Tease: The art of trailer-making

We live in a time where a movie is judged(prematurely) on its trailer. People decide whether or not they will see a movie based, for the most part on the trailer. Later, there are other factors that figure in people's decision to see a certain film, such as: the actors that star in the film, the director, the subject matter e.t.c. Looking at trailers is a fundamental part of going to the cinema.
But what makes a good trailer?
Some would argue that a good trailer exposes the main plot without giving too much away and from a marketing perspective, the trailer should display the qualities of the film that will intrigue the selected demographic(impressive CGI, nostalgic period film e.t.c). These initiatives are vital to trailer making but one must also consider the relationship between the trailer and the finished film. If the studios are aware that the film they are supporting is a half hearted, formulaic romantic comedy, how do they get people into the cinema to see it.




In this trailer, Jason Bateman is presented as the main character who will bring people into the cinema to see this movie. This is the studio making an effort to cover the fact that this is another Jennifer Aniston bland, romantic comedy because she doesn't bring in as much as she used to. Furthermore, most of the narrative is exposed in the trailer, the only thing left for us to speculate when we see the movie is Jennifer Aniston's reaction to "The Switch". The trailer uses light, pop rock taken from some commercial bands(The Kooks) to try and intrigue a certain demographic.Thus, such a trailer leads the potential audience to suspect that the film is mediocre(and lo and behold it is). The people who compiled the trailer were more concerned on marketing techniques than inspiring intrigue and curiosity because they know the film isn't incredible.

Here's a good trailer for a bad movie. The trailer roars to us "Beowulf has celebrity actors, impressive CGI, atmospheric score and exciting action". But when people actually went to see it(82,280,579 dollars domestic total gross), they realized that CGI isn't impressive if you have to sit through 2 hours of it. Therefore, it didn't matter if Angelina Jolie gave a poignant, vocal performance, if there were intense action sequences and orchestral soundtrack because they are undermined by the incessant CGI.

This a perfect example of a good trailer. It exposes the main narrative but omits most of the subplots and twists thus this trailer uses intrigue and ambiguity to attract potential spectators. The trailer devotes a lot of time to Leanardo Di Caprio's character, his anxieties, his mission and the fact that he is a tormented man with a mysterious past. All of this displays the films character depth. They use music scored specifically for the movie by Hans Zimmer and is therefore well adapted to the trailer. Inception is an intellectualy deep blockbuster, thus the trailer for movies like this consists mainly on affecting an audience's curiosity by being ambiguous and implicit.

Making a trailer for Inception seems too easy because it is a good movie, backed by a popular director and it seemed destined to cause a stir at the box office(This is also due to the fact that it is a Summer Blockbuster). But what do you do when you don't have Cristopher Nolan and Leo Di Caprio, when you don't have a charming couple like Jason Bateman and Jennifer Aniston? How do you make a trailer if you don't have any assets or if you're movie is just plain bad?


You fill the trailer with catchy, popular soul music and poignant indie music(the former for the happy climax and the latter for the poignant conflict) and ask the audience dumb rhetorical question like: "Have you ever dreamed?"

Thud

The idea for the film Thud was a joke, Roch and I came up with one sweaty day in the South of France. Now it has blossomed into one elaborate, giant joke. Ideas are sprouting from everywhere. It is incredible that a coherent story has been created just from one silly joke. Of course it is not all original ideas, we are making fun of some genres and taking stuff from others but it is unusual to think that inspiration is on one hand random but at the same time it seems to come from within us. Silly as this little "distraction" might have been, it has really refreshed my desire to make films, the DIY element of making films at least. Anyway, we already have Thud 3 and 4 planned out and they seem to get progressively more ambitous and longer.