I'm wary of people who dress up their pets. It's one thing to buy your dog gourmet bones from France, but really, what is the point of dressing up your Bichon Frise in a Santa outfit?
Dressing up your pet is only a few notches below flogging them to death with a two-by-four on the animal cruelty scale. Have you seen how miserable dogs get the minute you place a knitted sweater on them? Their ears flatten and they have this angry, constipated look. Trust me, they KNOW they look ridiculous. Dogs have feelings too you know. I think they'd much rather be flayed to death by lumber than have to deal with the embarrassment.
Having said that, here is one outfit I would purchase for my dog George in a second:
Just a little career update...two of my short films- Love Your Thumbs and The Haircut - have been accepted into the 2006 In The Bin Short Film Festival. Pretty cool considering they had over 500+ submissions, and both my films made it to the festival program. Or to say it more collonially- programme.
This turn of events should get me to loosen my pockets and enter my films in more festivals. It's just that all these film fests cost so damn much, especially the foreign ones. I have to convert to NTSC, pay for the entry fee, seal the films in some bombproof airtight packaging, pay the exorbitant shipping costs, and before I know it, I've racked up a two hundred dollar bill on my credit card for something that isn't even sure of getting accepted! I really wish I earned more so that I could set aside a festival budget and just send my films to each and every festival that counts.
Talk about perfect timing. Just when I post the entry about trailers below, my friend Avid finally released the teaser for Saving Sally, the film I wrote for him and Charlene Sawit, whose short story I based the script on. Please spread the word by passing this trailer around:
And you know a person's serious about something when he gets an official .com address for it. Check out www.savingsally.com Do check out the photos page and wet yourself at how awesome this film looks.
I'm a sucker for trailers. When I was young I remember always wanting to go to the cinema fifteen minutes early because I wanted to catch the all the upcoming films (or 'extras' as my yaya would call them). I remember watching the trailer for E.T., bristling with excitement, and feeling a sudden craving for Reese's Pieces (I am the perfect patsy for product placement).
To this day my fascination with trailers lives on. I can spend a large chunk of my day on Apple Movies, wasting time and bandwidth watching spots for films that, in majority, will most likely suck. I know watching trailers is hardly a clear indication of how the actual film is going to be, but I've always approached them as separate entities to the films themselves. And it really pisses me off when I go to the cinema early and they show fast food and public service ads instead.
"In a world where (fill in the scenario)...one (man/woman/hero/pig) will (fill in highly implausible course of action to be taken)."
Of course, where would trailers be without the ubiquitous Trailer Voice?
I love the Trailer Voice. He's been a part of my moviegoing experience all my life, and he's not so much a cliche' as he is an institution. I saw a documentary on him once, and the dude is MADE. A limo picks him up, he shows up at a recording studio, records for a couple of minutes, limo takes him back home. You gotta love someone who rakes in six figures for speaking a couple of lines. As a former voiceover talent myself, I can only wish that I got paid remotely close to that...
Oh and by the way, the Trailer Man's real name is Don La Fontaine. Although there are several others like him whose voices we know so well yet probably never recognize if we bump into them in the streets. So let's give props shall we?
Here's the classic trailer from Seinfeld's The Comedian, featuring voiceover artist Hal Douglas:
Here's a great clip that features five of the very best:
I don't think I can stress the importance of a trailer enough. It's a one minute chance at getting people to sit up, lean over, and pay attention. You have one minute to intrigue them, sucker them into a sense of belief that your film is worth shelling out some hard earned dinero for. Audiences nowadays are all too aware and jaded when it comes to watching movie spots- they've grown tired of the usual fade-in/ fade out montage set to hyperkinetic bullet time set to a rap song by today's sellout rapper of the month. For a trailer to really hook today's savvy audience, it's gotta throw out all the cliches and present something different.
That said, check out this trailer for the new Kate Winslet film Little Children. I have no idea whether it will be good or not, but I'm pretty sure it will be since I pretty much love Kate Winslet in anything. What I like about it is the total absence of the classic trailer templates- foreboding soundtrack, the omnipresent "whooshing" sound effects, and Mr. La Fontaine and company are nowhere to be heard. Instead, it cleverly makes use of a chugging train, and uses the imagery of a child playing with toy trains as he eventually brings them together to collide. Brilliant. I'm there.
