Monday, March 19, 2012

Lame Trailer Clichés: The Freeze Frame

Yes, another weekly feature. It was something I came up with while selling someone a Lotto ticket at work and gazing at the TV playing the trailer disc. I've seem craploads of trailers in my time thanks to working a DVD shop, and more often than not they're pretty silly. So every Monday, I'll look at a certain lame trailer cliché that seems to pop up in quite a few of them.

Ah, the freeze frame. They're activities we do in our first years of Drama, just so we can create complicated situations with a single movement. Alas, trailers use them in a different way. Many different ways, in fact. Some can be effective, others are just...well, what's the point? Freeze frames are supposed to be the production stills, not subjected to the trailer, which can move and speak. Let's take a look at the four different freeze frames:

1) The 'Introduction' Freeze Frame.


Most of the time, this one is quite effective. Especially in the case of The Change-Up - an otherwise awful film - which shows the life of Dave perfectly. And hey, the second freeze frame sums up the movie perfectly. It is a giant shit in the face. (full trailer here)

2) The 'Situation' Freeze Frame/Half Freeze Frame.


When I say 'the Situation', I'm not meaning that guy off Jersey Shore. These freeze frames go hand in hand. First off, there's the use of black and white, which we'll get to later. Then we have the words, which in both instances use the word 'normal' - just so it makes it's point. The split screens are meant to 'put things into perspective', somehow. But all they do is make me lust after Chris Evans' muscles, and then how well he fits into that suit. (full trailer here)

3) The 'Let's Look at Our Wonderful Cast' Freeze Frames.


So everyone knows that New Year's Eve had the who's who of everyone who has ever been in a romantic comedy (plus Robert De Niro), so of course they had to throw a few freeze frames in there somewhere. They just had to over-expose them, as if the photos were being taken. Just so you could get the feel of the holiday and the romance going around. And then you have a freeze frame which is obviously taken by someone who didn't go to freeze frame school... (full trailer here)


Just to give the movie a more relevant, Paranormal Activity feel.

4) The Worst Kind of Freeze Frame in the World.


I'm not just saying this because Trespass is a bloody awful movie and the trailer matches that. These black-and-white freeze frames showing the 'terror' just have to stop. Why does everyone think that black-and-white is a symbol of something terrifying happening? If it is, then I'm sure that The Artist must have been a very terrifying experience. I mean, do you feel unsettled by looking at that? All I can think is that they picked the wrong moments to freeze frame. (full trailer here)

If you're making a trailer (for whatever reason), don't use freeze frames. They're just so corny. Unless, of course, you happen to be making a giant shit in the face movie.

16 comments:

  1. I really have to find a conversational use for the phrase "giant shit in the face" now.

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  2. God, this cliche is AWFUL! Holy hell, how I hate it. The black-and-white one is especially insulting.

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    Replies
    1. The black-and-white one is so overused in horror trailers I want to shoot myself.

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  3. That is ennerving trailer cliche indeed. But the weird thing is that freeze frame used in the movies doesn't annoy me. Soderbergh uses it frequently and it almost looks smart when he does it.

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    1. Soderbergh does a great job with freeze frames. I loved the ones he used in Contagion.

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  4. I think these types of freeze frames only work for comedies, and even then, they look clicheic, although there are some exceptions to the rule!

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    Replies
    1. They work for some comedies (i.e. The Change-Up) - but no New Year's Eve!

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  5. Oh, you're so on about these cliches. I hate them as well.

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  6. You have a good point! The freeze frames should stick to the posters of movies I think....

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  7. So many trailer cliches! It's like they are being manufactured in a factory these days. All the trailers look the same. Super quick-cuts, Inception-like music blaring at you, freeze frame, freeze-music etc... GRRRRR

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    Replies
    1. If I can't eradicate these problems, I'm still gonna take the piss out of them!

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  8. I think good trailers are a dying art. Once in a while something comes that wows me... like the trailer of The Raid, but otherwise as you so wisely documented they are full of cliches.

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    Replies
    1. SO full of cliches. I'm not sure why they just don't have one trailer for every movie ever made.

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You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.

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