Watch the trailer below for ‘Armored’, (Spoiler Alert – the trailer is the entire film, presented in a linear and condensed format):
Now watch the trailer for ‘Up in the Air’:
See the difference?
I have a fond memories as a kid attending a 5 hour trailer marathon at the old UC Theatre in Berkeley. Each trailer, almost without exception, tried to do something, something exciting, something novel, something to get you to see the picture: without showing you the whole g*ddam* film.
When did the art form of crafting interesting, intelligent, humorous, sly, novel, witty, unexpected, chilling, thrilling trailers die? When did it become such a lost art that the ‘Up in the Air’ trailer stands out so? Answers in the form of a comment please. What happened – when did folks get so scared – too frightened to be able to anything but the most base, obvious thing?*
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Here’s a trailer, that does something a bit different:
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* This is not to disparage the people who so skillfully create a ‘condensed movie’ such as the Armored trailer, that’s an actual skill – I mean to disparage those who order it done.
11 responses so far.
1 Kelly Stewart // Sep 10, 2009 at 8:59 am
Jett: I had expected your post to be about the difference in how we see ourselves as a community in trailers. Meaning, I had hoped, without yet going to your blog from Facebook, that your piece was about how we as a culture and nation are reflected in trailers-as-marketing. For instance, I dreamed that one marketer/editor saw us as a weak nation or individuals in one trailer while another marketer/editor painted a stronger picture of us.
Yes, I was dreaming. Maybe a topic for a future TFT article?
2 Jett Loe // Sep 10, 2009 at 9:04 am
Interesting – write it up and post it as a comment! :)
3 John Muth // Sep 10, 2009 at 11:41 am
(Hey, whatever happened to Jett giving us video responses?)
Hmm, I'm not sure about this outlook. Maybe it's that I'm a jaded movie-buff and know the tropes so well, that I look at that Up In The Air trailer and see it presented as a “life is more important than work” romantic comedy-like movie, with a nice narration by George Clooney. I look at the trailer for Armored and it see it presenting us with the always appropriate, “Action-packed, adrenaline-fueled thrill-ride.” (Are there supposed to be that many hyphens?) And as for the Psycho trailer, well maybe it's the benefit of hind-sight, but he's really giving away quite a bit of the movie, isn't he?
And while I would agree that there is a base of the majority of previews that are unimaginative, and look to give away the whole movie, there are still a number of great, great trailers being produced. Really, you just have to follow the filmmakers that make the best movies. Jason Reitman is one, the Up In The Air trailer is great for its sort of “manifesto-esque” diatribe over the visuals of the characters; and his previous movies have done great trailers to get people to want to see the movies (especially, Thank You For Smoking). The Coen Bros. recent trailer for their upcoming movie, A Serious Man – if you haven't seen it, you MUST! – is I think probably my favorite trailer of all time. And it doesn't really give away anything about the plot.
Scorsese's trailer for Shutter Island, Spike Jonze's Where The Wild Things Are, and maybe it's just my excitement for the movie, but John Hillcoat's The Road, got me really anxious to see the movie. Trailers are meant to pique an interest in a movie. Whether that be the art of telling the movie in a consolidated form, or creating an artful, if abstract vision of what the movie is, it's just trying to get us in the theater – and I have to say Armored's trailer has done that. (It also helps, that I actually just watched that director's first movie, Kontroll, and I can't wait to see what ELSE he has in store for us, in the movie. Or if it all really is in the trailer, then it at least looks fun.)
Whoo…
4 Jett Loe // Sep 10, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Great comment John – though I'll have to disagree with you about 'Armored' – I've feel I've seen the pic now – though your comment gives me pause as I've haven't seen Kontroll – we shall see…
5 John Muth // Sep 11, 2009 at 6:54 am
Kontroll is on Netflix Watch Instantly. I'd recommend it.
As for Armored, to each their own, I guess. Of course, I'm also one of those people that enjoys spoilers and it doesn't affect or hinder my watching a movie, so that might be part of it.
6 Jett Loe // Sep 11, 2009 at 7:02 am
I'll check out Kontroll asap – cheers
as for Armored – it looks from the trailer that the 'fake heist' was meant to be a surprise not just to the protagonist but also to us in the audience – this may not be true of course, there may be a scene of them planning to punk the new guy etc – but we are supposed to be surprised, if it's the director's intention to use Hitchcockian methods of suspense, then the trailer ruins it.
I think what's happening here for me is that I was raised on Hitchcock – a director who played the audience like an instrument so I have a bias towards that – hence my having to literally look away, (or leave for a short period), at the cinema if a trailer is playing for a film i want to see.
There are many other types of cinema of course – but I really do love to be surprised -
7 GarethHiggins // Sep 11, 2009 at 8:20 am
Is it too optimistic to hope that having LOVED 'Kontroll', that the trailer itself might actually be pulling the wool over the eyes of the audience, and that there may still be some surprises in 'Armored'? On current evidence, I'd say it probably is, but Nimrod Antal is, to my mind, a real director who seems to want to make real films, if you know what I mean.
8 Duncan // Sep 12, 2009 at 12:49 am
Thank god i'm not the only one!
I've been bitten so many times by trailers spoiling films. Every week when I go to the cinema now I have to wait outside the Screen until the trailers are over and then run in before the movie starts.
My girlfriend thinks i'm crazy as she loves them, as indeed everyone else i know loves them. The fact that you are told almost the whole story doesn't seem to matter. Major plot points and even hints at a final twist all seem to be fair game.
However, trailers can be such good fun and even make your mouth water at the prospect of seeing the worst summer blockbuster.
As mentioned, 'Up in the Air' is an incredibly rare example. Why more 'similar' trailers aren't produced, i guess is because most people don't care, so why take the risk. The formulas are there, well established and they work – (a trailer made me waste £10 on Transformers 2 arghh).
I 'accidentally' saw the trailer for Shutter Island recently and although it looks fantastic and i can't wait to see the movie, I'm already regretting watching it as i know way to much…..
9 Jett Loe // Sep 12, 2009 at 3:56 am
It's not just trailers – it's the whole internet culture of knowing huge amounts about a pic before it comes out, (Aint It Cool reporting on Deal Memos, the Scripts, Concept Art etc.); as I've mentioned on the show this perhaps makes these types of films, (meaning the 'fantasy' pictures that an AIC would focus on), less about the film itself and more about the social experience of participating in the pic via anticipation, dissection afterward, etc.
i remember as a kid seeing Terminator in a theatre – and nobody there had any idea what it was about – it just showed up – no one had heard about it – so imagine the surprise in the audience – the tension, the drama. much of this is gone now.
10 Duncan // Sep 12, 2009 at 7:49 am
Thank god i'm not the only one!
I've been bitten so many times by trailers spoiling films. Every week when I go to the cinema now I have to wait outside the Screen until the trailers are over and then run in before the movie starts.
My girlfriend thinks i'm crazy as she loves them, as indeed everyone else i know loves them. The fact that you are told almost the whole story doesn't seem to matter. Major plot points and even hints at a final twist all seem to be fair game.
However, trailers can be such good fun and even make your mouth water at the prospect of seeing the worst summer blockbuster.
As mentioned, 'Up in the Air' is an incredibly rare example. Why more 'similar' trailers aren't produced, i guess is because most people don't care, so why take the risk. The formulas are there, well established and they work – (a trailer made me waste £10 on Transformers 2 arghh).
I 'accidentally' saw the trailer for Shutter Island recently and although it looks fantastic and i can't wait to see the movie, I'm already regretting watching it as i know way to much…..
11 Jett Loe // Sep 12, 2009 at 10:56 am
It's not just trailers – it's the whole internet culture of knowing huge amounts about a pic before it comes out, (Aint It Cool reporting on Deal Memos, the Scripts, Concept Art etc.); as I've mentioned on the show this perhaps makes these types of films, (meaning the 'fantasy' pictures that an AIC would focus on), less about the film itself and more about the social experience of participating in the pic via anticipation, dissection afterward, etc.
i remember as a kid seeing Terminator in a theatre – and nobody there had any idea what it was about – it just showed up – no one had heard about it – so imagine the surprise in the audience – the tension, the drama. much of this is gone now.
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