Dear readers,

Welcome back to the Trailer Brief, and welcome to all of the new subscribers! I noticed many members from Cut/Daily have come aboard, and I’m so happy to have you here.

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I’m really excited about this edition, because for the first time I’m able to cover the second leg of marketing campaigns. In earlier editions, I wrote about some teasers that stood out: NEON’s Hope and IFC’s IDIOTS. They were very genre and style-heavy, establishing unique visual and tonal languages for their respective movies. I was interested to see how those decisions would translate into the fuller, more narrative trailers, and we finally have our answer!

I’m excited to share those trailers, along with two other pieces that I enjoyed from the last couple of weeks. I also had the joy of writing about an iconic trailer from the past which was edited by someone I’ve respected for a long time but recently hung out with in person.

I hope you enjoy reading this edition of The Trailer Brief!

HOPE — Trailer
Studio/Network: NEON
Creative Agency: AV Squad

AV Squad's trailer delivers on the promise teased by Mark Woollen & Associates, which was covered in edition v003.

Creative Highlights:
Similar to the teaser that preceded it, this trailer does a wonderful job of demonstrating the beautifully long, dynamic shots iconic of director Na Hong-jin. The graphic style also lends itself to showing off the cinematography by utilizing semi-transparent text keyed over the film footage.

Also in the same vein as the teaser, this spot is pretty sound effects heavy. It does a great job building tension using the sound design from the film, as well as SFX libraries. Importantly, though, it also finds the perfect moment to release some of the tension with a well-timed comedic break, which made me genuinely laugh before kicking off the third act of the trailer.

Craft Insight:
When a campaign is spread across multiple shops, it’s easy for them to feel disjointed. Each agency has their own style and creative direction, and especially when you’re competing for the same projects, you want to differentiate yourself. I think this trailer is a perfect complement to the teaser that came before it. Each plays an important role in the flow of information from the studio to the audience and they highlight similar selling-points of the film. The teaser holds more back, and the trailer gives us just enough without spoiling anything. The teaser establishing tone, mystery, and a visual and tonal language of the campaign. The trailer then expands the world, clarifies the premise, and releases some of the mystery while preserving the campaign’s core identity.

I also really enjoy the graphics look. The semi-transparent look is an excellent choice when there is beautiful cinematography worth showing off, like in Create’s East of Eden teaser from a few weeks ago.

IDIOTS — Trailer
Studio/Network: IFC
Creative Agency: Requiem

The very first Trailer Brief was made because I wanted an outlet to talk about the IDIOTS teaser. We finally have the trailer which is just as riotous as Requiem’s first piece in the campaign.

Creative Highlights:
In a bold move, but one that works extremely well, a metallic hardcore song, Yosemite in Black’s “Cerberus”, was used as the main cue in this trailer. It’s an unconventional pick for marketing given both the obscurity of the band, but also the aggressive sound of the song. The uniqueness is something that makes this trailer such a standout though, especially given that the teaser had NO music until the end cards cut on. The teaser established the absurdity, unpredictability, and chaos in the campaign. The trailer fills the music vacuum in teaser with something aggressively abrasive and hammers home that chaotic identity.

When the teaser dropped, nobody had any idea what the hell was going on, but they couldn’t look away. The challenge then for the trailer would be “how do you give the audience more information without destroying the strange, chaotic identity that made the teaser interesting?” This trailer was successful in answering that question. It even asks the question on everyone’s mind “Do you know what we do here?” which was a sly way of catching everyone up to speed quickly. We never lose the stylistic elements presented in the teaser—the quick edits, irreverent dialogue, comedic moments and general mayhem. Now, we’re also presented with a clear goal, sources of conflict, and the review graphics create an accessible entry point for the audience.

Craft Insight:
I always enjoy when creative teams find the right song for the trailer. The best trailer music doesn’t simply match the movies tone. It helps define the campaign’s identity. Trends change so quickly, and when the campaign is designed around what’s “hot” when it starts, it will likely be outdated by the time the trailer is released. I’d much rather teams do what Requiem did here, and find something that complements the message they’re trying to sell, rather than finding something commercially or culturally popular to hitch their trailer to.

BEHEMOTH — Teaser
Studio/Network: Searchlight Pictures
Creative Agency: Mark Woollen & Associates

MWA’s orchestral teaser is paced beautifully, backed by a metronome and bass lines.

Creative Highlights:
I love the setup and payoff of this teaser. It begins with a wide shot of an orchestra tuning and preparing their instruments, and ends with a symphony—both literally, and metaphorically as we are barraged with shots from throughout the film. The editor does a great job of building a rhythm after the cold open. The sounds of musicians packing up and the music page turning are perfectly in time with the subtle metronome sound we hear in the background. The quick cello playing helps the editor cover a lot of ground quickly. We are introduced to several potential storylines before Will Arnett delivers a line we’ve heard him say many times before.

The beauty of the spot comes with the unique montage in the second half of the piece. Kicked off by Pedro casually strumming on a harp, our attention is drawn to Pascal’s character while he’s framed by frosted glass. As it pushes in, we’re exposed to more sections in a montage that takes place inside and outside of the film’s title. The collage features many impressive and clever shot framings, which require you to watch the spot multiple times to see everything that’s on screen.

Craft Insight:
Rhythm is so important in teasers and trailers. When done well, it blends in seamlessly with the full scope of the piece. When done poorly, it’s impossible to ignore. This teaser does a great job of establishing a great tempo with the music and sound effects and building upon it with the visuals. This teaser establishes its rhythm before it establishes its music, which is a very clever choice for a film about a musician. The title reveal is also extremely unique and invites the audience to be thoughtful and intentional with where they’re focusing their attention.

BAD APPLES — Trailer
Studio/Network: Paramount Pictures UK & VICE Studios
Creative Agency: [UNKNOWN, VICE Internal suspected]

This trailer leads you down the path towards drama/thriller, before revealing the comedic undertones typical of UK dark comedies.

Creative Highlights:
Even if you watch the trailer knowing that this is supposed to be a comedy, the entire first half you’re thinking “this is not a trailer for a comedy.” It does a great job at subverting expectations, so halfway through, when Saoirse’s character is addressing her class, the uncomfortability creates a genuinely funny moment. That then opens the door for a lot more irony to play out in the back half of the trailer, which creates humorously horrible moments.

Craft Insight:
Playing with genre isn’t something many campaigns allow for. You only have a few minutes to create an impression on an audience whose attention you’re constantly competing for. This trailer is interesting because it temporarily misrepresents the film in order to create a stronger reveal, trusting that the punchline will land. When given the opportunity, it can be extremely effective, especially in a situation like this, where they used suspense techniques to draw the audience in, before revealing the comedic side of this supremely dark comedy.

A breakdown of an iconic trailer from the past.

“Watchmen” Trailer & A Lasting Legacy
Studios: Legendary Pictures, Paramount, DC Comics, & Warner Bros.
Creative Agency: Mojo LLC.
Editor: David Yocum

In 2008, David Yocum cut a trailer that not only took on a life of its own, but revived a b-side music track, boosted print sales of a niche graphic novel, and inspired a generation of trailer editors. While this trailer might not be the first to come to mind when we think about iconic trailers of the past, it’s legacy surpasses most other trailers in ways that aren’t appreciated enough.

The Challenge
The movie had been trapped in “unfilmable” hell for over two decades. It had bounced between multiple directors and changed studio hands before ultimately landing with Zack Snyder and Warner Bros. Before Snyder took over, hot off the heels of the smash-hit comic adaptation “300,” the project had been written off as only possible as a TV mini-series.

2008, the year this trailer released, was not starving for superhero content. The Dark Knight and Ironman were not only the two highest grossing movies that year, but two of the greatest superhero movies ever made. While the Watchmen graphic novel was well known and highly regarded inside the graphic novel community, it was largely unknown outside of it. The trailer needed to sell a niche, R-rated, morally complicated depiction of superheroes during the Cold War to a mainstream audience, who had been enjoying mainstream spectacle.

The Spot
The cue, The Smashing Pumpkins’ “The Beginning Is The End of the Beginning”, is a slowed down b-side of their 1997 song “The End is the Beginning of the End.” The original song was created for Joel Schumacher’s 1940s era Batman & Robin, making the flipped version a brilliant choice for this alt-hero classic.

The trailer begins with a run of studio logos, showing the many hands involved in getting this film made. It then reveals Dr. Osterman, who had just accidentally locked himself inside an experiment when he went back in to grab a wristwatch. He then becomes Dr. Manhattan, a superbeing who perceives time all at once, viewing history as an immutable sequence of events.

The clock imagery is heavy in this trailer, both the physical one we see in his hand, but also in the graphic design and other mise-en-scène throughout. This is in line with the multi-layered clock symbolism present in the graphic novel. The clocks in both the film trailer and the source material allude to the Doomsday Clock, Dr. Manhattan’s belief that the universe is a “clock without a craftsman,” and a pun on the “Watchmen” title.

The trailer does a good job at paying homage to the graphic novel by showcasing the shot compositions that directly mirror the source material. This is a big part of Zack Snyder’s success in directing comic adaptations, and it was important to show the audience his dedication to authenticity. The first example is the shot of Dr. Osterman’s body exploding as he transforms into Dr. Manhattan. The next example is the shot following, the Nite Owl’s ship emerging from the water. From this point on, the editor rearranges the lyrics of the Smashing Pumpkins cue to fit what we’re seeing visually on screen. It’s a clever move that allows a lot of wordplay opportunities.

The film is an ensemble, with many characters to introduce, and background to fill in. The editor does this effectively with a quick montage, narrated by the Smashing Pumpkins cue. The “pale princess” lyric introduces us to Silk Spectre. The “of a palace” line is juxtaposed with imagery of a jail cell where Nite Owl is in combat. “Cracked” shows a silhouetted character, The Comedian, falling through a window. His death is a pivotal part of the story, and one that fans of the comic would be looking for in the trailer.

The next shot is interesting because it shows Richard Nixon on global news broadcasts, 10 years after he resigned in reality, establishing an alternate timeline from our own.

We have more see/say’s as more characters are introduced and story beats are hit in the second act of the trailer. This closes out on rioters protesting. Through the crowd, we see graffiti that reads the classic Latin phrase, and center argument for the entire franchise: “Who watches the Watchmen?” A molotov cocktail explodes and over black we hear the first dialogue line in the trailer: “God help us all.”

The third act reveals more of the action, romance, and destruction viewers can expect from the film. The highlight of the whole trailer, is this skin-tingling line from Rorschach, “The world will look up and shout ‘save us!’ and I’ll whisper ‘no’.” If you weren’t sure before now, this is not your typically super hero movie.

The last shot of the trailer is of Dr. Manhattan’s Martian lair, the Clockwork Palace. It’s a perfect sendoff for the comic book fans. It’s something they were interested in seeing brought to life, and it mimics the comic panels spectacularly. It also is visually similar to the rays protruding from Dr. Osterman’s body as it explodes at the beginning of the trailer.

The Reaction
This trailer played before The Dark Knight in theaters, and fans across the country were blown away. It resonated both with fans of the graphic novel, but also people who had never heard of the series before. The later part is especially interesting, because after the trailer was released, sales of the graphic novel soared. It even succeeded in winning over the most skeptical fans.

One byproduct of the incredible trailer is that it brought the Smashing Pumpkins song back into the mainstream. Billy Corgan was recently on a podcast where he spoke about the significance the trailer had on this song, which was originally deemed a failure. It catapulted the track to the top 40 on iTunes, and it became the #1 Smashing Pumpkins song at the time. The Pumpkins even added it to their setlist for their 20th anniversary tour in 2008.

The film itself brought in $185 million worldwide. It had an outstanding opening weekend, doing essentially half of its domestic ticket sales in the first weekend. It became the second highest grossing IMAX film debut, only outshined by The Dark Knight the year prior. However, with a production budget of around $130 million, it was considered a box office flop after the dust settled. The opening weekend success can be attributed to the excitement fans had after viewing the trailer. It’s also worth considering that the 2009 box office slate was packed with powerhouse films such as Avatar, The Hangover, and Up. It also featured sequels for Harry Potter, Twilight, and Transformers.

The trailer was nominated for the Golden Trailer Award for “Best Music” but lost to Ant Farm’s Where The Wild Things Are trailer.

The Legacy
This is my favorite part of this story. Whenever I meet trailer editors, I ask them what spot inspired them to edit trailers. Without a doubt, this is the most common answer I get.

So many kids went into the theater in 2008 to watch The Dark Knight and were inspired to learn how to edit movie trailers. It’s a beautiful example of the impact that our projects and industry can have. We can’t control the quality or success of a film, but the spots we cut resonate with people in a way that films might not.

In the eyes of fans outside of our industry, this spot lives on as one of the greatest trailers of all time. Any time you return to the YouTube comments, there are more people explaining the significance that this trailer has had on their life.

This trailer became bigger than the film, reviving two different artistic mediums: music and print.

A trailer-spin on the news around town.

A Judge Just Froze the Merger
Sources: Deadline | CNBC | CNN | The Hollywood Reporter

What happened?
Yesterday morning, a judge granted a temporary restraining order, pausing the WB-Paramount merger for 14 days. This is in response to a lawsuit alleging antitrust concerns brought by 12 state attorneys led by California’s Rob Bonta. The deal is now fully enveloped in a multi-front legal war. There’s this lawsuit, the WGA lawsuit, a lawsuit brought on by a shareholder who alleges that David and Larry Ellison ran an illegal bribery scheme, and a separate Paramount+ subscriber lawsuit.

If the deal doesn’t close by September 30, a ticking fee of ~ $650 million per quarter kicks in. The states will have other opportunities to delay the deal even further after the 14 day pause.

Separately, the state of Tennessee is actively courting Ellison. The governor is trying to get Ellison to move his media company across the country, citing his family’s ties to the state, and the benefits the state could give the company.

What does it mean for the trailer world?
The legal battles are creating uncertainty in Hollywood which affects all of us. Both Paramount and Warner Brothers are in a holding pattern until this is resolved, and the ambiguity makes it hard to forecast projects and staffing. Studio headcounts are typically the canaries in the coal mine of our industry, so hopefully they don’t start laying folks off while we wait for the dust to settle on this deal. If they do, we should expect some shops to follow suit.

If the deal survives the legal battles, but the studio moves out of state, that will have serious long-term implications for where the marketing departments are staffed and where their preferred agencies are located. I wouldn’t be surprised if, once in Tennessee, they have a preference for shops operating in East Coast hours.

AV Squad is Opening a London Office
Source: AV Squad LinkedIn

What happened?
Earlier this week, AV Squad announced they will be joining the list of shops with a presence in the UK. They’re coming off their 3rd consecutive Agency of the Year win at the GTA’s, and spreading over seas will allow them to take advantage of around the clock coverage, with editors and producers handing projects off as they follow the sun. It will also allow them better serve European clients. The office is scheduled to open in August.

What does it mean for the trailer world?
The largest company in the business just planted its flag in Europe. London is a natural choice given that its the hub of the UK film and TV industry. It’s home to major studio outposts, independent distributors, and a robust post-production industry.

Several creative shops have established a presence in the UK and US, including Silk Factory, Intermission, and CREATE.

Fandango is Entering the Streaming Arena
Source: The Hollywood Reporter | Business Wire

What happened?
Fandango announced a major overhaul to its online streaming platform. It will start offering a free library of movies and shows without needing to log in. The goal is for the ad-supported platform to rival the likes of Tubi and Pluto. They’re focused on improving the quality of the content they have and adding live sports to their services. Fandango’s long term plan is to eventually produce their own content.

They’re leaning on the differentiator which is that they’ll be the only free streamer with a background in the theatrical experience. Fandango will become the only place you can watch free shows, buy movie tickets, and review the films after you watch them (they also own Rotten Tomatoes). The combined services draw 50 million unique monthly visitors, and the streaming side has been surging recently.

What does it mean for the trailer world?
This is an interesting move, and one that I think could pay off big. Viewers are obviously looking for free ways to stream content. If Fandango can improve their library and increase their audience, they could take a decent chunk of that audience. Fans are already going to the platform to review movies and buy tickets, now they’ll be able to watch content in the same session. That type of concentrated marketplace will be valuable for studios’ ad spend. It’s possible that we will see spots designed specifically for the platform eventually.

Eventually, once they start creating original content, someone will need to creating marketing materials for it. It’s worth watching who that work goes to.

Closing remarks.

I hope you enjoyed this edition of the Trailer Brief! It was fun looking at the trailers this week through the lens of “setting expecations.” Overall themes is something I want to incorporate more into future editions, when I’m able to.

Good luck to everyone who made it through the San Diego Comic Con grind the last couple of weeks. I hope you can get some rest next week after the event’s over.

I’ve really loved all of the feedback I’ve received the last few editions. Please feel free to reply to this email, or message me on LinkedIn or at [email protected] if you have any thoughts or suggestions.

Thanks again! I’ll see you at the next one.

_{All of the information shared in this newsletter is publicly available. All of the thoughts, insights, and opinions presented in this newsletter belong solely to the individual writers and editors of the Trailer Brief and do not necessarily reflect the views of their full-time employers}