Post
by Arigatomina » Sat Jun 26, 2004 12:48 pm
I don't watch trailers very often, but going by 'real' ones, it's interesting. I liked the water shots - the explosions where the music picks up, and the action sync for the rising 'drama' of the 'war.' As far as getting the viewer's attention caught on the 'conflict' of the movie, that soldier does that (the one he's tracking) - the last shot was a nice close, really similar to the sort of closings in real trailers I've seen (tease the viewer, then snap to the title screen so they have to get the movie to find out).
The red scenes (I know that's the anime itself) clashed color-wise, and were hard to make out - I couldn't even tell if there was lip sync in those sections, too dark and blurred (the resolution does that especially). I'd suggest lightening those clips a bit - more brownish gray so the dark doesn't blur around the black outlines of the characters (hiding most of the details). It probably doesn't matter with a high resolution version, but it kills the lip sync in those parts (if there was any), and I tend to expect lip sync in a trailer. Those scenes are my main pet peeve with this.
I'd also add another dissenter for the beginning - the war just felt jumbled, and I didn't connect it with the kids until I read your comments in this thread. In movies, like you mentioned, the viewers have something to go by - there *are* books. But there isn't a book here. It would be like making a trailer for the first 'Aliens' movie and pretending there's a book when there isn't. Some sort of still, text screen could have explained that shift better - I've seen real trailers do that, so you wouldn't have people complaining about the lack of movement for a few seconds (it *being* a trailer, it's allowed to act like one).
But since the most trailers I've seen were real, for movies or anime, I don't think it makes much difference how much of the story you give away - whether or not it makes sense to the viewer. Some trailers are nothing but eyecandy and music, others are like this one with lines from the movie to identify characters and eyecandy mixed in. I think going for the third type would help here - having some text to set the story mixed into the character shots and eyecandy. It's a poor example, but if you've seen the trailer for Earthian, you'll know what sort of text screens I'm talking about - something to give the main 'idea' of the plot to go with the rest.
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