Main Menu

Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 28, 2024, 07:34:15 PM

Login with username, password and session length

Trailer Cliches

Started by AsparagusTrevor, November 07, 2010, 12:10:05 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

AsparagusTrevor

I've been to the cinema 3 times in the last couple of weeks, that's quite a lot for me, and, god, the trailers, they're all the fucking same!

Do they have some kind of trailer software, maybe called Trailernator 3000 or iTrail, with a few set templates?  I suppose it would be like one of those pieces of software which makes DVD menus.

You'd set the genre, Sci-Fi/Action, Horror/Thriller, Family/Cartoon/Fantasy, Comedy. Then you'd pick the narration voice, either that bloke with the deep voice or that other bloke with the slightly less deep voice. Then comes the captions, from either "This Summer/Winter/Fall/Christmas..." or "In a World...". There'd be a setting on this step for whether the text slowly moves away from the camera or towards it.

If you had picked Comedy, then you'd have to choose the clip where the music stops for the punchline to a joke. If you'd picked Horror/Thriller, then it'd be a choice of which clip is the jump-scare. Then top finish it off, you'd pick a song from the library of 10 tracks and click "ACTION!".

So yeah...

Shoulders?-Stomach!

The jump scare is so shit. It's 90% to do with sound, blasting out a big bass noise with some sort of shriek out of nowhere. That's bollocks. Easy, rubbish.




Serge

Of course, you've got the comedy trailer which starts with a serious-sounding voiceover before the sound of a needle across a record signals the comedy concept of the film. And how many younger viewers know what that sound is?

HappyTree


SavageHedgehog

When you see, for example, a trailer that talks about Time Magazine calling 3-D the future of movies, you know that it's actually going to be a trailer for the most fatuous 3D movie around,  in this case Jackass 3-D


Peru

Certainly in action/sci-fi/horror, here is a recent trend for a very quick succession of fade ins and outs (like one second, each accompanied by a drumbeat) - and then the inevitable cutting quicker and quicker to a strobe effect (usually including a pointless spoiler with major character being shot/hit by a car and killed etc), then a final single shot that lingers for slightly longer with building orchestra that shows off a SFX landscape shot or something similar, then the title, then the credits, then the website.

Comedy films often have a post credits/website bit of 'extra gag' to leave the audience laughing - or not.

eluc55

Someone, often a child or mystic, whispers: "He/It is coming"

Latest one I noticed it in is the new Harry Potter trailer.

babyshambler


Marty McFly

Quote from: AsparagusTrevor on November 07, 2010, 12:10:05 PM
Then you'd pick the narration voice, either that bloke with the deep voice or that other bloke with the slightly less deep voice. Then comes the captions, from either "This Summer/Winter/Fall/Christmas..." or "In a World...". There'd be a setting on this step for whether the text slowly moves away from the camera or towards it.

'THE' voiceover man died a couple of years ago :(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QPMvj_xejg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_LaFontaine




Peru

Quote from: eluc55 on November 07, 2010, 12:58:20 PM
Someone, often a child or mystic, whispers: "He/It is coming"

Latest one I noticed it in is the new Harry Potter trailer.

Yes - add to that 'It's started' and 'It's time'.

gmoney

If it's a light comedy, there's usually a moment about two thirds in were the male and female leads are shown running about to the strains of ELO's Mr. Blue Sky. Seen this in at least 3 trailers, one was definitely Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

El Unicornio, mang

"Walking On Sunshine" used in every comedy trailer ever

AsparagusTrevor

Trailers for sequels, especially comedy sequels, manage to to include "...and this time..." in them somewhere.

Also I've noticed there doesn't seem to be any middle ground with trailers, everything is defaulted to the same extremity. Comedies, no matter what kind of comedy, will play up the wackiness. Horror, even if it's psychological, will still go for the loud jump-scares.

Marty McFly

Hahahaha, I've got Spotify on as I'm reading this thread and an ad just came on beginning with the words 'once in a lifetime a car comes along...'

You couldn't make it up

El Unicornio, mang

I remember for a while comedy sequel trailers had the line "It's time to fall in love all over again" or something like that

* The name/logo of a comedy movie will finally appear very near the end of the trailer, followed immediately by a cut to another hilarious quip by one of the characters to reinforce that it is indeed a comedy.

AsparagusTrevor

Look at any trailer for whatever the latest Dreamworks 'next bunch of animals on our list with celebrity voices' type film is, they'll have a shot which is presumably a scene from the film, but it will have a massive '3D' stuck in there somewhere, as if it's part of the landscape or something.

El Unicornio, mang

They do that quite a lot with "serious" films too, for instance Spider-Man: "You're not Superman you know!" with a Peter Parker reaction shot taken from a different bit of the movie (something else trailers do a lot, which is odd when you see the actual film and it's totally different)

* In serious action / thriller movie trailers, there'll be a section of various brief fade-in/fade-to-black shots back-to-back of different overcast locations or worried looking characters. Add some synchronised 'thump-thump' heartbeat sfx for each fade-in and the trailer cliche is complete!

lipsink

Trailers for sequels have that bit where all the sound all dies out and the screen goes black and then a voice says something like "Hello, Sidney!"

Or action films used to have:

"The one thing they didn't count on... (knife hits dartboard)...was the COOK!"


Subtle Mocking

For shitty comedies, they'll usually say it's 'the funniest movie since [insert similarly shit comedy name].' Most recently seen on the trailer for that pile of wank with the one with the beard from the Hangover. Even the Hangover was bollocks, wasn't it?

Phil_A

For comedies, Hanna Barbera style sound effects dubbed over reaction shots - recently seen in the Burke & Hare trailer. Also pointless "woosh" noises.

I'd happily never see a single action movie trailer featuring a variation of "War is coming, and you'd better be ready to choose a side!" again.

lipsink

"The best British film since Four Weddings..." was used for every British film in the 90s.

AsparagusTrevor

Kinda off subject slightly, but does anyone know if there are any strict ASA style standards a trailer has to adhere to?

Quote from: Garfield And Friends on November 07, 2010, 03:52:22 PM
* In serious action / thriller movie trailers, there'll be a section of various brief fade-in/fade-to-black shots back-to-back of different overcast locations or worried looking characters. Add some synchronised 'thump-thump' heartbeat sfx for each fade-in and the trailer cliche is complete!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8quOsfmFto

Case in point, though this film looks awesome.

'50s horror B-movie trailers cannot get enough of those lovely exclamation marks.

idunnosomename

*music stops*
*animal farts*
*man reacts*
*music resumes*

Feralkid

I think this covers every trailer cliché, save for the use of "Bishop's countdown" from the score to Aliens.   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbhrz1-4hN4