Frame-by-frame on the craft of the cut.

Teardowns

The Hidden Three-Act Structure Inside Every Trailer

Watch enough trailers and you feel a rhythm you can't name — a strong open, a lull, a build, a cut to black. It's not coincidence. It's a blueprint.

Stella Splice

Teardowns

BRAAAM: The Noise That Ate Hollywood

One foghorn blast from a 2010 trailer colonised the next decade of movie marketing. Even the man who made it thinks it got out of hand.

Stella Splice

Teardowns

The Two-Second Silence That Sells the Whole Film

The loudest moment in a trailer is often the one with no sound at all. Here's how a deliberate beat of silence became the most powerful tool in the cutting room.

Stella Splice

Teardowns

Why the Trailer Never Uses the Real Song

That slow, eerie, minor-key cover of a song you know? It's a deliberate machine for making you feel something — and there are three reasons trailers reach for it.

Stella Splice