LA Times (7/20/08):”His trailers keep moviegoers parked”

As mentioned in the previous post, last night before the screening I attended of The Dark Knight, there were six trailers of coming attractions. The number of ‘previews’ has gone up over the years, now typically 4 or 5, but with big box office movies like The Dark Knight, the moviegoer will likely see six. 

Why have studios pushed to increase the number of trailers in theaters? Because a movie’s trailer might be the best use of the studio’s marketing dollars. (A) The trailer plays for a targeted audience — if the movie that’s playing is a comedy, studios will tie-in comedy trailers, an action movie gets action trailers, and so on. (B) The trailer plays to a motivated audience, people who actually have enough enthusiasm for movies to slide their fannies off the Barcolounger and schlep to the movie theater. © There’s a better chance the viewer will pay attention to the trailer because there are less distraction in a movie theater than at home, work, etc (except for that jerk two rows down yakking on the cellphone). 

Finally, a trailer can be a great way to both inform and titillate viewers — who’s in the movie, some sense of what the plot is about, provide a glimpse at some big set pieces, sell the movie’s logline, push the movie’s release date.

Now that all sounds fine if — and it’s a big “if” — the studio presents a great trailer. And how do studios put together great trailers? Why, they hire people like Benedict Coulter, featured in this article in today’s LA Times. Interesting to read about this chap who has been involved in producing over 250 trailers including Con Air, Top Gun and one of my favorite trailers in the action genre The Rock.

I have a good friend who works for one of these outfits and I’ve had two students who actually cut trailers, so I’ve had a lot of conversations about the subject. If you think about it, a trailer is a way of telling a story, but almost as important as what plot elements, action, and dialogue they put into the trailer are what they keep out. One of my constant complaints is with trailers is the ones that give away too much — why do I need to see this movie if I feel like I’ve already seen it in the trailer?

By the way, here’s a screenwriting exercise: write a trailer for your story. Shot by shot the trailer you would cut for your script. It’s a great way for you to see what you think are the most important moments in the script.

So how about an example of a good trailer? I like this one for The X-Files: I Want to Believe. It tells a story, has a surprising amount of ‘room’ in it — silence, still images — and while it conveys the tone of the movie as well as some key plot elements, it leaves a lot up to the viewer’s imagination.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcuACKXK0FI