Funny story:I use to work for a tech company that buid pay-to-view systems for hotels (small atom box with nice screen in each hotel room). Thennnn the guys wanted porn movies... fine we got it and it was great (ppl buying porn with their breakfast). But the porn movies didn't have trailers so we just took any 30 sec of it.... BIG MISTAKE... no one was buying the movies anymore... We quickly realised our random 30sec were too graphic People were only watching the trailers on repeat (yes this is the one time your mind-in-gutter is right) ! lol We had to make new trailers but show nothing below the naval :D
I've gotten very picky about what constitutes a 'good' trailer. Any trailer that has any of these:
* an overly dramatic deep manly narrator
* is actually a 'clip' rather than a trailer
* is actually a 'making of' rather than a trailer
* has a pre-trailer to the trailer
and a bunch of other things, gets deleted immediately. Thought I would share ;) I also have a dave's trailer page scraper if anybody is interested/obsessed like I am.
If you're wondering why this is done, it's because when the trailer is shown on Youtube as a pre-roll ad, users have the ability to "skip" the ad after 5 seconds. Thus, the trailer needs to "hook" the viewer in the first 5 seconds to entice them to keep watching the whole thing, and deliver a title card right before the 5 second mark so that they can increase brand awareness even if the user does choose to skip the ad after the 5 second timer is up. This leads to the first 5 seconds of the trailer being used as a trailer for the actual trailer.
What about summarizing the entire movie? That's an instant NO from me. I've literally not watched movies because I've seen the trailers and feel there's really no wiggle room left plot-wise, I know it all.
I very actively avoid all trailers for movies that I'm going to see. Modern blockbuster trailers just ruin the movie.
Trailers don't summarise the whole movie. And even if you feel they do, knowing the outline of a movie isn't going to ruin the actual movie experience itself. I avoid heaps of crap movies simply because I dismiss them out of hand by their trailer. Obviously there is the occasional movie whose trailer was crap but was actually exceptional. These come around again.
There is so much drek out there a strong filter and upturned nose is essential to carefully picking something that won't waste your time and money. Otherwise you're saddled with Transformers 12: Re-revengance the pre-sequel. Or Star Wars 8 ;)
It's how the same old variation of a story is told, how well did they pull it off, was it charming, was the dialogue and it's delivery any good, etc.
And watching a movie with another person changes the movie again. Or watching it at a cinema surrounded pigs at their troughs.
So many ways to appreciate movie watching that a trailer can't ever touch.
* any romantic relationship of significance is both shown
and the direction it ultimately goes is implied
* half the big awesome SFX scenes
* half the funny scenes
* almost every character of significance to the plot
then there isn't much left, I know almost all the key checkpoints, who has to be where and do what and what action has to occur. It's pretty much sketched out. There's minimal suspense because I know who can't die and who has to be where at the end of the movie.
> And even if you feel they do, knowing the outline of a movie isn't going to ruin the actual movie experience itself.
It definitely can. Part of a story is experiencing it for the first time, watching it unfold and not knowing what will happen. Trailers take that away from you. "Oh yeah, I've seen this fight sequence and heard that joke before" just doesn't carry the same weight. And when I have a checklist of people with places to be and action scenes to happen, I can predict things. "Well, I know there's going to be a twist because X has to fight Y in the streets and it looks like they're getting along OK as we approach 1h 20m mark."
There's minimal surprise left, which really hampers my ability to empathize with the characters and engage in the story.
A movie can work even if you know how these things. The how is just as important as the what in a movie, even if, for example, you know the twist of a movie, it can be just as fun to watch how you get there, how all the scenes and narration from the trailer is strung together into the movie.
I don't believe anyone here was suggesting that the movie becomes literally unwatchable.
But a movie is just a 90 minute experience. It's nice to maximize it. And one simple approach is to avoid giving in to curiosity by watching its 30 second summary for the same reason you don't read plot outlines on Wikipedia before reading books or tv show episodes.
I do actually go to Wikipedia and other places to spoil the plot outline to myself. Makes it much easier to focus on the implementation of the story rather than having to focus on both story and implementation.
I would disagree there a bit, I do it because I enjoy taking things apart and seeing how it all ticks together.
Like taking apart a running grandfather clock to see it tick.
Movies and TV series or even books are similar to me. I do enjoy digging deep into TVTropes and AllTheTropes so I can whlie watching a movie, take it apart and see how it ticks.
How the movie achieves the suspension of disbelief, how the heroes journey is being implemented in lockstep with the villain (if there is even one) or how a character is built, what parts make them what they are.
I think it's more of a hackers spirit rather than HN. I read the manual of the movie so I can take it apart like some hacker might read a device manual to be able to take it apart more easily.
For me watching a movie after one of these trailers is like participating in a magic show after the trick has been revealed.
You still enjoy it, looking for small details and appreciating how good or not the magician. But you won't get that sense of amusement of not knowing what's going on or where it's going.
Most modern trailers are just a sampling of all scenes from start to finish, so they absolutely summarize the movie. Frequently they even show the twist or enough of the post-twist to imply the twist, though that isn't necessary to be a bad trailer.
An outline kills a movie because you can anticipate scenes. Oh, here's this guy. I remember a fight scene from the trailer where Tom Cruise jumps him. I wonder when that happens. The movie clearly introduces him as a good guy. I wonder when you're supposed to find out he's one of the goons.
If it wasn't such a major issue, you wouldn't have people like me and many I know who avoid trailers entirely.
If the movie is good, then the trailer does nothing but dampen the experience.
A good recent example is "Thor: Ragnarok", I usually avoid trailers but I watched this one because I don't care much for superhero movies anyway. They reveal in the trailer there is a Thor vs Hulk fight. Then I actually watched the movie and I realized they spent a good 15 mins building up the encounter between Thor and a mysterious champion, and the reveal itself is clearly supposed to be a major twist. I definitely felt the trailer took from my experience...
The thing is, while watching a movie after seeing its trailer, my brain will automatically anticipate scenes that are yet to come and fill in gaps much quicker than if I hadn’t seen the trailer. There’s less suspense and I enjoy the movie less because of it. I suspect that with people whose brains work differently, this is not as much of an issue.
I also love good trailers and agree with all your points except the deep manly narrator. What I don't like is when they cherry pick all the good jokes and you know that the movie almost certainly will not meet expectations.
To me that is almost ideal. Doesn't reveal the entire movie, but gives you an impression of what the movie is like.
James Bond always open with this action scene that isn't really relevant for the plot. Makes for great promotional clip, as it really shows off what the movie is about, but not really any of the movie.
Huh what a coincidence I just watched this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_jjzzgLARQ which covers the trailer industry. Pretty eye opening to see all the tricks behind the trailers, a almost-must watch.
I think people are watching movie trailers because they're almost self-contained movies. Very frequently the protagonist and antagonist are set-up, the protagonist's challenges are laid out, the protagonist is shown overcoming the challenges, the nature of the twist is shown (and sometimes the twist itself is hinted at), any romantic relationship of significance is both shown and shows the direction it will go in the movie, half the big awesome SFX scenes are included, half the funny one-liners are included, and every character of significance is revealed.
Sometimes you literally don't even need to watch the movie, you just got the tl;dw in the trailer.
I refuse to watch trailers for movies I might see, because they ruin the experience since I know everything that's coming.
In most cases the rule of thumb is you can hide the good bits from the trailer, in which case no one will see the good bits because no one will go to the film, or you can show the good bits in the trailer and people will go to theaters and pay to watch the rest of the film.
I'm not entirely certain you need to go that far. My issue is that most trailers, especially the ~two minute ones, show the majority of the story arc, and either contain spoilers, or hint heavily at those spoilers. That removes dramatic tension and any desire for me to watch.
A made up example, but I've seen similar: let's take an ensemble superhero action piece. You see a clip of a scene in the trailer where superhero A is in mortal peril, set against a desert backdrop. Compelling, but when I see the movie in theaters, there's an action set piece where superheroes A and B are fighting against villains C and D. B is temporarily incapacitated, and it looks like C and D have the drop on A. Unfortunately, this fight has an ocean backdrop. As such, all dramatic tension is gone, since I know A makes it to a desert I haven't seen yet.
I've had some success making a strict rule of watching only teasers (~30 seconds), or the first 30 seconds of a normal trailer, where they have time to set up the basics, but not enough to ruin anything. If I'm at a movie, I'll just close my eyes after that point, since I can't fast forward, and removing visuals is usually enough.
> You see a clip of a scene in the trailer where superhero A is in mortal peril, set against a desert backdrop. Compelling, but when I see the movie in theaters, there's an action set piece where superheroes A and B are fighting against villains C and D. B is temporarily incapacitated, and it looks like C and D have the drop on A. Unfortunately, this fight has an ocean backdrop. As such, all dramatic tension is gone, since I know A makes it to a desert I haven't seen yet.
I don't follow your logic. You already know A makes it out OK, because it's a superhero movie. Why doesn't that ruin the dramatic tension equally?
I have a bad memory, so I would not remember this happening. Do you have an example?
Also: why would they do that? If they already have the footage, and it is 'impressive' (for the trailer), why NOT put it in the movie?
Payback (1999, Mel Gibson) trailer contains a scene not in theatrical release. The main poster for the movie shows Mel Gibson in a scene which never made it to theatrical release either.
Usually I avoid trailers. It's marketing, spoilers, trying to sell you the movie. For me, they might be clever, but that's all. The Payback trailer is clever because it has no dialog...
https://youtu.be/ji6aaZRACew
Drama behind the scenes on Payback saw the director fired by the studio and replaced, a completely new ending written and shot.
Normally when studios mess with the writing, the film suffers, but not in this case. The theatrical release of Payback is better than the "director's cut" released on video a few years later. The director's cut has a boring ending, just generic gun fights and a mess of scenes. The theatrical release has a good twist, more substance and style.
I recommend reading the submission you're commenting on, as this is actually answered in the article:
“Sometimes we’ll start on a trailer before they’ve even started filming,” Gritton says. “We just break down the script. Then we’ll get dailies—literally everything they’ve shot, hours and hours.” The dailies are covered in ghostly watermarks and stamped with the producer’s and house’s name for security’s sake, making them nearly unwatchable and of no real use to pirates. Theoretically.
Given the extraordinary and time-consuming process of CGI, sometimes green screens, motion capture dots on actor’s faces, maybe a cardboard cutout where a dragon will eventually go are still visible in these early cuts. “We’ll pick what we think are the best takes,” Gritton says. “The majority of the time it’s not what ends up in the film, which is why you see stuff in the trailer that you may not recognize later.”
As a recent example of this, there are several trailers for Baby Driver where we hear Doc describe Baby as "Young Mozart in a go-kart," [1] but this line is never heard spoken in the film (though we do see it written on one of Baby's cassette tapes).
It's really sad that you can't read this article on mobile Chrome without getting trapped into an annoying "you have won" ad page that also clears the browser history.
