Trailer Analysis - The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

The trailer for 'The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug' is another very strong trailer that immediately caught the eyes of many people across the cinematic community. One of the main reasons for the success of this trailer was, of course, that it already had a very large fan base. The film is a sequel to a very successful film, the prequel to one of the most successful trilogies of all time and an adaptation of one of the most famous books of all time. This means that it has an enormous fan base. Not only this, but it has many countries laying claim to it, who all feel a sense of national pride about it; it was filmed in New Zealand and made by a majority New Zealand cast, it is based off an English book with mostly English actors and it is funded by an American company. Each one of those countries has a very strong claim to the nationality of it meaning that the film has large audience's from all three countries.

However the trailer has also been successful because of what it chose to reveal in the trailer and how it managed to be appealing to the fans. The most intriguing part of the trailer comes right at the end, when the dragon, Smaug, appears on screen. There has been much talk in the cinematic community about what Smaug was going to look like, and in the first film there was only a small tease, therefore this shot at the end, that revealed much more was a clever choice. However it did not show the whole of the dragon, but only its head; otherwise it would have been given away. They just revealed enough of it so that the audience feel that following the film's campaign is rewarding, yet there are still more secrets to be revealed so they stay tuned in, in order to get more of these snippets. Even when showing the head of the dragon, it did not show everything about the dragon's head, for instance it did not show what colour the dragon was - a question that has been asked several times in the build up to the film. From this I can learn that for my own trailer it is not good to give the whole story away, or everything about certain characters, but it is good to release some previews to keep the audience excited.

The opening of the trailer is equally strong. From the outset, the trailer starts to hint at the tone of the film, which is clearly a fantasy adventure film. It does this by starting with four establishing shots in a row. This is highly irregular for many trailers, for although most trailers start with some sort of establishing shot, very few start with more than one, and far fewer start with four. But this is done in order to help the audience grasp the sense of adventure and journeying that is a vital part to the film. By having four in a row the audience feels like they are catching glimpses of the magnificent landscapes that they will travel across with the protagonists of the adventure. This is supported by the character voice over, whose first words are 'where does your journey end?', which immediately gets the audience in the mindset of an adventure film. In addition to this, the landscape shots give the film a very high production value and from the start the audience know that they are not watching an amateur film, but are watching something that a lot of money has been put into. Audience's are more likely to put their money towards something that has had a lot of money put into as they think that it will mean they get value for money. The opening few shots are very slow, and they are supported by slow, melancholy music and a soft yet slightly sinister voice over. It reminds me of the trailer for 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2', which uses a similar technique.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NYt1qirBWg
In both trailers they have the sinister voice narrating establishing shots to a backdrop of melancholy music, before reaching a crescendo and picking up the pace. By following the convention of other successful trailers, the trailer for 'The Hobbit' shows that it has researched very well and is giving the audience the sort of conventions that they like to see in trailers. Modern audience's can be very particular about the way that trailers are; they expect them to follow certain formulas, which 'The Hobbit' manages to do admirably. If it did not adhere to the usual conventions of what a trailer should be like then audiences might think that the whole film was unconventional and strange, which would only appeal to a very small minority.

Fairly early on in the trailer, it shows the familiar face of Legolas, who was a leading character in the 'Lord of the Ring's' Trilogy, of which 'The Hobbit' is a prequel. Legolas did not appear in the first instalment of 'The Hobbit' but he was a fan favourite in 'Lord of the Rings', so his return was highly anticipated in the fan community. By including Legolas, the trailer gives the audience another good reason to go and see the film; to reconnect with the old character of Legolas. Even if fans of 'Lord of the Rings' did not like the first Hobbit film, they may want to watch the second one purely for Legolas, in order to complete his story arc. In addition, the trailer very cleverly gives the audience the new character of Smaug whilst bringing back the old character of Legolas, both of which would excite any fan of the old trilogy. Legolas is introduced first so that the fan community trust the film maker more as he is already a well loved character, and then once that trust is gained, they introduce Smaug, which is likely to be seen in a much better light, simply because the fans are happy with the film makers that they have given them back Legolas and they are in a trusting mood.

Towards the end of the trailer there is a part that I do not think was very good editing. This begins at about 1:25, and the reason I don't like it is because there are about four shots almost consecutively of people doing some sort of jump attack or falling. The reason I don't like that is because it doesn't show good variety and it makes the fight choreography look very sophisticated or original. It is a complete overuse of the attack, which can be used to enhance a fight sequence, however here it is just too much. I think that if they particularly wanted to use those shots in the trailer then they should have at least spread them out across the length of the trailer so that the overuse of it isn't so obvious. Another problem with it is that it makes it look as if they don't have any more decent exciting footage to use so they are just filling it in with the same thing. It shows bad organisation in the trailer, trying to cram in all the shots at the last minute.

Overall I think that it is a very strong trailer, that takes advantage of its fanbase and its assets. However I'm not sure as of yet how we will be able to apply some of the techniques that they have used for our trailer, as we don't currently have a fanbase. Also it could be difficult getting a high budget looking establishing shot of our own, but this is something that we will have to consider when planning our trailer, as it seems to be a very common convention of a successful trailer. Most successfully I have learnt what not to do when editing a trailer, and that is to put a series of similar shots directly next to each other, because this does not look very good or impressive.