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dorinda: Two hands, one dangling a silver Comedy mask and one dangling a gold Tragedy mask, under the words THE PLAYERS. (Sting_players)
[personal profile] dorinda
When I went to see Guardians of the Galaxy last week, one of the trailers before the movie was this one for "Annie" (official trailer #2):



First of all, I think it looks charming, and I'm so glad to see Quvenzhané Wallis getting good work. I loved her in "Beasts of the Southern Wild", but because she had to be so feral and internal in that movie, it's great to see her getting to be external and verbal, show off her range.

(Sad and I'm sure unsurprising note: don't read the comments at the trailer! Even though some folks are in there fighting the good fight, the comments section of course is crawling with people complaining about How Dare They Cast A Black Girl When Annie Is Capital-W White. Uh huh. Yecccch.)

I've been keeping an eye on "Annie" in a vague sense, because of its earlier trailer (the one put out in March, also on YouTube here ). When I first saw that one before some spring movie or other, I was surprised at how much I didn't like it. It's interesting to compare it to the later one, #2, which I do like. I think they make a good before-after example of how the same footage can be re-edited to be much more effective.

The first one, for instance, has a real emphasis on the Miss Hannigan character, trying to use her dialogue for comedy--but it instead comes off as abrasive and offputting. No offense to Cameron Diaz, I think she can be funny, but the sheer amount of time this trailer spends in her mugging nastiness is not appealing. And it soaks up a lot of valuable real estate, putting in two very similar jokes/beats, where she says something lengthy and incomprehensible--long pause--kids go "Huh?" Trailers don't have any time to waste! Silence-->punchline can be very striking, but only used sparingly. (The wig joke from #2 uses it more effectively.)

Trailer #2 I think has a much better sense of how to use just a couple of shorter Hannigan moments for punch/contrast, dialing her presence way down. More of the comedy comes from poking fun at the self-importance of the Stacks (nee Warbucks) character (like the linked Batman jokes, which I really like, but there are also others). I think this is a better approach: spending a lot of time grinding on how hilarious-terrible Hannigan is is basically shooting fish in a barrel, whereas jokes about Stacks are punching up. But also, it's more linked to the theme of the movie, where Stacks (I assume) learns to lighten up and to love and whatnot.

I also much prefer the way the second trailer uses the "Hard Knock Life" song and beat from the get-go, with the editing being quick and staccato in a matching way. And then it slows down a bit to do some story pipe-laying with dialogue, and then picks back up with quick cuts again, which gives the trailer more of a shape and a forward propulsion. The first trailer inexplicably began with one of those long Hannigan diatribes, which felt draggy, and only brought in the music afterward (when it was too late, the pace had already been established as sloggy).

Anyway, that's just the sort of thing I think about, in the dark before the movies while I'm trying to figure out the best way to open the box of Milk Duds.
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