The Art of the Movie Trailer

Many really cool trailers out there. The art of the edit can make or break the interest of the audience.


Some make a movie look cool, but it ends up sucking.



Some are awesome flicks, despite the craptacular trailer. Have you ever seen the original Star Wars' trailer. Makes it look so boring.


Some are very TRANSparent, though.


Give your favorite, least favorite or intersting trailers from your opinion. Let's talk about the good, the bad, and the predictable, but most of all, discuss.

Man, that Star Wars trailer was awful. I remember seeing an interview with Mark Hamill where he talks about being in the back of a theater when the Star Wars trailer first played and how everyone was laughing and saying how stupid it looked.

^ That'd be embarrassing. He totally redeemed himself despite that.

I remember in a documentary, the fact that they didn't have the score made it hollow, and what was missing from the trailer. Because, let's face it, a Star Wars film missing that classical score would be missing a piece of the heart of the films.

^Agreed about the score.

I had taped the The Lost World: Jurassic Park trailer off of that old trailer show on E, and watched it like a hundred times a day when I was 12 or so. It will always remain my favorite preview.

It's the story of a boy, a girl, and a Universe.

ROFL!

I can't even count how many times I watched all of The Dark Knight trailers.

^ Very good one. Those trailers I ate up.

With the exception of the teaser, which doesn't really count (hence teaser), each trailer was a mini-movie. How most trailers should be treated.

The second was much more Joker/Dent/Rachel oriented.

Thundermatts wrote:I had taped the The Lost World: Jurassic Park trailer off of that old trailer show on E, and watched it like a hundred times a day when I was 12 or so. It will always remain my favorite preview.

I remember being so wide-eyed during this trailer.

Just TDK meant SO much to me. From being an extra to meeting Bale and Oldman, to being part of the viral marketing (I have a Joker card and one of the phones) to just everything. It was honestly the biggest case of blue balls ever. From the moment Heath was cast to seeing the movie a week before anybody (I had press privileges then)...just the experience of it all.

The trailer that looked awesome was Rob Zombie's Halloween. Then after watching the movie it was a gigantic WTF of a film.

Has anyone ever seen the trailer for Psycho the one Hitchcock did?? He actually tells you all the plot points in the movie

I thought when Saw first came out the trailers were great but by the 4th one they all became the same boring setup.

For recent films, I was definately intrigued by Hostel. I could not wait to see it, and actually loved it. The sequel however...

Thundermatts wrote:For recent films, I was definately intrigued by Hostel. I could not wait to see it, and actually loved it. The sequel however...

Hostel 2 was Hostel 1 with girls being tortured instead.

Spaced4SimonPegg wrote:

Thundermatts wrote:For recent films, I was definately intrigued by Hostel. I could not wait to see it, and actually loved it. The sequel however...

Hostel 2 was Hostel 1 with girls being tortured instead.

Actually, it wasn't, and that was my problem. If I remember correctly, one person was killed on screen.

I think Hostel 2 had more deaths, it just wasn't as intense. It was a good idea, I thought. Taking the pov of the rich, eccentric killers instead.

The bad thing about the Saw trailers, they all seem too similar. The first two or three were creepy, but then it just became redundant with each trailer.

Remember how deceptive this little trailer was? Barely a trailer and made it seem so cool.

But it wasn't...sucked.

Thundermatts wrote:

Spaced4SimonPegg wrote:

Thundermatts wrote:For recent films, I was definately intrigued by Hostel. I could not wait to see it, and actually loved it. The sequel however...

Hostel 2 was Hostel 1 with girls being tortured instead.

Actually, it wasn't, and that was my problem. If I remember correctly, one person was killed on screen.

In Hostel 2..one person was killed on screen?? Bijou Phillips got a powersaw to the face, the one dude got eaten by dogs, the other dude had his dick and balls fed to a dog and Heather Mazarr...(however you spell her name) was killed with a giant sword thingy

Do you mean to actually watch them die or to know they died (Off screen)?

BlueMaxx wrote:Remember how deceptive this little trailer was? Barely a trailer and made it seem so cool.

But it wasn't...sucked.

Yes. Also this one is a prime example of when the poster is better than the movie.

Spaced4SimonPegg wrote:

Thundermatts wrote:

Spaced4SimonPegg wrote:

Thundermatts wrote:For recent films, I was definately intrigued by Hostel. I could not wait to see it, and actually loved it. The sequel however...

Hostel 2 was Hostel 1 with girls being tortured instead.

Actually, it wasn't, and that was my problem. If I remember correctly, one person was killed on screen.

In Hostel 2..one person was killed on screen?? Bijou Phillips got a powersaw to the face, the one dude got eaten by dogs, the other dude had his dick and balls fed to a dog and Heather Mazarr...(however you spell her name) was killed with a giant sword thingy

Do you mean to actually watch them die or to know they died (Off screen)?

I mean one person died on screen. Heather Mazz. Bijou's death was hidden by the guy stepping in front of the camera (even though the actual death blow was shown on a grainy black and white screen in the first place) The doors shut when the dogs start eating the guy, They do show the weiner alot, but still it's not a death (Though, obviously he does die) and the guy from the first one is killed off screen. It was a joke. I like my torture porn to show people dying, thank you very much. We saw one person actually be killed with our own eyes. What's the point?

^ That is true. But the bad girl, forget her name, was taken out by the protaganist with an axe-decapitation, and the "Bathory" death scene with the nerdy girl was pretty...grim.

Spaced4SimonPegg wrote:Yes. Also this one is a prime example of when the poster is better than the movie.

Have you ever listened to the entire song called Insect Eyes. Soooo creepy.

Not a Smashing Pumpkins fan, but who didn't get frickin' goosebumps...

The first trailer for Sin City:



The original teaser for the first Spider-Man movie. I saw this once in the theater a year before the movie came out and I totally freaked when I realized what it movie it was.



Even though I thought the prequels sucked, I still thought the trailer for ROTS made it look pretty cool.



Another movie I didn't like much, but I remember thinking it looked really good.

Sin City's trailer edit really grabbed the vibe of the movie so well.

That Spider-Man trailer...I'd forgotten about the Twin Towers web scene, let alone that I had no clue of the build up before it. I thought it was Normon or something. Gave the Spidey movie a slight TDK feel to it. I wonder if they'll ever be reasonable enough to put that into a future release?

Revenge of the Sith was a great movie. The best of the prequels. The trailer was a really good promise of it being good, and it kept it, I thought anyway.

TLTW&TW was reallly disappointing when I saw it in theatres. So very PC. I mean, they were technically kids books, but they weren't so light-note with the themes and action.

I may be misunderstanding you Blue, but if you didn't know, The Spider-Man trailer was never meant to be in the film. It was specifically the trailer, which of course they pulled ater 9-11.

^ Oh. That's a shame. It looks like it would've been a great Spider-Man "intro" post Uncle Ben.