Editing a Game Trailer in Waves
Compelling trailers start simple, get progressively more interesting, and then end on the most exciting and engaging thing, right?
Not exactly.
If it takes the entire trailer or even half of the trailer before you see one of the most interesting things, I think that's an easy way to end up with a pretty boring trailer. Or at the very least, a trailer which doesn't hold the audience's attention.
One exercise I occasionally do when making a game trailer is rank some aspect of the game from 1-10 (or however high a number I need). For example, I'll take inventory of each biome which has a unique look or color palette. Then, regardless of the order in which they occur in the game, I'll put them in an order that feels like they're getting progressively more interesting or deep into the game.
This is of course very subjective, and it might very well be that it matches the levels' actual order. But I do this because I want the environments I show in the trailer to get more and more interesting. You might be wondering: "But didn't you say putting them in order from least to most exciting can be boring?"
Yes, and here's why: The reason it can sometimes be boring to linearly go from least to most interesting is it can create a predictable pattern in the trailer's editing and structure. I always want to stay one step ahead of the audience, because when things get predictable, the audience will get bored. Why watch something when you feel like you know exactly what the rest of it will be (and it doesn't sound interesting) Even though I'm not literally making a trailer of someone counting up 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, I think if the audience feels like I am, they'll tune out.
The right image is more interesting than the shot on the left, but it doesn’t create much contrast because the leap is so small. This might be okay for part of the trailer, but if this incremental jump forward becomes a pattern I think the trailer can lose steam fast.
So what I try to do instead of figuratively counting from 1 to 10 I try to think more in "waves" somewhat like this:
1, 3, 5
2, 4, 6
3, 5, 7
4, 6, 8
5, 7, 9, 10
I'll at least use this as a starting place, and then adjust from there. I do this to quickly show contrasting shots and color palettes. This is something I sort of did in the Spelunky 2 Gameplay trailer. You'll see early biomes like the caves and the jungle aren't completely done with after they appear in the beginning. I could've waited until the last character to show the levels that look like later parts of the game like Vlad's castle or Duat (the Red and Gray levels), but instead I mixed it up so they appeared in the middle.
By using a structure of progressively bigger waves, I get to show some really cool stuff earlier on, but not SO much that I use up all my best material before the final shot. You might think it will be boring to reset and start again with early game content when in the middle of the trailer, but I think it can also act as a palate cleanser before going into something new again.
The trailer for Inbento is a good example where we can literally see how big the jumps are as it skips from level 1-2 to level 2-6, to level 3-8 or in this trailer for SUPER SPACE CLUB which has a quick montage at the end where it skips from Wave 50 to Wave 129 to Wave 7304. These trailers don't jump in waves, but this is a good example of what one wave in a trailer might look like.
A big change in color palette between shots can signal there’s a large amount of content while also keeping the trailer fresh and interesting. In general, a lot of variety will almost always help make the trailer more compelling.
I consider this technique to be more advanced, because when you're getting started making trailers, making things linear is a good place to start. But if you're finding it to be a little predictable and linear, you might try taking the footage you have, cutting out some of the steps and editing waves into your trailer.
Also, you can make the biomes alternate in waves, but the player verbs are incrementally adding on game mechanics. As long as there's something in there which is skipping forward and creating contrast moment to moment, you can better stay ahead of your audience and keep them engaged.
