Making a movie is no small feat. It’s expensive, time-consuming, and there’s no way of telling if your film is going to be successful or not. It’s a gamble. Every movie that has been released has been a bit of a gamble. A sizable chunk of them have been very successful, but some of them have not. A film is expensive, because not only do you have to hire the cast, but also the casting director, producer, director, composer, visual effects artists if that applies, screenplay writers and marketing people. It’s time-consuming because not only do you have to write the script, sometimes with re-writes, you also have to shoot the picture, then there’s the post-production which is the editing, visual effects, music and marketing. All these are extremely important in the art of film-making. But the one aspect that can actually make or break a movie is how it’s marketed. By proper marketing, I mean posters, internet campaigns and the old tried-and-true movie trailer. The purpose of a film trailer is to show the potential audience a small glimpse into your film, giving people a small taste of what’s coming. The best trailers don’t give away major plot points or twists, and give you just enough information to get curious. That’s how good marketing works. Sometimes, however, the people behind the marketing of films end up giving too much information away in the trailer, therefore robbing the film of some of its potential power. The reason I bring this up is because there has been some controversy surrounding the final trailer for the new Terminator: Genisys film which releases tomorrow, on July 1st. I’m going to post both the latest trailer for Terminator: Genisys and Terminator: Salvation because there are major issues in terms of how much they put into the trailer. Too much.
As you can see, both trailers end up giving away what seem to be very major plot points/twists for a major character. I don’t know why the marketing folks screwed up so royally when it came to advertising for these Terminator films, but these aren’t the only movies that have been sabotaged by their own marketing campaigns. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still planning on seeing Genisys when it comes out, so I’ll reserve judgment until I’ve seen the final product. But I definitely understand people who get pissed off when a film trailer inadvertently gives away a potentially universe-changing plot point. For me, bad marketing rarely keeps me from enjoying a movie, but it’s always in the back of my mind. See, you want to keep your audience in the dark long enough so when that plot point hits, BAM!!! It’s like it came out of nowhere. With the trailers like what I have just shown, audiences are going to be looking for it. You don’t want that to happen. You want audiences to be surprised. For action films, I would say this kind of marketing, while an issue, is not necessarily fatal to a movie. Certain genres of film require a certain amount of discretion when marketing those films. Horror movies are one genre where you HAVE to be absolutely careful, because the twist is vital to how the film turns out, and if you get anywhere NEAR solving that twist, the whole film will fail.
So, yeah, marketing is an invaluable tool for film-makers, but it is also a double-edged sword. As I said before, a movie can live or die by how it’s marketed. So, let’s take a look at some other trailers that have essentially ruined the movies that they were trying to promote.
Cast Away
While this is a pretty intense trailer, it does give a lot away, particularly towards the end when Tom Hanks’ character is trying to escape the island. I don’t know about you, but I find that to be a major spoiler. Now, the film came out years ago, so the impact of what I’m showing you is little to none, but I’m using it as an illustration. You definitely want to show the character in some kind of jeopardy, that’s a great tool for getting people excited, but you really don’t want to show him actually getting off the island. The audience is smart enough to know that’s the direction the film will go, so they don’t need a trailer to hold their hand.
The Island
I’ll be the first to admit that I absolutely enjoy Michael Bay’s movies. They have a certain kind of kinetic energy that’s hard to ignore. Say what you will about his movies, few people know action the way he does. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for his ability to market a movie. While most of his movie trailers are mostly spoiler-free, they end up leaving little for the imagination. The Island is probably one of the more egregious examples of how not to do a movie trailer. About a minute in, you hear Ewan McGregor’s character yell, “There is no island!” Then you show Steve Buscemi basically telling them that they are clones to be harvested. That really takes the suspense out of the whole damn thing. The film ended up being one of Michael Bay’s worst-performing movies ever at the time, and the trailer may have had something to do with it. I enjoyed the movie for what it was: A modern-day Logan’s Run.
Those are some of the trailers that generally don’t do the film any favors and spoil the final product. I’ve already done a list of trailers that were fantastic, so I’m going to post a link to that particular article here. Proper marketing for a film is absolutely a must if you want your movie to succeed. Audiences aren’t particularly stupid, so you can’t get away with showing a major twist without consequences. Film-makers: If you want to put people in movie theater seats, get your marketing right, otherwise it will bite you in the ass.