10. Ghost Story
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upGQpr5CwMA This is an interesting trailer, because its a great one for a film thats considered not to so great. Some strange decisions were made by the producers and the studio regarding the making of this film, the weirdest being that said producers and studio chose a director who didnt believe in ghosts at all. Somebody like that has no business directing a film titled Ghost Story, but thats a discussion for another time. For now, lets focus on the trailer. When you get beyond all the scare moments and fake-looking special effects, you find that this movie is really about two things: stories and secrets. Four old men, who figure so largely in the trailer, form a group called the Chowder Society, who gather together to tell ghost stories. The old men share a secret, one of those dark, gossipy secrets that people are always dying to hear. The core of this story is about how this secret comes back to haunt these old men and their families. This trailer plays on both the theme of storytelling and that of long-kept secrets. The trailer starts us out almost immediately with a story motif with its voiceover, which begins with, Long ago, on a cold dark night, in this peaceful New England village, something happened This is nothing more than a fancier variation on an old story cliché, which goes like this: Once upon a time, on a dark and stormy night The voiceover also carries us into the secret theme in a pretty direct way, with something that has remained a secret, until now The trailer comes full circle in its discussion of said themes at its end, tying the revelation of a secret together with the telling of a story with the voiceover saying, The time has come to tell the tale. How does this pull people into theaters? This is just me, but I think that one of the things that make a great story, no matter what the medium, is that it has underpinnings that everybody can understand. Is there anybody among us who arent intrigued by whisperings about a really juicy secret or who arent enthralled by a really good story well told?
Alan Howell
Contributor
Alan Howell is a native of Southern California. He loves movies of any and all kinds, Hollywood, indie, and everywhere in between. He loves pizza, sitcoms, rock and pop music, surfing, baseball, reading, and girls (not necessarily in that order).
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