No, but…Honestly, you REALLY should!
Although trailers aren’t 100% required, they are heavily, heavily, heavily, heavily suggested. Why? For many reasons including these two main ones:
- Films/series with trailers perform better. Period. Members love to watch trailers to help them decide if a movie or film is for them. Our data shows that titles without trailers are watched must less often and have a higher bounce rate (that means people go to watch a movie/show but when they see there is no trailer, they watch something else instead).
- Films/series with trailers are promoted more. Period. Fearless promotes titles with trailers more often and in more places. While Fearless can also use things like stills, quotes and other media to promote a title, the truth of the matter is that if we can upload a trailer, it will be more engaging and will attract more eyeballs. And at the end of the day, you want more eyeballs and so does Fearless. Win-win.
Getting Started Making Trailers
Think you can’t make a trailer for your film? Think again! Trailers come in all shapes and sizes and don’t have to be complex. Here are some ideas to get your creative juices flowing:
- Try a Director’s Statement-Style Trailer. Have your director record a video of them introducing themselves and the film or series. Have them describe what the project is about and why they made it. Help viewers understand what kind of people like it (tell them the genre or how this movie/show will make them FEEL). Then, simply intercut footage or scenes from your movie/show. At the end of your video, simply say: “Name of Movie or Show – Now streaming on Fearless”. And you’re done.
- Pro Tip: It can be smart to make a short & vertical version for places like Instagram Reels/TikTok, etc and a longer & horizontal version for YouTube, etc. All it takes is a minor edit and you can have two versions (note: if you do this, send both versions to Fearless).
- Hire a YouTuber to Help. Sometimes you are too close to your film/series to give it the impactful trailer you require. So, hire a YouTuber! YouTubers often have extensive experience in video editing and know how to make catchy videos that lure people in from the first second. Trailers are advertisements, not creative masterpieces. Your only goal is to get people to want to watch your movie or show. YouTubers have a unique ability to make people care about shit, so try letting a talented YouTuber take the reigns.
- Pro Tip: Give the YouTuber some sense of creative control. If they are a seasoned YouTuber, then trust that they will understand a unique angle to get people hooked.
- Use a Scene as a Teaser Trailer. If you have a really stellar scene that you know will draw people in, you can make a trailer that entails a scene from the show or movie with a bumper at the end that includes the name/logo of the film/series and the wording: “now streaming on Fearless.”
- Pro Tip: This works especially well for comedies we’ve noticed.