How to be American - part 1: the trailer

Throughout the following weeks I'll teach you to how be "Americans." Because after all, it is what we all want to become. Americans. Right?

Whatever the country, English-speaking or not, European, Asian or South American, American films have hade a huge success, often greater than the one enjoyed by domestic films in their respective countries.

Most international movie stars owe their global celebrity to their participation in a Hollywood product or a nomination / win at the Oscars.
The explanation cannot simply be the fact that all American films are better than others. Why then?

There are many answers, and trailers are one of them. Yes, trailers. There's just something about them that makes the difference.
Of course, there's the cavernous voiceover that makes even the greatest banalities exciting. (IN A WORLD WHERE EVERYONE IS LYING ... HOW DOES HE KNOW WHO’S TELLING THE TRUTH?).

There is also the recent top 50 hit which is used so that if you don’t like what you see, the film is at least associated with something you love to hear-or that TVs and radio stations have been hammering in your brain incessantly for weeks.
There is the fast-paced editing that makes you believe that there has to be something exciting since everything is moving so quickly.

Above all, the U.S. majors always make sure that at the end of said trailer you really know what the film is about. Entire film concepts are modified and some movies don’t even get produced because executives felt it couldn’t be summarized in a simple 150 seconds clip that can successfully attract audiences. Because that’s the name of the game: attracting people. Butts in the seat. By all means.

So you do what I already talked about above, but you also show all the best scenes of the film. So much for mystery or surprise. If there aren’t enough good scenes, you can also show a major plot twist (hello, Terminator IV and Sam Worthington who is in fact not human). What if the client feels robbed after seeing a mediocre movie whose trailer showed the only elements of interest? It does not matter.

You don’t believe me? Let me tell you a story, despite my really inaccurate memory. A few months ago, a marketing executive from one of the majors came to talk in one of my classes. A girl –pretty hot, come to think of her again- asked this question: "Don’t you think it is a bad thing that many trailers nowadays show much more than they should and don’t leave any room for surprises? I went to see XYZ recently and I realized that the trailer was more a summary of the film than anything else."

The - pretty funny - answer of our marketing friend? "Excuse me, but this is everything I've heard: Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, I went to see XYZ, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You paid to go see the movie, my mission is accomplished and the job ends there. What happens afterwards is not my problem."

He’s right after all. You can’t get a refund. What will you do? Never watch a movie again in your life? I’d love to see that.