Intercutting Dialogue With Gameplay
Integrating spoken dialogue into game trailers is one of my favorite things to do. It connects the story to the gameplay and allows for punchy trailer editing. But in many game trailers the dialogue feels disconnected from the footage. For example, in this trailer for Maquette only ONE line of dialogue connects to the gameplay.
The "Is this some kind of castle?" line is the first and last line that matches the footage
Incorporating dialogue into a game trailer is one of the hardest things to do. This is due to: sheer volume of dialogue, it's another thing to cut into the soundtrack, difficulty finding good lines, and creating a story.
Dialogue and gameplay are like two pieces of rope you weave to make a coherent trailer. The Maquette trailer above is like two ropes which crossed over once and then went in separate directions. Had the dialogue and visuals made more connections, it would be a stronger trailer. Apparently in the actual game, the dialogue and gameplay don't integrate either (which means this trailer is accurate to the experience).
If you're not an experienced editor I don't expect you to be able to do this even after reading everything I write. It took me years of practice doing this, and even now I still discover ways of doing it better. Here are a couple ways to weave dialogue with gameplay.
Matching words to visuals
Fitting dialogue in the gaps
Matching words to visuals
This is the most obvious way to integrate dialogue and visuals. If the voiceover mentions something, I want to see it in the visuals. For example, the first line of the trailer I made for The Last Clockwinder is: "I've been out here, at the Clock Tower." I matched this with a shot of the clock tower.
The following lines: "For more than 30 years now. Alone for, well, most of that time. I don't feel alone though..." don't really have corresponding visuals because this is when I show the robot clones. This is at best a loose connection to the visuals and risks the whole thing unraveling.
But the next line is: "I have the gardeners." and "Every day, I get up and pump out the rising water." The gardeners connect to the image of the robots, and the word "pumping" matches to the robot turning a crank. The crank is part of the pump in the game, but I think I could've put any visual of something mechanical to make people think they're looking at the pump.
The point is I tried to include no more than a sentence or two of dead air before making a new connection. The next line about the plants is also pretty disconnected, but the next line about a recording matches a shot of a tape recorder. I tried doing this for the whole trailer, never going too long without forming a new connection. It might not be 100% woven together, but it's frequent enough people know not to ignore the dialogue.
If you form enough connection, the audience will start to LOOK and find connections even in shots you didn't intend to make connections
Fitting dialogue in the gaps
Sometimes the dialogue selection isn't great, but it works when well edited into the soundtrack. This trailer for We Are OFK is a good example of dialogue integrated well AND into a song with lyrics, which is extra difficult. To be clear, the dialogue selection and storytelling in this trailer is great too. But if you selected different lines and put them in the same slots with the same timing, it would still form connections.
Sometimes all you have to do is show the audience the gameplay footage is at least aware of the dialogue. What I mean is, the timing of the shots cuts with or around the lines. In the Maquette trailer, nothing in the gameplay is timed around the dialogue. The dialogue goes full steam ahead as if the gameplay wasn't happening (and vice versa).
In this trailer, the lyrics, dialogue and graphics all make space for each other. For example, the first lyric doesn't start until the first graphic "from indie pop band OFK" is about finished. The next graphic doesn't come on until after another lyric finishes. The first line of dialogue doesn't happen until after the lyric: "Crystal ball, show me all." The dialogue is the perfect length to fit between that lyric and the next. It's not until 1:12 where the lyrics lower in volume because they overlap with the dialogue. But most everything has its own moment.
If you DON'T form connections, the audience might assume nothing in the visuals are related to the dialogue (even if they are!)
This style of editing can work even when the dialogue doesn't tell a coherent story. For example, this recent trailer for Lies of P is a jumble of story bits which goes in one of my ears and out the other. But the dialogue nicely fits between music highlights and big sound design cues.
The trailer is forming connections between dialogue and visuals. Not by matching their content, but by showing they're aware of each other. These are two ways of showing editorial intent. Randomness shows lack of intent, and it's much harder to watch something which feels random because there are no connections.
If you're still a budding trailer editor it's ok if not every line connects. It's ok to have some lines which don't connect as long as the lulls aren't too long. You want to establish enough connections the audience knows to at least expect them. If dialogue goes on too long without matching a visual, that tells the audience it's not worth looking for connections. This is what happens in the Maquette trailer after the dialogue about the castle drawing.
Matches and connections are the foundation of editing, so make them as often as you can and people will get more out your trailers!
