Movie trailer as a form of art.

I'm not the best with timeliness when it comes to blog posting.  So expect me to dredge up a lot of stuff I've been interested in for a long long time.  This is not of-the-moment stuff.
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I love movie trailers in general, and trailers for coming-of-age, relationship-building, indie, and romantic comedies in particular (I tend to shy away from horror and thriller/suspense).  I can watch them over and over and over again, and before I know it I have wasted 1.5 hours instead of doing whatever it is I'm supposed to be doing.

Case in point: a couple years ago I was obsessed with the trailer for Shopgirl.  I only half wanted to watch the movie (I finally netflixed it long after...it did not disappoint, but was not quite as delicious as the trailer).  There was just something so beautifully restrained and lovely about the way this trailer was cut, besides the fact that I love Steve Martin, Claire Danes, and am even a little fond of Jason Schwartzmann.  Tonally--it's pitch-perfect, conveying this spartan emptiness that moves cautiously into shy pleasure, wonder, and then warm human contact.  I love it.

 


And then, after thinking more about it, I realized the music really shaped my perception of the trailer (hah, what's new, right?).  One of my pet peeves is when a trailer editor uses a song in the trailer that is nowhere to be found on the movie's actual soundtrack.  That's another blog post in itself. 

Anyway, I used my google search prowess to find the songs used: "Consequence" by The Notwist, "First Breath After Coma" by Explosions in the Sky, and "The Sound of Settling" by Death Cab For Cutie.  I'm including the first two mp3s for your listening pleasure =)

5 responses

Most of the trailers nowadays shows all the good scenes, totally spoil the movie.

And whatever happened to that blog entry about how shoes is your soul?? Took me so many days to come up with the idea and you never use it! =P

The song Consequence came from their album Neon Golden, which is excellent, full of great tracks. Two in particular, Pilot and Trashing Days are my favorites.

Our Theo is remarkably eloquent. ;)

I'm in love, love, love with movie trailers. But for me it's more about the creation of a storyline with nothing but snapshots and suggestions. "Exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied," right? ;)

Haha yeah I was just thinking, wow, Theo has quite an advanced taste in music.  I agree--I love how trailers can tell their own story, sometimes having almost nothing to do with the movie itself.  So that's why I'm ok with trailers totally 'spoiling' the movie.  Plot is overrated anyway.  I'm more interested in the execution =)

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