So: Now it’s time to start really submitting Book 1 to agents. As part of the process, I’ve got to whittle down the novel into a pitch (like a movie trailer) and a tag line (like a movie poster). So this got me thinking about what elements go into a good movie trailer and seeing if that translates to a good pitch. I remember some great movie trailers that ended up with even better movies; and some great trailers that far surpassed the movies they previewed.

Here are my top 5 movie trailers that previewed movies that exceeded or at least matched the expectations that the trailers created:

  1. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers: Awesome movie trailer—accompanied by an incredible soundtrack—that turned out to be an even awesomer movie) (awesomer really needs to be a real word).
  2. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (tied with Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King): Being a Lord of the Rings devotee (read the books at least a dozen times), I was filled with anticipation for these movies. I was blown away by the trailer, watched it religiously until the movie came out, and basically experienced spiritual enlightenment when I saw the movie. This occurred with all three movies in the trilogy.
  3. The Dark Knight: I have to admit, I think Christian Bale is Bruce Wayne. I liked the original Tim Burton movie alright (Nicholson was a great Joker); the second one was just weird, though (apologies to my youngest sister). I was impressed with Batman Begins, and had heard of the hype surrounding The Dark Knight. The trailer was good because it established the premise, and created questions in the viewer’s mind that you wanted answered. And the movie? Well, definitely the best movie of the year.
  4. The Matrix: I remember the first time I saw the trailer for The Matrix. Laurence Fishburne’s voiceover. Agent Smith’s declaration that human beings were the disease of our planet. And the question: what is the matrix? Brilliantly posed, but never answered. The trailer showed flashes of what made the movie great without revealing too much. Great trailer for an even greater movie.
  5. Gladiator: Again, a trailer that poses the question and premise in a very succinct and visually impressive way. By 30 seconds in, you know that there is a general who becomes a slave who becomes a gladiator who defies the emperor. And it’s presented in such a way that you want to know how it all happened and how it ends up.

Here are my top 5 awesome trailers that became HUGE disappointments in the movie.

  1. Star Wars: The Phantom Menace: You must have lived under a rock if you weren’t spiritually, emotionally, and just plain holistically moved by this trailer. The Star Wars theme, the shots of Liam Neeson as a Jedi and Ewan McGregor as Obi Wan Kenobi…even the kid Anakin didn’t seem all that bad. Then I saw the movie. Enough said.
  2. The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions: What can I say? The trailer for Revolutions upped the ante and returned a glimmer of hope to me that Revolutions would rise from the ashes of Reloaded. Nope. Such potential wasted. What made it worse was that the sequels took away everything mystical that gave gravitas to the first one. All of a sudden the faith of Morpheus is ruined and instead of a deeply spiritual man who believes in something greater that can’t be explained by the machines, the oracle is just a program, and the Matrix is god. What a letdown. And then Trinity and Neo die. While I appreciate dark, gritty reality, and heroic sacrifice, I am a bit of a sucker for happy endings. I prefer that the hero comes away having learned from their sacrifice, a better person preferably still alive [the notable exception being Gladiator, which was happy because Maximus is reunited with his family]. This was just over the top.
  3. Alien 3: not much to say about this one. Again, a trailer with loads of promise and potential. Especially since one of the main questions that the trailer doesn’t answer is what happened to Newt and Hicks? Oh. They’re gone before the opening credits finish rolling. In my world, this movie never happened and Ripley’s story ends after Aliens. Just like The Matrix trilogy really is just one movie for me. (As a side note, Alien Resurrection was worse than Alien 3. But I could tell that was coming with the trailer. How in the world do stories like these get told? Don’t the writers/studios realize that what made Alien and Aliens great wasn’t just the aliens scaring and eating people? The characters and triumph of the first two is what made them great. Man: if those movies can get made, my books can get published. Why am I wasting more of my life on these movies?)
  4. Mission to Mars: Speaking of life wasting, perhaps the trailer/movie disappointment list should be topped with this movie. The trailer was so visually compelling that I dragged my other sister to this movie. I had read some disappointing reviews but then I’d watch the trailer again and think that there was no way the movie could be that bad. Compelling, engrossing trailer, all star cast…it had to be great! As my sister reminded me over the holidays, “Do you realize that I can never reclaim those wasted 2 hours of my life? And it’s your fault!”
  5. I can’t go on after #4.

So my goal with the pitch for The Elarra Solstice Book 1 is to make a trailer so compelling that you (and a literary agent :)) want to read it. And then have the book deliver on that promise (which I think it does; I promise that this isn’t the Mission to Mars of epic sci fi novels).

So what do you think? What makes a good pitch? I’ll be posting samples over the next few weeks. Stay tuned!