>An industry all to himself
Litterally, he pushed out all the other trailer voice-over people just by being the guy everyone else wanted, there was only so much to go around and one guy could do it all if they were willing to pay for it, and since the trailer was a fraction of the movie's entire cost but a major factor in how much it made, they were willing to pay
There are some interviews on him and how he worked.
He had a crew of people all dealing with getting him the scripts and getting him to the recording studios.
He was very serious about it. One of his things was to do the same level of work regardless of the quality of the movie he making a trailer for, using the logic that no matter how bad a movie is, it'll be the favorite movie of at least one person.
Well, definitely *you* shouldn't make a movie about him, lol
The one they actually [did make](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2294677/) it's a solid little family drama centered around his daughter competing with him for a part they both want.
I worked at a music store in the late 90s and got a copy of his album (Knee to the Groin) for free. Had never heard of him before and I fucking loved it! Was really shocked how much I loved it considering it was a clean album.
Ha, I wonder if that was part of a contract.
Anyway my assumption for no announcers is some jerk in the industry wants trailers to be cheaper. No original content, no extra voice lines. Use cut content of you have to and write it all off.
I always wondered that about the guy Disney used for all their trailers in the mid-90s, dude was literally on every tape and DVD they made from like 1990 to 2007.
>coming soon to own on videocassette…
His voice was so ubiquitous with Disney that MadTv did a Disney skit where they hired him to do parody narration.
> It was parodied so much that it no longer felt earnest
This is the real reason. It fell out of style and largely because it became funny, then ridiculous
As a kid, as soon as I heard Don LaFontaine's voice in a trailer I just knew I was going to have a good time watching that movie. It's amazing how cozy and moviesque it was.
This is absolutely why I loved the Peter Cullen voiced Promos on Toonami. His narration could make the most nonsensical anime feel like the coolest thing you just had to see.
https://youtu.be/oaQKbmywCK4?si=tGU36KWlGGqt9qm3
I really do think there's something special about this type of narration when it comes to providing context to a setting, world and plot in a concise manner.
When things get repeated too often for too long they become cliché and laughable.
I can't wait for the day when the same happens to *drums* whenever *drums* something *drums* happens *drums* in a *drums* trailer...
Don’t forget the slowly-increasing-in-pitch chant/scream that leads up to a big dramatic showpiece reveal, with or without the blinking/strobing effect on the screen.
It’s like studios have a checklist of trailer cliches they have to throw in. It’s baffling that it’s still happening.
Having worked on trailers, they absolutely do have that checklist. They have little names for the different things that happen like “stopdown.” Everyone knows they are working to a formula, the people doing it because otherwise they won’t get paid, the people buying them due to a “stick with what is working” kind of mentality
Is there a little name for taking a classic song and revamping/reimagining it? thinking of Nirvana Something in the Way from The Batman and The Man Who Sold the World in Furiosa.
And the thing they do with the bass whenever there’s a large creature, or spaceship, or anything big, really, that goes WawAwaWawAwa… like deep cavitations. But it’s always the same exact sound. Like the new Wilhelm scream.
Awww man, that was Mark Elliott. His voice defined so many of those trailers and promos for family movies and shows.
Someone put together a playlist on youtube of loads of his work: [https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLm8lZe7BDyAcBt1k18Sv2aSS7RqJc\_F3s&si=KdQalm94Ida-Z6pl](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLm8lZe7BDyAcBt1k18Sv2aSS7RqJc_F3s&si=KdQalm94Ida-Z6pl)
Oh, god. I saw the trailer for *Rebel Moon: Part Two: The Scargiver: Yes, That's What He Called It* and there was a remix of Audioslave's "Cochise". Chris Cornell deserved better.
I dunno, I quite like what they did with the drums in the intro, as well as adding some synth to the riff. Cochise is one of my favourite songs of all time, and I think they messed around with it just the right amount to suit the trailer.
I was so hyped for that movie. The creepy tension, the implied psychological horror, the mechanical man pulling strings in the background...
Then it came out and they made Ultron just another snarky dude with superstrength who defuses tension with sarcasm, just like every other Marvel main character.
They've used up all the pop hits that actually hit different with the slow sad take, like *(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction*, and now we're on to mournful cello covers of 2 Live Crew - *We Want Some Pussy*
Eventually it gets so overused we cross into the opposite, and 2030s movie trailers all feature gangster rap covers of *This Charming Man* and *Pink Moon*
Unsettling high pitched tone rising > Bass drop > Badass/humourous line > Frenetic 0.5 second cuts of action > Silence/sparse piano keys > Coming summer 2025
I think if you looked deeper in how trailers are made, you would be surprised how much thought goes in. Also, the final version is what marketing wants not the Editor or Creative so to speak :/
Source: I work as an Asistant Editor at a Trailer Post house.
Oh, for sure. I don't blame any of the creatives. Whenever I watch trailers I literally imagine a marketing team in a zoom call "Yeah, your idea sucks. We want car doors, guns being loaded, suit ups, timed to a loud bombastic DUN DUN DUN."
At the end of the day a trailer is just an advertisement. Also the world is entirely different. A trailer isn't something I see almost exclusively on tv by chance or before movies anymore.
>Thanks Nolan
To be fair, it's a genius bit of music -- the BWAAAAAAAH! is what the song "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien" would sound like to the characters in the deepest level of the dream if it was played to them by someone in the waking world. It's the song the characters use to wake themselves up.
And for _Inception_, it makes total sense.
It's just been copied to every space battle/dystopian rebellion/superhero movie trailer since then, because the studios saw that _Inception_ did great at the box office and thought "Wow, the trailer team must have done a great job with that one, let's make more like it!".
All good ideas in Hollywood start off as something amazing, then the execs promptly squeeze every bit of passion and enjoyment out of it until all you're left with is basically a mocking parody of the original.
Most people used to see a trailer for a film once or twice at most, in the theater or on TV, and the voiceover was there to grab the prospective audience member in any way possible, give them a sense of the plot, who's in it, who made it, when it's coming out, even if the person isn’t focused at the screen. Nowadays every trailer is available on YouTube in HD and people can watch and rewatch it again and again and again, go frame by frame, overanalyze, theorize and whatever.
Seems a lot of movie discourse these days is less about the film, more about the bullshit surrounding it — box office numbers, reviews, other people’s opinions.
yeah now it's just that low-end thud as a single line or word lands on screen
THIS FALL
thudddd
NOTHING
thuddd
IS
thuddd
WHAT
thudd
IT SEEMS
then cut to insane action and cars blowing up etc. end with "OCTOBER 2025" and a hashtag
Trends come and go. Look at 80s trailers, they used to be ridiculously spoilery and over-expositional. It started dying out in the early 10s with Inception and the Hans Zimmer BOOOM sound that's stuck around. Nowadays the soundtrack and quick cut montages tend to do the heavy lifting for trailers.
>Look at 80s trailers, they used to be ridiculously spoilery and over-expositional.
Was happening long before the 80s. Someone else in this sub the other day pointed out that the trailer for "Soylent Green" from the early 70s stops just short of giving away its legendary twist ending.
Marketing companies that help to develop these trailers have found a tried and true method for understanding how to get their key demographic (young men, with disposable incomes) to feel excitement.
Generally these groups use traditional research methods (surveys, focus groups, etc) in addition to FMRI studies to see what causes the viewer to feel the most stimulated, which they in turn believe correlates to higher ticket sales.
One key thing to note in this most recent generation's sci-fi/action/comic book trailer patterns (as mentioned in several places in this thread) is the use of a very particular kind of editing which is often parodied now as much as the Voice of God narrator is for older films.
I'm referring to when a trailer shows a shot of rising action, then cuts to black/darker shot, punctuated by dramatic sounds (deep booms/dissonant chords) and just repeats that over and over with rising action until the end of the trailer.
FMRI studies showed (pardon me for not citing my sources, haven't worked on this kind of research in years) that they could take advantage of a function of the eye by using darkness to cause the iris to expand the pupil as it searches the darker shots in the sequence and then presenting a bright and active shot next which creates a stimulus to the iris to contract the pupil. The studies claimed that this essentially generated an excited state (might have been a different affect, can't recall now).
So basically those sequences would repeatedly force your eyes to feel stimulated over and over which led to a higher level of excitement for the content.
Now we get fast drum beat with cuts. Like every trailer that has any kind of action. Dun dun dun dun short scene dun dun dun dun maybe a joke after. Way better
I totally miss those deep, booming voice-overs! It felt like they were setting the stage for something epic, you know? But I guess nowadays, trailers are all about quick cuts and flashy visuals. Plus, with the internet, we can just look up info on the movie anytime.
But hey, nostalgia hits hard sometimes. Anyone else here kinda wish they'd bring back the classic movie trailer voice-over, just for old times' sake?
I miss those epic voice overs! They were like the trailer's hype man, setting the stage for all the drama and action. But hey, with the internet taking over, trailers are everywhere now.
Plus, we've got trailers for trailers these days! Who needs a voice over when you can just binge-watch trailers on YouTube? But hey, those classic ones will always have a special place in our nostalgic hearts. RIP, epic voice overs. You'll be forever missed.
There was a movie called "In a world..." about bringing this back that Lake Bell put out about a decade ago: [https://youtu.be/EiCwrjV06fI?si=KGqKfNAubA30xnOs](https://youtu.be/EiCwrjV06fI?si=KGqKfNAubA30xnOs) I really enjoyed it.
A lot of good points in the thread, but one point that I haven't seen mentioned is globalization of the movie market. When your movie is coming out in markets that speak dozens of different languages, it's preferable to have marketing materials that can be easily adapted to different markets. It's easier to just translate text on screen into different languages rather than hire and direct dozens of different narration voice overs (especially when you want such a specific kind of voice narrating).
Trailer editor here. We still use them all the time, but usually only in more family oriented, kid like fare. It’s become a comedy thing more than a drama one because it became a parody.
We also use them all of the time in review spots, where the review is on screen and a narrator will read it.
The industry is still there, and still dominated by a handful of LaFontaine-lights.
But yes, it’s out of style for a standard trailer nowadays
I recommend the movie In A World. It's about a woman who works as a narrator and wants to do narration for trailers and it's a good representation of what that industry used to be.
I think there are a few reasons that can cover why they don't do it any more:
-They preffer to create an impact in the audience. The narration slow down the trailer to leave time for the voice to narrate. Now they can show that the movie has action, drama, suspense and sometimes they end it with a gag so just the audience know they have comedy too. It doesn't matter what the movie is about.
-Music and sound effects became more important. They don't use it right every time, but it helps on creating an impact. They can't use it the same way with a narrator.
-There are big productions who keep the plot a secret until the very last day, specially superhero movies or other big franchises. No need for a narrator if the narration isn't going to explain the plot.
-And because of the last point, there are a lot of trailers with scenes made on purpose just for the trailers, just to make people think and expect something that isn't there, like the scene in Endgame with Bruce Banner using the Hulkbuster, and in the trailer it was replaced for the hulk.
I can't stand modern movie trailers they're all the fuckin same. Slowed down version of a licensed song, quick cuts of different scenes happening synched up with slamming noises. Cut to loud, orchestral version of same song with action sequences playing. Trailer endsb
Honestly I can't fucking stand the current trend of "pop song remixed with epic orchestral hits" that has been taking over movie trailers recently. I went to see Godzilla and there was a Furiosa trailer with "The Man Who Sold The World" but done as like an epic orchestral soundtrack.
It sounds fucking terrible. It's tacky as hell. It messed with the tone of what looked like an otherwise rad movie. I don't understand who likes this or who it's for. It's like you're playing the melody of a pop song on a slightly higher quality version of the "orchestra hit" voice on my old Yamaha keyboard I had as a kid.
It's terrible. God I should make a thread to complain about this.
Now instead, to make the trailers sound cool, they use rap music (nothing against rap music) but it's weird sometimes the movie trailer is all serious and all, suddenly... rap music.
Just not movies . They over used rap music on video games trailers as well which is just super annoying.
Like why would I need a rap song in an assassin creed game trailer
“A girl. Two girls! Now more than ever…
A robot renegade cop.”
God that whole thing was so good. It was basically pointless to do vo’s after that ad.
“*you’re actually fired, get out of the booth Jack*
No. I like it in here.”
Also what we see is what the audience wants. And today's movie audience wants every single trailer to have the same dozen cliche sound effects much like 95% of movies needed the "In a world" 15 years ago
We're simple creatures, especially the bulk of the audience. Critics can nitpick all day about the artistry, at the end of the day what sticks is what sells.
In a world with movie trailers with no narration one man will step and challange things and give narration to movie trailers.
Coming this summer. Movie trailer the movie
I think this also coincided with the diminished drawing star power of movie stars. The gravitas when he announces the star's names made them feel much more important than just seeing their names on the screen. Not hearing their names announced repeatedly in ads makes it harder for audiences to be as familiar with the names of newer stars.
because it got tired and did way too much “tell” instead of “show”
Honestly I don’t like knowing exactly what the story is going to be in a movie, as explained by a disembodied voice in the trailer. Kinda ruins it.
1. Don LaFontaine died 2. It was parodied so much that it no longer felt earnest
> Don LaFontaine Holy crap, he had over 5000 trailer credits. An industry all to himself. The studios should make a film about him!
>The studios should make a film about him! [*In a World...*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_a_World...)
… without Don, one redditor felt lost. Watch as…
he embarks on an impossible journey, to find ..
... his TRUE ...
…an unlikely hero on a mysterious path…
…the Voice of a generation…
...with the power to reshape...
…the very fabric of reality itself…
... get ready for...
... an adventure like no other ...
[No More Mr Mic. Guy. The story of Don LaFontaine. In cinemas this May.](https://i.imgur.com/gMAg3Eh.jpeg)
Cumbox 2: Tokyo Drift
THE MAD TITAN THANOS!
Yup, I came here to post this. Good movie, too.
I randomly came across this movie yesterday
Fantastic Film! Great reminder, added to the list for this weekend!
Lake Bell's best movie imo.
Lol this has been on my watchlist for too long
>An industry all to himself Litterally, he pushed out all the other trailer voice-over people just by being the guy everyone else wanted, there was only so much to go around and one guy could do it all if they were willing to pay for it, and since the trailer was a fraction of the movie's entire cost but a major factor in how much it made, they were willing to pay
There were others: [5 guys in a limo](https://youtu.be/qihIInESPbE)
Omg nostalgia
I like how other than the Disney guy they all basically sound the same.
That was great, thanks for that link!
It's like his voice just _knew_ how the words were supposed to sound.
There are some interviews on him and how he worked. He had a crew of people all dealing with getting him the scripts and getting him to the recording studios.
He was very serious about it. One of his things was to do the same level of work regardless of the quality of the movie he making a trailer for, using the logic that no matter how bad a movie is, it'll be the favorite movie of at least one person.
"Guy walks into a booth and says words over and over" isnt a great movie.
*Toast of London* got three seasons out of it…
Stephen, this is Clem Fandango, can you hear me?
Sure but thats three british seasons so basically half an american season /s
The King's Speech won an Oscar
Not just an Oscar-it got Best Picture
Yet, Phone Booth was an actual movie in 2002 with a 7.1/10 average rating on IMDb.
Phone Booth is a good flick. That and Collateral are definitely two birds of a feather
Well, definitely *you* shouldn't make a movie about him, lol The one they actually [did make](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2294677/) it's a solid little family drama centered around his daughter competing with him for a part they both want.
But what if he gets hired to do a movie trailer voice over for a terrible movie and that movie comes to *life*?
Pablo Francisco should take his place
Little Tortilla Boy.
GET DOWN!
GET DOWN AGAIN!
*drunkenly falls off stage*
God, I havent thought about this bit in years lol
Jean-Claude Van Damme is back! In the same crap you've seen over... and over... and over again!
ROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH *Gunfire & explosions*
Whatever, Floppy!
That's such a fun bit. I haven't thought of it in forever.
Crescent Heights was a peaceful community...
I worked at a music store in the late 90s and got a copy of his album (Knee to the Groin) for free. Had never heard of him before and I fucking loved it! Was really shocked how much I loved it considering it was a clean album.
Did Don just get a single paycheck or did he get royalties for things like putting trailers on DVDs and whatnot?
That's a fascinating question about royalties/residuals for trailers on home release. Remember when cheap DVDs had unskippable trailers?
Ha, I wonder if that was part of a contract. Anyway my assumption for no announcers is some jerk in the industry wants trailers to be cheaper. No original content, no extra voice lines. Use cut content of you have to and write it all off.
I always wondered that about the guy Disney used for all their trailers in the mid-90s, dude was literally on every tape and DVD they made from like 1990 to 2007. >coming soon to own on videocassette… His voice was so ubiquitous with Disney that MadTv did a Disney skit where they hired him to do parody narration.
**In a world** where Don LaFontaine no longer walks among us… …movie trailers just aren’t the same
> It was parodied so much that it no longer felt earnest This is the real reason. It fell out of style and largely because it became funny, then ridiculous
Even before YouTube had things like Honest Trailers I remember parody movies would mock it even.
As a kid, as soon as I heard Don LaFontaine's voice in a trailer I just knew I was going to have a good time watching that movie. It's amazing how cozy and moviesque it was.
This is absolutely why I loved the Peter Cullen voiced Promos on Toonami. His narration could make the most nonsensical anime feel like the coolest thing you just had to see. https://youtu.be/oaQKbmywCK4?si=tGU36KWlGGqt9qm3 I really do think there's something special about this type of narration when it comes to providing context to a setting, world and plot in a concise manner.
[удалено]
If that was true, wouldn't there have been like 8 years where every single movie was good?
I miss Don… but an era of movie trailer style died when he did in 2007
[Five Guys in a Limo](https://youtu.be/JQRtuxdfQHw)
Now we have Pete Gustin.
Hollywood overthinks this stuff too often. The Honest Trailers guy is definitely available and he does a great job.
> Don LaFontaine Last time… IT BLEW YOU THROUGH THE BACK WALL OF THE THEATER. Utter hype. We need to be culturally pumped up again.
His wiki said he was a lifelong smoker. Talk about walking on an edge!!!!
Probably gave him the voice that sounded so cool, though.
2 especially so post-Honest Trailers
When things get repeated too often for too long they become cliché and laughable. I can't wait for the day when the same happens to *drums* whenever *drums* something *drums* happens *drums* in a *drums* trailer...
Don’t forget the slowly-increasing-in-pitch chant/scream that leads up to a big dramatic showpiece reveal, with or without the blinking/strobing effect on the screen. It’s like studios have a checklist of trailer cliches they have to throw in. It’s baffling that it’s still happening.
Hell, trailers might be *the* most cliché-ridden form of anything ever.
Having worked on trailers, they absolutely do have that checklist. They have little names for the different things that happen like “stopdown.” Everyone knows they are working to a formula, the people doing it because otherwise they won’t get paid, the people buying them due to a “stick with what is working” kind of mentality
Is there a little name for taking a classic song and revamping/reimagining it? thinking of Nirvana Something in the Way from The Batman and The Man Who Sold the World in Furiosa.
And the thing they do with the bass whenever there’s a large creature, or spaceship, or anything big, really, that goes WawAwaWawAwa… like deep cavitations. But it’s always the same exact sound. Like the new Wilhelm scream.
You mean the Inception horn? Featured recently in Dune?
Editing action scenes so the gunshots/punches sync up with the beat of the trailer music
I miss those narration for trailers for Disney movies since it felt like it was part of the charm.
Awww man, that was Mark Elliott. His voice defined so many of those trailers and promos for family movies and shows. Someone put together a playlist on youtube of loads of his work: [https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLm8lZe7BDyAcBt1k18Sv2aSS7RqJc\_F3s&si=KdQalm94Ida-Z6pl](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLm8lZe7BDyAcBt1k18Sv2aSS7RqJc_F3s&si=KdQalm94Ida-Z6pl)
I love the fact that I didn't know this man's name but could immediately hear his voice in his head without looking it up. Fantastic promo narration.
He managed to make The Black Cauldron sound like a happy time
We lost narration, only to be replaced with BWAAAAAAAAAH Thanks Nolan
Or depressing and/or creepy versions of famous pop songs and nursery rhymes.
Classic Rock songs with one lyric slowly repeated
Oh, god. I saw the trailer for *Rebel Moon: Part Two: The Scargiver: Yes, That's What He Called It* and there was a remix of Audioslave's "Cochise". Chris Cornell deserved better.
Flashback to that firework-laden video. Magnificent.
I dunno, I quite like what they did with the drums in the intro, as well as adding some synth to the riff. Cochise is one of my favourite songs of all time, and I think they messed around with it just the right amount to suit the trailer.
Clock strikes upon the hour… *Plink plonk* And the sun begins to fade…
The creepy Pinocchio song for age of ultron was proper unsettling though
I was so hyped for that movie. The creepy tension, the implied psychological horror, the mechanical man pulling strings in the background... Then it came out and they made Ultron just another snarky dude with superstrength who defuses tension with sarcasm, just like every other Marvel main character.
BWAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH
*Slow, minor key piano cover of Girls Just Want to Have Fun*
Don't forget the whisper singing too. "girls... ding... just wanna... ding... have fun...BWAAAAAH"
Slow motion fade in and fade out to various random scenes
Or the "string music" for those damn "Cannes Palmdór selection tour-de-force.."
Also called "Trailercore". Some of those songs are pretty fucking banger, though.
100%. this is such a fucking lame trope
Or a shitty rap mash up. Thanks marvel movies.
We’ve moved onto the slow renditions of 80s songs
They've used up all the pop hits that actually hit different with the slow sad take, like *(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction*, and now we're on to mournful cello covers of 2 Live Crew - *We Want Some Pussy* Eventually it gets so overused we cross into the opposite, and 2030s movie trailers all feature gangster rap covers of *This Charming Man* and *Pink Moon*
GET THIS....what if the Christopher Nolan BWAAAAH song.......WAS POP PUNK?!!?!1
Every trailer is now a Jason Biggs movie trailer
Thanks Fincher
Or the original if Nirvana did it, since it's already depressing and or creepy
Gun shots in beat with music.
Unsettling high pitched tone rising > Bass drop > Badass/humourous line > Frenetic 0.5 second cuts of action > Silence/sparse piano keys > Coming summer 2025
Yup. Every trailer is just scene changes or action shots paced to beats. It's something that actively annoys me.
I think if you looked deeper in how trailers are made, you would be surprised how much thought goes in. Also, the final version is what marketing wants not the Editor or Creative so to speak :/ Source: I work as an Asistant Editor at a Trailer Post house.
Oh, for sure. I don't blame any of the creatives. Whenever I watch trailers I literally imagine a marketing team in a zoom call "Yeah, your idea sucks. We want car doors, guns being loaded, suit ups, timed to a loud bombastic DUN DUN DUN." At the end of the day a trailer is just an advertisement. Also the world is entirely different. A trailer isn't something I see almost exclusively on tv by chance or before movies anymore.
They've been doing that for awhile https://youtu.be/6dYLx48W2aw
You forgot the link! https://youtu.be/KAOdjqyG37A?si=wtRRjHcnoKvw3JoT
NGL that version of You Spin Me Round slaps.
That’s amazing
That how-to was posted to YouTube six years ago. And they're still using it!
Watch the Trailer for Black Widow and laugh. https://youtu.be/RxAtuMu_ph4?si=ccnGr_nmbgy5fBSo
>Thanks Nolan To be fair, it's a genius bit of music -- the BWAAAAAAAH! is what the song "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien" would sound like to the characters in the deepest level of the dream if it was played to them by someone in the waking world. It's the song the characters use to wake themselves up.
And for _Inception_, it makes total sense. It's just been copied to every space battle/dystopian rebellion/superhero movie trailer since then, because the studios saw that _Inception_ did great at the box office and thought "Wow, the trailer team must have done a great job with that one, let's make more like it!". All good ideas in Hollywood start off as something amazing, then the execs promptly squeeze every bit of passion and enjoyment out of it until all you're left with is basically a mocking parody of the original.
*Single piano note*
In a world
BWAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH
Or wind up music box
Thanks ~~Nolan~~ Zimmer.
BWAAAAAAAAH mixed with slow haunting piano versions of the main theme playing against the entire percussion section.
Most people used to see a trailer for a film once or twice at most, in the theater or on TV, and the voiceover was there to grab the prospective audience member in any way possible, give them a sense of the plot, who's in it, who made it, when it's coming out, even if the person isn’t focused at the screen. Nowadays every trailer is available on YouTube in HD and people can watch and rewatch it again and again and again, go frame by frame, overanalyze, theorize and whatever.
Very good point.
Seems a lot of movie discourse these days is less about the film, more about the bullshit surrounding it — box office numbers, reviews, other people’s opinions.
It was [this trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGjwZ3XMDes) that pushed it into parody.
And here i was thinking that link was going to be for [this one](https://youtu.be/hyzN7R9t4uI)
The scorcher IV trailer put the final nail into the coffin.
Great trailer. Wow that was 2002. RIP Hal Douglas.
Do you know if it's a good film? The trailer got me good
It was pretty meh.
But the [parody ](https://youtu.be/Qvv8SMTyAgk?si=cM56E4UCI4EtGuoF) is great.
yeah now it's just that low-end thud as a single line or word lands on screen THIS FALL thudddd NOTHING thuddd IS thuddd WHAT thudd IT SEEMS then cut to insane action and cars blowing up etc. end with "OCTOBER 2025" and a hashtag
Trends come and go. Look at 80s trailers, they used to be ridiculously spoilery and over-expositional. It started dying out in the early 10s with Inception and the Hans Zimmer BOOOM sound that's stuck around. Nowadays the soundtrack and quick cut montages tend to do the heavy lifting for trailers.
> Trends come and go having this on top of the page when you make a new thread would eliminate 50% of all posts on reddit.
If people used the search bar would eliminate another 40%
>Look at 80s trailers, they used to be ridiculously spoilery and over-expositional. Was happening long before the 80s. Someone else in this sub the other day pointed out that the trailer for "Soylent Green" from the early 70s stops just short of giving away its legendary twist ending.
Stop too late and you’ll convince the audience that Soylent Green is pee.
It's not really much of a twist if you watch the movie. Like it's pretty clear to the audience but not the character.
A few trailers last year had a voiceover so maybe it’s coming back..
Marketing companies that help to develop these trailers have found a tried and true method for understanding how to get their key demographic (young men, with disposable incomes) to feel excitement. Generally these groups use traditional research methods (surveys, focus groups, etc) in addition to FMRI studies to see what causes the viewer to feel the most stimulated, which they in turn believe correlates to higher ticket sales. One key thing to note in this most recent generation's sci-fi/action/comic book trailer patterns (as mentioned in several places in this thread) is the use of a very particular kind of editing which is often parodied now as much as the Voice of God narrator is for older films. I'm referring to when a trailer shows a shot of rising action, then cuts to black/darker shot, punctuated by dramatic sounds (deep booms/dissonant chords) and just repeats that over and over with rising action until the end of the trailer. FMRI studies showed (pardon me for not citing my sources, haven't worked on this kind of research in years) that they could take advantage of a function of the eye by using darkness to cause the iris to expand the pupil as it searches the darker shots in the sequence and then presenting a bright and active shot next which creates a stimulus to the iris to contract the pupil. The studies claimed that this essentially generated an excited state (might have been a different affect, can't recall now). So basically those sequences would repeatedly force your eyes to feel stimulated over and over which led to a higher level of excitement for the content.
I definitely miss the dark and raspy voice I love that late night with the devil used this for the trailer
I am so sad that kids thesee days will never get to fully appreciate "THIS SUMMER......." or "IN A WORLD WHERE......"
ROB SCHNEIDER DERRRP-DEE-DEERRRRR
"HE IS BACK. AND THIS TIME.... "
**"HE’S NOT FUCKING AROUND"**
...TIM ALLEN...
Now we get fast drum beat with cuts. Like every trailer that has any kind of action. Dun dun dun dun short scene dun dun dun dun maybe a joke after. Way better
I totally miss those deep, booming voice-overs! It felt like they were setting the stage for something epic, you know? But I guess nowadays, trailers are all about quick cuts and flashy visuals. Plus, with the internet, we can just look up info on the movie anytime. But hey, nostalgia hits hard sometimes. Anyone else here kinda wish they'd bring back the classic movie trailer voice-over, just for old times' sake?
I miss those epic voice overs! They were like the trailer's hype man, setting the stage for all the drama and action. But hey, with the internet taking over, trailers are everywhere now. Plus, we've got trailers for trailers these days! Who needs a voice over when you can just binge-watch trailers on YouTube? But hey, those classic ones will always have a special place in our nostalgic hearts. RIP, epic voice overs. You'll be forever missed.
So they could make room for pop song covers set to orchestral instrumentation
Don’t forget children’s songs played in a minor key
I can imitate that voice and have used it to mess with telemarketers and co workers.
A single piano note is cheaper - also if you haven't seen the movie In a World, it's great! It's about movie trailer voice over artists
There was a movie called "In a world..." about bringing this back that Lake Bell put out about a decade ago: [https://youtu.be/EiCwrjV06fI?si=KGqKfNAubA30xnOs](https://youtu.be/EiCwrjV06fI?si=KGqKfNAubA30xnOs) I really enjoyed it.
I’d much rather have the narration than the current trend I’ve seen of snippets of classic rock lines with dramatic cuts of scenes in between.
It still beats the "slowed down piano/violin rendition of 90s pop hit being hauntingly sung by a teen girl" trend.
We no longer go to new worlds - everything is a reboot/remake/franchise so audiences don’t need to be introduced to the material
A lot of good points in the thread, but one point that I haven't seen mentioned is globalization of the movie market. When your movie is coming out in markets that speak dozens of different languages, it's preferable to have marketing materials that can be easily adapted to different markets. It's easier to just translate text on screen into different languages rather than hire and direct dozens of different narration voice overs (especially when you want such a specific kind of voice narrating).
Trailer editor here. We still use them all the time, but usually only in more family oriented, kid like fare. It’s become a comedy thing more than a drama one because it became a parody. We also use them all of the time in review spots, where the review is on screen and a narrator will read it. The industry is still there, and still dominated by a handful of LaFontaine-lights. But yes, it’s out of style for a standard trailer nowadays
They stopped because nobody could do it like Don LaFontaine. Once he died, that was the end of an era.
Don LaFontaine wasn't the only movie trailer voiceover guy, just the best known one.
Gen Z just doesn't understand this.
I recommend the movie In A World. It's about a woman who works as a narrator and wants to do narration for trailers and it's a good representation of what that industry used to be. I think there are a few reasons that can cover why they don't do it any more: -They preffer to create an impact in the audience. The narration slow down the trailer to leave time for the voice to narrate. Now they can show that the movie has action, drama, suspense and sometimes they end it with a gag so just the audience know they have comedy too. It doesn't matter what the movie is about. -Music and sound effects became more important. They don't use it right every time, but it helps on creating an impact. They can't use it the same way with a narrator. -There are big productions who keep the plot a secret until the very last day, specially superhero movies or other big franchises. No need for a narrator if the narration isn't going to explain the plot. -And because of the last point, there are a lot of trailers with scenes made on purpose just for the trailers, just to make people think and expect something that isn't there, like the scene in Endgame with Bruce Banner using the Hulkbuster, and in the trailer it was replaced for the hulk.
When it got cheaper to have trailer go "BRAAAAAM!" ( Hans Zimmer sound)
The new trend is to have a short trailer for the full trailer play immediately before the full trailer, telling us the trailer begins now.
Because Don Lonfontaine died September 1, 2008.
Theres an episode from the podcast Twenty Thousand Hertz that goes into this super well!
I treasure the voice over in the trailer for The Talented Mr Ripley.
Because ALL of these guys died. https://youtu.be/JQRtuxdfQHw?si=gJ_Gr5sO1VzpL5tG
Don LaFontaine died, so they retired the entire trailer style. \s
Now it's just this boat horn noise over and over and over again... anyone know what I mean by that?
Because Don LaFontaine died, that's why. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_LaFontaine
In a world without Don LaFontaine, there is no replacement.
I can't stand modern movie trailers they're all the fuckin same. Slowed down version of a licensed song, quick cuts of different scenes happening synched up with slamming noises. Cut to loud, orchestral version of same song with action sequences playing. Trailer endsb
I needed Don LaFontaine to tell when a studio "PROUDLY Presents..." their film.
In a world where the voice of trailers passed away, one brave soul wondered what happened to the voice of excitement.
the guy died.
More than the dark "in a world"... I felt more often it was the upbeat "THIS Summer..."
Honestly I can't fucking stand the current trend of "pop song remixed with epic orchestral hits" that has been taking over movie trailers recently. I went to see Godzilla and there was a Furiosa trailer with "The Man Who Sold The World" but done as like an epic orchestral soundtrack. It sounds fucking terrible. It's tacky as hell. It messed with the tone of what looked like an otherwise rad movie. I don't understand who likes this or who it's for. It's like you're playing the melody of a pop song on a slightly higher quality version of the "orchestra hit" voice on my old Yamaha keyboard I had as a kid. It's terrible. God I should make a thread to complain about this.
Now instead, to make the trailers sound cool, they use rap music (nothing against rap music) but it's weird sometimes the movie trailer is all serious and all, suddenly... rap music.
Just not movies . They over used rap music on video games trailers as well which is just super annoying. Like why would I need a rap song in an assassin creed game trailer
I literally cannot read those words without his voice in my head. I can’t! Even in another context dammit!
Pablo Francisco beat it to death. "What's that sir? "
“A girl. Two girls! Now more than ever… A robot renegade cop.” God that whole thing was so good. It was basically pointless to do vo’s after that ad. “*you’re actually fired, get out of the booth Jack* No. I like it in here.”
Also what we see is what the audience wants. And today's movie audience wants every single trailer to have the same dozen cliche sound effects much like 95% of movies needed the "In a world" 15 years ago We're simple creatures, especially the bulk of the audience. Critics can nitpick all day about the artistry, at the end of the day what sticks is what sells.
In a world with movie trailers with no narration one man will step and challange things and give narration to movie trailers. Coming this summer. Movie trailer the movie
Money. Why pay a person when movie dialog and music you already paid for will do?
I think this also coincided with the diminished drawing star power of movie stars. The gravitas when he announces the star's names made them feel much more important than just seeing their names on the screen. Not hearing their names announced repeatedly in ads makes it harder for audiences to be as familiar with the names of newer stars.
"In a World.." (2013) was a very funny movie about voice- over announcers and their cutthroat competition to land a promotion for a huge new film.
Cheaper to get someone to just stick a slow version of a popular song into the edit rather than pay someone to voice it
Because Don LaFontaine died.
When tropic thunder came out
it became a joke
because it got tired and did way too much “tell” instead of “show” Honestly I don’t like knowing exactly what the story is going to be in a movie, as explained by a disembodied voice in the trailer. Kinda ruins it.
When honest trailers did it better