Trailer trash

A few months back, Telf wrote an entry about good and bad film trailers, something which has also become a gripe of my own more and more recently. I'd go along more or less with pretty much everything Telf talks about in that post. A couple of trailers that have struck me as annoyingly bad - mainly because after watching them I felt like I didn't need to see the film any more, as most of the plot, including twists and character relationships, had been told to me - are those for Street Kings and 21.

Street Kings:


21:


Ludicrously, those two trailers need to come with a spoiler warning, as if you're planning to see either of those films you probably shouldn't watch the trailers so that you're left with some form of surprise when you watch the actual films.

In contrast, one trailer that really caught my attention recently is for Funny Games.

Funny Games:


The effectiveness of this trailer compared to the first two is that whilst it tells you the basic premise of the film, that's as far as it goes in terms of plot. Very little is actually given to you. There are few lines spoken which gives the trailer an added minimalist edge and allows the images to do the talking. The fast paced movement of clips and words on the screen works to build the excitement tremendously. I now very much want to see Funny Games on the strength of the trailer and the little I've read about it, and feel that when I do most of what it shows me will be fresh and unknown. The trailer itself is probably the best I've seen since this, which is the best trailer I can remember seeing in recent memory, and possibly the most effective trailer I've ever seen...



If you're not convinced about the power of a decent trailer, then check out these genre-subverting homemade trailers for two very famous films. The second is incredibly effective in particular, but both do a great job in playing with genre but only using original film footage:





I defy you to find a scarier Disney film trailer than the last video.