I’m a recovering trailer-addict, — No, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to you that this statement incorporates one of the largest trailer databases online, that’s no coincidence –as a film lover, one of the best ways to get your pre-film release fix is to watch the movie’s trailer. But trailers are no longer simply another way for theater chains to make a quick buck by playing them in front of a movie, they are a major part of the online movie fandom. So what’s so bad about them?
First a little background, the first recorded usage of a trailer was back in 1913, when a theater owner decided to create a promotional for The Pleasure Seekers. As can be expected, the difference between these early trailers and the ones seen today is night and day. In fact, the trailer as we know it wasn’t first seen until the 1960’s with Stanley Kubrick utilizing his considerable eye for editing with his trailer for Dr. Strangelove:
Even with this film, however, the trailer was seen and used as a completely different entity. Unlike nowadays, Kubrick still created the trailer and was responsible for its creation. There was no studio interference or large marketing firm behind the trailer, just one man’s artistic vision. Now look at the state of trailers today, not only does the director not create the trailer, but he has no say over what scenes, images, or sounds will be placed into the trailer, as it is now up to a marketing firm and large corporate studio to try to sell their product by utilizing what they think will sell. In other words, they will often include the climatic or most exciting/important moments of the film.
Going back a bit, let me clarify that by “trailer addict” I don’t mean I necessarily liked them. Trailers have always agitated me in their insistence on spoiling major portions of the product they’re attempting to sell. I simply mean that I watched almost every trailer that was released, partially because I felt like it was my job as an online movie writer, and partially because I liked to get a sense of what movies I should be looking forward to.
Trailers should be their own art-form, this is the argument for the less-cynical filmgoer who enjoys movie trailers for what they should be, not are. For me, they break down on two separate levels. The majority of the time, trailers become unbearable for me when it comes to spoilers. Too often nowadays marketing firms will ruin a big reveal, simply show a condensed version of the movie from act one through act three, or even, as has become the habit lately, show the finale in a trailer.
For example, I’ll use three recent trailers as example. When I saw Drive back in September I wrote in my review will know, I enjoyed the film a lot, but had I seen the trailers or marketing for the film beforehand, I would have definitely felt cheated. The trailers make the film seem like an action-packed portrait of one man fighting wolves, when in fact it’s a story of a man’s confrontation with himself and nature, two vastly different things. Not only is the film marketed to the wrong audience, almost every trailer and TV spot I’ve seen features the final scene, as well as glimpses of what may have happened after the final scene, but ended up either being put after the credits or cut from the film altogether.
I understand the need for studios to market their film and attempt to attract certain audience demographics to make their film successful, but the whole nature of movie marketing and trailers in general needs to be seriously reconsidered before you’ll find me watching them any time soon.
This column post was written by Hypable Movies Editor Jeremy Baril. Follow him on Twitter @_jeremybaril!
We want to hear your thoughts on this topic!
Write a comment below or submit an article to Hypable.