How to Play the Improv Film Trailer Game

Film Trailer is a game for 3-4 players where you get to create and act out a film based on a suggestion from the audience. This is a game that many troupes like to play in every show, to give different players a chance at being the host. It's also a good game to get your troupe focusing on listening to what other members say, and once you start the film clips rolling, hilarity ensues.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• An improv troupe

1. Get a title suggestion from your audience. Movie titles can be anything, so there's little restriction here, but you may find that titles with more information work better than more vague titles. When a few get shouted out, choose a good one.

2. Sit towards the front and side if you are the host player. The other two or three players more center stage and slightly further back. The front player is the trailer announcer, and should begin talking up the film, ideally in a movie-trailer-esque sort of voice. Common tropes include "In a world...", and "He was a...."

3. Begin acting out a scene from the movie, once the announcer has begun describing the film. This necessitates listening closely to what the announcer has said. Players should be sure not just to act out what was announced, but also to advance the movie further, going beyond the setup to add new information to the movie.

4. Break in with more narration about the film once the players stop. As the announcer, you should incorporate the new information that has been acted out by the other players, and then describe the film a bit further, generally describing a different scene or location or even new characters who will be acted out by the players.

5. End the scene. Once three or four scenes have been acted out, the announcer should make his final narration and end the trailer. Occasionally, the announcer may wish to let one of the players have a final quote instead.

Tips & Warnings

• In addition to paying attention to the announcer and other players, players should strive to remember the title of their film.
• Don't talk over each other. The announcer should be clear as to when the players should begin acting, and only resume talking when a player isn't speaking.