How to be a YouTube Movie Trailer Content Creator

There are thousands of movies and television shows being produced globally around the world every year. It is impossible for a single person to be able to watch all of them even the only ones coming from one’s own country. In the US alone for example the number of movies being produced annually reaches about a thousand yet there are only 365 days in a year.

Before the advent of the internet the usual way movies were advertised is through posters, tv ads and radio ads. Though they are still advertised in these mediums online movie advertisements have become media content themselves and are also being monetised.

There are online media companies not related to movie studios, television networks and streaming companies that make regular media content especially regarding movie studio production plans, which part an actor or actress is playing in an upcoming movie or just showing trailers of the upcoming movie if they are available.

The Income Could Be Good

This could be a good money making venture for online content producers. There are for example movie trailer channels in YouTube who have more than 1 million subscribers. For example a random search of “upcoming movies” on YouTube will show you many YouTube movie trailer channels with subscribers way more than 1 million.

According to one online source called contentcareer.com the average earnings of a YouTube channel with 1 million subscribers is $57,000. Of course there is no way to tell if this figure applies to all YouTube content creators. There are simply too many factors one has to consider regarding earning in YouTube.

For example there is the standard ad income when you partner with YouTube. There is also the affiliate income one can earn if they add links to the products they endorse. One could also do a lucrative sponsorship deal with a company and endorse the product of the company in their videos.

Before you however get so excited about earning good money online by creating movie trailer compilation and/or reviews one has to consider the fact that there are already many people doing this for a living and they are even company entities. The competition is tough for the providers of this online product.

Copyright

If you are planning to be an online movie trailer content producer do take note of one (1) important thing. The word is Copyright. It is the exclusive right given to the original creator of a literary product such as printed words, moving pictures and other works of art as well as the exclusive right to allow other to use their creation.

So you cannot just use a literary work of others without their permission. I am sure that most people are aware of copyright and Copyright Infringement. You would need a good understanding of the concept of Fair Use. You should consult legal experts who will tell you the intricacies of the fair use concept and how the law interprets it on a per case basis.

If you start producing online content using parts from copyrighted materials such as movie stills and clips you may be unlucky enough to get served with a DMCA notice. DMCA means Digital Millennium Copyright Act. This is a notice from the copyright owners which informs you that you are violating the copyright acts and you need to stop using their copyrighted property.

The obvious way to legally show movie trailers is to ask the permission of movie and television studios. One must establish a close connection with these entities especially with their marketing department. These entities already do their own online movie trailer content and would likely not entertain your request unless you can prove to them that sharing their trailers with you is worth it.

Be Creative with Your Products

If you ever manage to get the legal right to use movie trailers from the movie and television studios you can start by showing the trailer of one movie usually the most popular and anticipated ones or a compilation of trailers from movies. These movie compilations can be recycled by grouping them according to genres and showing them again online.

Most YouTube movie trailer videos I see are just the movie trailers themselves or compilations with no other media content like commentaries. This seems to be the most popular video presentation format for this kind of online media product.

Of course one can do additional media content besides showing movie trailers. One can branch out to reviewing movies both old and new. One can talk about the stars of a movie or how a particular scene in a movie was created. One can talk about the fact of the movie like production costs, any special locations used and so on.

Conclusion

Creating online movie trailer content can be a good source of revenue because people like watching movies and would like to be updated regularly about the new and good ones being produced. However one must take care not to get in trouble with copyright issues as well as being able to find steady sources for their movie trailer content.