Tuesday Trailers

As promised during my week-long Good Book Trailers series, on select Tuesdays I'll be showcasing and reviewing YOUR promotional trailers!

This Week's Promo Trailer comes from paranormal author Courtney Mroch, who wrote in to say she used my free DIY Trailer Workshop to create the fun promo below for her recently unveiled Haunt Jaunts website/blog. Check this out:




What I Love About This Video:

1. Length. At just over 1 minute, it's short, sweet, and to the ghostly point. Perfect!

2. Music. This really helps set the mood for a promo, and this eerie, yet "popping" selection truly dresses up the stage.

3. Effects. It can be tough not to go overboard with too many transitions and effects (they're just too darn fun!), but Courtney uses some really strategic ones that play up the messages in her video. For instance, I love the way the text for restless spirits at 00:13 waves back and forth, as though "restless" itself...and quite reminiscent of a floating ghostly presence.

4. Motion. Though comprised of still images, Courtney gives this "video-like" animation, such as at 00:18 where the message travel dark roads is followed by a zoom effect that gives the feeling of moving along a mysterious road. The old film effect added to this clip lends an added eerie feel.

How To Make It a "Stand Out:"

I think this already has the makings of a Stand Out! About the only thing I could suggest would be lingering a bit on the web address at the end, rather than a quick scroll. While Courtney wisely mentions her URL elsewhere in the video, it's a great idea to let info linger a moment at the end, as it's the last thing people see. My favorite text animation for this is Fade, Slow Zoom, which really emphasizes text.

Something I want to touch on, too, is the use of gray and lime green titles. This color scheme happens to mimic the website she is promoting, so the decision was carefully thought out. For other projects, however, I recommend caution with gray title backdrops. They often lack sufficient "oomph" for text to pop out against, and gray is the default color in Movie Maker for the inset video/text effect seen in this promo. "Stand Out" trailers avoid default fonts and backgrounds so they don't resemble a thousand other YouTube promos. But when used deliberately in set circumstances, gray definitely has its ghostly place. :)

Want YOUR trailer featured here? Post a link in the comments, or Email me and ask. Meanwhile, it's back to the writing desk!