DISQUS

_Christopher_M · 10 months ago

I think the main issue is that the people who cut the trailers are only given a few bits of footage without seeing the full movie...and a small guideline for what the studio wants to see....sometimes like with teasers there isn't even a rough cut finished so really there isn't a story set up...Terminator Salvation's teaser is a perfect example it didn't tell us anything besides it's the future and there are terminators...it is annoying when they cut a trailer to make a thriller like History of Violence out to be this shoot em up action flick...they do testing for the trailers online and in test groups so they only release a trailer that those people liked...I don't think it matters if it represents the story which it should

Cole_Abaius · 10 months ago

I wrote about this over a year ago concerning the idea of expectations in marketing. The main problems seem to be:

1) Showing all the good scenes in the trailer.
2) Misrepresenting a narrow film to draw in a larger audience.

I get frustrated with bad trailers for the same reason I get frustrated with bad commercials. If we look at sales as a service to the consumer, it should be done in the best way possible to maximize interest while delivering on that expectation. If I see a commercial for a product that's meant to mop floors, and I buy it only to find out it's crappy at mopping floors but awesome at tenderizing meat, I'll be pissed off. Unless I'm a butcher.

But still, marketing is difficult. However, when a trailer doesn't accurately represent the story, it's just lazy or stupid advertisement creation. Or just malicious.

DMuff · 10 months ago

I have a stigma of not getting to the theaters soon enough to see all the trailers, sometimes for me the trailers are just as important as the movie. So many times I've seen trailers then saw the movie and would wonder, what the hell happened to the cool scene from the preview. It's all sadly about getting you hooked in and having no qualms about throwing down ten bucks to see something that may be nothing like you thought.

Great article Robert, I'm glad someone finally brought this mess up.

Miscreantik · 10 months ago

Right on -- how accurately does the trailer represent the movie? Some trailers, I'm sure I'd have seen nearly every awesome scene in the film after watching the preview, or even be able to guess the entire narrative arc of the film. The real problem editing the trailer is: how much do I put in, and how much do I leave out? And damn it, either way it should be honest.

Homero · 10 months ago

I actually enjoy the dishonesty of trailers, it's become an art, or a skill I should say, to be able to tell a good movie from a bad one, based solely on the trailer. I happen to be really good (lucky?) at it so I treat it like a game, although sometimes it comes back to bite me in the ass...like Seven Pounds and Blindness.

Infinitejones · 10 months ago

I'm sure most people here have seen this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf7h6o3I8yw.A trailer for The Shining, re-cut as a feel-good romantic comedy. Genius.

Adriano Ariganello · 10 months ago

I think what Christopher M was saying applies more to teasers, such as his example 'Terminator: Salvation', than it does to full fledged trailers.

I agree with what Homero says, about picking out a bad movie has become fun. One thing I luck for that has yet to fail me is when someone falls down in a trailer, only to pop back up and say their okay, always ends up being a shitty movie.

Though no one falls down, Che is very similar to Cold Mountain's trailer, showing every scene of action throughout the four hours during the trailer, failing to inform the audience that most of the flick is spent watching people talk about Che in Spanish, as he stands by and observes.