TLJ Second Trailer. When and Where ??

This is a "trailer tease". A trailer for a trailer, basically. It's common nowadays, they release them a couple of days before the proper thing drops. Quite annoying IMO.

 

Then what constitutes the difference between a teaser and a trailer?

TFA's "teaser" is about as long as some films' trailers.

 

This is where I wax all "old curmudgeon" and get on my soapbox. The problem is that the studios themselves are blurring the lines between teaser and trailer. In the past, the teaser was often released just as the post-production(editing) process was begun. It usually was about 60-90 seconds long and had very little dialogue and/or gave few indications of the plot. They were basically just a quick barrage of people, places, and things. Then the trailer would come out later in the PP process and would be around 90 seconds to 3 1/2 minutes long. This one would have lots of dialogue and would have some plot indicators/minor-spoilers(okay, don't get me started on the stupid BvS trailer). Now, in some cases, the trailer comes before the teaser and either can fill the previous, traditional roles/functions. it's very gray now.

 

I suppose the difference is entirely subjective at this point, given that the difference, as @NotQyteNeo rightly pointed out, is blurred these days: between distributors, studios, and even within their own franchises/properties; to me, what constitutes a teaser - or a teaser trailer - is the lack of context when presenting the shots that the teaser/teaser trailer is comprised of: whilst there may be hints to a story, these are, in my opinion, found mainly in the teaser trailer, and the hints presented do not feel as though they are ruining, revealing or summarising what the plot may be, as if a blurb for a book.

Generally speaking, a teaser or teaser trailer is released first, followed by a teaser trailer in the case of the former or a second teaser trailer - or even a proper trailer - in the case of the latter.

I think an excellent example of all of the above can be found with the teasers and trailer put out for The Force Awakens and the teaser put out for The Last Jedi.

Teaser

It's easy to forget that it only took seven shots to set the world ablaze, and yet this teaser managed to do just that. I often find teasers or teaser trailers are more of a statement of intent by the studio than anything else, and whilst this certainly intrigued the audience, it did so without giving any hint at the plot other than a voiceover which ties into the title of the film.

The second teaser for TFA contains around 20 shots, and, again, gives away no plot details, instead continuing the trend of a voiceover to give the teaser a narrative. Despite having more shots than the first teaser, it's worth mentioning that this teaser feels a lot slower and establishes a pace for what can be expected from the film and future marketing.

Teaser trailer

Whilst the Star Wars YouTube channels list this as a teaser, I think that a very strong argument could be made that our first look at The Last Jedi is more of a teaser trailer than it is a teaser.

Whilst it consists of roughly 25 shots, similar to the second teaser for TFA, and uses its voiceover to tie back into the film's title, there is clearly much more context given here regarding the plot when compared to the above teasers, from both the scenes shown and the voices we hear; whereas the voiceover found in the teasers didn't pose ideas about the film's plot, this teaser trailer clearly did, from Rey's lines of saying that she sees light, darkness and balance to Luke telling her to breathe and stating that it's time for the Jedi to end. The former quite clearly is open to interpretation - as smartly written trailers should be - but it is clear from this that new aspects of the Force will be explored in the film, and Luke telling her to breathe - linking back to the opening shot - hints that he is training her. As for the latter statement, whether cut together just for this trailer or not, there can be no doubting that it was included so that the audience has some idea as to where Luke's mind will be in this film. It's also worth noting that The Resistance - by using shots such as that of Poe and BB-8 running through halls, Poe's black X-Wing exploding and Finn being depicted in stasis - is very clearly depicted in this trailer as an overwhelmed force, again, giving much more context for the direction of this film.

This reveals plenty more than the teasers above, and whilst it does this, I'd argue that it manages to do so without actually outlining whatever the film aims to do from a story perspective.

Trailer

There are around 45 shots in this trailer. Yep, it shows quite a lot.

And yet, interestingly, it manages to keep its story under wraps whilst letting us get a good idea as to what's going on - and, more importantly, where we find our main characters before the film.

Rey's voiceover saying she's no-one being used with shots of isolation tells us that she is a character who is clearly lost and without a strong sense of purpose at the start of the film - in fact, something I think that can be applied to all three of the main characters who we find ourselves hearing in this trailer.

Finn's voiceover, on the other hand, informs us that he has been trained from birth - before revealing him taking off a stormtrooper helmet, implying to us that he is indeed a stormtrooper - but that he's got nothing to fight for - followed by a shot of a clearly doomed TIE Fighter. This tells us that Finn is a stormtrooper - confirming what we thought had been the case since the first teaser - and doubts his place in the First Order at the start of the film.

On the other hand, Kylo's voiceover tells us that nothing will stand in his side's way - boasting an air of confidence and informing the audience that he is in a position of power at the start of the film - and he aims to finish what Darth Vader started - whatever that may have been - hinting further at what his aims are.

Whilst this trailer opens up the three major threads of this movie by informing this where their heads are at, it does so without, of course, giving the plot away, as no trailer should.


And this, I have to admit, is where I find myself questioning the need for as many teasers/trailers - three - as we've had thus far for both The Force Awakens and Rogue One for The Last Jedi: the "teaser" that we had for at Celebration was quite clearly more of a teaser trailer and set up a very key thread in this film's story in Luke's beliefs and Rey's training; we already know the aims of the main characters - Rey, Kylo and Finn - at this point having spent over two hours with them in The Force Awakens and becoming acquainted with them; and, I suppose it could be argued, the cliffhanger ending of The Force Awakens was supposed to serve as a teaser of sorts for Episode VIII.

There is, quite clearly, a general trend that is followed when it comes to great advertising campaigns for movies, and that's that the stakes are slowly ramped up with each trailer/teaser or what-have-you when a bit more is revealed than was last time, and I'd argue that's why BvS - which I see many of you pointing to as blowing it with its final trailer - had nowhere to go but go without that final trailer or ruin the film's "twist" because of the way previous trailers had revealed too much of the plot already. What more was there to show without blowing it; what could this trailer have shown to hook potential audience members who weren't hooked by what was already shown?

Let's be very clear: I would love to see two more major looks at TLJ before it comes out as much as the rest of you, and yet do they really have much else to tell us about the film?

We already know that Luke's in a bad place, he's going to be training Rey, and The Resistance is in a pretty bad spot too.

Unless these next few pieces are complete misdirects and filled with cut material, I have to ask, what more do we want to know before the film is released? Do we really need to know more about Snoke's involvement before we see it in the film? Do we want to feel like we can piece together much of the story before we walk in to the theatre? Do we want to know for a fact that Luke has an AMAZING KICK ASS scene before we go in as hinted in a trailer - because, if we do, I have to ask: would Vader's scene in Rogue One have garnered the same response if it were hinted at beforehand?

Like it or not, neither Disney or Lucasfilm cuts these teasers, teaser trailers or trailers together, and I feel that TFA - despite a great campaign - showed just a bit too much when it came to trailers and TV spots.

Again, to be clear, I'm not down on the idea of seeing more - I want the film now! - but I just felt it was worth entertaining the idea that three pieces might be a bit too much for this particular film (as many felt it was with Rogue One, especially given the material cut as a result of rewrites and reshoots).

 

Teaser trailers can not be as long and as rich as trailers of TFA simply because TFA was enigma, absolutely. Trailers for TLJ by plain logic can not follow patterns of those made for TFA and R1.

People now know detals from TFA and joining it with information from other sources, ( story synopsis rough skeleton is already reconstructed) it will be possible to make many things cracked (decoded/spoiled) from one rich teaser-trailer like those made for TFA.

So I realy do not expect much from next teaser/trailer.

 

What blew it for me, as for TFA, wasn't anything in the trailers/teaser. It was Harrison Fords attitude towards the film. He was too darn happy and upbeat about it. I'm an old dude (approaching 50) and I remembered quite clearly his desire to see Han Solo be killed off. When I saw how happy he was I was sure it was a sign that he was going to be killed off.

As for Rogue One, it just felt like the whole team had to be sacrificed for the film to have the emotional impact needed, but the trailer that was released during the Olympics did give it away for me. That scene where Jyn faces a Tie Fighter... I just had this idea that the team was going to all die

Either way I loved both films, and I would hope they'd release a trailer in early August and then one in October. They know the fans are hungry to see a bit more so why not? You will never be able to totally protect the story anyway.

 

I am sticking to my prediction that the next teaser will be released sometime in the next 3 weeks

 

I don't have a date, but there's a good chance... I've been hearing the whispers of a trailer concept being tested...

 

interesting, so they are likely following the RO timeline for marketing releases.

 

Interesting indeed ..

 

Sorry, post withdrawn

 

Hey man, stop holding back and tell us what you really think!

 

With all the secrecy surrounding the film, I would be surprised if we have a trailer earlier than the big one in October. like TFA...

Since they released the BTS video, there is no real need for another teaser...

 

People need to stop using Disney and Lucasfilms past history to predict the trailer release.

They have shown us time and time again they aren't following a predictible formula with these new films. It could be anytime between now and October. Probably Sept-October.

 

This is me waiting for the second Last Jedi trailer...



But seriously though, I have no clue when and/or where it's coming out.

 

I know this sounds contrary, but I like not having too many trailers/teasers. When TFA was in production/PP we got a TON of trailers including internationals. I figured out the basic plot, before I even saw it. So I really would like to go into TLJ not knowing ANYTHING. If the movie comes out in December I would expect an October Trailer, possibly September at the earliest.

 

They are likely following the Rogue One marketing timeline, not TFA

http://boards.theforce.net/threads/...ed-discourse.50035498/page-1416#post-54449968

 

Don't forget that TFA was not preceeded by any SW movie so it had all the time in the world. We even had a teaser 13 months before release.

Now, the promotion for TLJ had to be stalled so that Rogue One could breathe freely and the attention would not be shifted elsewhere...

Another thing is that in my eyes TLJ is a major release in the SW universe, it takes the story forward, so there will be less hints and spoilers. Rogue One had a more or less limited "mystery", as people knew the story and the probable ending of it. Honestly, the biggest mystery was Vader's screen time...

So the formula April (Teaser) - July (BTS) - October (Official Trailer) seems fine to me...

 

a lot of films and a lot of trailers coming out over the next couple of months.. so i'm not worried about when the next TLJ footage releases. (i know.. scandalous thing to say on here lol)

the only thing that makes me wonder if the trailer would come a bit sooner, is if they need to spread out the star wars stuff a bit to squeeze some much needed Solo film stuff into the general public. it's had some bad press because of the director switch... film needs a name and a trailer during the next couple of months if it's to meet the may release without a last minute rush imo.

Monday night football mid September sounds right to me, but i wouldn't be surprised if it were earlier or later.