Just as horror movies have become less formulaic and more experimental in recent years, so too have the teasers and trailers we use to sell them. Meet Patricio Hoter, the editor/producer behind some of the decade’s boldest horror trailers, as well as award-winning campaigns for prestige series like Watchmen, His Dark Materials, and Lovecraft Country. We recently sat down with Patricio for our series, Between Two Speakers, to talk trailers and trends. Read his interview below or listen to it here.
Can you talk about how the BOND model works when it comes to music and sound design?
There’s the old model where you put a request for something, whether it is for music or copy or graphics. You receive some form of what you requested, but there are many layers in between that you don’t get to participate in. But at Bond, we are very hands on.
In the case of music, we have Brian Murphy, who has really carved out something truly unique in his role as Director of Music at Bond. I can’t imagine being at a different place and working with a different music supervisor who isn’t Murph. Not only have I worked six years with him at Bond, but also four years at Ant Farm. I don’t even need to put words to what I’m looking for, because he just gets it at this point.
What does it take these days to cut a great horror trailer?
It needs to be unique. You have to keep an eye on what’s current and what’s rote. When we were working on Split or Insidious it was all about “plucks,” everyone was doing sound design that stemmed from 50’s horror. But The Third Day was a completely different campaign. It wasn’t supposed to be a tentpole, it was more abstract, almost indie. It had this weird culty island thing going on. So the question was, “What vibe do you give this so it doesn’t feel like it recycles Midsommar?” I’d go through older library cues on the server, while Brian would pull from his channels, and we’d meet in the middle. We found a piece of music that was so abstract, purely vocal-based. And we worked and worked on that piece and sort of built into it. Next thing we know we’ve finished the piece for the trailer, and there are library cues that are starting to reference our work on The Third Day. That’s what I mean by uniqueness. It’s all about creating something that’s not en vogue, but offsets expectations so well it becomes en vogue.
What do you think is en vogue right now in trailer music and sound?
We’re seeing a lot of orchestral stuff right now. Classical music with boosted hits, as a way to communicate “big” and “elegant.” For all the His Dark Materials campaigns, we went full classical from the very beginning. The footage is beautiful, it’s in Oxford, it’s begging for classical, but we couldn’t just do that. That would be too expected. So we found a violin piece, where the violinist is playing so fast it takes on this supernatural feeling, almost like the violinist is breaking every string as he’s playing. That became the signature piece. Every asset after that used a similar trope. Then for the trailer, we took that element and we injected big female vocals. After the second season, we knew what worked, but we have to figure out how to evolve that. What works doesn’t need to be reinvented, but there are always ways to be bold and unique, and when you do that sometimes you win and sometimes you lose.
Can you talk about the ways the trailer audience has changed over the years?
Each year attention spans get shorter and shorter—that’s what bumpers are for. No one likes bumpers, but they were made for a reason. If you’re targeting YouTube you have about 6 seconds to grab their attention. For a TV spot, it’s much less. I have 2 seconds to stop you from getting up and grabbing a beer during the commercial break. The beginning has to have a hook - first comes the buy in, then everything else. The end needs to be open ended, if you give a sense of closure you’ve just given a summary of a film, not a trailer.
There’s a thin line between art and marketing. While it has to be artful it also has to have purpose. Every shot has to be handpicked for a reason. So the reason I strive to create something unique, to continually reinvent myself as an editor, isn’t just artistic. It’s also driven by marketing. I’m trying to do something so unique that the viewer drops everything they’re doing and say, “what is THAT?!” It’s a way of hooking the audience.
Rules are very important. They are absolutely key. But if you know how to break the rules you’ll find the gold that lies underneath them.
Can you think of a trailer you worked on where breaking the rules actually took the campaign to the next level?
When I was at Ant Farm I put together a teaser for Blair Witch. While a lot of people like found-footage movies, a lot of people are turned off by it in marketing. So how do you get around that? I took the parts of the found footage that looked the best and I filled in the gaps with lots of stock footage for a sense of scope. But the real game changer was the way we re-recorded the song which everyone knows. We said, “What if the concept is that there’s a girl all alone in the idle of the woods, singing this song to herself?” Simone, who at the time was running the Ant Farm music department, said we’ve got all the tools we need to do this right here. We even had a woman in the department named Taylor who had an amazing voice, so she sang the vocals. Instead of adding music and orchestra we added the sounds of the woods so it would truly feel like she was walking through the forest singing to herself. So, you’ve got these big scopey stock shots, and there’s this soundbed composed of winds swirling and building, and it all comes together to create a sense of unexpected chaos and terror. It turns a movie that’s a little small into something that feels like a huge theatrical release.
A couple years ago we did Watchmen, which was interesting because we only had access to dailies. One of them was the famous scene from the show where the characters are all saying, “Tick Tock” which triggered the idea of building a bed of different clock sounds, creating rhythm and chaos, and we synched up a machine to follow the same pattern as the clocks. When you add up all those pieces and everything starts reverberating together, suddenly you’ve created something from nothing. If you’re able to pair a story both visually and narratively, then you have something really unique.
What’s your process when you’re creating a soundbed?
Editorially, I start by watching the film or show as an audience member. I’m trying to disconnect my brain as much as I can to give myself the chance to just enjoy it. That’s when you catch your true reactions, and that’s what speaks volumes. Then I watch again through the analytical marketing lens, what works, what doesn’t. When you start thinking like that, you have to have a sense of purpose.
But when it comes to sound design it’s 100% different every time. It’s the novelty of feeling like you’re starting fresh that inspires me. I have a “ping” I use in almost every trailer, it’s sort of my easter egg. Other than that, I love the challenge of breaking the mold every time.
Most of my work is in horror or at least darker material. Timing is key. The moment you become predictable or set up a cadence that people can follow is the moment you lose your audience. You have to get people to really feel the fear. With horror it comes down to constantly reimagining what you’ve done, and then abandoning that completely so you can bring something so new you offset people’s expectations. Unexpected is key. I love sound designing. If you can create a cadence the audience can follow, and then offset it, there’s a lot of reward in that. I love minimalism, it really is a game of precision at that point.
Do you find yourself using bespoke services quite a bit?
Definitely. There was a time early in my career where you’d find the right library cue and go with that. Now we’re in a place where 99% of the time, we take a sound that’s a great starting point; then we re-interpret and give it the DNA of what we’re going for. Or we take a stem that is almost there and we cut it up, sort of mapping an idea we’re going for. Once you have that skeleton you can go back to the composer and inject the DNA that’s missing for the particular project you’re working on. It’s a process that’s very time consuming, but it’s very rewarding. It’s all about creation.
What’s the best needle drop in the history of movie trailers?
Baby Driver has that great in-film song mixed with sound design. And I would definitely highlight the usage of “Downtown” on the new Last Night in Soho trailer. Minimalistic and beautiful. Then again I would also highlight Bad Times at El Royal with “This Old Heart of Mine.” Too many to choose from.
About The Speaker
Patricio Hoter,
Creative Director/Editor/Producer at BOND
Born in Argentina, Patricio Hoter started his creative career at Orphanage in the Bay area where he focused on VFX and animation. After his time at Skywalker Ranch working for ILM, a George Lucas company, he made his way to LA-based Fitness company, BeachBody as Head of Graphics. During his time at Beach Body, he started video editing. While he began expanding his editing portfolio on the side - taking jobs through Craigslist - he was approached by Darren Lynn Bousman, director of the Saw films, to cut a trailer. From there, he was hooked. Patricio was introduced to Ignition and eventually transitioned to Ant Farm. Now, Patricio is Editor and Creative Director, where he started as the company’s 12th employee in their AV department. To Patricio, BOND’s newly-formed AV department presented itself as a startup with very strong pillars dedicated to building a pool of unique talent and editors. Drawn to their roundtable style collaboration, he works directly with clients to deliver their needs and create a seamless experience.