Like everyone else, I’ve discovered that my favourite Punisher movie is Netflix’s Daredevil: Season 2.

While reading some conversations about the character, I stumbled across a short called Dirty Laundry: a self-contained, context-not-included look into ten minutes of the Punisher’s life.

Imagine you’re in the theater. Instead of a trailer, that short starts playing. Beginning to end, no extra context.

Compare that to the trailer for Batman vs Superman, which essentially walks you through the plot for the entire movie.

This trailer has pretty much just ruined the entire plot of the movie. Before it was like “Holy shit how’s it gonna end?! Who’s gonna defeat who? Will anyone win? What is it that causes them to fight?” Now we know how they initially meet. Some shit happens that Bruce blames Superman for, but is probably set up by Lex somehow. Superman and Batman duke it out, Lex is like “fuck it,” makes Doomsday, then they realise the error of their ways and team up to fuck up the final baddie, and (inevitably) win after a hard fought battle. —Trivvy on Reddit

It’s time for shorts, not trailers.

Shorts sell me on your world. Trailers sell me on your product.

A short can show me a different perspective. A short doesn’t need context; often, knowing the character is context enough. A short even works if the characters are new and unfamiliar, if you’ve created a world that draws me in and makes me want to discover more. The simple fact that I’m watching a trailer breaks my immersion with your world.

Remember when The Dark Knight was previewed in IMAX theatres before I Am Legend? Remember the thrill as the Joker unmasked in the middle of a brutal robbery? Remember how eager you were to see the movie, and get another taste of that world?

Unfortunately, seeing the short meant you didn’t get to experience it for the first time during the movie. But imagine if movies released standalone, deliberately-crafted shorts in place of trailers.

Picture a 5-minute short for Mad Max. We could see something entirely mundane — and yet as morbid — that we’d never see in the movie, such as the building of a War Rig.

We’d never need to see Max; nothing would be spoiled. But we’d feel unsatisfied—we’d feel a craving to get another look into that world.

Or think back to the first Hunger Games. We could follow a group of eager, excited Capitol friends as they gather, gossip, and cheer—and at the end, catch a harrowing glimpse into true nature of the Games.

A short in place of a trailer isn’t always appropriate. It wouldn’t work for movies like The Best Marigold Hotel, which are essentially self-contained stories.

But it’d do wonders for genres like action, thriller, fantasy, horror, and all others where there’s a true opportunity for world-building.

Sell your world, not your product. If you do it right, I’ll sell myself.