Client: Telluride Horror Show
Project: Two festival brand promotional films
Services: Story development, location production, interviews, cinematography, and editing
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Telluride Horror Show brings horror, suspense, dark fantasy, science fiction, filmmakers, authors, and fans into a small mountain town surrounded by the San Juan Mountains.
That combination gives the festival two strong stories to tell.
One is about place. Telluride’s streets, theaters, autumn weather, and mountain setting make the trip different from attending a genre festival in a convention center or large city. The other is about people. Audiences, visiting filmmakers, conversations, reactions, and shared enthusiasm turn a program of screenings into a festival community. Rocket House Pictures created two promo films that addressed those stories separately. The first was built around the beauty and atmosphere of Telluride. The second used interviews and audience activity to show what attending the festival actually felt like.
The challenge: market horror and a mountain destination at the same time
Film festival promos often have a straightforward task: create excitement around the program and encourage people to attend. Telluride Horror Show also had a location that deserved a central role in the campaign. Telluride is a nationally known mountain destination, but scenic footage alone would not explain the identity of a horror festival. A promo filled entirely with genre imagery could look similar to material produced for festivals in many other cities. The films needed to preserve the contrast that makes the event distinctive: beautiful mountain surroundings paired with three days of horror cinema and an enthusiastic genre audience.
Independent press repeatedly identifies this same contrast. Fangoria’s assessment, preserved by the festival, notes the combination of Telluride’s setting, the festival team, and the opportunity to spend time outdoors between films. A 2018 review from 303 Magazine describes the event as Colorado’s first and longest-running horror film festival and documents its films, speakers, special events, and mountain-town setting. The production question was how to communicate both sides without forcing them into one crowded promo/trailer.
The approach: give each selling point its own film
Rocket House Pictures gave each promo/trailer a different editorial center. The first used Telluride itself as the invitation. The second shifted attention to the people already inside the event.
Together, they answered two questions a prospective attendee might have:
- Why should I travel to Telluride for this festival?
- What will the experience be like once I arrive?
The second film also addressed another audience important to a film festival: filmmakers deciding where to submit their work. Interviews, audience reactions, theater activity, and interaction with visiting filmmakers showed how the festival receives films and the people behind them. This division gave Telluride Horror Show two assets with separate jobs and a shared identity.
Promo 01: Telluride as part of the story
The first promo/trailer, released in 2016, is grounded in the visual character of Telluride. Mountain views, historic streets, changing weather, local theaters, and festival imagery establish a strong sense of place.
The beauty-driven approach positions the trip itself as part of the event. Viewers are invited to spend a fall weekend in a remote Colorado town where the surroundings sharpen the contrast with the horror program. Telluride Horror Show used the trailer in its promotion. An indexed Telluride Horror Show Facebook post introduced it as the festival’s new trailer and credited Rocket House Pictures with producing it. The film was also listed for a November 2016 Open Screen Night.
Promo 02: Let the audience explain the experience
The second promo/trailer takes a more human approach. Interviews and audience footage carry the story, supported by scenes from the festival and the town.
This structure gives prospective attendees a view from inside the event. The reactions, observations, and energy of people who were there show the social character of the weekend. The film also gives filmmakers a sense of the audience waiting for their work. It shows active theaters, conversations, visiting artists, and people who care deeply about genre cinema. That makes it useful for audience promotion and filmmaker recruitment, two messages that can be difficult to combine in one short film. A prospective attendee can picture the trip and the community they will enter. A filmmaker can see a festival where films are watched, discussed, and shared by an invested audience.
The result: two promo/trailers with a long working life
Telluride Horror Show continues to feature both Rocket House films on its official Festival Trailers page. Their continued use comes from the subjects they were built around: the lasting character of Telluride and the experience of gathering there for horror cinema. The films were designed from the beginning as evergreen pieces. By focusing on Telluride’s setting, audience, filmmaker experience, and festival culture instead of a single year’s lineup, they could remain useful across future editions.
The interview-driven trailer traveled beyond the festival’s own channels. Many genre publications embedded it in coverage across several festival campaigns. Here some examples:
- ScreenAnarchy included it in coverage of the festival’s 2019 second-wave announcement.
- Daily Dead embedded it in an article about the festival’s 2019 call for entries.
- HorrorBuzz used it in coverage of the 2020 festival lineup.
Those placements put the promo/trailer in front of the festival’s core audiences. A lineup announcement speaks to people considering attendance. A call for entries speaks directly to filmmakers deciding where to submit. The same film served both purposes because it captured the relationship between filmmakers, audiences, and the festival setting.
Its editorial focus also extended its working life. The promo was built around the identity of Telluride Horror Show rather than one annual lineup. New films could enter the program each year while the mountain setting, audience energy, and filmmaker experience remained central to the event. The two promo/trailers continue to work as a pair. The beauty-driven film makes Telluride part of the invitation. The interview-driven film shows the community that forms once people arrive. Together, they promote the festival as a destination for audiences and a place where filmmakers want their work to screen.
The festival’s reputation supports the strategy
The press surrounding Telluride Horror Show helps explain why these two creative approaches fit the brand. The festival’s official press archive collects recognition from The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, Fangoria, Dread Central, 303 Magazine, Horror Society, Modern Horrors, and other genre publications. The coverage repeatedly returns to qualities shown in the Rocket House promo/trailers: the setting, the programming, and the community around the event. Independent coverage continues. Dread Central included Telluride Horror Show in its 2025 list of leading genre festivals, highlighting the programming, filmmaker experience, and mountain-town atmosphere. MovieMaker has also included it among film festivals in destination locations. The festival is preparing for its seventeenth edition in October 2026, as shown on its official website. Rocket House Pictures recognized the festival’s strongest assets from the beginning. One trailer sold the setting, while the other captured the audience and festival experience. Both subjects remain central to the way the festival presents itself.
Why the two-trailer strategy worked
The promo/trailers were related without repeating each other. The beauty-driven film established destination value. It gave the festival a visual identity tied specifically to Telluride. The interview-driven film supplied the human side. It showed the audience, activity, filmmaker participation, and shared character of the weekend. This gave the festival more flexibility than two versions of the same montage. One promo could introduce the place. The other could support lineup announcements, calls for entries, press coverage, and audience promotion. The second film accomplished an especially difficult task. It invited attendees to imagine themselves at the festival while showing filmmakers the kind of reception their work could receive. Both groups could find their own reason to pay attention within the same footage. Here is what Ted Wilson, founder and director of Telluride Horror Show, said about working with Rocket House Pictures:
“Rocket House Pictures produced an extremely professional promo/trailer and screen wash for our annual film festival. Way exceeded our expectations. We can highly recommend them.” --- Telluride Horror Show
The takeaway for festivals and destination events
People attend an event for several connected reasons. The program may attract them first, while the location, community, traditions, access to participants, and atmosphere influence the decision to make the trip. Film festivals also speak to two groups whose interests overlap: the audiences buying tickets and the filmmakers supplying the work those audiences come to see. A well-planned promotional trailer can address both by showing the experience surrounding the screenings. For Telluride Horror Show, Rocket House Pictures created one trailer around place and another around people. Both remain in use, and the interview-driven film moved through independent horror publications covering later editions, lineup announcements, and calls for entries. The project offers a practical model for brand videos created for film festivals, arts organizations, conferences, and destination events: identify the distinct reasons people participate, then give those reasons their own visual language.
Explore more work in the Rocket House Pictures video portfolio, learn about our video production services, or contact our team to plan an event or festival campaign.
