5. Choral Music
http://youtu.be/7VdONYkKFmQ Following the overuse of both Lux Aeterna and Carmina Burana, the battle between good and evil will now be set to a less familiar tune. Any film claiming to portray a myth or the fate of mankind will feel indebted to use a few minutes of nondescript choral music for its trailer finale. At least The Dark Knight Rises showed some originality in incorporating its own chanting into the trailer. David Fincher bent the rules slightly; The Social Networks trailer may have used Scala & Kolacny Brothers cover of Creep but the closest that film saw of a battle was a legal one. Would it be possible, just once, to show the ultimate clash between hero and villain, man and machine and, erm, vampire and werewolf without the overdramatic white noise? 4. Freeze-frame
http://youtu.be/K7Rqrts4jPM Having our protagonist introduced to us after the word meet is usually reason enough not to. Rom-coms are keen to demonstrate from the outset just how athletic he is or how clumsy she is, and nothing typifies this like sliding their names onscreen just as hes taking off his shirt or shes tripping over her shopping bags. Similarly, each gangster or con artist in an all-star ensemble piece needs to have their nickname pinned to them like a badge. The freeze-frame was once an effective flourish, but after being held hostage by the likes of Guy Ritchie, it lived up to its name and just stuck.
Dan Wakefield
Contributor
Yorkshireman (hence the surname). Often spotted sacrificing sleep and sanity for the annual Leeds International Film Festival. For a sample of (fairly) recent film reviews, please visit whatsnottoblog.wordpress.com.
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