MITTY TRAILER: Compelling and Connecting with Color

Posted on October 27, 2013 by Frederick Greene

I saw the Mitty trailer ahead of the IMAX screening of GRAVITY and was impressed with its visual style, editorial intelligence and emotional appeal. Though not a re-invention of movie marketing or a challenge to conventional formula, it is a compelling, well-executed commercial film.

The 2:07 Official #1 trailer sells story and spectacle (and rather gorgeous spectacle it is!) using tried and tested means of a slow build toward a “fire all the guns” action montage, followed by a sweet but potent button, that explicitly revisits the implicit messaging of the trailer’s (and the film from which those shots are taken) shot selection.

The trailer uses one music cue, Of Monsters & Men‘s “My Head is an Animal,” as both an emotional hook and an index to the film’s thematics. Opening on a closet door being opened (an exemplary indexical shot), we watch protagonist Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller), an office worker at Life Magazine, as he selects his clothes, eats his breakfast and walks to work. The color scheme is cool blue, grey, white and washed out prior to his entrance into his office and the ‘LIFE’ signs (white font in fire engine red) brand the walls in bold splotches of color.

At work, the cowed, unassuming and mild-mannered Mitty looks with longing at a lovely co-worker (Kristen Wiig), who peers back dubiously. He slips into a fond day-dream in which his alter-ego, a bearded, sun-tanned, and ice-rimed arctic explorer breaks into the office space from out of the frozen wilderness to engage the besotted lady. Mitty’s office mates mock his obviously unrequited desire, waking him from his momentary fantasy. The opening verse of the song concludes with the first act of the trailer conclude as the words “THIS CHRISTMAS” fill the screen (black letters against a white, sun-lit sky).

Next, during the dramatic synthesized bass notes of the cue’s bridge, a heroic figure (Sean Penn) beckons to Mitty from out of one of the epic, black and white Life Magazine-inspired photos that line the walls of Mitty’s office. Accepting the invitation, Mitty, grabs his coat and as the next verse of the cue returns with greater energy and volume, he runs from the office, past one giant photo (Life Magazine’s famous covers) of a 20th Century icon after another into a series of dramatic scenes, situations, adventures, stunts, conflicts, dangers and locales. What follows is an impressive 20 second set piece of the visual spectacle the film can deliver.

While the trailer never clarifies whether events occur only in Mitty’s head or in the world beyond (what exactly is the nature of his “secret life”?), we are seduced by the action and the wish-fulfilling adventures of this aspiring, perhaps delusional, salary man. If not an “everyman,” per se, he is representative of the alienated, urban wage worker, cut off from authentic experience and engagement and obliged to find fantastic, private and interior substitutes.

In this montage, though a cool palette remains the default, warmth and color invade the screen, especially splashes of red: Mitty’s sweater, his snow pants, his jacket, a shaman’s scarf, a brick building into whose windows Mitty dives–all echo the admonishment of “Life” which labels and signs his working environment so insistently, so ironically and, hitherto, so ineffectually.

With about 20 seconds to go, the title card appears as the song concludes. In a button that follow, as the final chord of the cue fades slowly from audibility, Mitty, in his beige/blue wind-breaker presents himself at a tiny car-rental kiosk in the Alaskan tundra (I’m guessing by the indigenous appearance of the agent) to ask whether any vehicles are available. The agent looks out his window before answering Mitty that he has a red and a blue one. We cut to a shot of two, economy sized cars on an otherwise large and desolate square of asphalt. Mitty says, “I’ll take the red one,” as the chorus swells and the trailer concludes.

Subtle? Not exactly. But effective? Certainly. In this trailer, color codes our understanding of Mitty’s character, circumstances and choices both as an effect of the well-studied psychological impact of Red (hot, happy, vibrant, emotional) and Blue (cool, sad, dispassionate, rational) and of the verbally overdetermined logo of Life Magazine. Mitty the office dweller is embalmed; Mitty the secret explorer and man of action is alive.

It’s a delightful and invigorating dream that a dysfunctional society and coercive economic system invites you to have during your coffee break or at the cineplex. Now back to work.

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CARRIE TRAILER & TEASER: A tell-all campaign for a high-profile remake

Posted on October 15, 2013 by Frederick Greene

Though I love the Brian DePalma original (with the extraordinary Sissy Spacek), I’m looking forward to Kimberly Fierce‘s adaptation of Steven King‘s classic tale of shame, sexuality, puberty and power. Julianne Moore is an inspired choice to follow the inimitable Piper Laurie.

The 2:32 tell-all trailer (shown above) presents information chronologically. Immediately compelling, it builds toward the inevitable climax with copy, dialogue and quantities of excerpted scenes combining to position the film and explain its conflict and characters. Going beyond the need to suggest the likely resolution of the conflict, the trailermakers have made a virtue out of the fact that “Carrie” is a familiar cultural referent: everyone already knows the story and the ending. Consequently, the marketers withhold none of the plot, understanding instead that the topic (bullying, child abuse and its consequence) and the characterizations (Chloe Grace Moretz in the title role; Ms. Moore as her fanatically religious and over-protective/abusive parent) required maximum development. And, while marketers believe that audiences will come for the familiar pleasures of the tale and its spectacular, female-rampage carnage, they also expect to be rewarded by the performance and the psychological exploration–qualities emphasized in the trailer.

Curious to understand how the a/v campaign initiated awareness and generated buzz for the film, I watched the teaser to see it would handle story elements and appeal to audiences.


CARRIE – TEASER

The teaser is one long aerial tracking shot, as if from the P.O.V. of a police helicopter overflying, at a low altitude, a small town in which evidence of progressively devastating destruction is visible. The initial images are unremarkable, which stand in contrast to the eerie singing, the ominous sound design and the V.O. perspectives on the events in evidence below.

A haunting hymn sung by Moore (presumably) is the first sound we hear, over the crackling of flames. “This was always such a peaceful town,” says a male voice. Another continues: “I don’t want to use the word conspiracy, but that’s what it’s looking like.” As we pass deeper into the zone of destruction (buildings aflame and leveled), a girl says, “her mother was a fanatic. I don’t know how she lived with her.” Next, a deep, official- sounding male opines, “to believe something supernatural happened here, defies logical explanation.”

A swell of creaking, unsettling sound effects erupts as a card (white text on black) fills the screen: “This Spring.” (Apparently, the scheduled opening got pushed back.) Finally, an unidentified female classmate has the last word: “there’s something no one seems to understand. She wasn’t some monster. She was just this girl.” Carrie is revealed, at the center of chaos, covered in blood, trembling and looking scared as well as deadly. Cards with credits follow. A telephone number is given along with an invitation to Call Carrie. (What might she say?) The Website url is “whathappenedtocarrie.com,” an invitation to learn about what happened in her household before she ever danced at the prom.

The dialogue -probably specially written for the teaser, which looks specially shot as well–conveys a third person, reportorial or quasi-official account of events on the ground, enhanced by the perspective of unnamed peers, none of whom seem especially central to the events or the characters of the film. Apart from the description of the devastation visible beneath and the discussion of the title character as the responsible party, there is very little story, acting or excerpts from the film.

Indeed, this trailer is almost pure denouement: it’s the unwinding of the climactic scene, in which Carrie’s fondest daydreams have been raised only to be dashed in a cascade of humiliation. Her revenge –or at least its consequence–is all that we are shown. We see the blood splattered psychic-teen; we witness the cyclonic effects of her long suppressed rage. You might say, that the teaser builds to the pay-off, leap-frogging the events–all of which are assumed to be known already by the audience–to get to the pay-off; the cathartic moment when the innocent and victimized becomes knowing and victimizer.

The trailer culminates in a swoop down to find Carrie, drenched in blood at the center of devastation. And yet, this young appears frightened and traumatized, not vicious or monstrous, just as our unidentified V.O. actor insisted.

Of course, central to the appeal and shock and horror of Carrie is her iconography, a fact that hasn’t been lost on the visual creatives behind the teaser. Even in the midst of a burning town and bleeding bodies, Carrie remains a fertility symbol–a young woman having just attained sexual maturity in a traumatizing moment of public shaming. She is a sacrificial figure–a scapegoat for the sins of her classmates and for the community that ignores her suffering–but one who resists her martyrdom and creates a new myth of female power and menace.

It’s a great story with powerful elements from which to choose for publicity and promotion. Now, we just have to wait to the end of the week (Oct. 18th) to see whether the film is as good as its marketing.

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THE DOUBLE TRAILER: Audiences who like this sort of thing…will like this sort of thing

Posted on September 19, 2013 by Frederick Greene

A genre in film is analogous to a commodity category in non-experiential consumer products. Marks of generic or categorical membership represent bids to fulfill expectations, to anticipate desires and rationalize their satisfaction. Trailers, whose typical and predictive markers are the constant subject of this blog, mobilize formulae and convention in order to convey information and appeal to audiences along well-grooved pathways of solicitation, communication and delayed (deferred?) gratification; at least most of the time.

Often, as I review trailers for new and upcoming releases, I despair of an opportunity to say something different about movie marketing and to discuss those films and their previews that propose a different model of cinematic pleasure and commercial appeal. But understandably, given the production budgets and the economic risks, there’s safety in the tried and traditional methods of cinematic storytelling and advertising.

All of which is to say that Richard Ayoade‘s much talked about new film, The Double, and its unaccommodating trailer, above, command attention for their explicit refusal to play by the rules. And yet, doubtlessly, it is because of the rules (conventions) that have been flouted that such a trailer (and its film) is generally intelligible to the right audience.

I’ll begin with structure. In this 1:22 trailer, there are 33 edit decisions or cuts. This is 2+ second per image pace, frankly glacial relative to the competition. A few extended scenes, while kinetic, are no more than tracking shots, allowing the image (mostly, Mr. Eisenberg, playing Simon and his doppelganger, James) to engage and penetrate into consciousness. There is no voice over. There are no taglines. The only graphics are cast cards, a title card, and a directorial credit. No Laurels from Toronto, where this film was released; no production or distribution credits, and no final credit block or website url or Facebook friendship exhortation.

In terms of trailer convention, what is most salient is the wall to wall sound of a music cue: the blues classic “Grinnin’ In Your Face” by Eddie James “Son” House, a rhythmic and hypnotic, hand-clapping and minimally instrumentalized production.
Judging by the visual content of the trailer and the synopsis of the film, the refrain of Mr. House’s song, “don’t you mind people grinning in your face,” defines “grinning in your face” as contempt, mockery, and disrespect. It’s relevant advice for a film based on The Double, Dostoevsky’s famous novel of the same name. In the book and the film, the protagonist (Simon) is the constant “victim” of just such grinning, whether from co-workers, or from his uncanny “double” (James), who is his mirror image physically, but his opposite in terms of personality.

What occurs in the trailer is the following: Simon (Jesse Eisenberg), walks rightward against a dark, undifferentiated backdrop. The first character “grinning in his face” is his office love interest, Hannah, played by Mia Wasikowska, although her grinning seems more a flirtatious pleasure rather than provocation or contempt. As he keeps walking, other co-workers are cross cut into the grid. They, as well as his malevolent double, James (also, Mr. Eisenberg), appear to relish the opportunity to show the timid Simon that they see and despise him, although their grins and waves can’t absolutely be interpreted that way. That they may actually be behaving in a friendly, benign manner is partly what’s driving Simon mad.

In the next “act” (if I may call it that), both Simon and James (Mr. Eisenberg in both roles) walk leftward against the same backdrop, side by side and wearing the same ill-fitting, baggy, beige suit, before emerging into a cavernous, darkened room. The camera lingers on a left profile of Simon (presumably, based on his body language) before feasting on a right profile of a confident, nearly swaggering James. Next comes the cast run, with shots of Eisenberg, Wasikowska, Wallace Shawn, Noah Taylor, Yasmin Paige & James Fox presented before their names appear in white block font against a black screen.

The trailer ends on Eisenberg repeating his opening rightward march to the beat of Mr. House’s slide guitar, passing the same dark and unrecognizable background. At a few seconds to the conclusion the title card, “The Double” appears, followed moments later by the director’s card. “A film by Richard Ayoade.” That’s it.

A trailer this averse to the provision of ordinary movie-going information defies its audience to make sense from the resources on offer. And yet, trailer audiences understand the genre well enough to generate an interpretation even in the absence of conventional trailer content. The title tells us that this is a Dostoevskyan (or Kafka-esque) story of the uncanny other who is both one’s reflection and one’s alter ego. We’re prepared, at the least, for a story of psychological alienation, which the visuals–especially Eisenberg looking at Eisenberg– confirm.

The cast, Eisenberg, Wasikowska, Shawn, et al., indicates that we are in the world of independent film making, and possibly in the realm of serious cinema, an assumption reinforced by Ayoade at the helm, as well as the cinematography, the music cue and the self-conscious editing. The presumed audience for such content is one that appreciates the film’s unconventionality; indeed, such an imagined audience prides itself on preferring cinema that requires work and which would not be of interest to regular cineplex viewers and fans of summer blockbuster fare.

By this approach, the trailer makers (and marketers) address their audience with a message that it should be able (if not uniquely so) to comprehend, while providing an earnest warning to those “who may not be able to enjoy” the film, to stay away. The narrowcast strategy works well with a motivated and informed target. It is unlikely that mainstream audiences will accidentally see this movie, since it will not be playing at the cineplex and the trailer, while not incoherent or hostile, is not accessible or user-friendly, apart from the recognizable and distinguished cast.

While it takes confidence to prefer style and tone over explicit description and information, this approach is by no means rare. Nonetheless, without compromising its artistry too much, the trailer might have hedged its bet by the inclusion of a few rave reviews from the Toronto Film Festival, providing context, authority and a little bit of story. Instead, it appears, Mr. Ayoade, his producers, distributors and their marketing team, prefer to lead with a trailer that resists the trend to tell much and tell more. Those who like this sort of thing, will, well, like this sort of thing, and all the more so that it defies convention. I did.

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