A Filmmaker's Guide to: Trailers

In this chapter of ‘the filmmaker’s guide’ we’re actually going to be learning about literature and film together. I understand that many of you are sitting in university during difficult times and finding it increasingly hard to study and I understand that many of you who are not at university or not planning on it are possibly stuck of what to do, need a break or even need to catch up on learning film before you get to the next level. This guide will be brief but will also contain: new vocabulary, concepts and theories, films to watch and we will be exploring something taboo until now in the ‘filmmaker’s guide’ - academia (abyss opens). Each article will explore a different concept of film, philosophy, literature or bibliography/filmography etc. in order to give you something new to learn each time we see each other. You can use some of the words amongst family and friends to sound clever or you can get back to me (email in bio) and tell me how you’re doing. So, strap in and prepare for the filmmaker’s guide to film studies because it is going to be one wild ride.

Trailers

What are they?

Well, if you're here then you know what they are already. They show us the story of a film without giving us spoilers. They also give us the basic gist of a film without very much else, and as an advert - it gets us ready into wanting to see the film. Some will argue that in the last five years, the trailers have been showing way too much and not leaving very much to the imagination. I would agree. If we were to look just as far back as the early part of this century, we will find trailers that are just far better at advertising the film.

When it comes to the trailers in Golden Age cinema, they were more focused on selling the film because of the stars, the director and more or less, the way in which the film depicted its genre. Go and take a look at the trailers for films like "The Third Man" directed by Carol Reed. It is a brilliant trailer that has recently been restored in 4K and you will be able to see clearly how genre is depicted in comparison to a film like say, "Casablanca" or "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre".

Golden Age cinema had some of the greatest of all trailers with the age of Sir Alfred Hitchcock being one of the most compelling of the creators of trailers. If you take a watch at one of the coolest trailers ever, "The Birds", then you will definitely see what I mean. A depiction of genre, a discussion and a compelling reason to see the film that comes at the end. The whole experience of the trailer is disturbing and uncomfortable. Just watch this trailer because the way it is made is a way that you will probably never see trailers made by anyone else ever again:

When we get the the next age of cinema in the seventies and the eighties, we get more genre-specific trailers, like Hitchcock's but without all the stuff that just makes sitting through it uncomfortable as hell. The more genre-focused trailers were a little bit of a step down from the Golden Age trailers in my opinion because it really gave away points of the story and characters that you would have been better off finding out in the film. The best example I can think of when it comes to a seventies' movie trailer is possibly "The Exorcist" for its blunt but disturbing nature to predict genre and the point of the story without giving too much away:

When it comes to the nineties, there is a definite amount of animosity held towards trailers because of the way in which they take the story and show you too much of it. I think that this is why they tried to repair them in the early part of our own century. Nineties trailers were very overdramatic and over-the-top in most respects in the way they were trying to predict genre and famous faces. I also believe that the push of famous faces was bigger in the nineties than it had been in the era just before because of the way the nineties was basically the point that Hollywood lost all of its credibility and talent - well, most of it. It was also the era of bigger celebrities demanding more money and basically people selling the movie. And you wondered why lots of the movies in the nineties were utter crap. I think that the best examples of trailers in the nineties are ones that are the ones made by directors and producers when they are just starting out because of the unknown aspect to it. Just have a look at the trailer to "Reservoir Dogs", the first film by Quentin Tarantino:

When it comes to the modern day, the early part of our century tried to repair trailers by making them super-depicting of genre and making even the subplots part of the trailer. I think that the way they were kept at an average length was spot on compared to the seventies [I mean I think we all saw the trailer to "Apocalypse Now" from the seventies which was so long, I think they just gave away the movie in that one]. Trailers from about 2000 through to about 2010 were far better than the ones of this current finishing decade and since, they have gotten progressively worse. Instead of just depicting genre, the film trailers are now trying to show you all the best parts of the film. They have lost the essence of sales because originality is dying and there are less and less independent creators starting out.

I mean, just check out the brilliant trailer to Gangs of New York from almost twenty years' ago now:

And now check out the god awful trailer to "Suicide Squad" in which we all agree the only stuff worth watching was in the trailer:

There's no further reading for this one, just go and watch trailers from the Golden Age and early part of our century and tell me that they are not a billion times better than trailers right now.