Tale of Two Trailers and What Works: 10 Cloverfield Lane and Star Trek Beyond

In which I pit good trailers against bad trailers for the same movie using 10 Cloverfield Lane and Star Trek Beyond.

People love trailers. I mostly do not. It's like reading the Wikipedia entry for Infinite Jest or Wuthering Heights and being like, "yeah I get it now, don't have to read those long-ass books." I like the full experience. Narratives are designed with the expectation that the reader/watcher does not know everything that happens up to Act III before they begin. And that's the trailer's trade-off that is tricky to balance -- how to sell someone on something without spoiling it? But a trailer that can whet the viewer's appetite while only revealing little is its own art form. And such trailers are sublime. Here's a tale of two of recent trailer success contrasted against alternate trailers for the same movie.

10 Cloverfield Lane

This is perfect. 10 Cloverfield Lane rivets on its own as a movie but this trailer creates a self-contained story punched up with the tight, 2 minute pulsing Shondells' classic, I Think We're Alone Now. Put the quarter in the jukebox, play the music, people hanging out, in a small space, Game of Life, cooking, dancing, rumble, rumble, music slows, wait what is going on, tension rises...ascending the stairs, fleeing, "something's coming...", what now?The trailer is s a kinetic, riveting, strange, short movie that stands alone successfully.

Here's the trailer that accompanied the ad campaign for the Blu-Ray release...

Ye gods. Stuff happens, jump cuts, nothing has time to breathe or build, and it spoils through Act II into Act III. Just a mess. The first is a work of art, this is a fail.

Star Trek Beyond

STAR FAST &TREK FURIOUS!!! "Is that music?" "It's a good choice." How did it take 20 years for someone to use The Beastie Boys' Sabotage in a trailer, a song whose video is itself a trailer for a fictional movie. This is just a pure burner. I could watch this a million times. It's mostly well-paced gibberish. But that's all a trailer HAS to be. That's actually what the video for Sabotage was. "No ship, no crew, how are we going to get out of this one." A motorcycle in space going off a ramp? Explosions? A jump off a vehicle careening off a cliff? A base jump? Take my money. Note that both successful trailers incorporate a tight, fast-paced ripping pop song.

And then more recently the Star Trek marketing team switched to...

"Now you spent all this time trying to be your, Dad, now you're wondering what it means to be you." I do not care about James Kirk's father issues. It's not compelling. I am a fan and yet there's no pull there, it doesn't sell, certainly not to anyone who doesn't know Kirk. And then the most of the plot is revealed clearly all the way to Act III. There's a slow, maudlin generic score. And stuff happens. And it's dour. You could probably cut in a random battle from Warcraft in there and Jupiter Ascending and no one would have blinked or cared. Where's the fun?

They had perfection, why go this way? And which movie would you prefer to see? The first trailer's movie, or the second? And for the love of Dom, why not just actually make Star Fast &Trek Furious?

Two Shots: I digest movies into two shots and some words. I will strive to be spoiler free because my hope is that each time I write, it's a jumping off point for someone else to check out a movie they otherwise wouldn't. Or even for someone with a sharp thought to drop it down below. Follow me if you love movies or want to start and check out the #movies tag. I am looking forward to a long, beautiful Steeming experience as I get the hang of this medium.