Benedict Coulter, who is head of creative marketing agency Trailer Park, booms film marketing messages in crafting movie trailers. While being obvious on some elements, Coulter will simultaneously present some mysteries to entice audiences with some not-fully-explained wrinkles.
Trailer Park is largest of Hollywood’s 30 ad agency boutiques making two-minute previews screened in theaters.
A “Los Angeles Times” article by Josh Friedman says that Coulter, who is a tall and dapper native of France, “still personally produces or edits about a dozen trailers a year” in addition to supervising others.
In an interesting anecdote, Trailer Park created 30 different versions of a trailer for Rolling Stones concert movie “Shine a Light” before one was approved, because of constant changes. There were conflicting instructions to push footage from backstage happenings – championed by director Martin Scorsese – versus performance footage on stage – which band members wanted.
Crafting trailers is a collaborative job for trailer shops, studio marketing departments and movie executives. Coulter credits producer Jerry Bruckheimer for teaching him what should be the primary goal for any trailer, while he made previews for the producer’s films “Top Gun”, “Con Air” and “The Rock.”
“What I learned from him was to grab the audience right away,” Coulter says in the article. “He would say to imagine that you’re getting up before the movie starts and going to buy popcorn. The trailer needs to compel you to freeze, turn around and watch.”
But being bombastic does not mean revealing everything about a movie, and he’s inclined to tease and suggest about elements to keeps audiences wondering. Coulter is a big believer in using music to set mood.
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