characters, introduce the conflict or complications, and then raise the stakes and tease the conclusion. This basic movie trailer template has worked as a storytelling framework for thousands of years, and it still works today.

Movie Trailer Definition

What is a movie trailer.

A movie trailer is a marketing tool originally used by major motion picture studios to show the coming attractions. They’re called “trailers” because they were commonly shown at the end of a film, but theatres and studios realized people were more likely to see them if they played before the film rather than making the viewer wait until after the credits.

What makes a good movie trailer?

They build excitement for a particular project.
They entertain viewers as their own standalone piece.
They inform a focused group about coming attractions.

You may already know a bit about how to make a movie trailer on iMovie , Apple's utilitarian standby. There's no shortage of other movie trailer maker software available as well, including Adobe Premiere, Apple Final Cut X, and Avid Media Composer , to name a few.

Whatever trailer editing software you use, the marketing and storytelling principles will remain the same. Tools give you the means, but your own creativity and the footage you start with will form the bedrock of your trailer.

1.2 HOW TO MAKE A TRAILER

Avoid the mini-movie.

Have you ever watched a trailer and thought, “They just showed us the entire movie! Oh well ... now I don't have to see that."

Everyone has seen long, boring trailers that feel like a mini-movie.

If you have your entire story already recorded, don’t give over every piece of information. This isn’t the film itself, it is an advertisement for the film.

When it's time to make your own trailer, find places in your story that generate questions:

Who is that?

Why are they doing that?

What does that mean?

How does that work out?

Your goal is to tease the viewers and leave them wanting more. The best trailers get viewers thinking, “I have to see the rest of this!” Or, “I can’t wait to see what happens next!”

Aim for this level of polish, information, style, and emotion:

The move trailer for David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Notice that there's no dialogue, except for song lyrics. We don't always need dialogue in a trailer.

The visuals, characters, pacing, graphics, and music tell us everything we need to know, and just enough at that.

What else did you notice?

Rhythmic, fast-paced editing.

Abrupt and dramatic cuts.

Swelling emotion on every level: music, graphics, and imagery.

And the length? About a minute and a half. You'll want to keep your trailer short. There's no set rule about how long your trailer should be, but limiting your trailer to a couple minutes is a good start.

A shorter-form trailer, or teaser, usually clocks in at one minute, give or take. A teaser is a very brief, super-minimal trailer designed to, of course, tease the viewer and build anticipation. A teaser only has to have one hook. Get in, hook the viewer, get out — that's the M.O. of a teaser.

When you make your own movie trailer, you have license to use graphics and title cards to your heart's content. Just make sure not to overdo it, and make sure they serve your story.

1.3 movie trailer maker

Use graphics and voice-over.

In movie trailers, there are often two or three levels of storytelling happening at once. There’s the stuff that’s happening in the footage.

Then there’s a layer of story that gets told via voice-over, on-screen graphics or both.

For example, your trailer might start with a traditional Don LaFontaine voice-over line: “In a world ... where nothing is certain …” Then we’ll see a stock footage aerial shot of, say, a giant outdoor market.

Then, a title card comes up that says “Egypt, 1968.” At this point, you cut to a set in Van Nuys, and no one knows the difference.

Check out these motion graphics trends to get up to speed on what's effective in trailers and video content right now:

Motion graphics trends to use in your trailers

How to make a trailer? With various post-production elements firing on all cylinders. Use these elements to draw the audience into your story, tone, and mood. Incorporate them to supercharge your teaser.

Voice-over and titles are useful tools, especially when you don’t have a lot of footage to choose from.

1.4 How to make a movie trailer

Add music and sound effects.

You can get creative with music in your trailer. Music tells people how they should feel, so it’s a very important way to set the tone.

Here is a video all about how to master the film score. Apply the pro tips in this video when you make your own trailers:

The best movie trailer makers know how to master the score

If you are building an original trailer for official marketing, you’ll want to find a composer to work with. They are everywhere, and many of them are really good — plus you want to get in the habit of building these relationships and becoming familiar with the process. Take a peek at resources like Score a Score and see if they look right for you.

Or, you can find great royalty-free music at stock sites. Whichever route you choose, unless you're getting really artsy and out-there, you'll most likely want music in your trailer.

1.5 CUTTING YOUR TRAILER

Export and send.

Get your movie trailer seen. Believe it or not, one of the most important ways to get someone to watch your movie trailer is old-fashioned email.

Busy execs don’t like to click on links. So be sure to export a highly compressed MP4 version of your final cut that’s less than 10MB. Your 10M or less MP4 will also serve you well when posting to social media.

Below is a video that is part of our Free TV Writing & Development Master Class . It includes seven episodes that take you through the entire television show development process.

If you're making a trailer as part of a pitch for a film or show that you're attempting to make in its entirety, this video is essential viewing:

If you're making a trailer for a project you want to shoot, check out how to pitch like a pro

Hoping your trailer goes viral? YouTube is the best bet. Vimeo is also an option, but less well-known outside the filmmaking community. In general, Vimeo is known for slightly slower load times but very high playback quality.

If you have a website, you’ll want to get the embed code so that your trailer plays on your site. Last but not least, your trailer is a great way to launch a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter or IndieGoGo.

Read More: Filmmaker’s Guide to Distribution →
Read More: Seven Hour Long Trailer for Longest Movie →
Read More: How to Write a Compelling Logline →

Scripted Project Trailer

Marketing your scripted project, 2.1 scripted project trailer, start with your script.

You have a feature film or TV pilot ready to roll. It's going to set the world on fire, if only you could get it made.

While making the entire thing might be impossible with your current resources, there's a good chance that making a trailer is within the realm of possibility.

If this is the case, the first step in “how to make a movie trailer” is to choose a scene that highlights the most compelling things about your film or pilot. Many people think they need to shoot the best scene in the movie, and often that best scene is near the end.

At this point, approach your movie trailer making as you would any shoot. You'll need to be prepared. The goal is to give viewers a small taste of your larger vision, so you'd better be sure the small taste goes down exactly as you intend.

This means breaking down your script to know what's required, and where the best footage can be found.

In your script breakdown software, label key elements that need to be seen in your trailer, and use this info to accurately budget your abridged shoot.

Knowing how to make a movie trailer means knowing your script inside and out

For a good pitch trailer, you’re going to want to choose a scene that offers the “setup” of your story, not the “payoff.”

In practical terms, this means that you don’t need $40 million worth of dailies to make your own trailer. But you will have to put yourself in the audience's position. Ask yourself, "What elements of my script would I find most compelling if I could only see a minute or two of it?" Or, "What would make me want to watch more?"

Read More: How to Break Down a Script →
Read More: Budget Your Shoot →
Read More: Shoot Dynamic Fight Scenes →

2.2 SCRIPTED TRAILER maker

Shoot your setup scene.

Typically, if your project is a feature film, you’re going to start with a scene that happens in the first act of your movie. You’ll probably even choose a scene that happens in the first 10 pages. Your setup scene.

Would you watch the movies below? Probably not, but we dare you to look away from the trailers. Simply not possible:

Tropic Thunder fake opening trailers

The scene you choose to shoot first might be what's called the “inciting incident,” and it’s the jumping off point for the rest of the story. Why should you shoot the inciting incident?

Because your trailer needs to do a lot of heavy lifting. Character, tone, setting, genre, and originality are all required for a good trailer.

So you need material that makes us want to watch the rest of the movie. If your script is solid, somewhere in the first ten minutes of your film you'll find a scene that does all the above. A scene that launches the story into action.

But don't stop there.

2.3 make your own trailer

Shoot a second scene.

If your budget allows, we highly recommend shooting two scenes. The first scene is the inciting incident, or setup scene, discussed above (or something else from the first act). The second scene is for added flavor.

If it’s a comedy, this needs to be a scene that’s hilarious. If it’s a thriller, it must be intriguing. If it’s an action movie, it needs to be a fight or a chase.

The movie trailer for A Serious Man uses rhythm to carry the mood

Another thing for movie trailer makers to keep in mind for the second scene: try to get some visual variety. If your first scene or setup scene is inside a classroom, then perhaps your second scene can be outside to open it up.

Nothing catches the eye like modulating your visual tempo. Switch it up, let it breathe, give the viewer variety. That's how to make an effective trailer.

Pro Tips: Write Better Dialogue →
Free Download: Movie Poster Template →
Read More: How to Find a Crew for Your Shoot →

Unscripted Project Trailer

Marketing your unscripted project, 3.1 unscripted project trailer, how to make a trailer for unscripted.

Pitch reels for unscripted projects might seem different than scripted trailers. But the basics of how to make a trailer are the same: you still need a setup, and a little extra flavor. You have to bring the drama and tease a bigger story.

RuPaul knows many things, including how to make a trailer. Check this out for, you know, educational purposes. And for your guilt-free viewing pleasure, too:

RuPaul's Drag Race Season 9 Official Trailer

The main difference is that in an unscripted project, all the elements you need aren’t likely to occur in a single scene. Instead, you’ll use a combination of interviews, documentary-style scenes, and archival footage to convey the story.

In a sense, you'll approach your unscripted trailer as a producer or story editor as much as a director, so don't be afraid to produce it. Take a heavy approach to planning to set the wheels in motion. Then step back and let the unscripted drama unfold.

Read More: How to Sell a Show with a Sizzle Reel →
Read More: Essentials of Documentary Filmmaking →
Read More: What Every Kind of Producer Does →

3.2 UNSCRIPTED TRAILER Maker

Pre-interview your main characters.

Interviews are cheap and easy to shoot. For a long-format project, you will end up interviewing your main subject many times. You might as well start now, and use it in your trailer.

Get subjects to sit for a solid two-hour interview that covers all the basics on your topic. Schedule at least a half day with them and use the remaining time to shoot something active and more visual.

Watch documentary trailers to get inspiration on how to make a movie trailer.

For example, if it’s a true crime series you're selling, get a subject to do a walkthrough of a key event in the location where it really happened. Be sure to pick up cutaways and establishing shots while you are there.

Remember, visual variation is critical. Any shots you can grab for cutaways or modulation will go a long way to making a compelling trailer when it's time to assemble.

3.3 How to make a reality TRAILER

Set up at least one key scene to shoot.

Most unscripted projects use interviews or voice-over to drive the narrative, but scenes are still important. Using your pre-interviews as research, set up a scene where natural tension will occur. If your project is about a family dynamic, come up with a plan that will highlight the relationships.

This is what we mean when we say you've got to produce it.

A mother and two daughters in a bridal shop fitting room might turn into a revealing or intimate moment. The same three people attending a big bridal shower will probably get lost in the shuffle, and the scene will reveal nothing at all. So get intimate and get personal with key scenes.

Again, check out RuPaul's Drag Race as an example. We just can't help ourselves. Watch this and you'll understand why:

RuPaul’s Drag Race knows how to bring the drama

If you don't set up the right scene, if you don't give your unscripted drama the little push it needs to unfold before the camera, you'll end up with a bunch of B-roll and no usable scene.

Restrict the number of people in the scene to two or three. More than that is hard to follow and it'll be hard to separate audio later on.

3.4 Trailer footage

Acquire any other footage you need.

If your goal is to make your own movie trailer for a reality project or a documentary, it’s never too early to start tracking down important footage sources for your film.

Common elements include news clips, film clips, interviews, historical footage, even audio tapes. Government agencies like NASA and the U.S. Library of Congress have tons of material that is available to the public.

NASA explores glaciers and flaunts its movie trailer maker skills

For most doc trailers, you’ll possibly be finding video on the internet.

If you want to know more about how to use B-roll and where to source it, be sure to read our ultimate guide to B-Roll.

trailer essentials

The basics of marketing your project, 4.1 making movie trailers, it’s important to make a movie trailer.

If you’re like most indie filmmakers, your goal is to get financing for your movie. It used to be that a simple log line in an email with a copy of the screenplay was the way to get funding.

But in the current media-saturated world, a video trailer is much more effective than a log line. If potential film financiers like your trailer, odds are much higher they will read your script and call you in for a meeting.

Another popular way to raise money for a film is via crowdfunding. For these fundraising campaigns, trailers are indispensable.

So yes, a trailer is a marketing tool to generate interest in your project whether you're already starting with a finished film or if you haven't even shot a single frame.

4.2 make your own movie trailer

How to make a movie trailer.

Big movie trailers have tons of amazing shots from many different scenes.

Traditional trailers get made after the film is shot, and they are built by specialized trailer editors who have a sort of industry template they follow.

Here is a great trailer that establishes characters, conflicts, and action. It brings the excitement and turns up the emotion. This famous "Crown" trailer for Black Panther won the Golden Trailer Award in 2018, for good reason:

How to make a movie trailer like the pros

For a fundraising trailer, you won’t have access to Marvel-Disney level footage. Instead, you’ll have to choose one or two key scenes to shoot. After that, you'll need some editorial creativity to make your concept shine.

After you select which scenes you'll want to shoot, make sure you prepare.

4.3 TRAILER Maker guide

Use a shot list to organize your trailer.

When professionals cut trailers they often have the entire feature film to pull footage from. This won’t be the case for many filmmakers trying to fund their full project.

So, you'll will want to get bite-size pieces of footage that speak to the tone and story, and that "sell" what's special about your film.

That means a bunch of separate, seemingly unconnected imagery needs to be captured. This is where your shot list comes into play.

Use shot listing and storyboarding software to set up your visuals in advance. Keep everything organized, send ideas, and collaborate with crew.

Specific camera movements and placement matter. Will you go handheld or can this be done on sticks? Whose POV shot is it, and will we be eye level or closer to the ground? What about low angle vs. high angle?

Determine this in advance so you can hit the ground running when it comes time to shoot. You'll want to get everything in the can.

Create a shot list when you make your own movie trailer

You want to capture crucial details in your shot list.

In shot list software, shot options like size, movement, and angles are listed in a clickable menu of specs. You only need to check boxes and test different creative combinations. Doing this before your shoot saves time and makes your movie trailer come to life.

If you're shooting footage specifically for your trailer, don't forget that you're producing and directing an actual film shoot. Plan accordingly, and think of it as a small trial-run for your full shoot when financing is ultimately secured.

TV Writing & Development Master Class

Now you know how to build your own movie trailer, and create buzz around your project or idea. Don’t stop there. You’ve got your selling hat on now, so you might as well work on more of your ideas.

Watch our writing and development master class to you build your show idea. This is a fantastic resource that will keep you on track, and help you organize and sell your idea.

UP NEXT: FREE TV Writing & Development Master Class →

Showcase your vision with elegant shot lists and storyboards..

Create robust and customizable shot lists. Upload images to make storyboards and slideshows.

Learn More ➜

Long talks to Co.Create about the how to boil a three-hour Scorsese movie down to its two-and-a-half-minute essence, where to find the heart of the Muppets (hint: it s not in the plot), why Clint Eastwood likes to keep things simple and the other tricks of the short-form trade that translate to stories of any length.

Very very good article and I learned a great deal. WELL DONE . Would love a collaboration

Best Regards,

Sir Marco Robinson Co-producer & Actor for the award winning “Legacy of Lies” with myself & Scott Adkins

Thank you for the information you guys share with us. Im working on my first film. I wrote the script. Doing the script breakdown and getting ready to shoot the trailer.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Pricing & Plans
Product Updates
Featured On
StudioBinder Partners
The Ultimate Guide to Call Sheets (with FREE Call Sheet Template)
How to Break Down a Script (with FREE Script Breakdown Sheet)
The Only Shot List Template You Need — with Free Download
Managing Your Film Budget Cashflow & PO Log (Free Template)
A Better Film Crew List Template Booking Sheet
Best Storyboard Softwares (with free Storyboard Templates)
Movie Magic Scheduling
Gorilla Software
Storyboard That

A visual medium requires visual methods. Master the art of visual storytelling with our FREE video series on directing and filmmaking techniques.

We’re in a golden age of TV writing and development. More and more people are flocking to the small screen to find daily entertainment. So how can you break put from the pack and get your idea onto the small screen? We’re here to help.

Making It: From Pre-Production to Screen
Is Film School Worth It — Why You Should or Shouldn’t Go
How to Write a Poem — A Step-by-Step Guide
What is a Character Flaw — And Why Writers Love Them
How to Become a Movie Critic — Career Tips Explained
What is an Indie Film — Definition & History Explained
958 Facebook
7 Pinterest
27 LinkedIn

7 Halloween-themed Lesson Plans

8 Holidays You Didn’t Know Existed

How to make book trailers with your students.

Surprise Me
book report
lesson plan
library automation
Library Automation Software
movie trailer

I think we can all admit to writing at least one school report or taking one test based on the amount of knowledge we could scrounge from the movie version of the book.

I know, it’s painful to hear your students say, “Oh . . . I didn’t read the book, but I saw the movie” because you know just how much they are really missing.

If you are having trouble getting your students excited to read or if you are looking for a new and innovative way for your students to give a “book report”, turn that problem into an opportunity! Have your students make a movie trailer or create one as a class.

Here’s how to put a new spin on the ol’ book report assignment.

Step 1. Choose a Book

Obviously, the first step to making a movie trailer is having a story. Start by having your students choose a book and read it . . . in preparation for making their movie trailer, of course.

It might be beneficial to limit your students’ book choices to those that have not yet been made into movies. This will allow their imaginations to run wild.

As your students read the book, you can stage intermittent assignments that make them think about attributes or parts of the book that are exciting or meaningful and might be intriguing to a potential audience.

Step 2. Choose a Theme for the Movie Trailer

One way to get your students more involved in the story they are reading is to have them conceptualize the setting and the characters in the book. Have them write down detailed descriptions of one or two of the characters in their book and describe a unique scene that stands out in their mind.

Have them describe what type of movie this book would make and choose a theme for their upcoming trailer. Is the movie a going to be a romance? A thriller? From here your students can start to plan to shoot their movie trailer.

Step 3. Write the Plot of the Movie Trailer

Once your class is done reading their book, have them plan the overall concept of their movie trailer. Start by showing a few different types of movie trailers. Discuss the different approaches. For example: some film studios start with music and their logo while others dive right into the heart of the story.

Have your students decide what message they want to convey to the audience, which characters to feature, and any bits and pieces they might want to include that will captivate their audience.

Give them an assignment where they write or draw the storyboard of their short film.

Step 4. Shoot the Trailer

How you choose to complete this step is up to you. You might have your students complete this portion of the assignment at home with friends or classmates or have them do it during class over the course of a week at school.

Your school may or may not provide the equipment—if film equipment is an issue, something as simple as a smartphone can shoot basic video footage for fun.

Be sure to inform your students that the goal isn’t to create an award-winning movie trailer, but to accurately capture what they felt the book meant to them.

Step 5. Watch the Trailers

Finally, when everyone has read their books and completed their assignments, you can celebrate with a movie day! Pop some popcorn and have your students bring a tasty treat—then kickback and watch some awesome movie trailers!

When your class has completed the assignment, be sure to have your students post their movie masterpieces to Bulletin Boards in Alexandria to share with their friends, other teachers, and family members. Learn how to post to Bulletin Boards here .

10 spooktacular books that inspired scary movies, 8 books about women in history, best of alexandria blog.

[…] challenge, or handout a mini book challenge. Encourage students to share book reviews or create book trailers. Share booklists with students, like the state book award lists or more specialized lists like the […]

Mr. Mitchell's Video Classes

Welcome everyone. Please bookmark this site and check it frequently for review questions, assignments, and other special features.

Thursday, January 05, 2012

Movie trailer assignment, activity 1 (thanks to mr. powell of tamanawis secondary).

Tuesday January 10 and Thursday January 12 are in-class shooting days. For this assignment students are required to shoot during this time. You can, with written permission, shoot off campus as needed. As usual, you can check out a camera after school to work at home.
Raw footage is due Tuesday January 17.
Edited Movie trailers are due Tuesday January 24.

iRubric: Movie Trailer Project rubric

Broadcast, Journalism, Mass Media, Video editing

Free Resources
Project Ideas
Login/Register Remember Me Register

Student made sample video

Distribute the Steps to Completing the Project handout and go over each step quickly, and set deadlines.
If students are going do the project in pairs or in groups, allow them to find their partner or group members. Give them time to shortlist the books they have read and agree on one title that they want to use for the project. If students have not read any book before, allow ample time for students to complete their novels before the next session. An alternative way is to write on a strip of paper all the book titles the class read this year and put them in a bowl. Allow each group to select one book that they have to develop a trailer for.
Hand out the printout Book Review Template and explain to students that this will help them flesh out the book and will become the basis for their script and storyboard. Have students work on completing the book review and help those who need extra assistance.
Next, ask students to plan their video by completing the Storyboard Template . Have students write their scripts and consider what types of pictures they want to use to illustrate their script. Tell them to plan on at least one image per sentence. The pictures can be more of setting, of objects important to the story, or anything else the writer can imagine. It’s a chance to be creative and make a trailer rich with symbolism.
Students only need to describe the images and don’t have to draw on the template, but if they can make a sketch or stick figures, the better! Students also need to consider the background music to be used for the trailer. Remind them to consider the theme, mood and pace of the story in choosing the right music. Give support to those who need additional help to finish.
Once students are done with the storyboard, model for how to search for images online. Explain that they need to click on the photo to see its actual size. Bigger image size will be clearer in the trailer; otherwise, it will look pixelated or blurry.

Here are some suggested image websites that students can use:

Pics4Learning – teachers and students can use the copyright-friendly photos and illustrations for classroom projects, web sites, videos, portfolios, or any other projects in an educational setting.

Pixabay – is a vibrant community of creatives, sharing copyright free images and videos.

Flickr: Creative Commons – is a non-profit that offers an alternative to full copyright.

Pexels – provides high quality and completely free stock photos licensed under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license.

Google Images – is the easiest way to search for images. When giving attribution, explain to students that Google Images is just a mere search engine and not exactly the source. They need to click on the photo to see where it came from.

And here are some suggested websites for downloading songs and background music:

My Free MP3 – is a huge media library, covering music of different genres and time range.

MP3 Juices – is a popular and free mp3 search engine and tool.

MP3 Skull – this platform allows its users to search for mp3 files around the web.

Hand out rubric for the project . Explain the instructions and expectations for the project clearly. Discuss the different options and tools available for them to create their trailer. Review how to use the software and media tools . Present PowerPoint on how to create video with the chosen video editing software, for example: How to Create First Video on Animoto + Handout.
Answer any questions they have about producing the video and have students work on the project and give assistance as needed.
Students must be able to convert and download their videos in mp4 file. They can upload their trailers into their own YouTube channel or your chosen file sharing location such as Google Classroom where students can upload their completed videos.

Peer Review and Reflection

Provide opportunities for peer review using the Peer Review printout where students will rate their classmates’ book trailers during class presentation/showing. You can also ask peers to share orally their feedback and constructive criticism after watching a particular trailer.
After watching all the videos, allow students to analyze their own strengths and weaknesses and revise their thinking by answering the Project Reflection Questions .

Evaluation and Assessment

Using the Book Trailer Rubric , evaluate students’ videos and offer students feedback. Add the average Peer Review score to their final grade. Since the purpose of a book trailer is to invite people to read a book, you can also give bonus points for x number of likes, views or shares on YouTube or other social media sites.

Book Trailer Project is an excellent project for the students. My best advice is to think flexibly, be open to new ideas, and let the students drive the learning. You will be amazed by how your students communicate, collaborate, and critically analyze media.

Book Trailer Resource Pack!

If you are interested in doing this project, this resource is for you! This pack includes:

✔ Book Review Template

✔ Storyboard Template

✔ Book Trailer Rubric

✔ Peer Review Template

✔ Project Reflection Template

✔ Step by step guide handout for students

✔ Printable version of this lesson guide

✔ A simple PowerPoint presentation to show to students

✔ How to Create Your First Video on Animoto PowerPoint

✔ How to Create Your First Video on Animoto PDF Handout

GET IT HERE

ALSO READ 5 Free Video Maker Online for Students – English Teaching 101

Are you on Pinterest? Pin this post!

EN101 Author

Cultivating Growth Mindset: Problem-Solving Activities for Students

Engage your students with these English as a Foreign Language Activities.

Activity Ideas for Teaching English as a Foreign Language

10 Backyard Games to Keep Your Kid Active This Summer

Make Learning ESL Vocabulary Fun with these 10 Interactive Websites

Practical Classroom Management Tips for Teachers

Book Trailer Outline Template

Story elements and themes, book trailers: digital storytelling project.

In this extended digital storytelling project, students will create a book trailer video for a favourite book. This can be used with grades 4 through 9 and may be spread out over 8 to 16 class sessions.

This project leverages students’ familiarity with movie trailers and motivation for videos to encompass multiple curricular goals. The emphasis is on an iterative and extended process to create an authentic, public product students can be proud of.

This instructional plan is intended for use with Chromebooks and Google Classroom, but could be easily adapted for use with any number of other video creation or digital storytelling tools.

This project is designed to be integrated into English Language Arts units encompassing several weeks. Each step in the project may take one or several class sessions, depending on students’ familiarity with the technology and the level of individual support necessary.

Image credit: "Movie Theater" by roeyahram is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Step 1: Know What You Want

This step will introduce the book trailer project by scaffolding on students’ familiarity with movie trailers, providing some examples of what their finished products should look like, and co-creating an evaluation checklist or rubric.

This lesson may be completed in one or a few class sessions (optional activities provided).

Preparation and follow up (for teachers):

Optional: Read “ How to create the perfect trailer: 10 pro tips ” by Creative Bloq
Search for trailers to show in class
http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson-docs/30914TrailerChecklist.pdf (intended as a peer review activity)
http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson-docs/30914Rubric.pdf (intended as summative assessment)

Part A: Discuss movie trailers

Show a movie teaser/trailer (or a few) of your choice or solicited from students.
Keep/display notes on this discussion to return to when developing the rubric.

Part B: Introduce book trailers

It’s a Book by Lane Smith: https://youtu.be/x4BK_2VULCU
Wishes and Wellingtons by Julie Berry: https://youtu.be/MZRb8WZP0lU
Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate: https://youtu.be/23bB4QtK68Q
The Youngest Marcher by Cynthia Livinson; https://youtu.be/abNjmOAcAew
Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai: https://youtu.be/X9A6ZrKYPvk
Front Desk by Kelly Yang: https://youtu.be/--sDoefzSrY
Rules by Cynthia Lord: https://www.teachertube.com/videos/121334
How to Survive Middle School by Donna Gephart: https://www.schooltube.com/media/t/1_m5llraq0
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen https://youtu.be/DGFhKttEixI

Part C: Develop rubric

tell a story primarily with dialogue/narrative and visuals (often with the familiar three-act structure)
target a specific audience
introduce main character(s)
use music to set the tone
Remember that while the goal is to encourage students to take ownership over their learning, you should have input for the rubric as well. You may want to incorporate considerations such as in-class time on task into students’ final project grade.
Provide students with an approximate timeline for the project and let them know about any arrangements for sharing/presenting their trailers within the classroom or with the broader school/community (e.g., posted on a school website).
Edit/format the rubric/checklist, then post it on the class site. You may want to compare the co-created rubric with an existing one (for example, ) and adapt/tweak as necessary
Optional: Record yourself (either video or audio) summarizing the rubric/checklist and how the class developed it. This could be used to update parents and/or to include/update absent students. You may also wish to include links to the movie/book trailers discussed in class.

Optional Extension Activities: Apply the rubric

Assign one of the options below and have students evaluate it using the checklist/rubric, then make a presentation to the class about it. This could be for either:
a trailer from a favourite movie
a favourite student-created book trailer from Bethel Park School District’s Library Commons .
Students could also hold a debate or a vote (e.g., using Google Forms) to determine a class favourite.

Online and Blended options:

This introductory lesson could be adapted for online or blended delivery. One way to do so is with a form/quiz that walks through the introduction (with links or embedded videos) and has students write (or record audio) responses to prompts. A blended approach could have students watch example trailers and work through a slide- or video-based presentation introducing the online/on their own, then develop the rubric/checklist in class.

Step 2: Read with Purpose

This step will help students select a book for their trailer and begin to think about their book trailer project in a low-stakes context. The deliverable for this lesson is a checklist for students to complete prior to the next step of the project.

Students will need to be really familiar with their book in order to be able to focus on the most interesting/dramatic elements for their trailers. The purpose of this part of the lesson is to generate interest in and ownership over the preparation process.

Options are provided for whether students are to select a favourite book or if they are to read a new book for this project.

Preparation:

This project assumes that students will select works of fiction, but it can be adapted to non-fiction books if these are more aligned with students’ interests. In this case, you may wish to have them consider the elements of documentary film trailers and ways to generate interest from audiences not already familiar with the topic.
Determine whether to allow either a favourite book they’ve already read or a book they have yet to read.
Plan which resource to use for modelling the elements of a story
Ensure all students have selected a book for their project.

Part A: Select a Book

To help students select a favourite book, you could have students write a list of three to five books they have read (e.g., most recent, top favourites, etc.), then cross out some based on interest, access, etc.
For new books, you may wish to have students bring books from home or visit the school library.
What is the book’s title?
Who wrote the book?
Why did you choose this book?
(For favourite books) What was your favourite thing about this book?
(For new books) What do you think this book will be about?
Do you think I would like this book too?
You may wish to have one or a few students talk about their book to the rest of the class and answer questions from other students.

Part B: Story Elements

Lead a brainstorm on story elements by asking “When we are telling others about movies we’ve seen or books we’ve read, what kinds of details do we usually include?” (Alternatively, ask a talkative student to start talking about a favourite movie/book and identify these elements as they talk.)
Story Elements Song, Swick’s Classroom, https://youtu.be/m3WHmmYTHeE (This is aimed at younger learners, but is a catchy way to start the lesson!)
The elements of a story, Khan Academy, https://youtu.be/Zr1xLtSMMLo
Model working through the elements of a short story, book, or movie the class is already familiar with. Use the Story Elements and Themes worksheet as a template, stopping at theme.
When you’ve answered “how does the story end,” stop to lead a discussion about the story’s theme. For example, you could ask, “Ok, we know the who, where, when, and what happened, but what is the story really about? What can we learn from it? What is the author trying to tell us with this story?”
Understanding theme, Khan Academy https://youtu.be/MAu3e5GZo4k
The HIDDEN message in Wall-E - Video Essay, Bryan Seeker, https://youtu.be/Jo5FKCQXDW0
Developing theme, Khan Academy, https://youtu.be/D2FFijvA00I
Return to the worksheet to discuss the questions related to the theme of your model story.

Homework: Read with Purpose

You may want to provide further context for students on why this is an important step. While they won’t reveal all these details in their book trailers, completing this worksheet will help them prepare for their book trailer project in a few ways: by aiding their understanding of the book as a whole, and by noting key details to use later (without having to constantly flip around in the book). In short, it will make their job of putting together the trailer much easier.
For new books, set a deadline for students to finish reading and establish a plan for keeping students accountable. How long depends on how this project fits in the school year--this could be homework over a holiday break or integrated into other reading goals.

Step 3: Start with an Outline

In this step, students will start drafting their book trailers.

Students should complete their Story Elements and Themes worksheets prior to this lesson. You may wish to delay this lesson until all students have completed this worksheet.

Integrate this step with instruction on the writing process, with an emphasis on preparation/planning and drafting.

Part A: Review the Story Elements and Themes worksheet

Lead a discussion about the worksheet. Did students find it challenging to pinpoint the climax of the story? Did thinking about themes reveal anything new about the story or what the author was trying to say?
Invite one or a few students to share their reflections on the themes of their books.
Explain that the elements and themes of their stories will be the kinds of things they will want to highlight in their trailers.

Part B: Planning

Review the collaboratively developed book trailer rubric/checklist to remind students of what they should be aiming for with their projects.
Discuss the importance of planning (or prewriting) in the writing process. Highlight the difficulty of producing anything you can be proud of without preparation.
Provide the Book Trailer Outline and discuss each element.
While the focus is on writing at this stage, encourage students to also think about the kinds of visual and audio elements they might want to use (e.g., with doodles or notes about music/sound).
Have students work through the Book Trailer Outline on their own.
As students complete their outlines, pair them up to present their outlines to a partner. Encourage them to ask each other questions to clarify elements of their outlines. You may also wish to have one or a few students share their plans with the class so you can model constructive feedback.
Ensure all students complete the Book Trailer Outline worksheet and are prepared to move onto the next step of the project.

Step 4: Draft and Storyboard

Students will start working in Google Slides to turn their outline into a draft script and storyboard, jotting down general ideas for visual elements on the slides and developing their scripts in the speaker notes.

Ideally, students will submit their Book Trailer Outline worksheets prior to this lesson. You may wish to delay this lesson until all students have completed this worksheet.

Complete Beginner’s Guide to Google Slides [2020]: https://youtu.be/OhshNXJtpkE

Part A: Introduction to Storyboards

Lead a brief discussion about scripts and storyboards as essential components of visual storytelling (including movies, movie trailers, book trailers, and all kinds of videos). Emphasize the iterative process: good videos aren’t magic, they’re a result of hard work, especially planning, revising, and tweaking.
Storyboard Short Film, Joel Mayers: https://youtu.be/yRIUvSwtbDI
Explain that students will also be developing their scripts at the same time as the storyboard--they’ll need to think about how the narration and images will work together.

Part B: Orientation to Google Slides

What level of instruction is required will depend on how familiar students are with Google tools in general and Slides in particular. This step assumes students are somewhat familiar with working in Google tools but haven’t worked much in Google Slides.
Google Slides Tips for Kids by Kids https://youtu.be/C6Z5E980l30
Intro to Google Slides for Kids: https://youtu.be/Ioog1IyDuRE
Google Slides for Kids: https://youtu.be/lfpneIqnXTE
If students aren’t already familiar with Google tools, there are additional videos from this channel for some more basic skills in this playlist (includes some general online skills/rules for kids): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGSmqAFzqiEkbWdHMRf7uMbKCjfW9kHc9
Create a new project, give it a name, and start adding slides.
Write notes in a textbox
Use the scribble drawing tool to sketch ideas (from toolbar or Insert > Line > Scribble)

Open speaker notes to draft a script for narration (View > Show speaker notes)

Part C: Work and Share

The emphasis should be more on the script than the visuals at this point. Reassure students that they’ll have a chance to make it look great once they have a solid script.
Encourage students to practice reading their scripts out loud and to continue revising until they are happy with how it sounds.
This project assumes students will record narration, but this isn’t strictly necessary. Students may opt for using text only--in this case they should pay extra attention to correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation, as well as appropriate pacing.
As students complete their scripts and storyboards, pair them up to present their work to a partner. Encourage them to ask each other questions to clarify elements of their scripts. You may also wish to have one or a few students share their work with the class so you can model constructive feedback.

Step 5: Add Images

Students will look for or create images to develop the visual elements of their book trailers.

This step assumes students’ final book trailers will be posted online, which means extra care should be taken to ensure they are not infringing copyright. It may not be necessary to go into such detail about copyright and Creative Commons if the students’ work won’t be shared publicly. Nonetheless, this step of the project provides an opportunity to develop increasingly essential skills for navigating intellectual property online.

The most relevant portion for this step of the project is Finding Creative Commons Images: https://www.theedublogger.com/copyright-fair-use-and-creative-commons/#Finding-Creative-Commons-Images

Part A: Creating Your Own Images

How to add freehand drawings to Google Slides: https://youtu.be/E4R3kPpTgys
How to insert a Google Drawing into Google Slides: https://youtu.be/HbsvFyzj6cs
AutoDraw: https://www.autodraw.com/ (no sign-in required)
Google Slides: Adding Animation: https://youtu.be/H2zAx21LxOY
It is possible to create flip book style animations using Google Slides. This requires patient work but some students may find it motivating. The following videos may be useful if you wish to introduce this as an option:
For a glimpse of what is possible at the upper end of animation with Slides, see Google Demo Slam: Epic Docs Animation: https://youtu.be/bt9F7tKcZcU
For a look at a much more achievable project might look like, see Simple snowman animation example: https://youtu.be/p4VyhyCHIAQ
For step by step instructions, see Get Animating!! FUN With Google Slides: https://youtu.be/zlLl5QXzNvg

Part B: Finding Images

Creative Commons for Kids: https://youtu.be/GHmQ8euNwv8
Copyright & Creativity has several videos available for different grade levels: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMObn372kN0Z3ANk9A7CtuQ
Have students add a credits slide to the end of their project. As they search for images, they should be adding notes about and links to the images they use.

Screenshot of Google image search with Usage Rights

Creative Commons
Wikimedia Commons
Pics4Learning
Establish clear guidelines for searching for images to ensure students stay on task.
Students who love to draw on paper could take pictures of their work or have them scanned.
You may wish to review students’ work before moving onto the next step of the project to ensure images are appropriate and properly credited.
As students make progress with their visuals, pair them up to present their work to a partner. Encourage them to ask each other questions and provide constructive feedback.

Step 6: Add Music

Students will find appropriate music and add it to their projects.

Students should have headphones for this part of the project.
Tricia Goss, How to Add Music to Google Slides: https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-add-music-to-google-slides-4584603

Part A: Find Audio

Lead a brief discussion about the role of music and sound effects in creating the mood for their trailers. You may wish to watch a movie trailer with no sound to consider the impact the music has on the viewer.
Have students review the notes about mood they made on the Book Trailer Outline, consider whether their plans have changed, and refine their plan for what kind of music (and potentially sound effects) they will be looking for.
Revisit the copyright and Creative Commons content from the previous step, as a refresher and a reminder that they must only use music that allows for use without permission.
Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/search Most songs are licensed with Creative Commons (the license for specific tracks will appear when the track is downloaded).
SoundBible.com: http://soundbible.com/ This is a great source of sound effects, all either in the public domain or licensed as CC-BY.
Bensound: https://www.bensound.com/ While some songs are only for purchase, the free downloads are available for use with attribution (similar to CC-BY but restricted to video projects).
Demonstrate how to add attribution information to the credits slide at the end of their presentation.

Part B: Add Music to Presentation

Upload the file (preferably .mp3) to their Google Drive.
In Google Slides, on the first slide of the presentation, go to Insert> Add Audio, then select the file.

Step 7: Finishing Touches

Students will finalize their presentation and record it as a video.

Recommended, as the free version includes some editing tools and can export to Google Drive or as an mp4. Downside is it requires signing in with Google account.
Help and resources: https://learn.screencastify.com/hc/en-us/categories/360003891314-Record
Doesn’t require sign in but no editing available with free version. The file that is downloaded will need to be converted to mp4--this can be done using a free online video converter (e.g., https://convert-video-online.com/ )
Windows and Macs have built-in screen recorders.

Part A: Finalize Script and Practice

Provide time to complete any remaining tweaks to their presentations (e.g., timing, images, animations, etc.).

Part B: Record Video

Walk students through how to add the
Record from the browser tab while presenting the slide (or from the published link); make sure it is set to record the tab audio.

Have students submit their final work.

Less-Great Option: Add Narration to Slides

Use a free online voice recorder to record the narration (e.g., https://online-voice-recorder.com/ ).
Upload the file to Google Drive.
In Google Slides, Insert > Audio, and set to play automatically.
Test the presentation to determine the best possible timing for slides (it needs to be uniform).
File > Publish to the web -- set the timing for the slides.
Use the link to preview and share. Refresh the link to view any changes made after publishing.

Step 8: Show Off and Reflect

Students will share their book trailers with the class and, potentially, prepare to share them more broadly.

If you have made any arrangements to share students’ work outside of class (e.g., on a school website, in a school-wide presentation, etc.), adapt this step to incorporate these plans.

Screening Party

Celebrate students’ achievements with a screening party in class. Encourage students to cheer/clap for each video. You may wish to have students present their work and answer questions from others (like a filmmakers’ Q&A).
After screening all student projects, have students self-evaluate their own projects with the collaboratively developed rubric/checklist from Step 1. You may wish to include some additional questions about their favourite/least favourite part of the project, which of their classmates’ trailers was their favourites/made them want to read the book, and what kinds of books they plan to read next.

Version History

Creating Book Trailers in the Classroom

Differentiation , Engagement , Freebies , Planning , Reading

Motivate students to read books, while engaging them with creating their own book trailers with this fun reading activity. Grab a freebie to get started!

A few years ago I set one of my professional goals at integrating more technology into the classroom. Regardless of the limited resources, I just wasn’t making it a priority like I should have.

I really wanted to tie reading and technology somehow. That’s when I thought why not have the kids create their own book trailers! Of course, despite knowing quite a bit about technology, the thought scared me a bit. Was this a task that was doable or would it be overwhelming and time-consuming?

That’s when I decided to contact the school technology teacher. (They are amazing, aren’t they!?)

She was positive it would be a great opportunity for the students to do and promised I wouldn’t be biting off more than I could chew. Despite her reassurances, I was still nervous that these book trailers would turn out horrible or that the creation process would drag on for weeks and months and possibly years!

I first showed students several book trailers from new releases. We analyzed them together (Hey – look at that! We met a Common Core standard!) and discussed what they noticed. Students noticed they were more about getting others excited about the book and wanting to read it. I was so excited that they got that!

I then informed the students of the project- which they were super excited about. In fact, I’m thinking they were probably making plans in their heads about being a big Hollywood director before I even finished explaining. I explained that they would read a book of their own – on their level and had to be a chapter book – and would then create a book trailer themselves to share with the class. You can download my explanation attachment and rubric by clicking here.

Once we went to the computer lab, we used Windows Movie Maker. I was originally thinking iMovie using our iPads, but honestly, I didn’t want to spend the money on the app. We spent several days in the lab adding images, music, and editing to create our trailers. Then we had “a movie” day where we watched them together and discussed which books we couldn’t wait to watch!

This activity opened the door for so many discussions such as author’s purpose- what do you want your reader to walk away with? For story elements – what is the plot? What would make a great cliffhanger? What was the climax? Summary – what are the important elements you need to include? Citing your sources and plagiarism and so much more! It was truly worth it! We had a blast, students got some great book ideas, and we learned in the process! What more can you ask for?

Here are two examples of a book trailer created by two different students:

GRAB YOUR FREEBIE!

Don’t forget to grab the Book Trailer Freebie included above for free by clicking here .

book trailers , freebie , Projects , Reading , Technology

10 Responses

This is great! I also want to incorporate more technology in the classroom but it's scary at times. I like the idea of a video advertisement because it ties in so many different standards. Roughly how much time did you give your students to accomplish this project? What did your "calendar" look like? Thanks for the awesome description and idea!!!

Hi! It took us about 3 weeks total- with the first week being the drafting mode- where we planned out how we wanted to do it, what we wanted to have included, what our main idea was going to be, so on (my approval). Then we spent about 2 weeks in the computer lab actually learning about movie maker (a few days) and then the rest of the time crafting it. Afterwards, we spent a few days presenting it (I spread it all out). I hope that helps!

What a GREAT idea! I want to use this idea for my next book project but I'm wondering if you would be willing to share anymore of your student's book trailers? I'm also wondering about how long it took for you to teach your students how to use Movie Maker and for your students to create their book trailers? Thanks for such a great idea!

Hi Krista, you too are a no-reply blogger meaning when it emails me your comment, I can't reply to you by hitting reply in my email. So I will reply here and hope you check back to see it. 🙂 Thank you for your compliments. Unfortunately, these are the only two that I can share because of permissions. I'm very sorry. I wish I could. The students actually picked up on using movie maker very quickly! I was super impressed. Overall, it took about 3 weeks to complete from beginning to end- with two weeks being in the computer lab. I hope that helps!

This is a great idea! I wish we could get Movie Maker – it looks like such a great program. Do you know of any similar apps/extensions for Chromebooks? That's what we now have access to (for better or for worse – perspective, I suppose!) 🙂 Thank you for the idea!

What grade level did these? 3rd grade? I was surprised to see Hunger Games. I am the school librarian for our elementary and we don't even carry the book. I have been wanting to create book trailers and you have inspired me to start tomorrow!

Hey folks, One idea I’ve used many times at the middle school level in my SS classes was Aurasma. It’s a free app that allows you to embed video and photos onto, in this case, a book trailer. For instance, Sam reads the Hunger Games and you link an image of the cover of the book to his video of him explaining a chapter, major event, characters, book trailer, etc. I used to hang the images (FDR/New Deal Murals) outside my door and anyone with the app who walks by and scans it can see the video or picture the students overlaid onto the image/book cover. My SS kids ran with it and were doing AMAZING things by the second or third day. I’ve seen it used for at-home reading practice for elementary students and a host of other ideas. If you download the app., hover over the back of a one dollar bill and you will see how it works! Hope you enjoy.

That’s a great idea! Thank you for sharing! I’ve never heard of it but will definitely be checking into it.

I am so impressed by what you have done with the book trailers! I am hoping to do something of the same sort this school year with our 4th and 5th graders. How did you get the images that you used in the videos? I am wondering about copyright issues using images from the internet. Thank you so much for sharing your lesson.

For some things we used creative commons, for other things we selected a drop down feature in google images where we can use images. No matter what though, I used that as an opportunity to discuss citing our sources. That was done in our credits at the end of the trailer and also in the presentation piece they handed it. We discussed plagiarism and how important it is to never claim someone else’s work as your own. 🙂 I hope that helps.

FIND IT NOW!

Check me out on tpt.

CHECK THESE OUT

Three Types of Rocks and Minerals with Rock Cycle Circle Book

Partitioning Shapes Equal Share Fractions Halves, Thirds, Fourths Math Puzzles

Want to save time?

BOGO on EVERYTHING!

Skip to primary navigation
Skip to main content
Skip to primary sidebar

Book Trailer Project for ELA: Alternatives to Book Reports

Distance Learning , End of the Year , Literature Circles , Project-Based Learning , Secondary Literacy

At the end of the year, students always welcome alternatives to book reports and final exams. This is especially true for students who have recently completed standardized testing. Thankfully, there are many options for alternatives to book reports for English Language Arts. A student favorite is the book trailer project – this alternative assessment is perfect for both independent novel studies and whole-class novels!

Using book trailer projects is a great way to incorporate differentiation in English Language Arts . It is also a great way to implement project-based learning within your curriculum. Most importantly, it provides the chance to end the school year on a fun note.

In this blog post, I will show you how I use book trailer projects as an alternative assessment in English Language Arts. This end-of-year activity is suitable for middle school and high school students. It can be used as a project for any novel study. Furthermore, it serves as a fantastic summative assessment for literature circles or independent novel studies.

Alternative Assessments for English Language Arts

Why Use Book Trailer Projects as an Alternative to Book Reports?

1. book trailer projects create instant buy-in.

There are several benefits to using book trailers as an alternative assessment. The main one: students genuinely enjoy them . There are a lot of project-based assessments that end up being a lot of work for both students and teachers. However, most of your students might already have the skills needed to create a book trailer.

In fact, your students probably use these skills on a daily basis . The majority of them are quite familiar with movie trailers as a medium. This eliminates the need to learn about the medium itself. For inspiration, all students need to do is rewatch a few of their favorite movie trailers. You won’t have a hard time convincing them to do so!

To add to this, video content is viral on social media . The majority of your students probably watch TikTok videos or Instagram Reels. The opportunity to bring video content into the classroom is an instant buy-in for students.

Additionally, students will see this assignment as a chance to entertain their classmates. They will find creative ways to incorporate video trends and editing techniques that they see on social media. This will motivate them to complete this assignment to the best of their ability.

2. Book Trailer Assignments offer Collaboration Opportunities

Project-based assessments are a great opportunity for collaboration. A book trailer assignment is the perfect group project because it requires different skills. Students can decide on who will write the script, film and edit the content, and act in front of the camera. This allows each student to rely on their unique strengths .

In order to create their book trailer, students must collaboratively discuss their novel. This will allow them to learn from their classmates’ insights. As they share their opinions, their understanding of the novel will deepen organically. Because of this, book trailers can be just as beneficial as a standardized exam – if not more!

Book Trailers as Alternatives to Book Reports

3. Book Trailer Projects Save Time on Grading

The best part of this alternative assessment is presentation day. Students love sharing their book trailers just as much as they love watching their classmates’ work. You’ll love watching them too. But what you’ll love the most is the ability to grade them on the spot !

To assess this novel study assignment, you can simply print each book trailer rubric before the start of class. As each group presents its trailer, you can fill the rubric out. It is helpful to have classmates share their feedback too. This will give you more time to consolidate and grade on the spot.

4. Movie Trailers are a Great Alternative Assessment for English Language Learners

The best book trailer I’ve seen was by a group of English Language Learners. Book trailers are a great alternative assessment for ELLs . For an ELL student, a written assignment or standardized test may focus more on grammar or syntax than the actual content of the novel.

In contrast, a book trailer allows ELL students to explore characterization and recreate the setting without focusing too much on grammar and mechanics. ELLs can find creative ways that express their understanding of the text.

Another great accommodation for ELLs is extra time . A typical class presentation can place a lot of pressure on an English Language Learner. Pre-recording their book trailer can alleviate some of that performance anxiety. The editing process is also a learning opportunity because ELLs can practice their pronunciation and listen to themselves speak .

What Do You Need to Assign A Book Trailer Project?

When I assigned this alternative assessment for the first time, I did a lot of research on movie editing software . I figured some of my students would need extra support. It turns out that my students were actually the experts!

As mentioned, your students are likely engaging with video content. Some of your students are also likely familiar with video editing. Ask them which programs work best for them. If you have no other factor determining student groups, you could build each group around a student with strong video editing skills .

Here are a few video editing programs for students :

Windows Video Editor

How to Assign and Assess Book Trailers

Mondays Made Easy’s Book Trailer Project Outline includes everything you need to assign this summative assessment. This resource includes assignment instructions, a task checklist, a book trailer rubric, a peer evaluation form, and a student example.

Assignment Scaffolding and Instructions

You can facilitate this project by providing students with assignment instructions . These instructions explain the purpose of a movie trailer . This is helpful for students because it reminds them to avoid simple plot summaries . Instead, their trailer should capture the conflict, theme, and characterization within their novel.

These instructions also include a book trailer reflection . This written reflection is a short individual assignment . In this assignment, students can explain the connection between their book trailer and their literary analysis.

Your students will also benefit from using a student planner and task checklist . This graphic organize r outlines each step to create a book trailer. Each group can create their own target date for completing each step. This will prevent students from leaving most of the work until the last minute.

Alternative Assessment Methods for Book Trailers

There are several opportunities for assessment within this Book Trailer Project Outline . Students will complete both a self-evaluation and peer-evaluation form for each member of their group. To save time, you can have students upload their trailer to a Google Drive folder and share it with you. This allows presentations to run smoothly.

The resource also includes a book trailer rubric for summative assessment. This rubric evaluates knowledge of the novel and inquiry regarding critical perspectives in reviewing the novel. It also evaluates communication by considering grammar, inflection, and visual appeal.

In the past, I’ve assigned a group grade , along with an individual grade that is based on their written reflection and feedback from their peer- and self-evaluation forms.

Book Trailer Assessments for Online Learning

Book trailers are a great option for online end-of-year assignments because they are very suitable for distance learning . Students will have the opportunity to collaborate remotely. They can film their content from the comfort of their homes, and edit their content to simulate the feeling of being together.

In addition, there is really no way to plagiarize this assignment. Academic integrity is one of the most challenging aspects of remote learning . By using book trailers as an alternative to book reports, you’ll be sure that students are submitting original work.

Alternative Assessment for Novel Studies

The book trailer project is my favorite end-of-year activity for English Language Arts. They’re a great assignment for project-based learning . Additionally, they provide a creative alternative to book reports . There is no better time to harness your students’ excitement over video content. For handouts and rubrics to facilitate this assignment, check out this Book Trailer Project Outline on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Reader Interactions

[…] to create a movie trailer. This assignment requires a fair bit of effort, but it is a great alternative assessment for older students. A movie trailer will prompt students to avoid simple plot summaries and establish characterization […]

[…] To learn more about how to assign book trailers and why they serve as a great alternative assessment, check out this blog post. […]

By use case
AI assisted videos
Advertising video
Animated video
Animated logo video
Animated text video
Animation video
Cartoon video
Commercial video
Business video
Explainer video
Infographic video
Intro video
Movie maker
Photo to video
Presentation video
Short videos
Trailer video
Book trailer video
YouTube video
Diverse Workplace Scenes
Leadership Skills Tips
A Reason to Celebrate
Frank Character Explainer
Superpowers Girl
Robot Character Explainer
Team Birthdays
Birthday Cake
Birthday Calendar
Birthday Greetings
Funny Birthday
Staff Birthday
Workplace Announcement
Business Explainer
Employee Onboarding
Business Ad
Hybrid Work Policy
Workplace Wellness Tips
Explainer Script
How to Change Your Password
Snappy Explainer
Mental Health for Employees
Product Explainer
E-Learning App Ad
Infographics
Industry Trend Update
Real Estate Infographic
Marketing Infographic
Animated Infographics
Infographic Explainer
Infographic
Introductions
New Teammate
New Employee Introduction
Welcome New Team Member
Warm Welcome
New Team Members
Meet the Team
We're Hiring Manager
Recruiting Ad
We're Hiring IT Support
Video Resume
Now Hiring Product Engineer
Job Offer Congratulations
Dancing People Ad
Eager Dog Ad
Winter Sale
Funky Sloth Ad
Product Promo
Book Trailer
Thanks Group
You Rock Employee
Great Job Team
You Rock Team
Great Job Employee
Great Job Group
Weekly Update
Company Update
Product Launch
Monthly Update
News Update
Year in Review

Ready to get started?

Video Trimmer
Remove audio from video
Add music to video
Add text to video
Video merger
Video resizer
Convert image to video
Montage maker
Add image to video
Watermark maker
Add frame to video
Video analytics
Add button to video
Image Resizer
Convert video to GIF
Convert GIF to MP4
Extract audio from video
Quick start guide

Make a jaw-dropping book trailer

Trusted by 9+ million people and over 10,000 companies

Make a book trailer so beautiful it’s irresistible. Create your first book trailer in no time with the Biteable video maker.

Start with one of these book trailer templates.

How to make a book trailer in a few clicks

Start your free Biteable trial .

Choose a book trailer video template, or start from scratch.

Begin editing your book trailer. Use our guide below if you get stuck.

Download your book trailer or share it anywhere with a single, trackable link.

Hailey shows you how to create a book trailer with Biteable.

Best-in-class templates

Start with a professionally-designed template to create a video in less time.

Ready-made content

Over 24+ million stock clips, images, animations, and music tracks to choose from.

One-click editing

Streamlined and smart. Add on-screen text, animations, and music with a single click.

Getting started

Attract new readers like bees to pollen.

First – congrats! Writing a book is no walk in the park. But now there’s another hurdle ahead. How do you get people to read this book you’ve spent months (or years) toiling away at? A book trailer is a great place to start.

Video content rules

It does. 78% of internet users watch videos online weekly, and YouTube is the second most trafficked site after Google. Text media isn’t dead. But it’ll go a lot further with video content to promote it.

According to Comscore , readers are 64% more likely to purchase a book if they’ve seen advertising for it. (Like a book trailer. Hint, hint.)

Create videos that drive action

Activate your audience with impactful, on-brand videos. Create them simply and collaboratively with Biteable.

Small cost, big results

Studio-quality videos cost a lot of money, time, and resources to produce. Not even the biggest book publishers in the world see them as a necessity, instead opting for simple trailers that are effective in getting their point across.

Jump on YouTube and search for any recent bestselling novel – chances are they’ll have a book trailer with thousands of views.

You can make a book trailer that looks equally professional for a fraction of the budget. Biteable’s video maker has over 24 million stock videos, images, animations, and music tracks to make your book trailer a resounding success.

Add your own videos, pictures and music if you like. Customize your trailer as much or as little as you need. It’s up to you. Either way, you can create your book trailer in the time it’d take to proofread a single page.

“Making promotional videos was so easy with Biteable! We received great feedback on our creations.”

Cee, video making master

“Biteable’s software is intuitive, seamless, and I had a video ready to go before the lunch hour was up. Can’t get easier than that.”

Sean, also a video making master

How to make a book trailer without the stress

You’ve put in tens (or hundreds, or thousands) of hours writing a book. Thankfully, Biteable’s readymade book trailer video templates are designed to get the ball rolling, quick and easy. Any video template can be switched out with millions of scenes, clips, and images from our library to make it fit your book.

Throw in your assets

By this point, your book probably has a cover. It’d be a good idea to add this into our editor. Display it at the end of your trailer so people know exactly what they’re looking for when buying. (Or even better, use Biteable’s CTA tool to add a clickable link taking people directly to a purchase link.)

Maybe you have some marketing shots up your sleeve that you can include as well, or a special piece of music you want to accompany it. It’s easy. Biteable’s intuitive video editor makes your book trailer look clean and professional.

Fit your theme

Fiction or nonfiction, every book has a theme. Biteable’s video editor has a whole range of color templates and fonts to fine-tune your book trailer so it feels like a cohesive whole. It’s a good idea to put the logo of bookstores/online marketplace logos (Amazon and the like) where readers can pick up your book after checking out the trailer.

Create a book trailer in minutes

See the difference video makes for yourself with a week’s worth of free videos for your business.

Make a book trailer as captivating as the book itself

If you’ve written a book, you probably know a thing or two about structure. Same thing applies to your book trailer. It’ll need a beginning, middle and end. Keep it simple – don’t jump around with a web of concepts that will turn readers away in confusion.

Have a simple through-line that easily explains the key ideas behind your story. For instance, an intriguing setup for your fiction book or an easily digestible summary of your non-fiction book.

A short and sweet book trailer rules the day

It’s not easy condensing an entire book into a one-minute summary – believe us, we know – but the main goal of a book trailer is to say more with less. Just like this paragraph.

Eye candy matters

Some people judge books by their covers, and others believe food is more delicious when it’s presented well. Similarly, people will trawl the aisles of bookstores searching for a cover that catches their eye. Consider this when you create a book trailer.

It’s incredibly important to keep your book trailer eye-catching and visually consistent. Basically, don’t make it look like a slapdash of styles.

Create a book trailer with Biteable

You’ve written the book, now it’s time to create the book trailer. With Biteable on your side, anything is possible!

Biteable has hundreds of video templates to choose from. Fully customize your template or start from scratch. Drag and drop to add your own footage, pictures, and music, or peruse Biteable’s library of over 24 million stock clips, images, animations, and background tracks.

Include animated text, voiceover, character animations, and more to create a captivating book trailer — even if you’ve never made a video before in your life. With Biteable, you’ll make your first book trailer before they can say, “When does the sequel drop?”

How to make a logo + the best online logo makers

Group of jubilant seniors celebrating with excitement.

The 20 best commercial ads of all time, ever

How to make a slideshow on Facebook

Make a masterpiece in minutes. join the 9m+ people who love biteable.

404 Not found

Willem Defoe holding a lantern and standing by an altar with fire all around him in Nosferatu

Filed under:

4 key things we learned at CinemaCon about 2024’s biggest movies

CinemaCon 2024 had more than just great trailers

Share this story

Share this on Facebook
Share this on Reddit
Share All sharing options

Share All sharing options for: 4 key things we learned at CinemaCon about 2024’s biggest movies

Few weeks of any year are bigger or more important for the business of movies than CinemaCon. The annual gathering gives studios, theater owners, and exhibition-minded tech companies a chance to show off the most exciting developments in the movie business. But while the innovations that debut at CinemaCon may have important implications for the theaters where viewers get their film fix, the biggest news out of the convention almost always comes from the stage presentations, where studios show off their biggest gambles.

2024’s CinemaCon was no different, but with more than a hundred titles either shown or mentioned during the event, it can be hard for a regular movie fan to keep up with all the news — especially since most of the trailers and clips previewed at the con aren’t released to the public . So to help you keep track of all the most promising things from the convention, Polygon has put together a list of what we learned from being on the ground at CinemaCon 2024.

2024 is going to be a massive year for animated movies

The demise of animated movies has been greatly exaggerated, as the CinemaCon 2024 lineup shows. Nearly every studio got in on the animated action. Disney and Pixar have massive sequels coming up, including Moana 2 , Inside Out 2 , and a Lion King prequel . Paramount has the first Transformers animated movie in almost 40 years . And Universal is releasing a new Despicable Me movie and a stunning-looking adaptation of the kids’ book The Wild Robot . Perhaps the most surprising addition to this crop is the Warner Bros. entry: Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim , which wasn’t previewed at CinemaCon, but was pitched to exhibitors as “anime” during the studio’s stage show.

With all these movies set for release in the next eight months, 2024 is easily the biggest year for animation since 2019, a year that included The Lion King , Toy Story 4 , Frozen 2 , How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World , The Secret Life of Pets 2 , and The Lego Movie 2 . It’s hard to imagine any year living up to all those huge releases, but with what’s on the calendar so far, 2024 might actually have a chance.

Hollywood has finally recognized Glen Powell as a superstar

Glen Powell has been right on the cusp of superstardom ever since 2018’s Set It Up , but he’s never gotten the opportunities he deserves. But after Top Gun: Maverick in 2022 and Anyone But You in 2023, it looks like 2024 is finally his year. He was a big presence at CinemaCon, coming on stage to introduce a new look at Twisters , where he plays a thrill-seeking tornado chaser with an F5 ego. Paramount also announced him as the lead for its new Running Man reboot, directed by Edgar Wright. With those two star performances on the way, plus Netflix’s hilarious Hit Man set to release this year, Powell is finally getting his time in the spotlight.

Horror fans are going to have a great and busy year

Even in the most tumultuous times at the box office, horror movies are always a reliable bet, which is part of why they were such a standout of this year’s CinemaCon. Every major studio panel featured at least a few scary movies set for 2024, and plenty of them looked positively fantastic.

Disney previewed two scenes from its upcoming Alien: Romulus , which takes the Xenomorph back to its horror roots. Warner Bros. proved it’s bullish on the Shyamalan business, showing off trailers for M. Night’s new movie Trap , a thriller set at a stadium concert that’s too fun to even describe, and The Watchers , the first film from his daughter, Ishana Shyamalan, which follows a girl who gets trapped in the woods by monsters. Meanwhile, Lionsgate is about to release its trilogy of Strangers movies as well as Never Let Go , which has Halle Berry trying to keep her children safe after the apocalypse.

Paramount showed off an impressive horror lineup too, starting with A Quiet Place: Day One on the way, a prequel for the horror series directed by Michael Sarnoski ( Pig ) and set in New York. The studio also revealed the first trailer for Smile 2 , the sequel to its 2022 breakout hit . The movie will apparently follow a pop star played by Naomi Scott, whose fans slowly start to come down with the series’ iconic killer smile.

Finally, Universal may have made the biggest horror bet of the year with Nosferatu , the new vampire movie from The Witch and The Northman director Robert Eggers . It’s set for a massive Christmas Day release. The movie’s first trailer premiered at the show, and it looked absolutely incredible, full of moody shadows, horrified shrieks, and the twisted form of Bill Skarsgård’s ravenous vampire. The studio also showed off Speak No Evil , an eerie remake of a European cult hit from a couple of years ago, and announced sequels for Five Nights at Freddy ’s and M3GAN , though those last two won’t hit theaters until 2025.

Everyone wants to make the next Barbenheimer

Throughout the entire four-day convention, the most popular word on people’s lips was “ Barbenheimer .” Everyone from studios to movie-theater owners to technology companies had something to say about last year’s combined breakout hit(s), Barbie and Oppenheimer , and what it meant for theaters that two totally different movies released on the same day could be box-office sensations. The one thing no one seems to have an answer for was how to do it again.

For the theater owners, Barbenheimer was a sure sign that studios should have no fears about programming their movies against each other, because audiences were more than happy to support two big movies at once. This kind of takeaway certainly makes sense if your main goal is selling tickets and filling seats. Studios seemed to feel similarly, but none of them seemed ready to say what that meant for them.

In fact, the only meaningfully shared date on the calendar so far is Nov. 27, the release date for both Moana 2 and Wicked . While part of Barbenheimer’s strength was that it counterprogrammed two very different movies that audiences were excited to see, it’s hard to imagine a Moana sequel and a Wizard of Oz prequel musical have any audiences that don’t overlap. But while this year’s CinemaCon didn’t have a Barbenheimer announcement, it’s clear that studios are still carefully trying to pick and choose the correct lessons to take away from the phenomenon.

Loading comments...

Supported by

Critic’s Pick

‘Civil War’ Review: We Have Met the Enemy and It Is Us. Again.

In Alex Garland’s tough new movie, a group of journalists led by Kirsten Dunst, as a photographer, travels a United States at war with itself.

Share full article

‘Civil War’ | Anatomy of a Scene

The writer and director alex garland narrates a sequence from his film..

“My name is Alex Garland and I’m the writer director of ‘Civil War’. So this particular clip is roughly around the halfway point of the movie and it’s these four journalists and they’re trying to get, in a very circuitous route, from New York to DC, and encountering various obstacles on the way. And this is one of those obstacles. What they find themselves stuck in is a battle between two snipers. And they are close to one of the snipers and the other sniper is somewhere unseen, but presumably in a large house that sits over a field and a hill. It’s a surrealist exchange and it’s surrounded by some very surrealist imagery, which is they’re, in broad daylight in broad sunshine, there’s no indication that we’re anywhere near winter in the filming. In fact, you can kind of tell it’s summer. But they’re surrounded by Christmas decorations. And in some ways, the Christmas decorations speak of a country, which is in disrepair, however silly it sounds. If you haven’t put away your Christmas decorations, clearly something isn’t going right.” “What’s going on?” “Someone in that house, they’re stuck. We’re stuck.” “And there’s a bit of imagery. It felt like it hit the right note. But the interesting thing about that imagery was that it was not production designed. We didn’t create it. We actually literally found it. We were driving along and we saw all of these Christmas decorations, basically exactly as they are in the film. They were about 100 yards away, just piled up by the side of the road. And it turned out, it was a guy who’d put on a winter wonderland festival. People had not dug his winter wonderland festival, and he’d gone bankrupt. And he had decided just to leave everything just strewn around on a farmer’s field, who was then absolutely furious. So in a way, there’s a loose parallel, which is the same implication that exists within the film exists within real life.” “You don’t understand a word I say. Yo. What’s over there in that house?” “Someone shooting.” “It’s to do with the fact that when things get extreme, the reasons why things got extreme no longer become relevant and the knife edge of the problem is all that really remains relevant. So it doesn’t actually matter, as it were, in this context, what side they’re fighting for or what the other person’s fighting for. It’s just reduced to a survival.”

By Manohla Dargis

A blunt, gut-twisting work of speculative fiction, “Civil War” opens with the United States at war with itself — literally, not just rhetorically. In Washington, D.C., the president is holed up in the White House; in a spookily depopulated New York, desperate people wait for water rations. It’s the near-future, and rooftop snipers, suicide bombers and wild-eyed randos are in the fight while an opposition faction with a two-star flag called the Western Forces, comprising Texas and California — as I said, this is speculative fiction — is leading the charge against what remains of the federal government. If you’re feeling triggered, you aren’t alone.

It’s mourning again in America, and it’s mesmerizingly, horribly gripping. Filled with bullets, consuming fires and terrific actors like Kirsten Dunst running for cover, the movie is a what-if nightmare stoked by memories of Jan. 6. As in what if the visions of some rioters had been realized, what if the nation was again broken by Civil War, what if the democratic experiment called America had come undone? If that sounds harrowing, you’re right. It’s one thing when a movie taps into childish fears with monsters under the bed; you’re eager to see what happens because you know how it will end (until the sequel). Adult fears are another matter.

In “Civil War,” the British filmmaker Alex Garland explores the unbearable if not the unthinkable, something he likes to do. A pop cultural savant, he made a splashy zeitgeist-ready debut with his 1996 best seller “The Beach,” a novel about a paradise that proves deadly, an evergreen metaphor for life and the basis for a silly film . That things in the world are not what they seem, and are often far worse, is a theme that Garland has continued pursuing in other dark fantasies, first as a screenwriter (“ 28 Days Later ”), and then as a writer-director (“ Ex Machina ”). His résumé is populated with zombies, clones and aliens, though reliably it is his outwardly ordinary characters you need to keep a closer watch on.

By the time “Civil War” opens, the fight has been raging for an undisclosed period yet long enough to have hollowed out cities and people’s faces alike. It’s unclear as to why the war started or who fired the first shot. Garland does scatter some hints; in one ugly scene, a militia type played by a jolting, scarily effective Jesse Plemons asks captives “what kind of American” they are. Yet whatever divisions preceded the conflict are left to your imagination, at least partly because Garland assumes you’ve been paying attention to recent events. Instead, he presents an outwardly and largely post-ideological landscape in which debates over policies, politics and American exceptionalism have been rendered moot by war.

‘Civil War’ Is Designed to Disturb You

A woman with a bulletproof vest that says “Press” stands in a smoky city street.

One thing that remains familiar amid these ruins is the movie’s old-fashioned faith in journalism. Dunst, who’s sensational, plays Lee, a war photographer who works for Reuters alongside her friend, a reporter, Joel (the charismatic Wagner Moura). They’re in New York when you meet them, milling through a crowd anxiously waiting for water rations next to a protected tanker. It’s a fraught scene; the restless crowd is edging into mob panic, and Lee, camera in hand, is on high alert. As Garland’s own camera and Joel skitter about, Lee carves a path through the chaos, as if she knows exactly where she needs to be — and then a bomb goes off. By the time it does, an aspiring photojournalist, Jessie (Cailee Spaeny), is also in the mix.

The streamlined, insistently intimate story takes shape once Lee, Joel, Jessie and a veteran reporter, Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson), pile into a van and head to Washington. Joel and Lee are hoping to interview the president (Nick Offerman), and Sammy and Jessie are riding along largely so that Garland can make the trip more interesting. Sammy serves as a stabilizing force (Henderson fills the van with humanizing warmth), while Jessie plays the eager upstart Lee takes under her resentful wing. It’s a tidily balanced sampling that the actors, with Garland’s banter and via some cozy downtime, turn into flesh-and-blood personalities, people whose vulnerability feeds the escalating tension with each mile.

As the miles and hours pass, Garland adds diversions and hurdles, including a pair of playful colleagues, Tony and Bohai (Nelson Lee and Evan Lai), and some spooky dudes guarding a gas station. Garland shrewdly exploits the tense emptiness of the land, turning strangers into potential threats and pretty country roads into ominously ambiguous byways. Smartly, he also recurrently focuses on Lee’s face, a heartbreakingly hard mask that Dunst lets slip brilliantly. As the journey continues, Garland further sketches in the bigger picture — the dollar is near-worthless, the F.B.I. is gone — but for the most part, he focuses on his travelers and the engulfing violence, the smoke and the tracer fire that they often don’t notice until they do.

Despite some much-needed lulls (for you, for the narrative rhythm), “Civil War” is unremittingly brutal or at least it feels that way. Many contemporary thrillers are far more overtly gruesome than this one, partly because violence is one way unimaginative directors can put a distinctive spin on otherwise interchangeable material: Cue the artful fountains of arterial spray. Part of what makes the carnage here feel incessant and palpably realistic is that Garland, whose visual approach is generally unfussy, doesn’t embellish the violence, turning it into an ornament of his virtuosity. Instead, the violence is direct, at times shockingly casual and unsettling, so much so that its unpleasantness almost comes as a surprise.

If the violence feels more intense than in a typical genre shoot ’em up, it’s also because, I think, with “Civil War,” Garland has made the movie that’s long been workshopped in American political discourse and in mass culture, and which entered wider circulation on Jan. 6. The raw power of Garland’s vision unquestionably owes much to the vivid scenes that beamed across the world that day when rioters, some wearing T-shirts emblazoned with “ MAGA civil war ,” swarmed the Capitol. Even so, watching this movie, I also flashed on other times in which Americans have relitigated the Civil War directly and not, on the screen and in the streets.

Movies have played a role in that relitigation for more than a century, at times grotesquely. Two of the most famous films in history — D.W. Griffith’s 1915 racist epic “The Birth of a Nation” (which became a Ku Klux Klan recruitment tool) and the romantic 1939 melodrama “Gone With the Wind” — are monuments to white supremacy and the myth of the Southern Lost Cause. Both were critical and popular hits. In the decades since, filmmakers have returned to the Civil War era to tell other stories in films like “Glory,” “Lincoln” and “Django Unchained” that in addressing the American past inevitably engage with its present.

There are no lofty or reassuring speeches in “Civil War,” and the movie doesn’t speak to the better angels of our nature the way so many films try to. Hollywood’s longstanding, deeply American imperative for happy endings maintains an iron grip on movies, even in ostensibly independent productions. There’s no such possibility for that in “Civil War.” The very premise of Garland’s movie means that — no matter what happens when or if Lee and the rest reach Washington — a happy ending is impossible, which makes this very tough going. Rarely have I seen a movie that made me so acutely uncomfortable or watched an actor’s face that, like Dunst’s, expressed a nation’s soul-sickness so vividly that it felt like an X-ray.

Civil War Rated R for war violence and mass death. Running time: 1 hour 49 minutes. In theaters.

An earlier version of this review misidentified an organization in the Civil War in the movie. It is the Western Forces, not the Western Front.

How we handle corrections

Manohla Dargis is the chief film critic for The Times. More about Manohla Dargis

Explore More in TV and Movies

Not sure what to watch next we can help..

Even before his new film “Civil War” was released, the writer-director Alex Garland faced controversy over his vision of a divided America with Texas and California as allies.

Theda Hammel’s directorial debut, “Stress Positions,” a comedy about millennials weathering the early days of the pandemic , will ask audiences to return to a time that many people would rather forget.

“Fallout,” TV’s latest big-ticket video game adaptation, takes a satirical, self-aware approach to the End Times .

“Sasquatch Sunset” follows the creatures as they go about their lives. We had so many questions. The film’s cast and crew had answers .

If you are overwhelmed by the endless options, don’t despair — we put together the best offerings on Netflix , Max , Disney+ , Amazon Prime and Hulu to make choosing your next binge a little easier.

Sign up for our Watching newsletter to get recommendations on the best films and TV shows to stream and watch, delivered to your inbox.

Screen Rant

Michael jackson movie trailer footage reveals recreations of iconic pop star's life at cinemacon.

A trailer for the Michael Jackson movie screens at CinemaCon featuring footage recreating the iconic pop star's life and performances.

The Michael trailer features iconic performances of Michael Jackson's greatest hits, capturing his magic on stage.
The film will explore Michael Jackson's personal struggles and introverted nature, providing a deeper look at his life.
Despite not addressing abuse allegations, the movie promises to delve into all aspects of the pop star's life and legacy.

A Michael trailer screens at CinemaCon featuring footage recreating the iconic pop star's life and performances. Directed by Antoine Fuqua , with a script written by John Logan, the upcoming musical biopic chronicles the complicated life and career of the legendary singer and dancer. Michael Jackson's nephew, Jaafar Jackson, plays the pop star, alongside Oscar nominee Colman Domingo, Nia Long, Miles Teller, Laura Harrier, Kat Graham, Larenz Tate, Jessica Sula, Kevin Shinick, and Kendrick Sampson.

At CinemaCon 2024, with SR in attendance, Lionsgate revealed the first trailer for Michael . The footage features Michael Jackson walking a red carpet into a venue and a young Michael Jackson being told he’s special by his mother, played by Nia Long. Michael Jackson performs "Man in the Mirror," with audiences singing along. There is a lot of Michael Jackson’s iconic looks from various moments in his life — the black-and-white outfit, when he was wearing a black mask, and more.

Everything Revealed By The Michael Footage

First and foremost, the Michael footage reveals that much of the movie will be dedicated to recreating the pop star's iconic performances that made him the greatest entertainer of all time. The footage flashes between performances of his greatest hits, "Man in the Mirror" and "Thriller," as hysterical fans sing along. The film will feature over 30 Michael Jackson songs and recreate several live performances, starting with "ABC" on American Bandstand back when Michael Jackson was six years old and still a member of the Jackson 5, with the younger version played by Juliano Krue Valdi.

The footage features voice-over from Michael Jackson exploring his mental state as he performs, " It’s not just a sound; it moves through your body; transports your entire being. That is what I want the world to feel: magic ." The footage suggests a sweeping look at his life, exploring the personal struggles faced by the reserved and introverted superstar . He says, while in a car surrounded by fans, " When I’m not on stage, everything feels foreign to me ." His mom tells him, " There might be some people who think you’re different, and that’s gonna make life a little harder for you ."

A Michael Jackson Film Biopic Risks Making The Genre's Biggest Issue Worse

One major aspect of Michael Jackson's life that the footage doesn't seem to touch on is the multiple allegations of child sexual abuse that he faced , but repeatedly denied, throughout his life. Michael producer Graham King promises the film will explore all aspects of the pop star's life, including the abuse allegations. However, since the movie was made with the involvement of Michael Jackson's estate, this will likely influence how the film contends with the more controversial aspects of his life and legacy.

Michael releases in theaters on April 18, 2025.

Michael (2025)

*Availability in US

Not available

Michael is an upcoming biographical film created by GK Films by director Antoine Fuqua and details the highs and lows of the King of Pop's storied career. From career to controversies, this documentary aims to cover significant moments in Michael Jackson's life, who Jaafar Jackson plays

Cast & crew

Challengers

Tashi, a former tennis prodigy turned coach is married to a champion on a losing streak. Her strategy for her husband's redemption takes a surprising turn when he must face off against his f... Read all Tashi, a former tennis prodigy turned coach is married to a champion on a losing streak. Her strategy for her husband's redemption takes a surprising turn when he must face off against his former best friend and Tashi's former boyfriend. Tashi, a former tennis prodigy turned coach is married to a champion on a losing streak. Her strategy for her husband's redemption takes a surprising turn when he must face off against his former best friend and Tashi's former boyfriend.

Luca Guadagnino
Justin Kuritzkes
Josh O'Connor
33 Critic reviews
88 Metascore
1 nomination

Tashi Donaldson

Art Donaldson

Patrick Zweig
Umpire (New Rochelle Final)

Art's Physiotherapist

Art's Security Guard
(as a different name)
Tashi's Mother
Line Judge (New Rochelle Final)
TV Sports Commentator (Atlanta 2019)

Leo Du Marier

Woman With Headset (Atlanta 2019)

Motel Front Desk Clerk
Motel Husband

New Rochelle Parking Lot Guard
USTA Official …
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

Did you know

Trivia To prepare for her role, Zendaya spent three months with pro tennis player-turned-coach, Brad Gilbert .
Connections Referenced in OWV Updates: The Seventh OWV Awards - Last Update of 2022 (2022)
When will Challengers be released? Powered by Alexa
April 26, 2024 (United States)
United States
Những Kẻ Thách Đấu
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Pascal Pictures
See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

Runtime 2 hours 11 minutes
Dolby Digital