More Trailer Editing is not Better Trailer Editing
MORE editing does not mean BETTER editing and LESS editing does not mean WORSE editing. The reverse also applies. It is not inherently better if you have fewer cuts, nor is it worse if you have more cuts. This is an idea I've grappled without my entire professional career, and I want you to take this to heart as well.
Most games do not call for flashy or stylistic trailer editing. you see in a typical Hollywood movie trailer. This is because a game trailer often has to communicate more, or at the very least, different information than a movie trailer. A game trailer (especially for indie games) is part story, and part instructional video, and it all has to come together in a way which doesn't feel instructional or like a YouTube video walking through product specs. I think the best game trailers communicate an experience that makes you not only understand the story and game, but want to then get the game to play and control it yourself.
I think one of the biggest mistakes a lot of indie games do is to chase the editing style of AAA games or Hollywood movies in hopes of looking like a "real" or "legitimate" trailer.
If I was given the choice of watching a game trailer with:
Flashy and entertaining editing with confusing gameplay
Simple editing with clear and intriguing gameplay
The vast majority of times I would choose #2. This is because while I do find flashy trailer editing entertaining, I watch game trailers to understand and get a feel for the experience. For games, part of that understanding is seeing how I, the player, will advance the story or interact with the game.
Of course, there is a fine line between flashy and simple editing. "Raw" gameplay might be the clearest way to put a trailer together, but it can also be the least entertaining. When I say "simple editing" I mean an editing timeline which doesn't have many (if any) quick cuts, not a lot of sound design, no video filters or effects, no flutter cuts, dramatic cuts to black, or any of the things you think of in a very intense Hollywood movie trailer.
Sometimes it does look like this is what’s happening.
Don't Gatekeep Your Own Editing Skills
As someone who often feels like they washed out of the movie trailer industry, I catch myself trying to put "more" editing into my game trailers. But whenever I do that it often feels like I'm sacrificing clarity for the sake of "looking like a trailer." So I end up pulling back the editing so shots are longer, and the editing is more functional than in-your-face. The negative voice in my head that says I didn't/couldn't make it as a movie trailer editor tells me this makes the trailer "less legit" because it has fewer cuts."
To both you and me: Tell that voice to SHUT THE HELL UP!!!
I see this tendency with lots of small games where they seem to chase a "professional look." The trailer editing is flashy to the point of obfuscating the game, and makes the trailer SO much worse than if I could clearly see what the game was. Check out this trailer I saw while perusing the Game Trailers YouTube channel:
The title cards in this trailer look very "professional," the music sounds like it's "real" trailer music, the editing feels like it's in the style of movie trailers, and yet I think this is not a very effective trailer. Without reading the description or looking at the Steam page it looks like it's a game where you shoot catapults at castles. Reading in between the lines, this trailer feels like the editing and title cards are trying to sell me a game which can't stand on its own merits; the game needs to be obscured to look good. Also, the title cards are all focusing on the features of the game, not the benefits.
When I look at the description and Steam page it seems this is an Angry Birds style game where you shoot projectiles to destroy stone structures. Admittedly, this doesn't sound terribly hooky, but I'd have a more favorable view of it if the trailer showed me the gameplay rather than use flashy trailer editing to make it look like they're compensating for the game's shortcomings. By just presenting the gameplay clearly the game would look fine, but by trying to hide it behind flashy editing, it looks like there might be something wrong or broken about it.
More or Less Editing Doesn't Mean Better or Worse Editing
One way I think of a trailer with "more" editing is one which has a lot more cuts and shorter shots. I think that on average, game trailers do have far fewer cuts than movie trailers. Part of this is because I think movie trailer style editing isn't as pervasive in the game industry. The other reasons are again, because a game trailer has to communicate more, and oftentimes shorter shots can get in the way of this. Another reason is I think a lot of game trailers tend to be more like short films than trailers, so it's beneficial to the storytelling for the editing to be less frenetic.
Here's the average shot length for some trailers:
Games
Baba is You: 4.25 seconds
Papers, Please: 2.6 seconds
Modern Warfare II Multiplayer & Warzone 2.0: 1.3 seconds
Movies
Minari: 1.6 seconds
The Greatest Showman: 1.3 seconds
Fast X Trailer 2: 0.82 seconds
These are all very good trailers in their own way. The trailers with longer shots would not be better with shorter shots, and the ones with shorter shots would not be better with longer shots. Each of these trailers had a job to make their respective game or movie look good for what it is. For Fast X and Modern Warfare II, that meant quick shots with wall to wall action. For Baba is You that meant longer shots which give the audience the time they need to understand the game.
With longer shots, Fast X or Modern Warfare II wouldn't have been able to show as much and it would've slowed down the pace. With shorter shots, Minari wouldn't have had time to let the character moments sink in, and would be more frenetic. These are all good trailers, and the editors made the right decisions for what they had to do for each film and/or game.
A shot length comparison from my trailer for Viewfinder and the first minute of the Fast X Trailer (guess which is which)
Final Advice
This article was as much for you as it is for me. Do not despair if you look at professional movie or game trailers and think to yourself that your work isn't as good because every cut doesn't sync to the beat, or because you only have four tracks of sound design, and not twenty-four. Or your average shot length is around 2 seconds instead of 0.8 seconds. There is no average shot length that makes your trailer objectively better or worse.
Every project has different needs, and if you hired 10 trailer editors to make a trailer for the same game or movie, you'd get 10 different trailers that are likely to each have their own merits. There's SO much creative room when you're tasked with making a 90 second trailer out of dozens of hours of footage, or even just two hours of footage.
The key thing to worry about is being true and faithful to your source material and what you're trying to communicate. So don't worry about the "best" shot length for every trailer (there's no such thing). Worry about what is best for what you are working on, and frankly, this is something that takes both experience and practice.
Some final tips:
Don't cut fast for the sake of cutting fast
Don't cut fast because you think it will make it look more like a "real" trailer
Don't ask yourself: How do I make this look more like a "real" trailer?
DO cut at a pace appropriate to the game
DO cut to set a pace that creates the feeling you want
DO ask yourself: Does this editing make my message clear and entertaining?
There are some games that call for "movie trailer style" editing. Usually that's when the trailer has to juggle many different visuals and audio, or weave so many different threads. Put more simply, if your game doesn't have spoken dialogue and cutscenes, the editing can (and probably should be) much more simple. Don't worry about adding in dozens of fancy ingredients and cooking techniques when the assignment calls for egg fried rice.
