Trailers - Harry Potter and Mission Impossible 2

Authors Avatar

Comparison Between Two Film Trailers

The use of a ‘trailer’ to advertise films has developed in the last ten years into an art almost separate from that of making the film itself. As seen last summer when ‘Star Wars Fever’ was at its height, the release of certain eagerly awaited trailers has become almost as hyped as the release of the film itself. More and more attention is paid towards the making of trailers and ‘teaser trailers’, because of the huge role they play in boosting the profits of the film. They have become longer, they give away more of the plot lines than ever before and in some cases specialist directors have been called in to make them.

Both of these trailers are ‘teaser trailers’. This means that they are released quite some time before the film, in the case of Harry Potter, nine months before the film is due to be released. They contain less information about plots than normal trailers, merely introducing the viewer to the genre and possibly some of the major selling points, although some teasers may be quite minimal. Their basic aim is to get across the information, what film and when its coming out, not to provide detailed information about the film.

Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone is a film that has been eagerly anticipated for months. The series of books has been hugely popular and the making of the film has been under the public eye ever since the boy to play Harry was chosen. The audience and therefore profit for this film was more or less guaranteed, so giving away plot-lines or establishing genre is less important for this film than it is for Mission: Impossible 2. The trailer therefore concentrates more on showing off other selling points, such as famous actors and special effects.

MI 2 although the sequel to a highly successful film cannot rely on instant audiences on sheer hype. It therefore needs to give away much more of the plot and action than the Harry Potter trailer. Mission: Impossible has one major selling point, Tom Cruise. He is an ‘unique selling point’ in his own right, attracting large crowds into the cinema. This is shown in the way that he is the focus in almost every shot throughout the trailer. He is not introduced until about twenty seconds into the trailer, when the camera quickly zooms into a shot of his face covering the whole screen. He is dangling from a cliff face with one hand, but he doesn’t panic like a normal person, he takes one deep breath and gives the camera an ‘I’m cool and in control’ look. With this one shot we are introduced into one of the major themes running through the trailer (and film), Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) gets into many dangerous situations but remains cool.

Join now!

Almost all film trailers and films start with a shot of the logo of the film company, in these cases Paramount and Warner Bros. Both of these trailers do this however they take this standard a step further and incorporate the logos into the rest of the trailer. The Paramount logo is of a mountain surrounded by stars, and the word ‘Paramount’. This logo is manipulated by taking it into three dimensions with a helicopter shot panning round the outside of the mountain. This instantly introduces us to rocky mountainous landscapes, making the transition into the first shot of the ...

This is a preview of the whole essay