Mini-masterpieces of film
Movie trailers, at least the good ones, are mini-masterpieces of film. Sometimes the series of trailers before a movie impresses me more than the feature presentation (should have listened to Rotten Tomatoes on that night!). A really great trailer (ala Dreamgirls) can inspire me to look up the film on IMDB, visit the official movie site, and order my tickets early on Fandango.
There’s serious money in trailers. If you’ve ever seen the movie “The Holiday” - Cameron Diaz’s character makes movie trailers for a living and lives a pretty incredible lifestyle in L.A. Now I don’t know how accurate or inflated this portrayal is, but it made me curious about the people behind the infamous green screen shorts.
Devin Hawker is a copy writer and co-owner of Gas Station Zebra (site under construction), a motion picture advertising agency that specializes in theatrical teasers, trailers and TV spots for feature films. Hawker was profiled in a 2006 L.A. Times article titled “Piquing interest to a point: The art of crafting a trailer.” When asked about her background leading up to her current career she said:
I was writing corporate films, education films. I just sort of stumbled into this. I was doing aerospace stuff, and then the Berlin Wall came down and all of that work left Southern California. A friend of mine was working at a trailer company. But it’s like anything in Hollywood. You have to make them an offer you can’t refuse, which is sort of do it for nothing until you prove you’re valuable.
Incredibly interesting to see one career path of a successful movie advertising executive and how it’s not just all about who you know - but what you’re willing to personally sacrifice in order to make a career like that come to fruition.
If you love movie trailers as much as me, here are a couple favorite sites:
Apple.com’s Trailers
Best site for trailers hands down. Offers HD and iPod formats in addition to many independent films and documentaries if you’ve already tired of the summer blockbusters (go Indiana Jones!).
TVLand.com’s Movie Land
This is a new feature at TVLand.com and is great for those interested in retro trailers from the ‘50-’90s.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Have you seen the trailer to The Strangers yet? The most terrifying trailer I’ve ever seen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1TBlPelvbE . Very well done, too scary for general audiences.