There’s an encouraging trend lately in movie trailers to just show a short clip from the movie instead of a bunch of disjointed cut scenes that usually include bold lettering and obnoxious voice-overs. The other big problem with modern-day trailers is giving away too much of the story. Long gone are the days when trailers would just give you enough to be intrigued and want to see the movie. Now they play like a cliff notes version of the actual film.
The Ender’s Game trailer is a good example of giving everything away. The last frames of the trailer actually show the ending of the movie. Kind of ridiculous.
In a previous post, I mentioned that my all-time favorite trailer is Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove. What I love about it, and trailers like it, is that it gives you a sense of the film without telling you too much. Also, being a comedy, it’s nice that not all of the funny parts of the film are in it (there is a LOT more funny in that movie).
But I’m encouraged as of late with some really effective trailers that were just a cut of one of the scenes from the film. Here are a few this year that were simple, straightforward, and powerful.
Gravity
How to Train your Dragon 2
Hell Comes to Frogtown
And for the uninitiated, the 1988 film, Hell Comes to Frogtown, is a bizarre and classic B-movie. I did a little cutting to make my own trailer for it. Watch this and tell me you are not dying to see the film after only this short clip. Frogs, guns, beautiful girls, action, love story. What more could you want and all in 30 seconds. And you have no idea how this is going to end. Perfect.