The Art of the Trailer

Mickeroo

So I was thinking. There's a lot to be said of an effective trailer, it can completely sell a movie, it can make movie look like something it's not(Lost in Translation springs to mind), it can completely capture the feel and spirit of a movie or sometimes it can make a rubbish film look like a complete classic, some trailers end up being more exhilarating then the actual film they're plugging. It really is an art form in itself. So I'd like people to post up what trailers they thought were exceptional or for any of the above reasons or for any other reason they thought it stood out. I'll get the ball rolling with this, I though it captured the spirit of the film perfectly, with it's exellent choice of music and imagery it completely evoked everything the film was about, i remember hoping the film was nearly as powerful as its trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFk7kYa_i0s

johnny_ultimate

Yeah The Where the Wild Things One is a masterclass: seeing that the first time I must have watched it three or four times in a row :pac: Luckily the film totally lived up to it IMO (although I'm sure many will disagree on that ).

Another masterful trailer would be the teaser trailer for Episode One. It's here, couldn't find it on youtube after a quick search. 11 years afterwards, I'm pretty sure we all know what happened next, so watching back it mightn't be as impressive. But as an 11/12 year old, I was amazed by this. All the music cues, the first glimpses at the characters (but younger!), teasers of Pod racing, Naboo, Darth Maul... And then the film was released, utterly crushing everyone's hopes and dreams. The teaser promised something tantalising that the final product never delivered. It's a two minute trailer that is more rewarding than the disjointed, over CGIed, over Jar-Jared mess that finally limped into theatres - and that's pretty damn impressive for an advertisement.

TheIrishGrover

You are dead right. A good trailer can make or break a film and is an art in itself. Too often see see wayyyyy too much in a trailer (I'm looking at you "Sum Of All Fears"). A trailer should just get you interested with just the vaguest idea of the actual film. As Johnny said, the trailer for The Phantom Menace was great: The initial subdued tone, the little tingle you got when you heard the music fade in, the sense of scale with the race crowd scene and excitement of the race itself, the feeling of forboding from yoda and obi-wan. It looked mature, intelligent, exciting and epic. We all know how it turned out so, as the OP said, creating a trailer is an artform in itself.

This is one of my favourites. Probably one of the first real teasers. Not showing any actual footage. Not giving anything away at all. I remember seeing it before some video I had rented and thinking to myself after watching the movie it was attached to: Wow, that trailer was better than the feckin' movie I just watched.
At a time when they were still using "voiceover man" extensively this was a pretty cool and different trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0zaqWQiXG8

krudler

Best trailer ever:

krudler

I miss when movies had stuff shot specifically for the trailers, like this:

krudler

This is a great example of how a trailer can completely missell a movie, granted its a spoof done years afterwards but its still a brilliant example of re-editing, turning a classic horror movie into a family drama :

Klingon Hamlet

I thought the marketing for the Star Trek trailer was brilliant.

The teaser was the construction of the rebooted Enterprise, with JFK in the background, and ended with Leonard's voice.

The first full trailer threw us into the new world of Trek. Bruce Greenwood's gravelly voice, all the effects and action and danger mashed together nicely.

The second was EPIC! Really captured the fresh take on Trek...was dying to see the movie!

These plus the TV spot are here...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IptbC3p2lCk

The Terminator Salvation made the film look amazing (what a soundtrack!). Dark, gritty, grimy, compelling. Trailers are LIARS sometimes:):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXgULqon_1o

The minute this trailer was released, everyone knew Dark Knight was a game-changer! It sets up the basic outline without giving anything away. Ledger was terrifying. We knew Batman was up against a huge threat. And none of the twists or major plot points were revealed, especially Dent's destiny! Major restraint there:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jqq4j52Fb4

Another Chris Nolan film, Inception, with just the right balance between revealing basic characters/events, and teasing with awesome visuals. Was dying to see it after seeing this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66TuSJo4dZM

mike65

We had a trailer thread a while back and someone posted up a brilliant parody of the typical modern Oscar-bait movie trailer style, anyone remember it?

LittleBook

mike65 wrote: »

We had a trailer thread a while back and someone posted up a brilliant parody of the typical modern Oscar-bait movie trailer style, anyone remember it?

Necronomicon

The one that comes to mind straight away is Cloverfield. I remember when it came on, the first half minute or so is them at the party and I just thought "Oh great, another by-the-numbers romcom..." Then out of nowhere they're outside and the head of the Statue of Liberty is crashing onto the screen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvNkGm8mxiM

krudler

http://www.orschlurch.de/2010/07/25/definition-of-awesome/


This is class, its an 8 minute video of edited clips from dozens of movies, see how many you can spot.

mikhail

This is one of my favourite trailers (well, teasers, I guess):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqk9MTP9tMU

It has great tension; unless you know the movie, you don't know the intentions of the man or whether the woman knows him.

mike65

Trailers from Hell is the place to be.

Valmont

I thought the trailer for The Wicker Man remake was so impressive, that I went to see it. I have not trusted a trailer since!

edit: The Perfume trailer is brilliant! A very good movie and even better book. Why does boards tell me that "movie" is spelt wrong?:mad:

mikhail

Valmont wrote: »

Why does boards tell me that "movie" is spelt wrong?:mad:

I think it's technically American English, so some (small) British English dictionaries don't recognise it.

Also, boards doesn't have a spell-checker, so at a guess, Firefox is what's actually doing the correcting.

xoixo

Red Eye stands out in my mind.
The build up was so well done, convincing cringe rom-com trailer until the very end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAFDHyH8buQ

Necronomicon

Necronomicon wrote: »

The one that comes to mind straight away is Cloverfield. I remember when it came on, the first half minute or so is them at the party and I just thought "Oh great, another by-the-numbers romcom..." Then out of nowhere they're outside and the head of the Statue of Liberty is crashing onto the screen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvNkGm8mxiM

I remember seeing that in the cinema - was completely blown away by it! It's similar to the new trailer for Super 8 now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpzUCA5i6zY

Valmont

mikhail wrote: »

Also, boards doesn't have a spell-checker, so at a guess, Firefox is what's actually doing the correcting.

It was google chrome! I turned it off, cheers.

foxyboxer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oYNvmNZP2o