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When are trailers shown?

Most trailers are produced at the same time as the film is being edited. The timing of a trailer campaign is important: it must be shown far enough in advance to generate excitement about the film’s release, but not so early that people forget about the film before it even comes out.

Watch these three trailers then in pairs discuss the points below.

For Discussion

  • Trailers are designed to create a ‘buzz’ around the film. What do you think will be the main talking points from these trailers?
  • Most of the film trailers on the DVD are due to be released in the UK over the spring months. From the trailers you have seen, why do you think the distributors have chosen this time of year to release these films?
Close

Beautiful Creatures

[MUSIC]

LENA: I just hate hiding all the time, feeling like everybody’s whispering about me.

EMILY: Is that her?

SAVANNAH: My momma says her whole family are Satanists.

[SCREAMS]

TEXT: A POWER

ETHAN: I like you.

LENA: You don’t know anything about me. My family is different.

ETHAN: Are you a witch?

LENA: We prefer the term caster.

TEXT: A CURSE

LENA: When I turn sixteen, my powers will be claimed for either the light or the dark.

RIDLEY: You think you can keep Lena so good, so innocent, wasn’t I the same before I was claimed? And look at what I am now.

TEXT: A DESTINY

LENA: I don’t know what I’ll be, I have 75 days left, Ethan.

TEXT: THAT COULD DESTROY EVERYTHING

MACON: Sarafine

SARAFINE: (laughs) The curse has already begun.

MACON: Lina will not turn dark, she’s too strong.

SARAFINE: She’s gonna be more powerful than either of us. She will lead us all.

MACON: Toward what?

SARAFINE: Mortals have run things for long enough. Lena will put an end to them.

TEXT: BASED ON THE ACCLAIMED BOOK

MACON: Sarafine is the most powerful dark caster of all.

LENA: So I’m gonna be claimed for the dark no matter what?

MACON: No, you control your own nature and loving this boy puts you in terrible danger. You’ll get the both of you killed.

ETHAN: There’s gotta a be a way.

MACON: Get out!

MACON: Help stop Sarafine.

AMMA: Some things cannot be stopped.

TEXT: NEXT YEAR

MACON: It has begun.

RIDLEY: She’s already closer to the dark than I was.

GENEVIEVE: I want you outta here.

[SCREAM]

TEXT: BETWEEN TWO SIDES

TEXT: SHE MUST CHOOSE

TEXT: OUR FATE

SARAFINE: There’s darkness in you, don’t you try and deny it. Accept it sweetheart, be with me. We can rule over a new world, our world.

ETHAN: Lina!

TEXT: BEAUTIFUL CREATURES

TEXT: COMING SOON

 

Jack the Giant Slayer

[MUSC]

MAN: Fi, Fie, Fo, Fum, ask not whence the thunder comes.

MAN: For between heaven and Earth is a perilous place, home to a fearsome giant race who hunger to conquer the mortals below. Waiting for the seeds of revenge to grow.

PRINCESS ISABELLE: I saw your lights and I’m lost.

JACK: What are you doing out in this nasty weather, Your Highness?

TEXT: IF YOU THINK YOU KNOW THE STORY

PRINCESS ISABELLE: Are these your books?

JACK: My father used to read that to me. I like a good adventure.

PRINCESS ISABELLE:  I’m looking for an adventure of my own.

[CAT MEOWS]

JACK: What?

TEXT: YOU

TEXT: DON’T

PRINCESS ISABELLE: Jack!

JACK: Isabelle!

TEXT: KNOW

TEXT: JACK

JACK: Am I dead?

ELMONT: Not just yet.

TEXT: FROM DIRECTOR BRYAN SINGER

MAN: The legends are true.

KING BRAHMWELL: Elmont, assemble a team of your best men.

ELMONT: Yes sire.

KING BRAHMWELL: Bring back my daughter.

JACK: Your majesty, I wanna volunteer.

JACK: What do you suppose is up there?

ELMONT: I never suppose I simply prepare for everything.

[GIANT ROARS]

MAN: At last mankind have returned.

GIANT: They’re uglier than I remember.

ELMONT: Our mission is to find and return the princess.

LORD RODERICK: Tomorrow, you shall return below, with me as your new king.

[GIANTS CHEER]

PRINCESS ISABELLE: Are you mad?

LORD RODERICK: Upp upp…I’m talking to giants at the moment.

TEXT: PREPARE

TEXT: FOR A GIANT

[GIANT GROWLS]

TEXT: ADVENTURE

PRINCESS ISABELLE: Jack, you’re here.

ELMONT: I have this Jack. I had this.

GIANT: Are you ready my brothers?

ELMONT: Let’s cut a few of them down to size shall we?

JACK: I know the way out of here.

PRINCESS ISABELLE:  You make everything sound so simple.

JACK: I’m a simple farm boy.

PRINCESS ISABELLE: Not at all.      

GIANT: Who are you?

JACK: It’s Jack.

JACK: Ready?

TEXT: JACK THE GIANT SLAYER

[PRINCESS ISABELLE SCREAMS]

JACK: That worked out better than I expected.

 

Hitchcock

[REPORTERS STAND OUTSIDE CALLING ‘MR. HITCHCOCK’ AMIDST CAMERAS CLICKING]

REPORTER: Mr. Hitchcock, you’re the most famous director in the history of film, but you’re sixty years old, shouldn’t you just quit while you’re ahead.

[MUSIC]

ALFRED HITCHCOCK: I need something fresh, something different, a nasty little piece of work, that’s what I’m looking for.

ALMA: There’s a project out there waiting for you Hitch I promise you.

ALFRED HITCHCOCK: This book Psycho is fiendishly entertaining – graphic elements of brutal violence, transvestitism and incest.

PEGGY: Sounds ghastly.

ALFRED HITCHCOCK: Peggy, this is the boy who dug up his own mother.

MAN: What does Alma think?

ALMA: It was the knife that a moment later cut off her scream and her head. Charming. Doris Day should do it as a musical.

MAN: Your movie will not be released in this country. Even a talented man sometimes backs the wrong horse.

MAN: This is Mr. Hitchcock’s next film, are you in or are you out?

ALFRED HTCHCOCK: Just going to have to go it alone my dear, finance it ourselves.

ALMA: Anthony Perkins. The rage lurking beneath that little boy grin.

ALFRED HITCHOCK: And just think of the shock value killing off your leading lady half-way through.

ALMA: You shouldn’t wait ‘til half-way through, kill her off after thirty minutes.

ALFRED HITCHCOCK: Well!

TEXT: FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES PRESENTS

ALFRED HITCHCOCK: All of us harbour dark recesses of violence and horror. I’m just a man hiding in the corner with a camera…watching.

TEXT: BEHIND THE FILM THAT SHOCKED THE WORLD

WOMAN: How are you going to shoot this shower scene?

MAN: Is there any improper suggestion of nudity?

ALFRED HITCHCOCK: She won’t be nude, she’ll be wearing a shower cap.

TEXT: LIES A STORY THAT HAS NEVER BEEN TOLD

MAN: Hitch! You show me some damn footage now!

ALFRED HITCHCOCK: I’m under extraordinary pressures on this picture and the least you can do is give me your full support.

ALMA: I am your wife. I have weighed in on every film you’ve made in the last three decades and I put up with those people who look through me as if I was invisible because all they can see is the great and glorious Alfred Hitchcock.

ALFRED HITCHCOCK: More! More anger! You’re supposed to be a possessed homicidal…

TEXT: ACADEMY AWARD WINNER ANTHONY HOPKINS

TEXT: ACADEMY AWARD WINNER HELEN MIRREN

ALFRED HITCHCOCK: Am I making a terrible mistake?

ALMA: It’ll be splendid.

ALFRED HITCHCOCK: Are you sure?

ALMA: Of the movie? Not at all, but of you, unquestionably.

TEXT: HITCHCOCK

ALMA: You may not be the easiest man to live with but you’re more entertaining than any of your plots.

TEXT: COMING SOON