Film trailers usually only run a few minutes, but they boast a collection of a movie's most dazzling scenes and provide a strong platform for blockbusters to storm the box office. Since first hitting the big screen in the US in the early 20th century, they have grown into a fully-fledged industry worldwide, helping fuel the golden age of cinema over recent decades. However, trailers are still considered an "imported product" in China. Despite rapid growth over the past five years amid the boom of the country's film industry, insiders warn that potential problems threaten to derail the fledgling sector due to a lack of proper regulations and at times blatant disregard for copyright.
Trailers 'made in China'
Despite being one of the most effective methods of movie promotion, trailers are often undervalued by Chinese producers, filmmakers and viewers. Up until recently, they were merely crudely cut previews informing audiences of the cast and release date of a film. The scene began to change in 2009 when a trailer by Chinese mainland producer Wei Nan for director Zhang Yimou's A Simple Noodle Story, a comedic remake of the Coen brothers' 1984 crime film Blood Simple, helped rake in more than 100 million yuan ($1.6 million) in its opening week. It led directors to reconsider the value of trailers, paving the way for a surge in hiring of local trailer producers instead of turning to those from Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan or the US.
"Trailers are not a totally new concept to Chinese audiences, but it's only been the past two or three years that local trailer production has grown and become more market-oriented," said Zhang Xiaobei, a film critic and co-founder of Battlestar Studio, which specializes in making trailers.
Now, Chinese producers and investors are spending more money on trailers to secure bigger profits, with the price for a trailer ranging from 100,000 yuan to 500,000 yuan according to Wei, who founded China's first trailer production company, Movie Trailer, in 2010. The high costs mean that many Chinese films shot on small budgets must settle for putting together their own amateur trailers.
"About 60 to 70 percent of film producers have recognized the effect of trailers in movie marketing campaigns," Wei noted.
Most trailers comprise of three distinct segments: an outline of the story's premise, insight into character development and powerful, emotional snippets of scenes that tease audiences into wanting to watch the whole movie.
"Producing a trailer is just like making a short movie," said Wei. "There are people in charge of music, sound effects, editing and special effects."
Common complaints from audiences include trailers' poor reflection of the actual movie, with some cinemagoers feeling cheated after watching the whole film. But Wei insists trailers differ from the movies they promote, pointing out the focus for trailers is on cutting together the best scenes, not necessarily in chronological order.
Problems in production
Although the quality has improved of trailers made by mainland producers, they still lag behind the benchmark set by Hollywood films. "For some trailers, it's easy to notice they are imitating South Korean or Japanese trailers," said film critic, Amor Mao. He added that a lot of trailer editors even use copyrighted background music without authorization, tarnishing the domestic industry's reputation. "The quality of films should also be blamed in part. Even if a trailer includes the best scenes of a movie, it doesn't mean it will be necessarily appealing."
Wei believes the major problem lies in the lack of regulations and support from the movie industry. Unlike Hollywood where there are the Golden Trailer Awards for excellence in motion picture marketing and around 85 trailer production companies, the industry in China is still in its infancy, with only two mainland trailer production companies.
"Only with a greater diversity in selection can the industry can experience healthy growth," said Wei.