# Trailer Music Structure: Is there Truly a consensus?



## Replicant

So I've been wanting to give it a serious effort composing trailer music but I seem to be observing conflicting reports (reading past threads on here and elsewhere) as to how exactly it should be structured.

The way that places like Evenant take as gospel seems to be starting with an ambient-ish intro that introduces some sort of ostinato, then a buildup section, then a huge epic climax, then another huge (but shorter) climax and then some ending — with edit points in between sections.

The trouble is that my observations of watching movie trailers and listening to tracks on Position and what not seem to defy this convention almost all the time. The ideal length is also often said to be 2-3 minutes, but I regularly see 4+ minute tracks in these libraries with the actual placement of said tune usually only being 1 minute or so of said track.

Not every trailer is "epic", many now include mixes of pop songs, some only have the buildup and "epic" part, some are just badass Blue Stahli type electronic rock tunes, etc. Most of them are a mashup of different pieces.

Basically, it seems to me like this convention of structure is not really key to getting a track licensed so much as having a good buildup and nailing the style and going for much over 2 minutes seems kinda pointless if most trailers aren't using long tracks in their entirety anyway.

*Can anyone with experience set the record straight on this? *


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## SillyMidOn

Replicant said:


> So I've been wanting to give it a serious effort composing trailer music but I seem to be observing conflicting reports (reading past threads on here and elsewhere) as to how exactly it should be structured.
> 
> The way that places like Evenant take as gospel seems to be starting with an ambient-ish intro that introduces some sort of ostinato, then a buildup section, then a huge epic climax, then another huge (but shorter) climax and then some ending — with edit points in between sections.
> 
> The trouble is that my observations of watching movie trailers and listening to tracks on Position and what not seem to defy this convention almost all the time. The ideal length is also often said to be 2-3 minutes, but I regularly see 4+ minute tracks in these libraries with the actual placement of said tune usually only being 1 minute or so of said track.
> 
> Not every trailer is "epic", many now include mixes of pop songs, some only have the buildup and "epic" part, some are just badass Blue Stahli type electronic rock tunes, etc. Most of them are a mashup of different pieces.
> 
> Basically, it seems to me like this convention of structure is not really key to getting a track licensed so much as having a good buildup and nailing the style and going for much over 2 minutes seems kinda pointless if most trailers aren't using long tracks in their entirety anyway.
> 
> *Can anyone with experience set the record straight on this? *


You are right to be confused. I guess the easiest way to think of this is of the genre "trailer music" and music that is used in trailers, which can be "trailer music".

So by the genre of trailer music I refer to the stuff you get on youtube with kitsch images of dragons and damsels in distress with loads of choir and big hits and epic-ness, and taikos etc. This seems to be a popular genre on this forum wrt music that people post and aspire to write. It also seems to annoy some .

Quite a bit of this music is used in trailers. There are also trailer houses that mostly do just this type of music. However, within what might be considered "trailer music" there are other types of styles that focus more on sound design, hybrid sounds, percussion only tracks, etc that are also published by trailer publishers.

And yet beyond that you find all kinds of other styles of music in trailers, and some trailer publishers provide these, too, though most often trailer houses (i.e. the people that cut the footage to create the trailer) will approach other publishers as well, if they are looking, say for a jazz song.

Now of course if you have placements, it is quite common that only a section of your piece is used, sometimes they only use a section of a stem of your piece. Sometimes it is the whole piece, that can happen, but it's rarer.

So what are you to do if you want to write a trailer piece? Well if it is one of those epic taiko damsel in distress choir type pieces, then yes, a 3 part structure still makes sense, as the music editor has different sections to choose from (basically quiet, bigger, BIG), making your track more likely to be used. But you could write something that is 1:30 long and utterly awesome, then that could get used, too.

Difficult industry to break into and make real money, though, but aren't they all?


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## Sean_Gouws

SillyMidOn said:


> You are right to be confused. I guess the easiest way to think of this is of the genre "trailer music" and music that is used in trailers, which can be "trailer music".
> 
> So by the genre of trailer music I refer to the stuff you get on youtube with kitsch images of dragons and damsels in distress with loads of choir and big hits and epic-ness, and taikos etc. This seems to be a popular genre on this forum wrt music that people post and aspire to write. It also seems to annoy some .
> 
> Quite a bit of this music is used in trailers. There are also railer houses that mostly do just this type of music. However, within what might be considered "trailer music" there are other types of styles that focus more on sound design, hybrid sounds, percussion only tracks, etc that are also published by trailer publishers.
> 
> And yet beyond that you find all kinds of other styles of music in trailers, and some trailer publishers provide these, too, though most often trailer houses will approach other publishers as well, if they are looking, say for a jazz song.
> 
> Now of course if you have placements, it is quite common that only a section of your piece is used, sometimes they only use a section of a stem of your piece. Sometimes it is the whole piece, that can happen, but it's rarer.
> 
> So what are you to do if you want to write a trailer piece? Well if it is one of those epic taiko damsel in distress choir type pieces, then yes, a 3 part structure still makes sense, as the music editor has different sections to choose from (basically quiet, bigger, BIG), making your track more likely to be used. But you could write something that is 1:30 long and utterly awesome, then that could get used, too.
> 
> Difficult industry to break into and make real money, though, but aren't they all?



Thanks for this break down. I did go through the Evenant course and do follow their rules when approaching a track. But when analyzing other tracks similar to the ones that you are writing, it can sometimes be very different to what has been explained.


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## SBK

If you want to write "commercially" you do the standard structures.
If you want to be Unique, you do your own ones with the "imaginary" trailer in mind.
Some of the trailers are composed on premade video montage, some songs are being "Cut" to fit the trailer. That's why there are so many different styles. Video editors might ask the composer to change the track and fit the video so something different will happen!


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## Saxer

Library trailer music is just the material from where editors can cut their own trailer structure as needed. So there has to be enough meat to cut a good steak and some editing points to make the editing easier.


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## Sean_Gouws

SBK said:


> If you want to write "commercially" you do the standard structures.
> If you want to be Unique, you do your own ones with the "imaginary" trailer in mind.
> Some of the trailers are composed on premade video montage, some songs are being "Cut" to fit the trailer. That's why there are so many different styles. Video editors might ask the composer to change the track and fit the video so something different will happen!


When being more Unique and trying your own style, will that hurt your chances of getting placements?


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## NoamL

The confusion comes from the term "trailer music" being used sloppily to refer to two things.

The first is *actual trailer music* primarily made by trailer houses like *Really Slow Motion*, *Ninja Tracks*, *Twelve Titans*, *Dos Brains*, and many others.

The second is a certain style of *production music*, primarily influenced by composers allied to *Immediate Music*, *Bleeding Fingers*, *Two Steps From Hell*, *PostHaste*, *Position Music *as well as many others.

The confusion is perhaps caused by the fact that composers move between these worlds, that some production houses have trailer divisions, and that at the end of the day "trailer music" doesn't HAVE to end up in trailers. A placement is a placement....

Now everything I could say after this point will be just one guy talking out his rear end  , that's why I have provided links to the best places to listen to these pros and decide for yourself.

There is no education like studying, by yourself, what is currently successful in the field.

However I agree with you @Replicant - the Evenant course principles (which I haven't had the benefit of seeing in detail) seem to inspire in its students that they need to match up to some archetypal "trailer track structure" and I don't think that's the point at all. The point of these tracks is their *production chops*. They sound huge, they are well orchestrated, they have amazing mixes, they have original but accessible&conventional musical ideas, and they have a compelling flow. That's where the focus should be. One will never sell a so-so musical idea "just because" it's been shoehorned into the right musical form. Beyond that, I think starting a track with 20-30 seconds of ambience is a really good way to convince a 1st-time listener that your track won't contain urgency or momentum. These tracks are competing with thousands and thousands of similar tracks. A good production track needs to grab someone's ear right away and start telling a story right away.


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## SBK

Sean_Gouws said:


> When being more Unique and trying your own style, will that hurt your chances of getting placements?


yes and no, yes because some might want something common to pick up and might be in a hurry, you know, no if the track is so good , they might say they want some changes though


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## Sean_Gouws

@SBK thanks for your input. 
Really appreciate it 
I guess key is to keep at it and learn as much as possible in the process


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## Replicant

This is why I love this forum.

Thanks for the great and informative replies, everyone!


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## Puzzlefactory

This thread and its discussion is spookily relevant to my most recent track I shared to the forum. 

Would be good if the guys from the Evenant course chimed in here. @Walid F.


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## AdamAlake

"There is no such thing as trailer track structure." - Mike Verta


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## Puzzlefactory

AdamAlake said:


> "There is no such thing as trailer track structure." - Mike Verta



Hmmm, seems untrue to me. If a trailer has a structure the so would the music behind it. If there is a generic video editing structure that Trailer companies use, then it follows that there is a generic music structure too. Hence the 3 act formula.


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## Jaap

A copy from a mail conversation I had with Mark Petrie (who wrote many trailer tracks) 

Here's the layout of a typical trailer track, as I see it:

*1st act *- mysterious, brooding, occasional hits ok
SUDDEN BREAK or RAMP UP
*2nd act *- energy, using *same ideas from opening* if possible, building bigger and bigger with every repeat of the 8 bar phrase
SUDDEN BREAK, HUGE RISE
*3rd act *- massive energy leading to a finale
*Finale* - ridiculous ending, over-the-top repetition of hits etc - realm of the ridiculous
SHORT BREAK FOR REVERB TAIL
*Outro*, for 'coming soon' - a long fading held note or a gradually fading soft recap of the beginning


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## Replicant

Jaap said:


> A copy from a mail conversation I had with Mark Petrie (who wrote many trailer tracks)
> 
> Here's the layout of a typical trailer track, as I see it:
> 
> *1st act *- mysterious, brooding, occasional hits ok
> SUDDEN BREAK or RAMP UP
> *2nd act *- energy, using *same ideas from opening* if possible, building bigger and bigger with every repeat of the 8 bar phrase
> SUDDEN BREAK, HUGE RISE
> *3rd act *- massive energy leading to a finale
> *Finale* - ridiculous ending, over-the-top repetition of hits etc - realm of the ridiculous
> SHORT BREAK FOR REVERB TAIL
> *Outro*, for 'coming soon' - a long fading held note or a gradually fading soft recap of the beginning



Awesome! Thank you!


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## rJames

Saxer said:


> Library trailer music is just the material from where editors can cut their own trailer structure as needed. So there has to be enough meat to cut a good steak and some editing points to make the editing easier.


This. More is better than less, unless it is too much. (serious, even though sarcasm is my middle name) You don't need a bunch of repeats, but for a long section that repeats, make each go around build (be different). Interesting stops, edit points, dramatic stuff (that fits the genre you are writing for) Endings are important. Dimension across the stereo field.


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## Puzzlefactory

rJames said:


> This. More is better than less, unless it is too much. (serious, even though sarcasm is my middle name) You don't need a bunch of repeats, but for a long section that repeats, make each go around build (be different). Interesting stops, edit points, dramatic stuff (that fits the genre you are writing for) Endings are important. Dimension across the stereo field.



What constitutes good edit points? Do mean hits, stings, transitions in the track? Or do you mean separation of sections? There doesn't seem to be a consensus.


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## Ron Verboom

I was just working on a new trailer cue yesterday. I thought there was something missing. Then i read this post.



Jaap said:


> ridiculous ending, over-the-top repetition of hits etc - realm of the ridiculous


That's it, thanks for the tip Jaap!

For people who are interested in the piece. It's on my Soundcloud Page: Tale Untold


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## Jaap

Puzzlefactory said:


> What constitutes good edit points? Do mean hits, stings, transitions in the track? Or do you mean separation of sections? There doesn't seem to be a consensus.



Good edit points are the transitions between sections with smart writing and stem delivering. Example. You have a section with piano and strings and at bar 32 this sections ends and then a transition happens between bar 32 and bar 34 for example with low strings, swelling brass and lets go wild, a small riser. After that a new section with strings and brass and percussion.
When you deliver stems you will be delivering them for this example as: piano, strings high, strings low, brass high, brass low, percussion, transition/sfx effects.
When delivering like this it is easy for the editor to use whatever section he wants. If he just want to use the first section he can make a easy cut in the strings and brass material to leave out everything from the second section. If he want to use only the second section he can cut out the beginning and because the transition effects are delivered as seperate stem he can ignore them as he wants.
When writing trailer or production music pieces it is good to keep this process in the back of your mind.


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## Puzzlefactory

Ok, thanks for the info. 

I didn't realise you would separate everything out so much for stems. I thought maybe one stem per "family" of instruments. I didn't realise you would separate the pitches of the families too.

As a rule of thumb, how many stems would be normal to send to a video editor for a typical track?


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## Jaap

Puzzlefactory said:


> Ok, thanks for the info.
> 
> I didn't realise you would separate everything out so much for stems. I thought maybe one stem per "family" of instruments. I didn't realise you would separate the pitches of the families too.
> 
> As a rule of thumb, how many stems would be normal to send to a video editor for a typical track?



For a hybrid trailer composition it would look like:
Woodwinds
Brass High
Brass Low
Strings High Legato
Strings High Spicatto
Strings Low Legato
Strings Low Spicatto
Vocals/Choir
Synths
Percussion (somethimes divided as well if high pitched and low booms are used together)
Effects (transition, downers, risers etc etc)


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## zacnelson

Is it true that a lot of the big drum hits and crashes in trailer soundtracks are actually edited in later by the video editors, and they are not part of the original composition? So when we watch trailers to get an idea of what trailer music is like, we shouldn't be emulating some of the explosive percussion moments which can often be timed to match particular images in the video?


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## Jaap

zacnelson said:


> Is it true that a lot of the big drum hits and crashes in trailer soundtracks are actually edited in later by the video editors, and they are not part of the original composition? So when we watch trailers to get an idea of what trailer music is like, we shouldn't be emulating some of the explosive percussion moments which can often be timed to match particular images in the video?



Yup true, they are more often then not editted in by later and it is very advised to NOT add to much sound design (explosives and the likes) in your composition or at least make sure that they can be seperated easily, but better to leave it out.
I think I saw in an interview an editor mentioning once that a cue sheet for a trailer sometimes consists over 200 elements. All those different hits and rises and effects that are licensed and been put in on top of the trailer composition. Which also is often a mix of 3 or 4 different trailer tracks.


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## SillyMidOn

zacnelson said:


> Is it true that a lot of the big drum hits and crashes in trailer soundtracks are actually edited in later by the video editors, and they are not part of the original composition? So when we watch trailers to get an idea of what trailer music is like, we shouldn't be emulating some of the explosive percussion moments which can often be timed to match particular images in the video?


Yes and No. You still want to include big hits and crashes in your composition, but editors will chop up pieces, splice bits, add hits and risers and whooshes where they need them. As they will be working from stems, they can basically ignore your hits stems and do their own thing if they want to.


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## SillyMidOn

Puzzlefactory said:


> Ok, thanks for the info.
> 
> I didn't realise you would separate everything out so much for stems. I thought maybe one stem per "family" of instruments. I didn't realise you would separate the pitches of the families too.
> 
> As a rule of thumb, how many stems would be normal to send to a video editor for a typical track?


Depends on the client. Some don't like more than 10, which means you then sometimes get an email asking you to split out a stem further if need be. The list @Jaap gives is very good, though I personally tend to stem things slightly differently. The thing to do is to ask what the publisher/client wants, as they, in my experience, seem to have slightly different requirements from each other.


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## SillyMidOn

Sean_Gouws said:


> When being more Unique and trying your own style, will that hurt your chances of getting placements?


Depends who you work for. Some people are looking for unique, some stick slavishly to tried and tested formulas. Both will be convinced their way is the best way. The same can be applied to a lot of other sectors of the music industry as well, though. Ultimately you need to find the people you can gel with. 

If you come up with something cool where a music supervisor or editor will go "wow that's a cool idea/sound" then that is good.


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## Puzzlefactory

Well, it's all certainly food for thought. That's a lot of stems, a lot more than I would expect.

So (going back to structure), is it even worth following the "three (five) act structure"? Or are you just as likely getting a placement if you followed a AABA or ABCA etc etc, structure?


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## Jaap

Keep an eye out on this channel. You can hear from a lot of trailer libraries (not all, but a lot) the actual songs that got placed and if you read in the description you can also find a link to the actual trailer and hear what is used. Study this and make up your own plan on what you can do and cannot.
Analysing this kind of material helps the best. There are rules, but as much rules there are as much exceptions can be found. What is the rule today can be a no go tomorrow and the other way around.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZSuaz-H_XnUNeDUbyzQivA


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## rJames

Thinking about stems in a thread about "trailer structure," is like thinking about Fed Ex in a thread about making widgets. You'll need to worry about stems way after someone wants to hire you to write music for them. Its good info so that you structure your project in a way that facilitates delivery though. 
Forgive me if I am wrong, but this detail of delivery is so that the production company can mix your cue to their exacting professional standards. At the point where you deliver stems, you are not delivering stems for (video) editors.
Good edit points. The whole business of writing music for picture without seeing the picture IS the magic of a successful production music composer. Its all a big guess. Will what you write still be in style next year when it gets to market? Will the editor need sparse giant hits with a lot of atmosphere? Will they need hits, stings, transitions?
I think the key is flexibility. IMHO the 3 acts is just to give you 3 chances at a license. 95% of the time, the editor has cut away from your cue after :30.
My music is probably not as successful as some of the guys giving advice here. So, take what I say with a grain of salt...always a good idea. What works for one person may not work for another.
Listen to a lot of trailers with this in mind; did the editor do this or did the composer do this? It can be hard to tell.
I've heard of situations where the editor cut the music bar by bar to create a different chord progression. They will certainly repeat a phrase if you didn't write it and they love your piece.
Sometimes I think, "will this musical thing that I just wrote actually KILL this cue for an editor?" As a writer, I like interesting, creative, innovative, unique, as an editor, they want the edit to work. Don't care how ingenious the music is.
Its a balance of "good edit points," "hits," "stings," "stops," with continuity, flow.
You've read it time and time again here at VI, "my simplest, stupidest, laziest cue makes me the most money."
Your biggest hurdle is to figure out how to self-criticize. What you just wrote is great, otherwise why would you have written it. But, maybe not. You are writing music to picture and you don't know what the picture is!!
Its a balance of your vision, continuity, edit points, flexiblity...


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## NoamL

Again a bit of confusion here I think, because we're actually talking about two things, *subs* and *stems*.

A *sub* is like a variant of your track's master, aimed for a different use case. Submixes are not breakouts of your track (that is, a particular instrument can appear in multiple submixes if appropriate). The three most common are:

*PERC*, a percussion-only submix;
*AMB*, a submix that isolates your ambiences, drones, spaces, wooshes, revs, etc;
and *LIGHT *(or *UNDER*), a submix that focuses on light tension that sits comfortably in a background, underscore role. It depends on the track but usually this means muting the brass, some of the low perc, any epic sound design elements, etc. Whatever it takes to bring the whole track down a few notches while still sounding complete.
I only have a few TV library tracks out there, but I've seen that delivering quality submixes increases your placements by a lot. It's basically about making your track work in multiple different scenarios where a music editor just wants to drag and drop a track into their TV show and call it a day.

*Stems* are a whole different animal. The stems are for the music editors & dub stage engineers working on your track in a foreground, highlighted role. To deliver quality stems, therefore, keep in mind the three main operations that are performed on a track to put it in a finished product. These are ducking, abridging and arranging.

*Ducking:* even the most epic track still takes third fiddle to dialogue and sfx. When there's not enough level to go around, the editor can either duck your entire track or they can duck specific stems severely while ducking the rest only mildly or not at all. So you want to be delivering stems divided up into frequency ranges. If you can deliver unlimited stems I'd go with a Hi/Lo breakout for strings, Hi/Mid/Low for brass and the same plus Sub for perc. Anything that peaks out of your track hugely needs to be isolated or else the editor will have no choice but to pump whatever audio you've grouped with it.
*Abridging:* This involves jump-cutting from one bar to another later in the composition. So think logically... first, any element that spans multiple bars and is difficult to jumpcut needs to be isolated (e.g. wooshes, risers, choir especially) so that the editor can either leave out that element entirely or create a jigsaw cut. Melodies and lead lines can be abridged, but only if you isolate them in "Longs" stems and put all the spicc/stacc articulations in "Short" stems. So this is another dimension of breaking out your stems, hence you will often need 3 or 4 total string stems (Hi Short, Hi Long, Low Short, Low Long).
*Arranging:* a major reason why trailer music is divided into "acts" is often trailers use acts glued together from different tracks. To make sure an editor can actually isolate one of your acts, usually you need to isolate elements that echo out at the end of an act (Booms) from those that ramp up into the next act (Wooshes, Revs, Risers).


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## SillyMidOn

rJames said:


> Forgive me if I am wrong, but this detail of delivery is so that the production company can mix your cue to their exacting professional standards. At the point where you deliver stems, you are not delivering stems for (video) editors.


Most of what you say in your post is broadly correct, but this section is, I'm afraid, incorrect. Sure, there are trailer albums with long lead-in times where the library producing the album may well use the stems to create a finished mix, but you will still usually have to hand in a full mix anyway. However, the stems are absolutely crucial for the music editor in ways that @NoamL has very succinctly outlined. The other thing to note is that if you are doing custom cues, there is often very little time at all (8 hours usually), so there is no time to send off your track to be mixed by someone, and then mastered by someone different altogether, you simply have to do those jobs yourself, and do them quickly.


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## rJames

SillyMidOn said:


> Most of what you say in your post is broadly correct, but this section is, I'm afraid, incorrect. Sure, there are trailer albums with long lead-in times where the library producing the album may well use the stems to create a finished mix, but you will still usually have to hand in a full mix anyway. However, the stems are absolutely crucial for the music editor in ways that @NoamL has very succinctly outlined. The other thing to note is that if you are doing custom cues, there is often very little time at all (8 hours usually), so there is no time to send of your track to be mixed by someone, and then mastered by someone different altogether, you simply have to do those jobs yourself, and do them quickly.


I asked you to forgive me if I was wrong... (but my point was that if you are asking, Trailer Music Structure, is there truly a consensus, you probably don't need to worry about stems or custom cues for that matter)
On the bright side, if you get into the business directly by doing custom epic cues for trailer houses, you'll need to know these things.


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## Replicant

NoamL said:


> Again a bit of confusion here I think, because we're actually talking about two things, *subs* and *stems*.
> 
> A *sub* is like a variant of your track's master, aimed for a different use case. Submixes are not breakouts of your track (that is, a particular instrument can appear in multiple submixes if appropriate). The three most common are:
> 
> *PERC*, a percussion-only submix;
> *AMB*, a submix that isolates your ambiences, drones, spaces, wooshes, revs, etc;
> and *LIGHT *(or *UNDER*), a submix that focuses on light tension that sits comfortably in a background, underscore role. It depends on the track but usually this means muting the brass, some of the low perc, any epic sound design elements, etc. Whatever it takes to bring the whole track down a few notches while still sounding complete.
> I only have a few TV library tracks out there, but I've seen that delivering quality submixes increases your placements by a lot. It's basically about making your track work in multiple different scenarios where a music editor just wants to drag and drop a track into their TV show and call it a day.
> 
> *Stems* are a whole different animal. The stems are for the music editors & dub stage engineers working on your track in a foreground, highlighted role. To deliver quality stems, therefore, keep in mind the three main operations that are performed on a track to put it in a finished product. These are ducking, abridging and arranging.
> 
> *Ducking:* even the most epic track still takes third fiddle to dialogue and sfx. When there's not enough level to go around, the editor can either duck your entire track or they can duck specific stems severely while ducking the rest only mildly or not at all. So you want to be delivering stems divided up into frequency ranges. If you can deliver unlimited stems I'd go with a Hi/Lo breakout for strings, Hi/Mid/Low for brass and the same plus Sub for perc. Anything that peaks out of your track hugely needs to be isolated or else the editor will have no choice but to pump whatever audio you've grouped with it.
> *Abridging:* This involves jump-cutting from one bar to another later in the composition. So think logically... first, any element that spans multiple bars and is difficult to jumpcut needs to be isolated (e.g. wooshes, risers, choir especially) so that the editor can either leave out that element entirely or create a jigsaw cut. Melodies and lead lines can be abridged, but only if you isolate them in "Longs" stems and put all the spicc/stacc articulations in "Short" stems. So this is another dimension of breaking out your stems, hence you will often need 3 or 4 total string stems (Hi Short, Hi Long, Low Short, Low Long).
> *Arranging:* a major reason why trailer music is divided into "acts" is often trailers use acts glued together from different tracks. To make sure an editor can actually isolate one of your acts, usually you need to isolate elements that echo out at the end of an act (Booms) from those that ramp up into the next act (Wooshes, Revs, Risers).



I'm glad I started this thread because I think it's quickly become the most detailed, informative thread I've seen regarding trailer music lol.

In regards to stems and submixes, would you recommend including reverb and delay tracks separately as well?


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## reddognoyz

mysterioso intro low distant boomer soooo ominious with swirling arp stuff and little zingers whoooooooooosh!!!!suction noise to silence. pregnant pause Mayham!!!! BLAM chug chug chug chug Smash!!! chug chug chug chug BOOMGlasseverywhere chug chug chug chug rizer below Chugging faster FASTER rizer higher higher.....WiLL....NEVER....BE....THE........!!!!, Shoooooooooommm (fattest Drop ever) SAME!!!!......ANother even lower ever more ominious boomer on title....you think it's over then OMG ITS A GIANT DINOBOT AND HE"S SCREAMING REALLY REALLY LOUD!!!!!!!!! then Tide commercial 

: ) 

this might be a vast oversimplication, but it was kinda fun, I'd actually love to do a trailer....I've done a couple of book trailers wich were pretty cheesy and paid crap, but super fun because they were always supernatural and dramatic and had no talking just titles.


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## Greg

Trailer music will always be "conflicting." Just remember there are no rules. Focus your energy on the drama and style of the cue, that will catch editors ears more than anything else. I would ignore typical "trailer music" as much as possible. Watch trailers and dream up your own 3 minute scores for an emotion or style of movie.

By the time something becomes "gospel" editors are likely swamped with that type of cue and getting sick of that style.


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## Jaap

NoamL said:


> Again a bit of confusion here I think, because we're actually talking about two things, *subs* and *stems*.
> 
> A *sub* is like a variant of your track's master, aimed for a different use case. Submixes are not breakouts of your track (that is, a particular instrument can appear in multiple submixes if appropriate). The three most common are:
> 
> *PERC*, a percussion-only submix;
> *AMB*, a submix that isolates your ambiences, drones, spaces, wooshes, revs, etc;
> and *LIGHT *(or *UNDER*), a submix that focuses on light tension that sits comfortably in a background, underscore role. It depends on the track but usually this means muting the brass, some of the low perc, any epic sound design elements, etc. Whatever it takes to bring the whole track down a few notches while still sounding complete.
> I only have a few TV library tracks out there, but I've seen that delivering quality submixes increases your placements by a lot. It's basically about making your track work in multiple different scenarios where a music editor just wants to drag and drop a track into their TV show and call it a day.
> 
> *Stems* are a whole different animal. The stems are for the music editors & dub stage engineers working on your track in a foreground, highlighted role. To deliver quality stems, therefore, keep in mind the three main operations that are performed on a track to put it in a finished product. These are ducking, abridging and arranging.
> 
> *Ducking:* even the most epic track still takes third fiddle to dialogue and sfx. When there's not enough level to go around, the editor can either duck your entire track or they can duck specific stems severely while ducking the rest only mildly or not at all. So you want to be delivering stems divided up into frequency ranges. If you can deliver unlimited stems I'd go with a Hi/Lo breakout for strings, Hi/Mid/Low for brass and the same plus Sub for perc. Anything that peaks out of your track hugely needs to be isolated or else the editor will have no choice but to pump whatever audio you've grouped with it.
> *Abridging:* This involves jump-cutting from one bar to another later in the composition. So think logically... first, any element that spans multiple bars and is difficult to jumpcut needs to be isolated (e.g. wooshes, risers, choir especially) so that the editor can either leave out that element entirely or create a jigsaw cut. Melodies and lead lines can be abridged, but only if you isolate them in "Longs" stems and put all the spicc/stacc articulations in "Short" stems. So this is another dimension of breaking out your stems, hence you will often need 3 or 4 total string stems (Hi Short, Hi Long, Low Short, Low Long).
> *Arranging:* a major reason why trailer music is divided into "acts" is often trailers use acts glued together from different tracks. To make sure an editor can actually isolate one of your acts, usually you need to isolate elements that echo out at the end of an act (Booms) from those that ramp up into the next act (Wooshes, Revs, Risers).



Very true and good to mention it 

The reason I mentioned stems already in this process is because it is in my opinion smart to keep things in mind already when composing and how your piece can be deconstructed and reconstructed again and as soon as those things become a second nature you can just focus on writing good music


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## SillyMidOn

rJames said:


> I asked you to forgive me if I was wrong... (but my point was that if you are asking, Trailer Music Structure, is there truly a consensus, you probably don't need to worry about stems or custom cues for that matter)
> On the bright side, if you get into the business directly by doing custom epic cues for trailer houses, you'll need to know these things.


Haha, no need to forgive anyone, it's all good.


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## Sean_Gouws

Replicant said:


> I'm glad I started this thread because I think it's quickly become the most detailed, informative thread I've seen regarding trailer music lol



I am also super happy that you started it as well. It has been very interesting and very informative.  
Yes, there is a wealth of knowledge out there on the Interwebz but I feel that there is a lot of grey area as well which can cause a lot of confusion.


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## Puzzlefactory

I've been listening to a lot of Colossal Trailer Musics public albums recently.

To me they seem pretty good examples of how to structure Hybrid tracks.


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## Sean_Gouws

Puzzlefactory said:


> I've been listening to a lot of Colossal Trailer Musics public albums recently.
> 
> To me they seem pretty good examples of how to structure Hybrid tracks.


They really are. Check out the Album cryogenesis for hybrid orchestral and if you into darker more epic sound design stuff then check out their album pandemic


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## Chris D

Although production value definitely needs to be up there, I've learnt recently just how important unique samples are to a trailer track, whether thats mashing up a sample from a library until its character has completely changed or investing in a cheap (or expensive) mic and going round recording anything you can find. 

Record your cat meowing or dog barking then put it into a sampler and arpeggiate, distort and modulate it until its a synth sound. It's yours and you know no one else has it. 

Some of the pros out there have mentioned that although the editors hadn't liked a particular track, it was chosen cause they hadnt heard those particular "whooshes" or "risers" before.


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## Puzzlefactory

Funnily enough I was thinking (only yesterday) of getting one of those portable Zoom recorders and a couple of drum sticks/beaters to carry around with me for spontaneous sampling on the go.


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## dannymc

> Record your cat meowing or dog barking then put it into a sampler and arpeggiate, distort and modulate it until its a synth sound. It's yours and you know no one else has it.



ha ha i love this. i just have this image of you chasing your cat around the house with a microphone 

Danny


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## thov72

dannymc said:


> ha ha i love this. i just have this image of you chasing your cat around the house with a microphone
> 
> Danny


hmmm, with the drumsticks???


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## mverta

I either edited, did the motion graphics, music, or mixed (often most of it) the trailers for the following films:

_You've Got Mail, Practical Magic, Soldier, Analyze This, The Matrix, Lost & Found, Deep Blue Sea, House on Haunted Hill, Pokemon: The First Movie, Any Given Sunday, The Perfect Storm, Pokemon: The Movie 2000, Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport, Red Planet, Miss Congeniality, Valentine, Pokemon 3: The Movie, Driven, Swordfish, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Cats & Dogs, Osmosis Jones, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Ocean's Eleven, The Majestic, Queen of the Damned, Murder by Numbers, Scooby-Doo, The Powerpuff Girls Movie, The Adventures of Pluto Nash, Two Weeks Notice, Blue Collar Comedy Tour: The Movie, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Catwoman, Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang _and_ Superman Returns, _plus about a thousand television commercial versions before I couldn't take it anymore.

When I began, there was no "trailer structure." We edited unique things, and wrote unique music to fit them. But during those years, a couple of templates just sort of emerged and we steadily honed them into the cookie-cutter templates still used today. I'm as guilty as anyone of having created this stupid, idiotic beast and I apologize. Hanging on a wall in a WB executive-who-shall-remain-nameless's office is a framed, scribbled sketch of what the typical trailer's emotional/edit curve looks like. It was given as a joke gift, but it's not that funny in hindsight.

When I started, trailers were cut to cues from pre-existing films, and it was extremely rare to be pulling from anything else. Slowly, editors just began using the same handful of cues for all trailers. Then a couple of "trailer libraries" emerged which sounded like the usual cues editors were using; everything was homogenizing into a single pre-configured template. Within about 7 years of this ceaseless distillation, the gene pool had become so incestuous and deformed that it was now producing its own mutant offspring, the "trailer music industry," which is still dutifully spitting out the same couple of pieces over and over and over and over again. But we've added a quiet piano to the mix, now, which is swell.

Anyway, history-buffs, that's the story so far.

I, for one, am glad any time there is a chance for composers to make some money writing music, because God knows the life ain't easy. So here's to mutants everywhere!

Now get to those bass drops, risers, and post-credit buttons! 

_Mike


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## dcoscina

One of the most inspired use of music in a recent trailer was for US remake of Godzilla a few years back. I think it was actually the teaser and featured Ligeti's Requiem as well as soundbytes from Oppenheimer. The film was a complete dud IMO but that first teaser was brilliant. So much the antithesis of modern approach to film trailers with the blasting orchestra, choir and drums....sigh.


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## NoamL

You're gonna hate the project I'm working on Mike! 

I've collected several hundred post-2013 trailer style tracks from different composers and I'm breaking each of them down (chord progressions etc) to try to see what the common harmonic language is. It honestly should be fascinating to everyone here - we have such well developed theories of harmony to address the fields of classical music, jazz and songwriting but almost nobody has rigorously studied and produced theory about "trailer" / "hybrid" / "cinematic" / whatever, even though it has its own distinct musical style. Its creators (including you) have nothing to apologize for...

You're right that it's an extremely limited universe... I wouldn't call it "incestuous and deformed" though. The defining limitation, as I see it, is there are almost no applied dominants in trailer music and no chromaticism / jazz harmony of any kind really... at best there are some suspensions and some add2 chords occasionally, but these don't change the chord quality... so when you only have 22 "planets" in the universe to visit (the 11 major and 11 minor chords other than your key) it breeds a modicum of creativity especially when you have to actively _avoid_ anything that would sound too functional (I ii V, I IV V, etc). There are a lot of Cm Eb Bb F tracks out there for sure, but there's also tracks that make the most of the fringes of that universe. For example Cm BM means nothing functionally, but after a certain composer showed off how cool it is (  ) everyone started using it...

Where I would call the trailer music world "incestuous" is in the production style not the composition aspects. There are basically 5 or 6 "progenitor" tracks and everyone is ripping them off or splicing their DNA to create hybrids. For example nearly all the lush, blossoming, downtempo trailer tracks have "Adagio In D" in their family tree. It's the same with a lot of other tracks, you can see how they "trace back" to O Fortuna, or Lux Aeterna, or In The House In A Heartbeat, or Mind Heist, or Pompeii.


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## Greg

The Revenant trailer used John Luther Adams.. I hope that one creates a family tree


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## Puzzlefactory

Sean_Gouws said:


> They really are. Check out the Album cryogenesis for hybrid orchestral and if you into darker more epic sound design stuff then check out their album pandemic



Yeah I've been listening to Cryogenesis (although it seems more sound design than orchestral too me) also been listineng to Equilibrium and Evolution which are very similar albums.

I'll check out pandemic when I have a chance.


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## Puzzlefactory

mverta said:


> I either edited, did the motion graphics, music, or mixed (often most of it) the trailers for the following films:
> 
> _You've Got Mail, Practical Magic, Soldier, Analyze This, The Matrix, Lost & Found, Deep Blue Sea, House on Haunted Hill, Pokemon: The First Movie, Any Given Sunday, The Perfect Storm, Pokemon: The Movie 2000, Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport, Red Planet, Miss Congeniality, Valentine, Pokemon 3: The Movie, Driven, Swordfish, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Cats & Dogs, Osmosis Jones, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Ocean's Eleven, The Majestic, Queen of the Damned, Murder by Numbers, Scooby-Doo, The Powerpuff Girls Movie, The Adventures of Pluto Nash, Two Weeks Notice, Blue Collar Comedy Tour: The Movie, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Catwoman, Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang _and_ Superman Returns, _plus about a thousand television commercial versions before I couldn't take it anymore.
> 
> When I began, there was no "trailer structure." We edited unique things, and wrote unique music to fit them. But during those years, a couple of templates just sort of emerged and we steadily honed them into the cookie-cutter templates still used today. I'm as guilty as anyone of having created this stupid, idiotic beast and I apologize. Hanging on a wall in a WB executive-who-shall-remain-nameless's office is a framed, scribbled sketch of what the typical trailer's emotional/edit curve looks like. It was given as a joke gift, but it's not that funny in hindsight.
> 
> When I started, trailers were cut to cues from pre-existing films, and it was extremely rare to be pulling from anything else. Slowly, editors just began using the same handful of cues for all trailers. Then a couple of "trailer libraries" emerged which sounded like the usual cues editors were using; everything was homogenizing into a single pre-configured template. Within about 7 years of this ceaseless distillation, the gene pool had become so incestuous and deformed that it was now producing its own mutant offspring, the "trailer music industry," which is still dutifully spitting out the same couple of pieces over and over and over and over again. But we've added a quiet piano to the mix, now, which is swell.
> 
> Anyway, history-buffs, that's the story so far.
> 
> I, for one, am glad any time there is a chance for composers to make some money writing music, because God knows the life ain't easy. So here's to mutants everywhere!
> 
> Now get to those bass drops, risers, and post-credit buttons!
> 
> _Mike




Personally I quite like modern Trailer Music for several reasons.

It gives people like myself (with no real classical music training) from a dance music background, an opportunity to get their feet wet with orchestral/Cinematic/film music. 

It's also nice mixing modern dance music sound design techniques with more traditional orchestral sounds (a lot of the weird little sounds are very similar to a genre of music called Neurofunk).

I also find it a lot of fun writing "epic" stuff that seems to be eternally "building up". 

And last but not least, I actually enjoy listening to this music. I've been listening to nothing but TSFH, Tom Player and Colossal Muisc on my iPhone for months now and I really like it. I think it could easily become a genre of music in its own right, separate from cues for movie trailers.


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## dannymc

> I think it could easily become a genre of music in its own right, separate from cues for movie trailers.



i think it already has but it just hasn't gone main stream yet and i'm not sure if it ever will. a part of me kinda hopes it never does. there is something nice about the fact that the mainstream media don't try make this style into the next pop music. kinda reminds me of when i played trance music as a dj in the mid 90's, i enjoyed it was underground and had a passionate following. i kinda felt a bit sad that it went mainstream in the year of trance 1999 and the following years. interesting enough it would be another 13 or 14 years before it broke through in the states with dj's such as Tiesto, Calvin Harris and Armin. 

Danny


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## Epicomposer

There absolutely _is_ a given structure in trailer music, however, how you fill it out as a composer is largely up to you. You definitely have to separate between TV trailer music and trailers tailored for cinema, since they usually differ quite drastically in structure and length. Nevertheless, TV trailers mostly include bits (30s) of the final part of a regular 2-3min trailer track. Regarding current trailer music trends, I think the key is to walk the rope between sticking to established genre conventions and breaking those exact rules in order to create something interesting.


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## dannymc

the way i see it is that trailer music is kinda like been presented a house with certain shaped rooms. the way one goes about decorating those individual rooms is entirely down to the creativity of the individual composer. 

Danny


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## Puzzlefactory

Interesting take on a Trailer track. Big epic hits and build up, mixed with cheesy porn music.


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## ctsai89

Puzzlefactory said:


> Interesting take on a Trailer track. Big epic hits and build up, mixed with cheesy porn music.




lololol nice

but those trailer hits are played in ways a drum set can do. Just sounds bigger. It's not really "epic" to me, rather an augmented version of a pop drum set.


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## JVitolins

ctsai89 said:


> lololol nice
> 
> but those trailer hits are played in ways a drum set can do. Just sounds bigger. It's not really "epic" to me, rather an augmented version of a pop drum set.


That's what trailer music essentially is. It's just pop/rock/dance music where the native instrumentation is swapped with orchestral.


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## Flaneurette

The structure is already there in the edits, done by the editors. Btw, editors are visual/graphic composers. They actually did the heavy lifting for you. A composer has to understand what the editor tries to achieve, and follow along. If you play happy flutes beneath an intense explosion scene, you're not following what the editor is trying to achieve in the viewer's mind. It doesn't work. The editor hands you the structure on a silver plate. If you follow it, you're good. The creative freedom lies in your sound palette.


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## Puzzlefactory

I was under the impression that the editor made the trailer to follow the track, rather than the composer following the edit...?


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## Jaap

Puzzlefactory said:


> I was under the impression that the editor made the trailer to follow the track, rather than the composer following the edit...?



Music (and sound design) is not the start of a trailer editor. Often they have already a cut or setup before the audio is brought in. Every trailer house has it's own protocol of course, but this more standard.
Also a lot of trailers feature a lot of different tracks from different composers. It is a puzzle (no pun intended btw on your name) with all the different tracks and sound design stuff. I read a few months ago an article where an editor said he sometimes has to fill in 200 cue sheets for all the different materials he used (not all music tracks of course, but for all the licensed sound effects etc).


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## jaketanner

I read through this thread, and forgive me if I missed it, but one question I have is...at what times, (provided we are following a structure of sorts), do the changes of the "acts", need to be? intro..30sec? climax 1 comes in at when? then so on...or is the timing just left to the editor to shorten the sections, so in essence, we write them longer? I come from a pop background..and for me personally, long intros are Taboo and I hate them. Get to the point and the hook quickly; is this something that should be adhered to for trailers as well? Thanks for the input.


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## rJames

jaketanner said:


> I read through this thread, and forgive me if I missed it, but one question I have is...at what times, (provided we are following a structure of sorts), do the changes of the "acts", need to be? intro..30sec? climax 1 comes in at when? then so on...or is the timing just left to the editor to shorten the sections, so in essence, we write them longer? I come from a pop background..and for me personally, long intros are Taboo and I hate them. Get to the point and the hook quickly; is this something that should be adhered to for trailers as well? Thanks for the input.


Hi Jake, no one has responded to your question yet so let me give it a go. I think I've said something similar somewhere in this thread. 
IMHO there are no specific timings. I'm sure that some people will chime in with their guidelines though. 
The point is to make your cue work, make it dynamic, make it "speak" to the editor or music supervisor. 
Different movies and genres will need different length sections. Make it work I.e. Tell a story; have edit points; etc. 
you want your cue to work in a 5 sec intro. Or a :30 intro. With a :30 back end or a minute back end. It needs to be flexible and yet I could also say that an editor would love it if he tried it and it just worked to the end.


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## jaketanner

@rJames , thanks for the insight. Makes sense...gonna try a few different things story wise and see what works. 

Thanks again,
Jake


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## rJames

jaketanner said:


> @rJames , thanks for the insight. Makes sense...gonna try a few different things story wise and see what works.
> 
> Thanks again,
> Jake


Be careful about "story" though. I think the word, "story," and "dynamics," can almost be interchangeable in this context. 
You want your cue to be "perfect" for a thousand different trailers. So, your story can't be too specific... and yet it needs to be perfect as the editor or music sup hears it while they are contemplating their cut.
That's why so many trailers are purely percussion or Fx. They help to hit dynamics and move a story along but are vanilla in specific flavor.
And don't think because you've heard a bunch of really, really simple trailer scores, that you can get away with that. It has to be more awesome, even though simple, vanilla and dynamic.
Ron


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## jaketanner

rJames said:


> Be careful about "story" though. I think the word, "story," and "dynamics," can almost be interchangeable in this context.
> You want your cue to be "perfect" for a thousand different trailers. So, your story can't be too specific... and yet it needs to be perfect as the editor or music sup hears it while they are contemplating their cut.
> That's why so many trailers are purely percussion or Fx. They help to hit dynamics and move a story along but are vanilla in specific flavor.
> And don't think because you've heard a bunch of really, really simple trailer scores, that you can get away with that. It has to be more awesome, even though simple, vanilla and dynamic.
> Ron



Thanks for the clarification. I can't wait to dive right in...been going through tons of sounds getting a template together. 

Do you think it's wise to take a few trailers and remove the audio just to get structure down?


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## rJames

jaketanner said:


> Thanks for the clarification. I can't wait to dive right in...been going through tons of sounds getting a template together.
> 
> Do you think it's wise to take a few trailers and remove the audio just to get structure down?



Yes and No. 
Analyze them with audio first. (I guess that goes without saying). Pick your genre of movie. grab 4 or 5. Time the sections. It might not break down along the lines we've all been talking about. I think about the 3 acts like this:
Act 1 = set the scene, Horror; a lovely family has just bought a new home in 1960 Massachusetts. Epic; there is a lovely little shire where elf-like people live a harmonious lifestyle in the middle ages.
Act 2 = something different is beginning to happen. Horror; strange things are happening in the house and our 11 yr old daughter is acting strange. Epic; a group of (full size) soldiers gather at a local home and talk about a new danger in the country.
Act 3 = the end of the world is coming soon, run for your lives. Horror; the little girl is possessed, chops her brothers head off, sends mommy and daddy into a car accident, and may set fire to the entire town. Epic; a wizard more powerful that any other lights up the sky with blood and threatens humanity.

Time those sections; see how they use music and how they use the sudden lack of music, how they use Fx, percussion...

And sure, try to score them. Or maybe you have it right, try to score some without analyzing the music first so you don't follow what some other composer did.


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## jaketanner

@rJames , that's great detail...thanks for that. I'll probably end up doing both...making out a bunch of trailers in different genres and get an average length between acts...as well as try some blind, so I don't do what someone else did...although, I can always look at someone else's score as a "temp" track to another one..

Great advice...thanks again

Jake


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## Replicant

Great information keeps coming!

Anyway, building off why I started this thread, if anyone cares to check out the results of me listening to this advice sometime, I'll drop a link to my first attempt.

I greatly appreciate @rJames breakdown up there as well; that was epic.


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## Replicant

Just want to share with you guys what I believe is the greatest trailer of all time.


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## gsilbers

Replicant said:


> Just want to share with you guys what I believe is the greatest trailer of all time.




omg.. im going to hire the producers of that trailer..... and go fishing


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## FredericBernard

Replicant said:


> Just want to share with you guys what I believe is the greatest trailer of all time.




Wow, that's some good inspiration!!


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## patrick76

Replicant said:


> Just want to share with you guys what I believe is the greatest trailer of all time.



There are so many feelings evoked in this trailer that I never realized you were supposed to experience when fishing. My life is forever changed.


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## NoamL

WE NEED TO FISH DEEPER


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## Shad0wLandsUK

Replicant said:


> Just want to share with you guys what I believe is the greatest trailer of all time.



OK now I want to go fishing too :D

Madness

I love fishing anyway...but this trailer WOW....love the guitars and FX 

Given me some ideas


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## erica-grace

Are you guys being serious about that trailer, or sarcastic? I can't tell...


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## Smikes77

erica-grace said:


> Are you guys being serious about that trailer, or sarcastic? I can't tell...



Deadly serious. Why?


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## mac

That trailer makes me want to fish with a baseball bat \m/


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## novaburst

Trailer, cinematic, Epic, Hybrid As far as I am aware all have big drums massive builds massive endings all use synths horns, strings, So whats going on are we saying that all are the same genre of music or do they have different structures and methods are we just giving names or changing names of certain types of music.

They all sound similar and use similar textures so why the different names


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## Kubler

@novaburst I guess they'd be sub-genres more than entirely different genres each by itself. Like, there's Cinematic that sounds like the score of a good big popcorn movie, then that one part of Cinematic that is just bursts of blaring orchestra intended to go with a trailer, both of them are called Epic because the music goes wham-boom. Not sure what Hybrid would be though, maybe an indication that the rendition of the piece leans to non-orchestral genres.

But to be honest I'm still waiting to see a serious attempt to classify all of those, admitting this has any purpose. By "serious attempt", I mean anything else than the YouTube videos with titles like "EPIC CINEMATIC ORCHESTRAL TRAILER MUSIC" with an overladen flashy fantasy wallpaper.


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## novaburst

@Kubler I only came across the name trailer music when trailer brass was released, but other than that never heard of it, always known this type of music to be Cinematic or Soundtrack composition.

When I listen to trailer music I am not hearing much difference from Cinematic or a great Soundtrack put together infact each one can be named ether trailer or Cinematic or Soundtrack.

I guess you learn everyday @Kubler thanks for your expernation

I kind of hoping it is not the mainstream trying to claim this world of music and normalise it and fazing it into the everyday circular music.

Are we calling it trailer composition becuase it's being used behind a movie trailer or game trailers, or are we calling it trailer becuase of the type of composition it is.


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## Kubler

@novaburst That's more or less what I was trying to say. I suggested king of a way to know what is what but in practice, I doubt there is any difference between all of these in people's mind. And as I said, I personally don't really care about knowing what is what.


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## Perry

Jaap said:


> A copy from a mail conversation I had with Mark Petrie (who wrote many trailer tracks)
> 
> Here's the layout of a typical trailer track, as I see it:
> 
> *1st act *- mysterious, brooding, occasional hits ok
> SUDDEN BREAK or RAMP UP
> *2nd act *- energy, using *same ideas from opening* if possible, building bigger and bigger with every repeat of the 8 bar phrase
> SUDDEN BREAK, HUGE RISE
> *3rd act *- massive energy leading to a finale
> *Finale* - ridiculous ending, over-the-top repetition of hits etc - realm of the ridiculous
> SHORT BREAK FOR REVERB TAIL
> *Outro*, for 'coming soon' - a long fading held note or a gradually fading soft recap of the beginning


I found this Mark Petrie Composer.By surfing for Trailer music composers.He is Awesome.I can see him making lots of money.I just copied the acts.Thanks Perry


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