Ebert on trailers
As part of his excellent essay on the rules film critics should at least try to follow, legendary writer Roger Ebert includes the following notes about trailers and how much attention should be paid to them:
Trailers. Have nothing to do with them. Gene Siskel hated them so much he would stand outside a theater until they were over. If he was already seated in the middle of a crowded theater, he would shout “fire!” plug his ears and stare at the floor. Trailers love to spoil all the best gags in a comedy, hint at plot twists in a thriller, and make every film, however dire, look upbeat..
A trailer is not a movie. Thus, when urged to select your “picks of the week,” you must never pick a trailer for an upcoming film. You must actually wait to see the film itself.
I should mention that I agree with him whole-heartedly about trailers and the role they can/should play in the actual review of the movie. But I also want to take this opportunity to remind people that what you read on MMM is a review of the marketing components of a movie and not the movie itself. What I try to do is look at how that marketing campaign achieves its goal of reaching target audiences, conveying branding and other objectives.
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Comments
Ofcourse a trailer tries to make the movie sound upbeat and fun and whimsical and whatever else it is trying to market to its audience. Trailers are advertisements, and just like ads they must sell the benefits. I love trailers, i also love infomercials, and just like an AS SEEN ON TV product or any commercial product, sometimes you are disappointed because the advertisement/trailer doesn’t deliver. But I still stay up till 3 AM watching The Chop Wizard, OxyClean and The Magic Bullet-Countertop Magician, and I will continually rush into a movie theater just so i can watch the trailers.- Vive les Trailers
Hmm…I go back and forth on the use and effectiveness of trailers. I consider them invaluable to a movie’s marketing campaign, but as an almost 20-year, part-time-to-supplement-income film projectionist (the old-school,non-platter type), I go through cycles where I look forward to seeing them before a movie vs. times that I want to close my eyes and ears while they’re on the screen. Fact is that if they accurately represent a movie in as few key scenes as possible, great! If they completely misrepresent (MISTER FOE as a recent example), then it’s a waste of everyone’s time and a reason to raise one’s guard for ANY future trailer.
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It’s an “extreme” view, if you will, to say “have nothing to do with them.” I think he’s missing the point. The general public is much savvier than he gives them credit for; most people see trailers as yet another form of entertainment and as a way to become aware of what’s coming up – many times ahead of non-moviegoers, as the theatrical teasers seem to come out way ahead of the tv spots. I don’t think that most serious moviegoers are basing their decisions on whether or not to see a movie, entirely on its trailer. I could be wrong. In any case – long LIVE the trailer! I might be biased.