What Makes a Good Trailer?

Recently I was watching the trailer for the new J.J. Abrams produced film 10 Cloverfield Lane. If you haven't seen it, here it is.

 While some may disagree, I think this is a really fantastic trailer. It sets up the film's tone and gives you a glimpse of what it's about without giving too much away. This got me thinking about what makes a really good movie trailer. It's important to know that a good trailer doesn't always mean a good film and a good film doesn't always have a good trailer.

I think the biggest thing those editing trailers do is focus too much on plot. You'll finish the trailer and feel like you've watched the entire movie. The editors seem to think that if you don't know the entire movie, you won't want to see it. That however, is completely the opposite of how it should be. Let's go back to the 10 Cloverfield Lane trailer.

Bad Robot loves greenish cloudy skies and a silhouette 

We open on a trio of people doing various activities to an upbeat score. However, the music starts to slow as we are shown images that this situation is less than ideal. The trailer ends with the female seeing something horrible but we of course do not know what she sees. All we are able to gather from this trailer is she is in the bunker and it's less than ideal. Everything surrounding it is left as a mystery. However, later trailers ended up showing far too much and revealing most of the mystery around the film, this one however does a great job. Bad Robot is well known for having well done trailer built around lots of mystery. Look at their trailers for Cloverfield and Super 8. However the latter did suffer from being marketed wrong. What we assumed would be another Cloverfield-esque horror film ended up being a coming up age film with a very Spielbergian feel.

Bad Robot REALLY loves greenish cloudy skies and a silhouette

Another recent film that suffered from being marketed wrong was Guillermo Del Toro's Crimson Peak. See the trailer here

The trailer makes the film look like a straight out horror film. However Del Toro was explicit in pointing out that movie was more of a "Gothic Romance". However, the trailers didn't reflect that and many people went into it expecting much more of a scare and were treated something that was absolutely beautiful, but not up to their par in the scare department.

I'll end by talking about what I think is a near perfect trailer. Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
While nearly every trailer for this film was fantastic I think this one stands out among the rest. With only eight short clips and a minor bit dialogue, the trailer perfectly captured the spirit of the film without giving any story away. Never before has a trailer satisfied me over a year before the film.

Be sure to also check out this list of trailers for great movies that are pretty awful.

I Can't Wait to See That!

What is my favorite part of the movie going experience, you ask?  Is it that moment right before the film when the lights begin to dim?  Is it the reactions of the audience members around me?  Is it the popcorn?  My favorite part of going to see a movie would have to be watching the previews.  Previews allow an audience to get a taste of a thousand movies that they may never have time to watch. 

There are two types of trailers.  A teaser trailer is generally the first trailer released for a movie.  These types of trailers consists of clips of scenes from the film and are generally fairly short.  If the film is a comedy, the funniest bits and gags are shown.  If the film is a horror flick, the preview will consist of a few jump scares and creepy images.  It is to grab the audiences attention and make sure that they will be interested in seeing the film.  Closer to the premiere of the film, the theatrical trailer will be released.  This type of trailer lets on more about the plot of the film.  Instead of showing just the most exciting aspects of a film, the plot will be explored, giving the audience a deeper look into what the film is about. 

Unfortunately, trailers do not always provide an accurate representation of the films that they are attempting to market.  Though previews may be fun to watch, they are extremely misleading.  They generally offer only tidbits of information that can not let an audience member accurately judge the quality of a film.

 

(The first comment under this trailer says, "this trailer makes the movie look better then it actual is.")

A thrilling trailer can make a movie a lot of money even if the film itself is lacking.  By showing only the funniest parts of comedies in trailers, the audience is convinced that the whole movie is even funnier.  In reality, however, the best parts of the movie have already been revealed in the trailer.  As a viewer this is frustrating, for you may spend up to fourteen dollars to see a movie in a theater, and then discover that it is much less intriguing than it appeared in the preview.  

It is for this very reason, however, that previews are my favorite part of going to see a movie.  The collection of previews shown at the beginning of the film allows you to briefly experience many different genres while never having to pay fourteen dollars to sit through a bad film.  In the previews, every film looks like it is the best film that you will ever see!

Student Work

The other night on The Directors Chair, I interviewed a friend of mine Brando Benetton who shot this in Kenya over Christmas break last year. A sophomore in Film, Photography, and Visual Arts here in the Park School, Brando has made some great films and has remade a number of different trailers from motion picture movies today including Inception like so....

He has made trailers for Knight and Day, Easy A, Dinner for Schmucks, and many other great movies. A talented guy, Brando is following his dreams here at Ithaca College to work with movies and create great films that will draw the attention of audiences everywhere.

The Kenya video above is a music video with the music Baba Yetu by Christopher Tin. Brando used a Canon T3i and shot this when he went to Kenya to explore and experienced many animal sightings.

Brando's trailers were also shot using a Canon T3i. A process he loves, Brando loves to get to the movies early to see the trailers to get ideas for which ones he wants to shoot next. Brando uses his own cast and crew and will often make appearances in his own trailers. There have few trailers in which Brando has had random appearances from Hollywood actors like Dylan Baker http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0048414/ and Alan Rickman http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000614/.
If you want to see more of Brando's work, you can go to youtube and type in BBB pictures and click on BBB Pictures "Trailers" Remakes.

Trailers

So i think most of my blog posts have been trailers of movies i've really wanted to see, but i also wanted this post to be about how important the aspect of trailers could be. Trailers are what catches the attention of movie goers at first, because thats the first look they get. For me, trailers are what get me excited for movies, and the better the trailer, the more willing i will be to watch the actual movie.

So here are the TOP 50 movie trailers in the eyes of IFC.

IFC TRAILERS