Film Courage: What’s the first thing we should see in a movie or television trailer?
Thomas Verrette, Director, Producer, Editor: It has to just be something that provokes you to keep watching. It could be a line of dialogue or an opening shot that is What is that? if it’s recognizable and you can get away with it. If it’s IP you can probably do kind of more creative ways into a trailer because the audience is already there waiting for it. It just depends on what it is that you’re cutting and what the style of it is. I think generally it’s let’s just get into it with something that makes me want to keep watching. That’s the easiest way to say it. It could be so many things depending on what it is that you’re cutting.
Film Courage: How do you keep a movie trailer interesting without revealing everything but keeping it true to the film?
Thomas: I have a lot of experience doing promos which makes it a lot easier than doing full trailers. There’s a trailer format, a theatrical trailer let’s call it, that’s anything 90 seconds to two minutes. Those become a little increasingly more difficult to hold things back to sustain. That’s partially because of what people are used to seeing these days. Promos, if you’re doing a 30-second spot on one, you can definitely do that. They’re way more fun in a way because you get to actually kind of just tease somebody to want to watch it. I do find that sometimes trailers give away…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
BIO:
Thomas Verrette is an award-winning director, producer, and editor in Los Angeles. His most recent work is “Zero Gravity”, a feature documentary about middle-school students who compete in a nationwide competition to write code for a satellites aboard the International Space Station, which premiered at the Cinequest Film Festival in 2021, and has continued as an official selection at DOC NYC, Heartland International Film Festival, Dances With Films: LA, and SCAD Savannah Film Festival, among many others. Verrette is best known for producing the FOX Sports docu-series, “Phenoms”. The series was shot in 20 countries and follows the professional and personal lives of 60 young star players as they fight their way to their respective national teams for the World Cup in Russia 2018. Verrette also edited the “Goalkeepers” episode, which premiered the series at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2018. Other featured work includes editing the feature “Parallels”, co-producing the series “Small Shots”, and executive producing the documentary “Ordinary Gods”. He also produced and edited the promo campaigns for multiple seasons of the critically-acclaimed series “Kingdom”, as well as “Ice”, “Rogue”, and many others while working for DirecTV/AT&T’s Audience Network. He also directed promos for “The Dan Patrick Show”, “The Rich Eisen Show”, and “Undeniable with Joe Buck”.
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