Where to Get a Job in the Game Trailer & Cinematic Industry

Where are the jobs in the game industry for people who want to work in trailers, cinematics, and anything related to film and video? 2023 was a terrible year for jobs in the video game industry and thousands have already lost their jobs in 2024, so let's talk about the options available for people who want to stay in the games industry. I'll end this post with the names of the game trailer houses I'm most familiar with.

First, do you want a full time position or do you to go freelance? As we've seen, full time isn't necessarily more stable, but it is SO much work to reach a sustainable financial situation if you're a freelancer because you start from virtually nothing. There are so many more hats to wear when you run your own business. I would never advise someone make the leap unless you have some other means to pay your rent, mortgage, and/or other expenses. 

If you're considering going freelance, read this post of mine breaking down the business of indie game trailers. It's a little out of date because Twitter has now become so incredibly awful that fewer people are active there now, and I'm not even sure of the visibility of making fan trailers for games and tagging the creators since the visibility of tweets seems to get buried if you're not subscribed to the Premium version. 

This post is mostly going to be about full time positions because I think those are the jobs people are going to be looking for. These jobs are either at game trailer houses or game publishers or developers big enough to have their own video department. First thing you should do is join the Bins and Bytes LinkedIn group which is run by Philip Roberts, Director of Cinematic Services at Crytek. Philip regularly updates it with new job listings in the games industry which are related to game trailers and cinematics. 

If you’ve been avoiding Linkedin, now’s the time to get on. (Photo via Greg Bulla @ Unsplash)

So, what are the jobs for people who work around game trailers and cinematics? I'm focusing here on gameplay and in-engine stuff because of course, pre-rendered cinematics have dozens if not hundreds of other disciplines which overlap with the film industry. The handful of job roles I see pop up most are for, capture artists, video editors, and cinematic artists.

Capture artists are the people who do gameplay capture from either builds or engines. At the highest level you're going to be a game capture director who directs several people working as digital actors. This video from Evolve Originals shows Emily Kolm directing several several other artists. The most entry level job will be Digital Actors who are the people at the controls in a multiplayer session being directed to move their character to a certain position and/or perform certain actions to get the shot. 

The names of these jobs vary slightly, but here are the most common names I see in job listings:

• Capture artist

• Marketing artist

• Digital artist

• Video artist

• Trailer capture artist

• Game capture director

Some of these jobs involve game capture as just one part of the role which also includes making screenshots and other marketing related assets, even some graphic design in some cases. But they all do usually involve some amount of game capture since that's the only way to get footage for trailers, social media posts, etc. The unfortunate thing for this role is the common keyword between them is “artist” which is super unhelpful.

actual capture artist at work

Editor job listings usually just say Video Editor or Trailer Editor. These are of course, the people who take the footage and cut the trailer, spots, or social media pots together with music, graphics, etc. From what I've seen, these positions are more commonly posted for trailer houses than game developers.

The last category is the one I know the least about which are Cinematic Artists. These are the people who put together game cinematics in-engine, positioning the characters, setting up camera angles, lighting, animations, and more. I think these jobs are mostly going to be in game studios, but there are game trailer houses who do in-engine work too!

Jobs related to this I see posted under things like:

• Cinematic Director

• Cinematic Producer

• Cinematic Artist

• Cinematic Animator

This is about as much as I know about being a cinematic artist

Experience in filmmaking, editing, cinematography, and photography that will help you in any of these jobs, and of course knowledge and experience with video games. For editing you're likely going to want to know Premiere Pro or Avid Media Composer. For in-engine work I mostly see posts for people who know Unreal Engine, but there's likely some which want people who know Unity too.

For game trailer houses you can go to the Golden Trailer Awards Directory page, which has mostly movie trailer houses, but some game trailer houses too. Here are a bunch of the ones I see job listings for every now and then. I recommend following them on LinkedIn. 

Aspect - Los Angeles, CA - Aspect is a major movie trailer house which does trailers and spots for big Hollywood blockbusters and has its own gaming division which has done work on multiple Call of Duty games, Blizzard games, and more!

BOND - Los Angeles, CA - BOND is a movie trailer house with a gaming division, they did trailers for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Mortal Kombat 1, Gotham Knights, and a whole lot more!

Buddha Jones - Los Angeles, CA - another movie trailer houses, but they also do some fantastic game trailer work like for some Assassin Creed Games and the amazing Outer Worlds 2 trailer parodying AAA game trailers. 

Create Advertising - Los Angeles, CA - another movie/game trailer hybrid house. They made trailers for Tekken 8, and lots of other trailers and TV spots for AAA games. 

Trailer Park/Mutiny - Los Angeles, CA - Trailer Park is one of the largest if not THE largest movie trailer houses, and they recently spun up a gaming division named Mutiny. Look for listings under both Trailer Park and Mutiny.

Altar Creative - Montreal, Canada - Their gameplay trailers are some of the most impressive in the industry. The cinematography and composition of their shots always impress and inspire me. Their founders used to work at Ubisoft and often work on their games like the various Assassin Creeds, but they have a VERY impressive portfolio. I look forward to every trailer they make.

Big Thursday Creative - Hove, UK - A UK based game trailer house that worked on Need For Speed Unbound, and a bunch more including some indies.

Dark Burn Creative - Chatsworth, CA - Game trailer house (which is technically part of Trailer Park Group) which has done lots of work for Apex Legends, Fortnite, Overwatch, Jedi: Survivor and loads more!

Evolve PR - Victoria, Canada - I have a bunch of friends who work here! They recently did trailers for Dave the Diver and they do lots of great work for indies. They're fully remote and based in Canada.

Fire Without Smoke - London, UK - a London based game trailer house that has lots and lots of impressive work for games like Dead Island 2, Far Cry 6, Ghostwire Tokyo as well as some indies like Rollerdrome and Little Nightmares.

Gnet - Los Angeles, CA - Gnet is another big game trailer with an impressive reel including Elden Ring, Destiny 2, Call of Duty, Halo Infinite, and a lot more. They do a lot of multiplayer games, which require a robust capture team. 

Hammer Creative - Los Angeles, CA/Remote - I worked here as an editor for a couple years and can vouch for this being a great place to work at with very good upward mobility. They're a hybrid work place with several staff who don't live in Los Angeles. Though, if you're joining the capture department you will likely have to be in Los Angeles. They're exclusively a game trailer house who did work for Alan Wake II, Deathloop, The Callisto Protocol, and loads more (though they got their start as a movie trailer house and later pivoted). 

Layer Media - Redwood City, CA - Game trailer house in Northern California who seem to be the primary vendor for Humble Games' Publishing division. They seem very indie focused, with some bigger budget stuff here and there. 

Maverick Media - London, UK - An agency that does a lot more than just game trailers. They also do live action trailers and spots, CG, key art and more in addition to gameplay trailers. 

Noodlehaus - Los Angeles, CA - A game trailer house that’s done a bunch of work with Gearbox, some spots here and there, and a few indies.

Petrol Advertising - Burbank, CA - Petrol is another powerhouse agency which touches all aspects of a game’s marketing campaign from key art, CG animation and gameplay trailers. They’ve worked on a ton of AAA games like Call of Duty, Lies of P, Saints Row, and more.

Player One Trailers - Bellevue, WA - The only trailer house I know of in Washington state. Their work tends to be in the AA space with some indies too. They made the very impressive Pacific Drive campaign and their founder Gage Allen's passion is capturing and creative narrative shorts in games (which he does via Player One Stories)

Rez Creative - Montreal, Canada - They've done work for lots of big AAA games like Watch Dogs, Far Cry, Assassin's Creed, as well as stuff like Dead by Daylight. They also do a wide breadth of stuff like CG, live-action, and more.

The Trailer Farm - Brighton, UK - Another game trailer house in the UK, but in Brighton (get fish & chips while you're there!). They do a mix of AAA like Borderlands 3, and gameplay trailers for indies and also cinematic trailers for games like Fall Guys, Death's Door, and more.

As for game developers and publishers, the places I know to have their own video department include: 11bit studios, Activision, Devolver Digital, Blizzard, EA, PUBG Corporation, Bungie, Crytek, Naughty Dog, Raw Fury, Rebellion, Riot Games, Rockstar Games, Team17, THQ Nordic, and Ubisoft. 

This is a non-exhaustive list of places that might be hiring folks who work in these niches of the games industry, but it should be a good start if you're looking for work. If you work at any game trailer house or developer with a video department who you think should be added to this list please email me!