I recently saw the great fun film Minions, but what would have made it better had been the fact that I had seen quite a few of the best laughs in trailers before, from the great Geoffrey Rush narrated opening with dinosaurs to Minions sharing baths with fire hydrants, sequences had also been seen via promotions, sky broadband and McDonalds
The problem with my argument is that I lost count of the number of Jurassic World adverts/previews/varied trailers (even the original one without finished CGI) and it has had the biggest opening of the year presumably from the buzz and the numerous materials being shared on social media platforms such as Facebook (Our page may have even shared it https://www.facebook.com/barkingmadaboutfilms ) so it does seem to be a strategy that is paying off for the studios
The campaigns also seem to start earlier and earlier, on seeing Minions, I saw a preview trailer for the studios next big film The Secret Life of Pets (toy story with pets rather than toys) which looks great and again I shared the trailer on social media as loved it and wanted to share it but I am sure variations will follow, with trailers from the perspective of different characters etc
Mad Max Fury Road was creating such a different buzz that the trailer for the Asian market was being shared just to show more footage so potentially you can get more preview by searching trailers of different continents and of course Max had a green trailer for all to see and the Red Band to give hints of its R/15 Rating
I have also mentioned before I am very much looking forward to the finale of the Hunger Games in Mockingjay Part 2 not out until November but so far have had the teaser trailer and the trailer but in addition to these 2 there was also the latest in trailers, the teaser of the trailer to create buzz for when the full version is released, which luckily in most cases is the next day
My favourite film of all time Jaws when released on DVD/Bluray did include the trailers from its 75 Original release and whilst seemed longer, it was more on telling the basics of what the story was and who the cast were and based on the book and not giving away too much of the film, new trailers (which of course I assume allow for most having seen it) feature the shark and set pieces of shark attacks etc
I love trailers, they help give a preview of things to come and even admit I am happy to share them on my social media platforms but I just feel they could be shorter and give away less
I actually think the new Star Wars trailer was a perfect example of how a trailer could be, gave hints of characters we wanted to see, various images quick and not giving too much away and straight away it got what the studio wanted, trending worldwide on social media platforms
I also accept that trailers can be very deceptive too, Prometheus had one of the most effective trailers of recent years with no dialogue but for me the film was a let down
I love the idea of films doing special campaigns to feature footage not included within the film (as long as its an extra on the DVD of course) the first one I remember was for the 1998 Hollywood version of Godzilla which features the Big G’s foot crushing through a skylight of a museum which wasn’t in the film
I also feel trailers need to be monitored, I still feel I should be able to claim my money back from the false advertising featured in the trailer for Predators which implied there would be 100’s of Predators taking aim on Adrien Brody, the reality was it was about 3
So I think with trailers, less is more but what about you, let me know
