question of the day: How do we fix the problem of spoiler-laden trailers?

Ryan Lambie at Den of Geek ponders the problem of trailers that ruin entire films:

From a cinemagoer's perspective, however, it's becoming increasingly difficult to avoid having a film spoiled, to a certain degree, by its own promotional material. How many times have you sat in a cinema and managed to work out what happens in a film next because you'd already seen snippets of it in the trailer? I've lost count.

At the screening of Battle: LA, my clear memories of the film's trailer affected my enjoyment of several pivotal scenes. Because I'd already glimpsed them in the movie's promo, I was able to predict more than one plot development based on what I'd already seen. It didn't spoil the film overall, but it's merely a recent example of how a trailer can inadvertently spoil some of a film's surprises without intending to.

But the solutions he comes up with don’t seem very viable:

Given that movie trailers aren't going to be abandoned by marketing types any time soon, I therefore propose two possible solutions to the problem of spoiler-filled trailers. Number one, they only show pieces of footage that tell us absolutely nothing about a movie's events at all, a shot of an empty sky, perhaps, or a tightly-edited snippet of a character saying "It's-", Monty Python-style.

Alternatively, trailers could sidestep the use of movie footage altogether, just as many videogame ads avoid showing what their game actually looks like. Instead, a film's tone could be conveyed through the use of glove puppets, or via interpretive dance.

Hmmm. What options did Lambie miss?

How do we fix the problem of spoiler-laden trailers?

(If you have a suggestion for a QOTD, feel free to email me. Responses to this QOTD sent by email will be ignored; please post your responses here.)

support


Disqus comments

blog comments powered by Disqus

  
posted:
Wed Mar 16 11, 12:48PM

categories:
talk amongst yourselves




Disqus comments


tip jar





share


 
 


read more




related


· Doctor Who thing of the day: the Doctor’s worst enemy? fans
· The Muppet Saga: meet Bella Swine and the Vamphibian
· ‘Doctor Who’ thing of the day: in which we see the violence inherent in the system (re ‘Torchwood’: “Miracle Day”)
· ‘Doctor Who’ thing of the day: Just who the hell is River Song, anyway?
· ‘Doctor Who’ thing of the day: Neil Gaiman talks about writing for ‘Doctor Who’
· ‘Doctor Who’ thing of the day: Is ‘Doctor Who’ for geeks?
· ‘Doctor Who’ thing of the day: Torchwood news!
· ‘Doctor Who’ thing of the day: yet another reason why ‘Doctor Who’ is not for kids
· trailer break: ‘Doctor Who’ Series 5 trailer 3
· geekgasm: Gillian Anderson on ‘Doctor Who’?


bloggy


previous post:
‘Doctor Who’ thing of the day: so where does Amy sleep, anyway?

next post:
trailer break: ‘The Smurfs’

search




search FlickFilosopher.com


follow

  
  
  
(in case of site outages or other emergencies, I'll update my status on Twitter and Facebook)



Get our toolbar!

follow FlickFilosopher.com no matter where you are online


share and enjoy

shop to support

support FlickFilosopher.com when you click through here and buy almost anything at:

Amazon U.S.
Amazon Canada
Amazon U.K.
Amazon Germany
Amazon France
Amazon Spain
Amazon Italy
Chapters/Indigo (Canada)