Why you need a really good trailer and poster for your film

When marketing your short or feature film, there are two essential items you will require.

• The Trailer
• The Poster.

You will need a poster and trailer for entering film festivals on Film Freeway website.  Also, you will need a Poster and Trailer for approaching Film Distributors and promoting your film and your press kit. These are essential items. 

This will take work and depending on the film you will need to invest time over a calendar week to complete both. Most people have day jobs so you will have to work after-hours on this.  The investment in time and with a budget of  $400, you will have in a week a great trailer and a poster. 

The Trailer: Invest 3 days of work over a week 

A trailer is like an Add. It should make people want to see your film.
and it must be shorter than one minute for a short film or two minutes for a feature film. A great trailer sells the Sizzle. it will have the best moments from your film. It will not tell the story. Like a commercial, it will make the viewer really want to see your film.

In the cinema, you often see a few trailers before the main film starts.
After watching the first trailer, you have decided that you must see the film.
Conversely,  you decide not to see the film, after seeing the second trailer.
One trailer worked and the other did not.

I cut my own trailers now as over time I have got good at doing it. But I always pay an expert sound designer and mixer to do the sound on my trailer.
A great trailer requires big sound. I have a sound designer friend I pay $300 to make the trailer sound great. I want it to make people want to see my film. 
You can see my trailer for my recent film Tabernacle 101 here. 

So, to save money, cut your own trailer but make sure you pay for half a day of expert sound. Make sure you colour your film. If you want to learn Editing and colouring, please go to our filmmaking courses on this page.

Poster: Invest One Days of Work over the same week. 

The 2nd Marketing Tool is the Poster. You must work on this for a day 
If you are a graphic artist, of course you can do your own poster. Most of us are not, so you will need help.
A great place to get your poster created is Fivver. Check out their site and seek out people who create posters. There are several people who create great posters when i checked today and some of the posters are exceptional. Always go for the deluxe service so you get a great job. It really is very inexpensive.

I have added a screenshot so you can see an example.

First up find posters from previous films you like and send them to the Poster Artist on Fivver. Supply images you may want in your film. You will also need to supply copy such as titles, loglines and actor names and the Director name.
This is all the detail that appears on the poster. A poster well-made will create buzz for your film and is essential.

Once you have your Trailer and Poster you will be all set to go to Film Freeway and set up your Film Festival Page. Check out the previous post here for details on getting into Film Festivals.

Check out our Flagship Filmmakers Course for Short and Feature Films Here