Seeing as I'm a Vegas user, I figured I'd post this enquiry here...

When editing a trailer, does one select and cut all the footage they want, making the CUT perfect, then fit their desired music in with the cut? Or do they cut the footage according to the music's rhythm, resulting in perhaps not as nice a cut if they were to go with the former method?... Or hell, is there another way I'm overlooking? Or is the entire thing subjective anyway?

MS.

I've never had the fortunate option to need to make a trailer. My clients have commission me, know what they are getting and need it, like, YESTERDAY!

So, if you think my feedback is gonna be what you want - I'm SKYPED up now!

G

I would make the cut perfect, with the best bits of the film, but not all of the best bits to keep a few surprises. Then when you have those parts saved as clips, choose the audio you want, & arrange the clips to fit the audio, you want the best of both. The best trailers in my opinion are the 300 movie official trailers, so have a look at them for reference. Are you making a trailer for your film or just making one for youtube of an existing film with custom music?

I'm just having a fiddle, really. Trailer editing seems to be an artform of its very own, and I'm trying to understand the "formula", if there is one.

MS.

If you want a fiddle you could put a well cut trailer on your timeline and expand it to analyse what was done. There's quite a good one here.....
http://images.apple.com/movies/wb/th...lr1b_h640w.mov

Another approach is to preselect the good parts knowing that some will be dropped in the interest of the fitting. I've found that that approach works in the typical montages that I put at the end of the stuff that I edit. Not the same as a trailer but a similar concept.