The key to making a good trailer: let the movie speak for itself
Jul 20
Trailers are designed to get bums on seats. They are designed to capture your attention, give you a gist of the advertised film’s content, and drill at least one memorable moment into your brain so you’ll remember to go and see the advertised film when it’s released in a couple of months’ time.
You will know within seconds of a trailer starting up who the intended audience is. Bright logos and shots of cities accompanied by tinkling, upbeat music, and perhaps a chirpy voiceover, means the trailer is intended for women:
Gruff voices, threatening music, and sharp fades to black accompanied by a low-frequency GONGGG sound indicate a trailer made for men:
Alternatively, if the trailer has audio but no picture, or if it’s cut like a music video with no dialogue but plenty of visual pizzazz, then it is probably Oscar bait:
Finally, if the trailer involves yelling, screaming, and is generally obnoxious right from the start, it’s probably for children:
Sticking to the same formula for every new trailer is both a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing because the audience knows the beats, knows that the best joke / action money-shot will be right at the end, and knows to look out for a rundown cast members’ names in the 30 seconds leading up to the final frame. It’s a curse because – if the movie’s not strong enough to begin with – its voice will be lost in the over-edited Hollywood trailer formula, and will come off hollow or unimpressive.
So how should studios go about selling their movie to an audience hip to their manipulative techniques? There are a couple of options. They can subvert the techniques, pulling the rug out from under you; but this technique is unreliable, especially if the source material is weak, as here:
They can rely on the strength of the film’s ideas to carry the trailer despite hitting all the usual beats, like the first Inception teaser, which relied on GONGGG and fade-to-black, but backed it up with some jaw-dropping imagery:
But the best way to sell a movie to me is to just play me a scene from the first reel. It should give me an idea of the look and feel of the film, the tone of the performances, and the direction the plot’s going to go in, but it should still pack some mystery, so as to not spoil the entire experience for everyone. Here’s a recent example of just such a trailer:
A sure sign that a movie’s no good is that the trailer has been cut to ribbons, while showing me a single scene bespeaks quiet confidence on a studio’s part. The trailer for Eva nailed this for me. While the concept seems a bit naff (Bicentennial Man, anyone?) and the cinematography is borderline wank, I still wanted to see where the movie went after this scene, and that’s the best thing a trailer can do: make you want to see the finished film when it comes out.
If I’m going to be your captive audience for two minutes, make sure every second counts. Go out of your way to show me something special. Don’t rely on fades-to-black, heartbeat sound effects, underwhelming money-shots, up-tempo guitar jangling, or pack-a-day smoker’s voice to sell me your movie. Let your movie speak for itself.
Isn’t that clever? Real-world INCEPTION viral marketing invades New York
Jul 03
Think of the poor fellows who had to climb up all that way to make this happen — brave souls, to be sure! The only thing that would’ve made this form of advertising even more awesome is if the massive posters didn’t have the film’s title on them, just a URL for the trailer or something. Inception is due later this month — stay tuned for our review.
Source: /Film
Another great director succumbs to 3Dementia: Christopher Nolan edition
Jun 16
Despite finding “the dimness of the image extremely alienating,” Christopher Nolan foresees himself bowing to studio pressure and shooting something in 3D sooner or later. As Slashfilm wisely points out, it probably won’t be Batman 3, but Nolan’s been recently attached to some kind of Superman reboot, and Warner Bros. is likely to push hard for that to be shot in 3D; they even tried to get Nolan to post-convert Inception into 3D, but he dodged the bullet, claiming “We didn’t have time to do it to the standards that I would be happy with.” Phew. I don’t want my plot-induced headache to be upgraded to a full-blown migraine thanks to sloppy post-processing.
Besides grumbling about 3D, Nolan had some interesting things to say at the inaugural Hero Complex festival, so check out the full interview here.
(If you don’t know who Christopher Nolan is, then congratulations; you’re one of the sixteen people in the world who haven’t seen The Dark Knight. Here’s an Inception trailer, too, just in case you forgot what Nolan’s been up to lately.)
Studios seem suspiciously certain that INCEPTION will dominate the box office in July
Jun 10
Inception is due to hit US screens on the 16th of July. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice was slated to appear on the same date, but it’s since been moved forward a couple of days to the 14th, to get a head-start on Christopher Nolan’s latest mind-bender. Dinner For Schmucks, originally slated for a 23 July release, has been pushed back a week because “the July 30 frame is a less competitive date for adult films and gives “Dinner” more distance from “Inception” (July 16) and “Salt” (July 23).”
Do Disney and Paramount / Dreamworks know something that we don’t? Are they making these decisions based on the overwhelming box office success of The Dark Knight in 2008? Are these decisions influenced by the tidal wave of positive buzz for Inception in the blogosphere? Or have they consulted their crystal balls and determined that Inception is going to be some kind of unstoppable juggernaut?
Find out what all the fuss is about on 16 July 2010 if you live in the US or UK; or later on the 22nd if you live in Australia.
For those who like their marketing viral: INCEPTION’s latest offering
Jun 02
I’ve never been a fan of viral marketing. Give me a kickass trailer and a decent poster and I’m convinced. I guess the majority of popular viral campaigns have been aimed at comic book and superhero movies in the past, which I haven’t had enough interest in to bother following an entire viral layout.
Same can be said for Christopher Nolan’s upcoming thriller Inception starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page. The trailer was enough to rope me in and I’m not interested in seeing too much else until the film is released in case of spoilers. Warner Brothers are still spreading their viral campaign for the film far and wide, hoping to create as much awareness as possible for Inception‘s July 16 opening (July 22 Down Under).
Their latest offering is a stylized manual from Dream-Share (the company within the film), labelled Tactical Employment Procedures. The cleverly weathered manual was sent to Wired Magazine and, being tech-savvy as they are, you’ll find every page of the manual scanned and published on their website for your perusal.
OPINIONS COUNT