Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
This trailer relies heavily on the fact that it is Disney's first "full feature length film" - as it constantly reminds us throughout this trailer in particular. This factor added with the over-used text leads to a somewhat dreary trailer - the voice-over even reads out a review straight from the newspaper instead of showing what the film is all about. The voice-over attempts to inject some comedy into this review by saying "The usually hard-boilied Times review..." but is lost in the boring, bland article text. Superlatives such as "ever!" are used to bring in a child audience who will believe everything that the voice-over is saying, whilst the personal message from Walt Disney himself describing the seven dwarfs would create a sense of magic for these young children - Walt Disney was very famous at the time. Yes, Walt Disney giving a personal message and the fact that it is the first full feature length film made by Disney does help to sell the film, but it does not help to sell the story. We know nothing about any of the other characters apart from the dwarfs, and even then we don't know how they link into the story completley - plus, we have no idea of the storyline! The reason that this film was so successful was only because it was the first full feature length film, and not because of the trailer itself. This is a very early trailer, and contrasts greatly from more modern-day ones.
Cinderella (1950)
This 27 second disney trailer is extremley short in comparison to the 1 minute 37 second Snow White trailer. But despite its shortness, this trailer has improved sinces its Disney predecessor. The trailer reveals more of the film itself rather than drawings and reviews like Snow White did, and clips like the running horse and carridge give more of an insight into the magic of the film - which would be appealing to a young audience. Plus, the trailer uses enticing text like "THE PICTURE THE ENTIRE WORLD HAS BEEN WAITING TO SEE!" which would create a hype about the film and enhance its appeal. However like the Snow White trailer, this again relies heavily on text and the fact that the voice-over says "Walt Disney after six years in the making" created this film. I suppose that this voice-over would somewhat enhance this films appeal, but the combination of too much text/voice over and the overall shortness of the trailer makes it quite bland and dull to watch.
The Night of the Iguana (1964)
This trailer is obviously not a Walt Disney film, so it will not rely so heavily on the fact that it is a Disney production. This trailer starts out with a confuddled combination of random clips from the film - from an eerie lightning strike to a girl spinning around and dancing. The drumming music played over the top of the beginning of the trailer makes the film seem less serious and more comedic, which is presumably the genre of the film (drama/comedy). This trailer is significantly more developed than the old Snow White and Cinderella trailers due to the fact that the plot summary is established throughout the mix of clips. Dialogue such as "She's trying to pin on me a rape charge", and then dialogue runs over a clip of Shannon (the protagonist) kissing a young girl, explaining what statutory rape is ("a man seduced by a girl under 20"). The comedy returns when Shannon is carrying the girl out of his house, and then the trailer cuts to a clip of him saying "Absolutely fantastic". After that the trailer shows several short cuts of random parts of the film, from someone cutting off a fish head to the girl dancing again. The trailer ends with a longer clip of an iguana running through the grass (which relates to the film title) and Shannon stating that "Shannon will emerge triumphant" and the film title is revealed. Although this random combination of clips can seem confusing, it keeps the audience engaged as to what will happen next and will keep them thinking about what each clip means afterwards. This trailers zero-usage of voice-over and minimal text keeps a sense of mystery about it and will keep the audience engaged.
Star Wars Episode IV (1977)
This trailer keeps the audience engaged through cuts from the 'STAR WARS" title slowly coming into vision to the fast-paced action and fight scenes. The text slowly coming closer and closer cleverly keeps the audience guessing as to what this film could be, thus keeping their attention and preventing from them getting bored half way through. The cuts to the action and spaceship scenes then define that the film is in fact a sci-fi action, and attracts the excited gaze of the watcher. Throughout the trailer (during the scenes when the title is coming into vision) there is a voice-over that keeps the audience updated on the plot summary with statements like "a boy, girl and the universe" and "saga of romance and rebellion", which obtains the audiences intrigue and gives them an insight into what to expect and encourage them to go see this for themselves. The voice-over uses enticing speech such as "George Lucas, the man who brought you American Graffitti, brings you an adventure unlike anything on your planet" - this enticing feature would work for film-fanatics who would know of George Lucas, and yet the voice-over keeps it linked to the sci-fi genre of the film with "an adventure unlike anything on your planet". Overall, this trailer is quite successful in keeping the audience engaged, but the fact that the voice-over's are quite long could be criticised for possibly boring the viewer.
Goodfellas (1990)
This is more like a short film rather than a trailer - the trailer itself reveals a lot about the film and tells a short story of Henry (the protagonist) growing up and how he became a gangster. There is a voice-over of Henry giving a running commentary on his life, with dialogue like "Being a gangster was better than being president of the United States" and "We tried to steal every bit of it". In my opinion this running commentary succeeds in keeping the audience engaged, whilst letting them know more about Henry and becoming more personalised with the film itself. The music playing throughout most of the trailer coincides with the time period the film is set in (approximately 1950's) - this music may catch the audience's attention, since it is unusal for modern-day music and would intrigue them. Unlike 'The Night of the Iguana' trailer where all the clips were randomly mixed together and not really linking together to form a proper plot summary, the Goodfellas clips all link up to create a story starting from Henry's younger years, to him becoming a gangster and then to him falling in love and being faced with dilemmas such as murder - I believe this is a much more successful approach than earlier trailers. However, this trailer doesn't just centre around dialogue and story-telling; at around 36 seconds, there are a series of jump cuts showing short snippets of an explosion, a gun and someone covered in blood. This shows the audience that the film isn't all about the drama, and can appeal to an action-loving viewer also. All of these features are produced significantly more successfully than earlier trailers, and Goodfellas includes one vital component that was not used in the other trailers - a cast billing block. Towards the end of the trailer, the names of the most well-known characters (such as "Robert De Niro" and "Ray Liotta") appear on screen and the shot then cuts to the character that actor is playing. This would appeal to a film-wise audience who would have heard of these renowned actors before and want to see any movie involving them. Overall, this trailer is extremley successful in captivating its audience.
Inception (2010)
It is obvious that this film is intended to be for the action audience due to its mise-en-scene - constant explosions, gunfire, car chases and fights captivates and keeps the audiences' attention. But at the same time, this trailer is giving a basic understanding of the plot through dialogue such as Cobb stating "I can access your mind through your dreams - it's called Inception" but still creates suspense and mystery for the audience as to whether he will succeed when he is told that it "can not be done" by Yusuf. There is also a fast-paced soundtrack playing throughout in the background which builds up until it reaches the end of the climax of the trailer. Success of reigning in the audience is further achieved through film genres other than action being displayed - there is a close-up of Cobb with a woman (Mal), and this leads us to believe that there is a possiblity of romance/drama for Cobb and thus the trailer succeeds in bringing in a wider audience other than action fanatics. Towards the end of the trailer we also see an extreme long shot of buildings crumbling in the distance. This sets the scene for the action/disaster type film and would bring in more action fans since that is what they want - destruction, fighting, explosioins and guns. Moreover, dilemma is created when there is more possibility of failure when Yusuf states "Dreams within dreams is too unstable", and this dilemma will ensure that viewers will want to see the film to discover if Cobb succeeds in his conquest. Furthermore, one of the most important aspects that is essential in selling a film is the release date - a component that this Inception trailer displays (July 16th) along with the rating (PG 13), and the majority of earlier trailers fail to include these. However, this trailer fails to make a big deal of the cast billing block (it is only flashed for half a second on screen towards the end of the trailer), and when a film includes as well-known actors as Leonardo DiCaprio, you would think that the production team would want to make everyone know that he is in it in case the viewer didn't recognise him on screen. In conclusion, I believe that the most successful trailer is the Goodfellas one, as all the shots link togther and keeps you intrigued till the very end - but in a more modern-day society, an action-packed Inception trailer would appeal to a wider audience than Goodfellas would.
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