E-MAIL THE AUTHOR | ARCHIVES By Christopher Stipp June 16, 2006 Key Art Awards Season and How 35 Years of Trailers Fit On One Little Disc. Um, yeah, MySpace. Big thanks to a reader who let me know it's been a busted link for a couple of weeks. Quality control I am not. I've learned to say yes to a lot of things. When I was approached to interview some people who really didn't light my burner I did it anyway because I've always felt that in every situation there is something that could end up being very interesting. I won't give out names because it wouldn't do these people the just desserts they were eventually given in this column but you, the teeming millions, would be hard pressed to figure out who these people were just by reading the conversations. Everyone has a story to tell and every, single, interview I have done I've felt proud of if for no other reason than I just love the hell out of looking back at how hesitant I was at first. That's why I knew when I was asked by editor extraordinaire, Chris Ryall, my personal savior, last year to go to the Key Art Awards in Los Angeles and work the red carpet, my first, there wasn't any hesitation to just say yes and ride the lightning. The Key Art Awards, for those who don't know, are an awards ceremony to honor the best in movie advertising in the form of theater standees, posters, promos and, yes, trailers. I may have been the greenest mo-fo on that red carpet but thanks to the professional friendship I fostered with a nameless trailer creator (These guys desire, and require, anonymity and I was more than happy to oblige for the chance to see how these things were done on the inside; it was really, to be honest, one of the coolest fucking things I've ever had the chance to watch) meant I had someone to walk me through those companies who really had a knack for doing solid work year in, year out, and who were probably going to be walking away with a lot of awards. I was, for lack of a better metaphor, over the moon. I love trailers. I love them more, sometimes, than the eventual demon spawn of a flick they might be cut from (Read here: THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW) and this was a great night for me professionally and personally. My escort of the male variety even broke things down about how one goes from having a crap movie dropped in your lap to creating a trailer that fools even the most cynical (Read here: THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW) of movie goer. And it pains me, really pains me, to have had to say "I can't" when asked if I could cover this year's festivities. I usually don't care about such things but these Key Art Awards are like my mini justification for "reviewing" these damn things week in and week out. Really talented people, really inspired artists, create these little bits of two minutes and thirty seconds worth of advertising bliss when they're done well and I am happy to see that real solid entries made it into contention for what should be honored with recognition of some kind. I know I do a pretty good job of weeding through these things and giving props to the really good trailers out there but I realize I'm just some schmuck from the Southwest working out of his little house, sitting in his BVD's, waxing his pecs with Wesson, and I just can't give them the honor they deserve. That's what the Key Art Awards are all about and I want to do my best, right here, and give my personal favorites to win some kind of prize for being the very best in filmic advertising. COMEDY POSTERS The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Crew Creative Advertising, Universal Pictures The nod should go here becuase of the very Lifetouch-ness of this naturally amusing portrait of a very sensitive looking Steve Carell. Happy Endings: Girl, Shoolery Design Inc., Lionsgate Entertainment Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, Art Machine, Columbia Pictures Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, BLT & Associates Inc., Warner Bros. Pictures Everything Is Illuminated: Leave Normal Behind, Kaleidoscope Films Group, Warner Independent Pictures DRAMA POSTERS Crash, Art Machine, Lionsgate Entertainment Inside Deep Throat, Pulse Advertising, Universal Pictures Capote, Vox.Adv, Sony Pictures Classics Syriana, the Cimarron Group, Warner Bros. Pictures It may have been verbose and mildly wordy but I'll be gosh dammed if this poster didn't succinctly tell me what was going to happen in this flick. Munich, BLT & Associates Inc., Universal Studios TEASER POSTERS (all genres) Lord of War, Art Machine, Lionsgate Entertainment Crash, Art Machine, Lionsgate Entertainment Diary of a Mad Black Woman: Orchid, Shoolery Design Inc., Lionsgate Entertainment Walk the Line: Illustrated Teaser 1, Studio Number One, 20th Century Fox There should be no questiont that the illustrated Johnny Cash poster that depended so heavily on rich blacks and oranges deserves some love for capturing the fire and brimstone of this man. The Family Stone, the Ant Farm, 20th Century Fox COMEDY TRAILERS The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Guide, Aspect Ratio, Buena Vista Pictures The 40-Year-Old Virgin: Trailer 3, Aspect Ratio, Universal Pictures Kung Fu Hustle, the Grossmyth Co., Sony Pictures Classics Wedding Crashers: The Masters, mOcean, New Line Cinema Lock it up. No, you lock it up. Cl-Ass-ic line from a movie that sold itself quite well. Hitch: Trailer 2, the Ant Farm, Columbia TriStar Pictures/Sony Pictures Entertainment DRAMA TV SPOTS Transamerica, the Weinstein Co., the Weinstein Co. Jarhead: Suck, Intralink Film Graphic Design, Universal Pictures Munich: Speechless, Trailer Park, Universal Studios Walk the Line: Black, Trailer Park, 20th Century Fox They kept that slo-mo shot of the convicts beating on their chairs and I am glad they did. The man in black deserves better than it got during Oscar season and I hope it gets its due this year. Crash: Collide, Mark Woollen & Associates, Lionsgate Entertainment BEST COPY LINE The 40-Year-Old Virgin ("The longer you wait, the harder it gets"), Crew Creative Advertising, Universal Pictures Bwa-ha-ha-ha! Seriously, well executed marketing. Crash ("Moving at the speed of life, we are bound to collide with each other"), Mark Woollen & Associates, Lionsgate Entertainment Saw II ("Oh yes, there will be blood"), Lionsgate Entertainment, Lionsgate Entertainment Tim Burton's Corpse Bride ("There's been a grave misunderstanding"), BLT & Associates Inc., Warner Bros. Pictures Wedding Crashers ("Life's a party. Crash it."), Dawn Patrol, New Line Cinema ACTION ADVENTURE POSTERS Batman Begins, Intralink Film Graphic Design, Warner Bros. Pictures There's a reason why sepia never looked better. Look no further than this ressurected hero come back to life. House of Wax, Concept Arts, Warner Bros. Pictures Lord of War, Art Machine, Lionsgate Entertainment Saw II: Twin Tower Fingers, Art Machine, Lionsgate Entertainment Sin City, BLT & Associates Inc., Miramax/Dimension Films ACTION ADVENTURE TRAILERS Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Ignition Creative, 20th Century Fox Batman Begins: Trailer 5, Intralink Film Graphic Design, Warner Bros. Pictures There's also a reason why this trailer made number one in my top trailers of 2005. I felt pulled, energized and given a reason why I should re-invest my money with this franchise. In the realm of selling a product this was given one shot to make one kill. It did. War of the Worlds, Trailer Park, Paramount Pictures Sin City: Trailer 1, the Ant Farm, Dimension Films Lord of War, Mark Woollen & Associates, Lionsgate Entertainment

I never liked History, that prim and proper noun denoting the stalwart subject taught at universities by men with haggard beards and tweed jackets, but to chart the ways in which theatrical trailers have evolved from the very early moments in cinema to the contemporary examples of movie advertising is to see how people have changed. So when The Hollywood Reporter sent me a DVD charting the very best in movie trailers from the past 35 years (five more years than I’ve been here on the planet so, really, a representative sample of how I’ve come to know films) I found myself initially struck by two things: 1) This is, perhaps, one of the most interesting things I’ve ever seen. Some people can look forward to their packed DVD offerings all they like but if I was able to purchase a DVD with nothing but trailers I would be a happy guy; I just appreciate the art form. 2) I was amazed by the amount of lasciviousness packed into the trailer for REVENGE OF THE NERDS. The panty raid scene? Plays heavily in the advertising. It was a sheer delight to look at what passed as movie advertising so long ago. In fact, and I'll swear to this, there were some trailers in this collection that could still pry my money away from me and rightfully so. Anyone who thinks that just because you're rocking an Avid editing bay means you can produce great things. Tell that to the guy who made the trailer for ALIEN. Whereas now, I would assert, we’ve really become a generation of trailer fiends dependant on a catchy, pop music centered trailer presentation I would invite any of you to find the original trailer for TOP GUN. There is no Kenny Loggins, there is no aggressive editing, there isn’t even so much as a feeling that this is a dude’s movie but you get a lot of James “Mr. Stickland” Tolkan chewing out Maverick and Goose before letting them go to Top Gun. You’ve certainly also get a lot of Kelly McGillis. Also, you get a lot of chit-chat between all the dudes as they thump their chests in this homosocial homage to male dominance. Huh? I’m confused. Is this a guy’s movie or a chick flick? I am used to having the musical palate define who a movie is being sold to and I am really really sure that the original movie had a lot more guns, explosions and general mayhem. There’s none of that here. I mean, there is but it’s confused as to what the movie wanted to be advertised as. You’ve got bravado being slung around like flop sweat in a sauna but there was a real desire to try and sell the ladies as well. One trailer where I feel there was a real sense of direction was the preview for THE EXORCIST. Lord, did I get the shivers all over again. Just when I thought that the mean duration of these old-time trailers, roughly a third of the two minutes, thirty seconds we’re all used to now, was what was leading me to believe that the way of the trailer was a lost art for some years back then I was brought back into chilled reality. What you’ve got here, with a minimalist score, is a real gem of a trailer. Using an unpopular game theory that showing less in some cases is more this ad only hints about what is happening to Linda Blair. The shell game not only pays off in suspense but the trailer does an exquisite job in getting to the heart of the plot and getting the hell just as soon as the events of the film are sent in motion. Other notable things you may not know about the trailers of especially notorious films: JAWS 2. Capitalizes on the success of its predecessor with the telltale score playing throughout the trailer and you can hear the whipping sticks beating the dead horse that is the idea that the shark that so took a bite out of the box office the first time out wasn’t the only one out there; yes, even sequels can have bad ads. CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND? ¾ of this trailer is set at the console of some nameless goof, ostensibly someone at flight traffic control, talking to someone who sees a UFO. It drags on for a painfully long time before we all get a science lesson from Voiceover Guy about close encounters numbers 1 through 3. Soon as the dude is done we’re literally introduced with the crew. Bad PR photos and overcooked resume highlights pepper this woefully pimped production. ALIEN. Bad…ass. The person who cut this knew exactly what this film was made of and made sure only the best, slyest scenes made it in here. Creepy, mind-bending and thrilling as all hell. BATMAN. Here I was expecting to see the greatness that was the very thing that made me and my snot-nosed buddies see this movie many many times over but it gets off to a very shaky start. The trailer opens with a rather long, extended scene (it’s the one where Batman is flying his little plane towards the Joker in the final moments of the movie and he misses terribly even with all that firepower which, not to go off on a huge tangent, always has bugged me because he so should have killed that mofo even with a stray bullet or two) and then quickly switches to Kim Basinger introducing herself as Vicki Vale. Things right themselves and I find that little part of me which remembers why it was so good to be 13 when the advent of comic films started. Who knew that Bat-Nipples were just waiting around the corner? CLIFFHANGER. I wish I could show this one. I wish I had a big screen on the Internets where I could display this awful misinterpretation of the source material. I would give this trailer the DAY AFTER TOMORROW award for biggest snow job, no pun intended and without a hint of irony. The trailer is overtly dramatic and overwrought, two things that have no place in this movie starring Leon and company. It’s downright hilarious as not only am I publicly admitting I like watching the movie when it’s on basic cable and there isn’t a Cubs game on but I always find it interesting when trailer makers put their own spin on things just to go for a certain angle. GRAPES OF WRATH, this isn’t. SCHINDLER’S LIST. Wonderfully tragic in every sense of the word with the exception of this trailer. A three plus hour movie beautifully rendered in two minutes. You cannot ask for a better reason why you should’ve seen this film in the theaters when you could. THE MATRIX. Yes, I am not any smarter about what the movie is about from having watching this trailer. It’s confusing but it’s a good sort of confusion because this movie is predicated on twisting your mind a bit. You get Agent Smith, Neo’s “Whoa,” Fishburne trying to make sense of it all with a smattering of the visuals that spawned a comic book convention tradition of overweight ladies and meth-thin dudes pushing black latex to their tensile strength limits. The sequels may have sucked but the original trailer still pulls it off. PULP FICTION. This trailer is still cooler than cool and you need not look any further than Dick Dale for the reason why; everything falls into place after this guy gets his surf guitar swerve on. It’s a complex story to be sure but this trailer is fun, fresh and exciting. There is so much happening in this trailer but all you really need to know is that you want to be there when it happens. Too cool, Daddy-O. AUSTIN POWERS II. Any trailer that tells me that if I see one movie for the summer I should go with someone else’s movie but that if I see two I should see this one gets my money. This teaser that begins with the conceit that you were getting a new glimpse of STAR WARS I is just right on the money with knowing who their competitor was and then building a verbal campaign to deflate what could have been a hard sell in a nerd drenched slot for that June when the two films came out. Brilliant counter-programming. AMERICAN BEAUTY. This is what a big picture with Oscar hopes should be about. The backlash that followed this movie was inevitable but I still remember this trailer for a lot of reasons. One of which was the use of The Who’s “Teenage Wasteland” and the second thing was for the way we don’t waste any time getting to the heart of the matter and then launching into what is at stake for each and every player in this film. You say Hollywood indulgence at its worst I say it’s a trailer that represents a great film that really deserves more than people will give it. If you want to know what makes a really good trailer do what the tagline of this flick says: look closer. E-MAIL THE AUTHOR | ARCHIVES Mail this page to someone you know. Recipient's Name: Recipient's Email: Sender's Name: Sender's Email: