Teaser Trailer: “Amber Alert”

I posted this over the weekend about a project called “Grim Night,” a spec script that is going out with a teaser trailer. The post generated quite a few comments which you would do well to read. Bill Cunningham made the point about how he has attended AFM (American Film Market) every year since 1997 and has this anecdote:

If you attend an AFM then you can go into one of the myriad suites at the Loews and see how movies are sold to the world at large. It is an eye-opening revelation.

How does one put this? Let’s just say that more movies are sold worldwide based on the concept, the artwork, the title, the cast , the trailer, and finally — the script. Of course, there’s some juggling going on in that list, but for the most part it rings true. Buyers look at the artwork and the title to see if they want to go further and ask to see the trailer.

In my own experience, I co-wrote a little horror movie called SCARECROW which was in post while AFM was going on. All the distributor had was — a poster, a trailer…

and a poster for the sequel, SCARECROW SLAYER. (No cast, and certainly no script). We created the artwork which was pretty eye-catching, but it had no credit block or anything. Just a killer scarecrow reaching out at you, the title and “Coming soon.”

I was in my office when I got the phone call. The distributor told me I had to come up with an outline for the sequel right away because she had pre-sold half the movie’s budget on the 2nd day of AFM. The movie had a greenlight based on the trailer of the first movie, the title and the poster.

No story, no script, no cast.

Today brings another example via Deadline, a 60-second teaser trailer for a movie (already produced) called Amber Alert which is being shopped at AFM. You can go here and watch the trailer, yet another ‘found footage’ movie story type. Now that is a teaser trailer.

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