The Art of the Preview

One of the most under-rated and seemingly insignificant aspects of promoting a film?

The Preview or "Trailer".

I've been a fan of previews for a long time now,
and I can tell you with complete honesty that they used to suck.
I mean like really suck.
There was no rhythm. No reason.
It was just random scenes with some lazy narration.

I don't consider the trailers of the 1970-1990's a success. A lot of the times, especially when it came to trailers of the 1970's, they were really cheesy, I mean like really cheesy. Most times, there was always a terrible song playing in the background and there would be a narrator who was basically telling the audience what was going on in the preview, instead of actually showing it. In addition to this awfulness, the title of the movie would appear constantly throughout these previews (instead of once at the end). Suffice it to say they really hadn't nailed the artistic side of the promotion quite yet.

Alright, I'm getting off on a tangent here.

The point is: A trailer that's done well and efficiently can really have an impact on the way that the audience perceives the upcoming film.
Even movies that end up being horrible can have good trailers.
Which frustrates me because sometimes they can actually be really deceiving.

Let me break it down for you.

The way I look at it is a lot of the scenes that the director/studio are proud of will make an appearance in the preview. So if it's an action movie and there's no good action scenes in the preview, than chances are, it's not going to be a very good action movie right?

This is very true with comedies. Especially PG-13-rated comedies. And I'll explain why in a second. If the trailer doesn't make you laugh at least a couple times, than you know that the movie isn't going to be very funny, if they're putting some of the best moments in the trailer.

Now R-rated comedies are a different story, as I've lived and learned,
it has come to my attention that trailers for R-rated comedies can be very deceiving.

Why, you may ask?

It's because due to the nature of the rating, a lot of the jokes are going to be more crude or offensive (or have bad language in them), so they won't make an appearance in the trailer. So many times, I've thought that an R-rated comedy is going to be incredibly bad based on the trailer, but them the actual movie surprises me because they couldn't show the real funny stuff in the trailer.

So I've learned not to judge R-rated comedies based on their trailer anymore.

I hope I'm making sense so far.
Hopefully you don't need like a "nerd decoder" or anything.
'Cause the last time I checked they were all sold out at Sharper Image.


Now, trailers for as far back as I can remember have split audiences. Some people love to go to the movies and see the previews before the movies, for some people it's literally their favorite part. It's a teaser for upcoming attractions and that makes them happy and excited to return to the movies.

For others, people find trailers annoying and distracting, getting to the theater late just so they don't have to suffer through ten minutes of previews of coming attractions.

As you can probably tell, I've found myself in the former category.
(REALLY?!)


(Yes.)


I know what you may be thinking:

"Did he just answer his own hypothetical  question?"


Yup.
That's how I roll.

Anyway...


I've always looked at good trailers as pieces of art, and I treat them as such.

They have the ability to be their own separate entity or piece of entertainment.
And the better the trailer is, or the more excited the trailer makes me, the more likely I am to see that particular movie. So I believe that they work on a couple of different levels.
As entertainment AND promotion.


The average trailer now tells a min-story or summation of the movie its promoting.
Alright, stay with me here...

Now there's two (or actually three different, but we'll focus on just the main two) different trailers for movies.
There's the Teaser Trailer and the Final Trailer.

I personally enjoy the Teaser Trailers a little more, but that's not always the case.

The Teaser usually comes out anywhere from four months to up to fourteen months ahead of the film's release date.

Why do this?

This is done to promote awareness for the film in question.

Usually, not a lot of information about the plot of the film is given away in the "Teaser". It's mostly just an array of small scenes set to a song or piece of music, with a running length of about a minute and a half.

The teaser trailer can be very exciting for audience members who get the subtle hints that the trailer throws their way before actually revealing what the movie is. For instance, if the movie starts out looking like an average movie about a guy at an office, and you  don't see the guy's face, and then someone says: "Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Clark Kent..."

The fan who knows about Superman will immediately gather that this is the new Superman movie.

 So the teaser does two separate jobs, it promotes awareness for the movie so people that are not initiated will understand that it's coming out soon AND it makes the people that know about the series or character excited for the movie on their own terms.

But whatever side you happen to be on,
a good Teaser Trailer should make you look forward to that release date.

GREAT TEASERS:


TRON: Legacy
Total Recall (2012)
King Kong (2005) (part of the trailer was literally filmed ONLY for the trailer)
Watchmen
Up In The Air
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
The Phantom of the Opera

A few months later, studios will release what's called a "Final" Trailer.

Now that the Teaser has been released and the public is aware and (hopefully) excited for the movie, this trailer will have a lot more information about the plot and what the actual movie is about.
Usually, it'll reveal what's at stake or what the situation is, once again set to a song or a piece of music, depending on the genre (orchestral for action/sci-fi movies, songs for comedies) with an average length of about two and a half minutes.

At this point, if the Teaser trailer didn't make you excited and the Final trailer didn't do anything for you either, it's safe to assume that either this is not your genre of movie, or you're really not going to like this movie (R-rated comedies excluded, see above).


GREAT TRAILERS:


Inception
Star Trek (2009)
The Fountain
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2
The Dark Knight



And there you have it:
The Art of the Preview.

I know, I know, this is pretty exciting stuff.

But hopefully the next time you go to the movies,
you'll have a little more insight and appreciation for the trailers before the movie.
And maybe you can appreciate previews for the little pieces of artistic promotion that they are.

Well I suppose if you can actually tell the difference between the teaser and the final,
I've done my job.

And I'll work on getting some of that "nerd decoder".