I'm a big trailer guy. Not the kind you live in, the kind you watch before a film. Whether it's in a theatre or in my own home, I like to watch trailers. I, like most people, watch because I want to know what's coming out. I like seeing selections of clips (that are meant to impress me or entice me) that are there to urge me to see the entire product. What I don't like, is being able to deduce what is going to happen throughout the film just by watching the trailer. I like a sense of intrigue and mystification that goes with walking into a film knowing little or nothing about it.
It seems to be that more and more trailers today are giving away crucial plot points/twists. Why should I see your film if you just showed me the entire thing in two and a half minutes? Case-in-point: "Letters to Juliet". I'll let you watch first then give my thoughts.
I think we just saw the entire film. In case you went momentarily deaf and blind and didn't get the message:
- Amanda Seyfried and her fiancée (who's too busy to pack with 12hrs until they depart for Italy) fly to Verona.
- She finds an old love letter - writes a response - meets the old woman who wrote the letter's attractive grandson - meets the old woman - then they all go on a journey to find her lost lover, Lorenzo
- Amanda Seyfried becomes disgruntled with her fiancée (Gael Garcia Bernal, why are you in this film?) because he actually works and can't spend time with her on a frivolous journey
- The chiseled blonde grandson ends up falling for the hot blonde Amanda Seyfried (didn't you see him almost hit that car while driving because he was looking at her? What a klutz!) and she for him because he is giving her attention she's not getting from her fiancée (can you say attention whore?)
- The old woman finds Lorenzo
- The blonde grandson and Amanda Seyfried have share a moment around a dinner table then go their separate ways
- The old woman says for the grandson to go after Amanda Seyfried, they meet up at a wedding and profess their love for each other and live happily ever after.
- Did I forget anything? Yes. The part where I won't be caught within 50 yards of this film.
This trailer is nothing new, nor is the worst of all of the offenders, but it is a part of the problem.
Accompanying these trailers are TV spots and other ads that give away more and more of a film. Recently, I remember being bombarded with TV spot after TV spot for "Kick-Ass" a film which I really wanted to see, so every time something came on I either muted the station or changed it entirely. Film studio marketing departments are flooding the market with their product so that people will know that their film is out there. It's not enough now to have a teaser trailer, theatrical trailer, billboards and bus stop posters, and TV commercials. Now there are multiple versions of trailers, red band, green band, extended trailers, character specific trailers. You name it, it probably exists. I used to be one of those guys that would watch any clip I could find on an upcoming film. Then I realized how much of the film was being revealed in each of those ads. Now I just watch the trailer a few times (it's rare that I watch it more than twice), read a review, see a few commercials then make my decision. I enjoy being surprised by plot twists, when I see a film for the first time, and I don't want the film ruined before I see it.
It's one thing when a trailer gives away some of the better jokes in a film ("Rush Hour 3") but I always thought a general rule of thumb for a trailer was to leave an audience wanting more. I guess somewhere down the line that rule became more of a guideline and that guideline was ultimately forgotten. It's a shame really, because if studios have to show your entire film in a trailer to an audience just for them to go see it what does that say about the film? I know what it says to me.
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