An attention-getting movie trailer is an essential marketing tool for any film director, beginner or professional. It's the trailer that gets viewers hooked on a movie they haven't even seen yet. Good trailers are short and effective – they stick in your memory and make you want to see the film.

If you make your own movies, you may want to promote them through a trailer. In this article, you'll find information on making movie trailers and the best trailer maker software. For all the useful tips and tricks, keep on reading.

What is a trailer?

According to Dictionary by Merriam-Webster, the meaning of the word "trailer" is "a selected group of scenes that are shown to advertise a movie." Generally, trailers are from 1:30 to 2:30 minutes long. They showcase the main characters, plot base, and atmosphere. Since trailers are designed for advertisement, they should attract viewers and keep them interested in watching the full movie.

What’s a teaser trailer?

The teaser trailer's meaning is basically "a shorter trailer." It shows fewer scenes from a movie and is usually done way earlier than a trailer (1.5 or 2 years before the movie release).

Why are previews called trailers?

The term "trailer" was determined by the history of movie production. At the beginning of the 20th century, movie producers started getting an idea of placing ads to their future movies at the movies' reels sent to theaters. Producers' argument was simple: to let the person view the film and then get them excited about the next one (like TV-shows nowadays do with their "coming up" sections). Since those short previews followed the movies, they were called "trailers." As time passed by, people got less interested in watching the whole reel to the end. This made movie producers show trailers before the movies. Now, with streaming services and online cinemas gaining popularity, trailers got separated from theaters and reels and are uploaded to services like YouTube for everyone to watch and get hyped up.

Select the most memorable sequences

You have a very limited amount of time to convince the viewer that your movie is worth watching. That’s why you need to choose really spectacular segments for your trailer. But it’s a balancing act – you don’t want to reveal too much and spoil the fun. Hook the viewer, but leave key questions unanswered and vital secrets unrevealed.

Maintain the 3-act structure

A trailer is a story. The classic way to tell a story is in three acts:

• Exposition: introduce the main characters and the environment in which they exist

• Development (growing action and intensity): introduce conflict and complications

• Climax: intensify the storyline and bring it to a resolution.

Choose appropriate music

Often, well-chosen music can be half, or even more than half, the victory. Music binds all the building blocks of your story together; it defines the mood of your trailer, creates the appropriate atmosphere, and can have a big impact on the audience.

Use your sense of rhythm

An effective trailer always involves rhythmic editing. If the story in your trailer is developing rhythmically, it creates a sense of flow, eliciting more emotions from viewers and making them feel connected to the characters. Cut your trailer into fragments so that the changing frames synchronizes with the rhythm of the music and it will look and feel very natural.

Apply tried-and-tested tricks

Last but not least, there are some specific techniques used in most trailers that add to its effectiveness:

• Fades to and from black

• Atmospheric sound effects like droning, blasts, whooshes, etc.

• Voiceover or text on screen highlighting the movie’s key themes

• Fast cutting (for fast-paced action)

• Quiet music at the beginning, building to a crescendo towards the end

• Abrupt dramatic endings that are almost silent

Find a suitable video trailer maker

To help you find a suitable movie commercial maker, we've gathered info on the ten best trailer apps from different categories. We'll start with installable software, then tell you about some online alternatives, and finally suggest some apps for your smartphone. Each of these categories has its pros and cons you should be aware of beforehand.

Installable trailer editors are a default and reliable solution. They provide the best output video quality and have the widest range of customization options. However, they usually require you to use a powerful computer, which is expensive to get. If you're using a weak PC, you can try Movavi Video Editor or choose an online alternative.

Online movie trailer makers are more suitable for those who have zero to no experience making movies and trailers. They usually provide sets of movie trailer templates for you to insert pictures, short videos, music, and titles. Customization options are usually minimal, so you have to either go with what the platform provides or look for a different option. This option is also suitable for weak computers since all the processing is done on the website's servers, not on your PC.

Mobile apps are better for those who are more comfortable with a smartphone. For example, if you've been filming on your smartphone, it may be easier to do the editing on the smartphone, too. Most up-to-date mobile apps provide high-quality video output so that your trailer would look good even on a big screen. The downside you should consider is that video editing on a mobile device is usually less accurate than on a computer because tapping is less precise than clicking. You may have to put more effort into creating your trailer than you would with a desktop app, but the result may be indistinguishable from the one you can achieve with computer software.