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2012 Movie News Archives

July 21, 2012: Anatomy of a Teaser Trailer

Now that lots of people have seen the "Man of Steel" teaser trailer that screened before "The Dark Knight Rises", we're seeing varied reactions from fans. Most seem to be reacting positively, but there are some who were disappointed, expecting more.

Having run the Superman Homepage for 16 years, if there's one thing I've learned, it's that there are people whose sole mission in life seems to be to complain about anything and everything they see. Take the "Man of Steel" teaser trailer for example. They'll pick on the smallest and most ridiculous aspects of the teaser trailer, and react as if 4 seconds of something they saw is equal to the whole movie destined to be a failure. But let's not waste time trying to argue with those who won't see reason, let's instead examine the not-unreasonable expectations of fans who may have been hoping for more.

So just what is a "teaser trailer" anyway? What's it supposed to achieve? According to Wikipedia:

"Superman: The Movie" is a famous example. The teaser trailer for the 1978 release (shown below) consisted of nothing more than a first-person perspective of a flight through the clouds, with the names of the actors cast in the film, followed by the "S" shield and the "Superman" logo.

True to the Wikipedia description, the above teaser contained no footage from the movie, and was simply a tool to let moviegoers know a Superman movie was coming.

Skip forward to 2012, and we see that compared to the teaser for "Superman: The Movie" the "Man of Steel" teaser trailer actually showed us footage from the movie. Nothing earth-shattering, but footage nonetheless. Both teasers used pre-existing music (the "Man of Steel" teaser music is actually from "Lord of the Rings"), and both simply have the name of the movie and the "S" shield to promote that the film is coming.

Did we want to see more? Of course we did. That's the point. Did it do enough to excite people (other than Superman fans)? Maybe. Maybe not. But it did let moviegoers know that a new Superman movie is coming in 2013... and, by definition, the "purpose is less to tell the audience about a movie's content than simply to let them know that the movie is coming up in the near future".

So for all the complainers saying that it felt like a fabric softener commercial or a promo for the "Deadliest Catch" TV series, you're entitled to your sarcasm, but the fact is, people now know that Superman is coming back to cinemas. That's what a teaser trailer is all about. Future theatrical trailers will ramp up the action and increase people's excitement for this movie as June 2013 gets closer.

Steve Younis