Do You Know Who Makes Movie Trailers?

A conversation with David Schumann who has edited trailers for Disney and Netflix among others

I love movie trailers. I know some people actively avoid them because they wish to see movies without knowledge of specific story beats, but for everyone else movie trailers serve a vital purpose. Movie trailers exist to sell a movie to an audience. While some projects have a built-in audience, others depend on the power of the all-mighty movie trailer to reach new eyeballs. Take for instance a film festival slate. Audiences are much more likely to buy tickets to something that has a movie trailer out already.

Movie trailers have become so synonymous with the marketing machine. Often you’ll see studios release a poster of a new movie and then a day later they’ll send out the trailer. The first glimpse that many people will see. When everyone was buying DVDs the one special feature on every disc you could count on was the trailer.

For how vital movie trailers on in the lifecycle of a movie, it’s strange that general audiences don’t know the artist who makes them. The argument is that the studio owns the footage used in the trailer and credit to the creatives who’ve made these short films (because frankly, that’s what movie trailers are) gets tossed aside. If you really want to have an understanding of who makes the trailers we watch, you have to go to LinkedIn where the creatives of different agencies post their latest work.

Companies like GrandSon Creative, Motive Creative, and The Crystal Creative are all agencies hired by the studios to create their trailers. While there are events like The Golden Trailers (which is about to open applications for 2025 shortly), that’s the end of honors for these pieces of art. I’d argue that they should be considered in the same breath as many Academy Award categories. If nothing else, more trailers should be shown during the Academy Awards. While it shouldn’t turn into what the Video Game Awards do (where they show wall-to-wall trailers and that becomes the only reason to watch), I’m an advocate for showing more love to the creatives who make the trailers we love. Below I’ve shared my interview with David Schumann who earlier this year worked on a trailer for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. I’ve also included some of my favorite trailers within so you can see some of the art and detail that goes into a great trailer.

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Max Covill: I feel like trailer creators don't get enough credit for the work they do, which is such an integral part of the marketing for movies.

David Schumann: Yeah, people really have no idea. There have been more articles and videos about it over the last few years, but people still don't know what it takes to put a trailer together. The amount of time, the chain of approvals—you've got to go through your producer, the studio client, the director, the head of the studio—it's a whole process.

MC: You work as a freelancer now. Did you make a lot of your contacts through your previous work on The Bachelor? Did that help you launch your business?

DS: No, not really. I was on staff at a company and learned to be a trailer editor around 2004—about 20 years ago. I worked at a small company and then spent 10 years on staff at Motion, [located] in LA from 2010 to 2020. When the pandemic hit in 2020, I was furloughed. I had a lot of contacts, one of whom worked on The Bachelor, and I was fortunate to transition into doing TV trailers during that time. Once theatrical trailers started ramping up again, I went back to freelance work.

MC: What excites you about the work that you do?

DS: You have to love editing. There’s so much competition, and maybe 95% of what you edit never sees the light of day. You don't just cut trailers—you do TV spots, behind-the-scenes pieces, sizzles, and montages. I originally went to film school to be a writer and director, but I fell in love with editing. It’s about finding creative ways to sell the movie. Sometimes the ideas hit, sometimes they don’t, but the challenge and creativity are what keep me going.

The thing about trailer editing is that there's the story of the movie, and then there's the story of the trailer. Sometimes they're the same, but most of the time they're not. In a trailer, you have to condense and simplify the story. There's a real sense of satisfaction in figuring out that puzzle. It’s rewarding when you finally put it together, but it’s also challenging—and overcoming that challenge is part of the satisfaction.

MC: Do you have free reign in the process, or do you get specific creative notes?

DS: It depends. Initially, you usually get free reign on the first version. But once you show something to the client, that’s when the notes start coming in. You need to be able to take feedback and make adjustments, all while maintaining the integrity of your trailer.

DS: When you have big studio movies, the risk is high, so you sometimes see more of the movie than you'd want because they want to showcase a big effects sequence. For example, Marvel will finish effects shots just for the trailer. Like in the Infinity War teaser, where they had all the characters running in slow motion toward the camera—that shot was made just for the trailer. At one point, a similar shot might have been in the movie because I worked on it and saw an earlier version.

But with smaller movies, there's not as much risk, so they can be more abstract, artistic, and experimental. I love both approaches, but the ultimate achievement is when you create a trailer that's both artistic and commercial, and the movie becomes a hit. That's the whole package.

For example, The Social Network trailer is a great standalone piece of art, but it also sells the movie and makes people want to see it, which they did. You've got the whole package there. If you make an artistic trailer for a movie that nobody sees, there's some satisfaction in that, but it's not everything. People often ask, "What's your favorite trailer?" I always say it's the one I did for Strange But True, a movie that maybe seven people saw. But for me, it was incredibly satisfying.

DS: If it’s a Christopher Nolan movie, for example, he doesn’t provide the entire film—he only gives parts of it, often not in chronological order. It’s all over the place, so even the trailer editors don’t fully know what the movie is. And if there are sequences or shots he doesn’t want to be revealed, he simply won’t provide them.

It also depends on which part of the process you're in. If you’re doing a teaser, they might just want to set up the world and tease a few shots toward the end. Teasers tend to be a little slower and shorter, while the full trailer dives more into the story. But it’s always a process.

The editor is usually given free rein for version one. Then, once you show it to the client, that’s when the notes start coming in. You have to figure out how to incorporate those notes while maintaining the integrity of the trailer. Sometimes that means changing the music, reworking an entire section, or trying a completely different approach. You need to know the movie inside and out to pull lines from various places and make it all fit together. It’s a process—it doesn’t all happen at once.

MC: Do you think trailer creation is more niche than feature or short film editing?

DS: It’s a different process. A trailer editor could probably edit a feature, but a feature editor might struggle to cut a trailer. Trailers are more about distilling a film into a concise, compelling story that sells the movie. I’ve loved trailers since I was a kid, recording them on VHS. There’s something about the music, the pacing, and the way they build excitement that hooked me early on.

MC: I agree. Some trailers from the past, like Alien or Wolf of Wall Street, are iconic.

DS: I think what's great about The Wolf of Wall Street is that I know the guys who worked on that trailer. They mentioned they had a different song almost locked in until the finish. Everyone loved the trailer, but then someone heard the Kanye song and said, "We’ve got to put that in." They decided to try a version of the trailer with that song, and once they did, it was perfect.

MC: Considering how many people watch movie trailers, no one knows who worked on it. They don’t even know who’s behind them.

DS: It's a funny thing because, even though there are trailer awards—two big ones every year—the awards go to the trailer companies. Ultimately, though, it's the studio's movie. It’s not even my trailer; it’s the studio's trailer that I just cut for them. I have a few awards that have my name on them, which is cool. If the trailer for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes wins a Golden Trailer Award, then the editor who cut it will go on stage to accept the award and thank all the producers involved.