The Movie Trailer: A Dying DVD Feature

Since the DVD came on the market, the features included with the films have become more numerous and advanced. While originally special features barely consisted of little more then the movie trailer and brief actor profiles, now most DVD’s come complete with hours of features that detail many different aspects of the movie. A movie lover can see exactly what it took to make the movie come alive, from costume design to the creation of special effects. But despite there now being more features available to view, one feature is slowly being fazed out: the movie trailer.

A movie trailer is a specifically designed preview shown in theaters before the movie begins. While older trailers usually consisted of long drawn out scenes, today’s trailers have become very condensed and fast paced. A trailer usually consists of three parts. First there is the beginning, which lays out the ground work of the story. Then there is the middle, which drives the story further and usually consists of a plot revelation or reveal. Finally there is the climax, which is designed to make the end of the trailer as emotionally gripping as possible. Usually the climax of a trailer consists of several emotional images set to a piece of music. Movie trailers are only allowed to be a maximum of two and a half minutes long, although studios are allowed to release one trailer that exceeds the allotted length per year. While trailers aren’t rated per say, they are classed into two groups: green band trailers and red band trailers. A green band trailer is a trailer that can be viewed by anyone and does not have scenes that would be inappropriate for a minor to see. Therefore a minor can watch a trailer for an R rated movie even if they can not watch the movie itself. A red band trailer is a trailer that contains images that might be inappropriate for minors to see; which includes graphic violence, foul language, nudity, sex, and drug use. These trailers can only be shown before a movie that is rated R or NC-17.

As mentioned before, trailers used to be one of the only extra features included on DVDs. But in the last few years trailers have been included less on DVDs. While they have numerous features detailing the making of the movie they don’t include the trailer, which is usually what gets people to want to see a particular movie. What is even more unusual is that many times a DVD will contain trailers for other movies, but not the trailer for the movie being viewed.

Personally, I love movie trailers. To me they are individual stories, similar to the movie being advertised but at the same time distinctly different. They can be emotionally gripping and make my heart feel like it will leap out of my chest. Or they can be hilarious and make me feel happy all day long. Many times the trailer for a movie is in fact better then the movie itself is. One example that comes to mind is Jurassic Park 3. When I first heard a third Jurassic Park movie was being made I vowed I would never see it. Then I saw the trailer. It was both thrilling and action packed, and seemed to set up an interesting story. It was good enough for me to go against my better judgment and see the movie. As I left the theater I deeply regretted having wasted $10 and an hour and a half of my life. But I still have to commend the cutters of that trailer. They managed to get me to see the movie in spite of my previous feelings.

Movie trailers are an art form, one that is harder to do then people would think. A trailer cutter not only has to let the audience know what the movie is about, but they also have to make sure they don’t give away to much information or else people will already know everything and not want to see the movie. To make sure the trailer is shown at an appropriate time before the movie is released cutters use footage from dailies, which is the raw unedited footage shot during the making of a movie. It is obviously much harder for a trailer to be made from raw footage then from edited and perfectly synced up material. But that is exactly how they are made. Cutters also have to decide how the trailer will fit into the marketing campaign of the film and be able to obtain the right music that would best suit the trailer. They work extraordinarily hard to bring their proper vision to life, and should be rewarded by having their work be easily viewed by all.

I will say that it isn’t impossible to continually view movie trailers today. One only has to go on the web to find numerous sites that feature trailers. But in spite of this on-line option I still miss popping in a disk and being able to watch a trailer right before a movie. I only hope that this trend will stop and trailers will begin to reappear on DVD menus. As much as I love a ton of special features, I would trade them all in if it meant I would have the one feature that mattered the most to me.