Movie Trailers

I was watching a film that I own on DVD today.  Once I finished the film itself I watched the trailers part of the special features because I like watching movie trailers, I'm weird like that.

The reason I like watching trailers is that there is a definite art to making them appealing without including too many of the best parts of the film.  The truly fantastic trailers tell you everything you need to know to make a choice about whether the film is in a genre you like and whether it is worth you watching it without giving away a single major plot development.  Most trailers, though, give away some plot points in the hope that you'll be swept up in the movie enough to forget that you've already seen this particular joke/twist/whatever already - and yes some films even achieve this.

One of the trailers on this DVD (the main film was Men Who Stare at Goats btw) was for Nine which, being a musical, seems an odd choice to pair with this film.  Beyond it being a musical, and something to do with directing for either stage or screen, I still know absolutely nothing about this movie's plot.  I know it has a pretty exceptional cast, but as much as Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman and Daniel Day-Lewis make the film an appealing prospect I have no desire to see a film that I know nothing about, and don't feel an inclination to find out more (ok that's a lie in this instance, but only because its a musical - and I'm sure there are many people out there who wouldn't be swayed by the SINGLE SONG that the entire trailer is set to).  You can see it for yourself here.

My feelings about this trailer:

So for all that I just said I enjoy watching trailers, this one I didn't.  Think of it like someone saying I like fine art and then going to an exhibition of work by colourblind kindergarten children.  There seemed to be no understanding that some effort needs to be made to suggests more of the story than "I'm in the entertainment industry and I have some sort of directorial problem.  People sing at me."  Although at least it didn't resort to overenthusiastic voiceover man to just tell us what the story is about, that's usually a pretty severe cop out and even when it isn't it's pretty much been done to death.

For an example of a much better trailer recently, you need not go past the Les Miserables one, this has some truly great visuals and gives some indication of the story without giving it away, such as setting up the animosity between Valjean and Javert with the shots of Valjean pulling the rope to move the tallship while Javert looks down condesceningly from on high.  It gives snatches of a range of songs and even though it has a huge cast there is an indication of the motivations of most of the main characters and the world they live in.

My feelings about this trailer:

And this isn't just because, well it's Les Mis either.

What I'm getting at here is there is a definite art to making a trailer for a film and it can be so very enjoyable to watch a trailer that is well done and excruciating to watch one that isn't.  It's even more so when you have a particular interest in them.  I really don't understand why companies that pour millions of dollars into some of these films don't put more effort into the trailers and marketing for them, maybe someone could explain it to me?