The art of Trailers

Most people complain about the amount of trailers that appear before a movie; they suck. There is an art to the trailer. There are ways to do it right and wrong and often times the genre of the film can be the device on hwo to judge a trailer, but there are rules to how they should go. What follows will be many trailers and some breaking down of what works and what does not work. I do this mostly because it is something I have thought a lot about and it is my blog and I can do whatever I want. Also, I mention trailers often in my reviews and this will provide the framework for those types of discussions.

Rule #1: Show just enough

The Matrix: We kind of know what the movie is about, but not so much that we do not need to see the movie to understand. There is a ton of action and a few philosophgical questions posed. This is what we need to want to see the movie. For 2 minutes and 30 seconds I desperately need to see this movie.



Snake Eyes: Everything is going okay until the 1:57 mark when they show way too much by giving away what would have been a twist. Why do I need to see this thrillers when the big thrill has been spoiled for me?



Rule #2: (For action movies) Never give us your best stunt/sequence/explosion in the trailer! Of course, we cannot know this happened until after the movie. So, the disgust is retroactive.

Superman Returns: This is the biggest offender of this. At the 2:20 mark pretty much the coolest thing happens and it made me need to see the movie because how much cooler woudl the rest of it be. WRONG! It was the single best moment in the movie and they blew it. It was the peak and I got it before entering the movie



Rule #3: Misleading the audience. This is another one that is essentially retroactive, because we cannot really know we have been misled until the movie is over.

Gran Torino: The trailer makes the movie look like a revenge movie. It looks like a movie full of violence and leads me to believe CLint is going to somehow kill all of the gang members. The movie is not about that at all!



Rule #4: Music choice. This can actually make or break a trailer, really. There are many examples of good and bad music choice in a trailer.

The Last House on the Left(2009): When I reviewed it I already made mention of the song, but it is a perfect song choice. The song is moody and somber, so it only hints at the violence and the vocals are slow and drawn out, like torture. It is also a song about love, which works as a juxtoposition for the carnage, but also works becuase the parents do this out of love.



Miami Vice: There will be people who disagree with me on this one because there is a way to look at it that the song fits. However, Michael Mann has no business having Linkin Park as music in his films. To me, the hybrid of Jay-Z/Linkin Park suggests something different than Miami Vice. Maybe my perception of a Miami Vice movie is different from what it should be to begin with.



Rule #5: Do not give away your funniest material, while still being funny. (applies to comedies or action comedies) This is very similar to the action sequence rule.

Superbad: The trailer offers tons of laughs, but it barely scratches the surface of the comedy held within the nearly two hours of the movie. Plus, it gave us McLovin which is hilarious and needed to be in the trailer.



Anger Management: All of the funny to be had in this movie can be found right here in this trailer. The other stuff not in this trailer is not at all funny.



Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox story: It is possible this movie is funny, but you cannot tell that from this trailer.



So I thought I would show 1 perfect trailer and 1 possible perfect trailer to recap and show how these things all can work together. I am not going to pick obvious ones liek The Dark Knight or something epic like that because it would be too easy. Also, it is purely a coincidence that Seth Rogen stars in both.

Pineapple Express: First off, it shows some funny stuff without showing the funniest stuff. Next, it gives good action, but does not show the most epic stuff. It gives us an idea of what the movie is about but still leaves me wondering things, which is always good. Lastly, it has the perfect song.

Offensive language WARNING



Observe and Report: This movie looks so dark and funny at the same time, which makes me really want to see it. it has a perfect song to match the voice over stuff. Now, it could all be misleading, but for now, it is perfect. It makes me laugh and cringe, and I need to see where it is all going. The song I mean starts at the thirty second mark.




One last trailer I want to show and mention because this si the trailer that really spawned this entire conversation that began in my head. The music is perfect and visually it looks amazing, but it has no story clues at all. yes, I am dying to see it

Where the Wind Things Are


I know this is not an all inclusive list and I know that not everyone will appreciate the artistry of the trailer, but I like them because they can lead me to things like this.