The Independent Dramedy Trailer Equation

Making a movie is hard. Making a critically acclaimed movie is even harder. However, with just a few easy steps you, too, can make a movie trailer that critics will call, “Heartfelt,” “An Impressive Showing By [Lead Actor],” and, “A True Inspiration.” For all the attempts to put heart into eccentric yet “real” characters, the Independent Dramedy (Trailer) has become as formulaic as the movie (trailers) they’re supposed to be the alternative to. (*Cue Action Movie Trailer Zimmer Horns*)

Hire a Vaguely Recognizable Comic Actor

This is one of the biggest keys to the entire endeavor – hiring a vaguely recognizable comic actor that you can get for cheap. They can’t be too famous due to cost concerns, but they should be just famous enough that the general public recognizes their face, if not necessarily their name. Bonus points if it’s someone from Saturday Night Live (Kristin Wiig, Girl Most Likely, The Skeleton Twins; Bill Hader, The Skeleton Twins) or that you thought was on SNL (Ed Helms, Jeff Who Lives At Home; Jenny Slate, Obvious Child). This slot is also open to more recognizable female actors like Keira Knightley (Laggies) and Anna Kendrick (Happy Christmas) who have enough of a penchant for smaller films that their appearance doesn’t appear jarring or Oscar-baity. However, the most important aspect is that the audience must know the actor as likeable, because …

Don’t Just Make Them a Loser, Make Them The Biggest Loser Who Ever Lost

When presenting your protagonist, it’s especially important to give them no likeable traits. Unlike the Apatow-brand man-child whose biggest flaw seems to be loving life a little too much, your man/woman-children should have no joie de vivre. They should be a sad-sack, forlorn, despondent, morose, and all around miserable person. We should meet them at a low point in their already pathetic lives, and we should be able to completely understand why they’ve fallen so – they’re self-centered assholes without the decency of being sociopathically anti-social. The only reason we should have to sympathize with this person is that we’re already trained to like the actor based on previously liking them.

This also benefits the actor because it allows them to appear deep without actually being deep. Perpetually sullen is not the same as having layers, but it’ll sure look like it. It’s actually important that your funny person isn’t particularly funny in your movie (trailer), which they’ll be ok with (because, you know, acting range) since another component to these trailers is …

Taking the “-edy” out of Dramedy

It’s important to not put anything particularly funny in the trailer. Not a humorous situation. Not a clever line. Not a single, solitary laugh. After all, the comic actor is stretching his or her acting legs and the filmmaker is trying to show how heartfelt and humanistic he or she is, which comedy somehow belies. What is permissible: a deadpan look or expression (usually punctuated by the score dropping out) or a “cute” humanizing moment that might be genetically engineered to warm your cockles but won’t make you laugh. (I’m looking at you, lip sync moment in The Skeleton Twins.)

Of special note, quirkiness is okay because it is not actually funny (Kristin Wiig, Welcome to Me). Having a character be weird or “out there” is not humorous, but it does give you the benefit of utilizing the ridiculously common trope of TV-Brand Autism rather than creating a fully thought out character. This non-specific diagnosis allows one to write annoying and unlikeable characters that appear to see the world in a special and different way, but they’re only a bright spot because the world is populated with dreadfully boring other people. After all, these movies could qualify as…

Off-Brand Mumblecore

Mumblecore is a cinematic movement defined by Wikipedia as “a subgenre of independent film characterized by low budget production values and amateur actors, heavily focused on naturalistic dialogue.” This can be done well, as someone like Noah Baumbach has proven, by having something to say, or it can be an artistic excuse for, well, laziness might be too harsh a word, but if the sweatpants fit…

Is having low production values and practically zero style a statement or a gimmick? Who cares? Critics will love it anyway. Basic direction, muted colors, monotonous visuals (look, it’s a house in the suburbs!), and uninteresting situations (which I guess is preferred because real life is full of uninteresting situations?) are the building blocks to success. But don’t forget the flat, uninspired dialogue that is supposed to sound naturalistic but somehow sounds less human than actual conversations with real people. But to get full credit for self-aware mediocrity, remember…

When All Else Fails, Family

In almost all of these movies, there will be a family element since somehow that gives a movie instant credibility. It’s important to note that the whole family can’t be eccentric – they must be relatively normal as they try to bring the protagonist to adulthood … but that doesn’t mean they have everything together in their own lives!!! They, too, have troubles and must deal with their changing worlds, but they can navigate it a bit better because they’re slightly more mature. This angle works best with a sibling who understands and loves the protagonist, warts and all, and an in-law who is a bit hesitant about welcoming him or her into their lives. Marital problems are a plus. A baby is also a boon because it can be an easy way to generate drama and tension while providing the hackneyed symbolism of the main character also growing up. When the only thing you have to say is “family is important,” you can finally complete…

The Formula

A mostly comic actor playing a super depressed loser while exchanging uninspired dialogue in unexciting locations with family members + one or two “humanizing” moments + a crappy score = a trailer for the critically acclaimed independent dramedy.

While these movies are rarely overly commercially successful, they seem to be made on the cheap so they might turn a profit – but that’s not what you’re looking for. More importantly, they can have you hovering around the mid-80%s on Rotten Tomatoes, a respectable score for being middle of the road and mostly unmemorable. The quest for this sort of currency is far easier than producing a financially successful film. A base level of competency in the cast and crew and awareness of the template can easily send one actor on an acclaimed journey from long-term adolescent to quasi-adult. Unfortunately, as with any checklist-oriented film, the end result often feels hollow, no matter how many hugs the finished product has. However, if all you want is the red fruit rather than the green splatter, there’s probably no easier path towards credibility. Now finish it off with a list of film festivals and barrage of one-word critic quotes.