Fake Previews/Trailers

Isomer

Isomer

So I have a film in mind that I'm thinking of pursuing funding for and I'm wondering if anyone knows how much help it would be to shoot a 'fake preview'. I've seen a lot of fake previews and many of them tend to be spoofs not really intended to promote the making of a film but, some are made for that purpose. I did a search for anywhere there may be on the internet that has such promotional trailers or previews that really are promotional spots to find funding with no luck so far.

I'm wondering if maybe I'm using the wrong term? I mean 'fake preview' isn't exactly an appealing sounding term so maybe there's something else people call them? I even did a search of that term here on this site and didn't come up with anything addressing the subject.

So I'm wondering if I created such a promotional preview, do people think it's worth doing that? Is there any success stories of that approach paying off? What would be a good place to post such a 'fake preview' in hopes of it being seen by potential investors?

The reason I've contemplated doing this as a method of promoting a film is because my work involves some specialized animation techniques (a modern version of Harryhausen style 'Dynamation') and I think it's important to show potential investors examples of what my work looks like in the context of the specific film I'd like to make.

Any thoughts, opinions, advice, etc would be greatly appreciated! :)
 
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I know many people try this method - they shoot a
preview rather than shoot a short film. I can't recall
it ever working. But I can list a number of short films
that attracted investors and were made into features.

I don't think it's worth doing.
 
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directorik said:
I know many people try this method - they shoot a
preview rather than shoot a short film. I can't recall
it ever working. But I can list a number of short films
that attracted investors and were made into features.

I don't think it's worth doing.
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getsmiley.php


http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?t=22883

http://www.latinoreview.com/news/exclusive-the-raven-takes-hollywood-by-storm-9814

http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?t=24011
 
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One of the regulars here (M1chael I think) posted a thread featuring a trailer that was shot as a means to attract funding, but I don’t remember where that thread was, or what the film was called.

Maybe he will see this and offer his insights, or maybe someone else remembers that thread.

-Thanks-
 
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M1chae1 said:
So, apparently this now is sitting collecting dust. The production is a no-go. They sent it out to a few people and didn't get picked up or backed, so they just moved on. This was *just* shot the end of last year.

Seems a waste to shoot something this good, and give up so easily. See this is the problem with 'investor trailers' and such...they never go anywhere! Very rarely. And it turns into a sad waste of time.
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If you shoot exclusively for a trailer, that's all you'll get.

Shoot for the whole movie, and then make a great trailer. This is what the major studios do and it works...
 
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A Short film ideally, will allow exposure to your narrative in a way that a "Teaser" or "Promotional" video, simply cannot. It's the one insight potential investors can source from to give themselves an idea of how it will play out on screen.
 
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Wow, seems the consensus is pretty clear about promotional trailers being a bad idea - glad I asked. Those were all very helpful and informative responses, Thanks!

I was hopeful because shooting just a preview would be far less work and less expensive than a short film. Oh well, it was just a thought. I suppose I should be happy that the answer to my question was cut & dry, plain & simple so I didn't waste any more time contemplating it.

Thanks again for the rapid response and great info! :)
 
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Well, considering there are whole different studios that edit and create trailers for the big studios while they are working on the film, it's pretty safe to say that making a trailer is totally different than making a movie.

I don't see the trailer for the stuff I work on until it's uploaded on Apple Trailers. It saddens me because I have no responsibility whatsoever for the sound design, so a key element in the movie might have some lame sound effect in the trailer...
 
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Isomer said:
I was hopeful because shooting just a preview would be far less work and less expensive than a short film.
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You are exactly right.

And everyone knows it's less work and less expensive to
shoot a trailer. And by everyone I include people financing
feature films. Why put money into a project where the
filmmaker did far less work than one in which the filmmaker
made great sacrifices?
 
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I went through this process once before, I have a feature length script I've written and made a short film to promote it. But when I wrote the short, I found it virtually impossible to extract any scene from the feature that worked well alone as a short on it's own... so I ended up having to write an entirely new script from scratch for those characters.

The process of making the short film (stop motion animated) ended up costing me so much time and money that by the time I was done with it, I had lost interest in pursuing or promoting the feature script.

I'm really an animator/special effects artist who's work is physical, (no CGI) and I really have no real desire to be either a producer or director. But the indie film industry is simply not making the types of films my brand of special effects fit well into anymore. (at least not in abundance enough to keep a career going on) I'm working on an indie feature right now (Sinbad The Fifth Voyage - Director David Winning) and that's really cool but, I need to think about the next film after that.

The 'investors preview' sounded like a cool idea to me because I could really promote just the concept of the film I have in mind plus feature my special effects, without needing to focus on writing a complete short film script, directing, dealing with finding good actors, yadda, yadda, yadda... because you can basically just slap a lot of randomly shot footage together of locations and clips of stand-ins for real good actors just to show the concept for the film and how utterly fantastic my effects would work in it. :)

But now it's sounding to me like the better idea would be to just shoot effects and have it on hand for showing to potential investors - just without it being in the form of a teaser/trailer/preview.
 
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I'm working on a Promotional Trailer for a sci-fi script I'm writing, but it's more of a learning exercise on how to shoot a few particular scenes and to practice my 3D modeling and lighting. I don't really expect we'll get funding, and I'm taking the "trailer" route since the script can't really be crammed into a short film.
 
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That's very much like my situation and I'm thinking that shooting an 'investors preview' isn't so much of an awful Idea... just don't bother with the credits and the voice over AS IF it were an actual preview. If you remove that aspect of it then all you're really shooting is test footage. That's only a very minor difference but it has a whole different feel and function.

So yeah, if it's too much trouble to shoot an entire short film, then just shoot something that looks like a clip from the feature. That way you get what you want to show out of it without the need to write and shoot a whole nother film. Make it like a clip that a guest on The Tonight Show would bring to show during an interview.

For my purposes, (and is seems like yours as well) being able to show the effectiveness of the special effects is a big part of your presentation to potential investors.
 
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When you look at the successes - the short films that brought in
investors or prodCo’s to make a feature - the movie wasn’t just
the feature crammed into a short. They were all stand alone short
films that were entered into festivals where they were seen and
liked. Some even won awards. In some cases the writer and director
weren’t even considering a feature.

The key (although not the only key) to finding investors for a
feature film by making a short film is to make a kick-ass, stand
alone short film that shows your skill as a writer and/or director.

Isomer said:
That's very much like my situation and I'm thinking that shooting an 'investors preview' isn't so much of an awful Idea... just don't bother with the credits and the voice over AS IF it were an actual preview. If you remove that aspect of it then all you're really shooting is test footage. That's only a very minor difference but it has a whole different feel and function.
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What you are talking about is often called a "sizzle reel" or simply
your reel. Something to show your talent as (in this case) a special
effects artist. Most often used to get jobs, these reels are rarely
used to get investors to finance a feature film.
 
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