Trailer Analysis - Structure

The most common structure for a modern trailer is the three-act structure: most films themselves adopt three-act structures and as a result, structuring a trailer in this way is the best way to give some plot exposition as well as setting a tone and mood for the film, one of the main functions of a trailer. These are two examples of trailers that have fairly rigid three-act structures:

The first act of both these trailers serves to introduce the main characters and give them some exposition: in the case of Drive, it shows how the main character's life revolves around driving, from working as a stunt driver for films to being a wheelman for heists. The second act of this trailer revolves around events and conflicts which develop the story and give way to the events that take place throughout the film: as a character driven film, this act begins with the Driver'smeeting with the primary antagonist, Bernie Rose, and tells the story of how Driver becomes involved with Irene and then helps her husband with a heist which goes wrong, ending with Bernie and another gangster Nino ordering a hit on the Driver. The third act is a montage, demonstrating various scenes from the film and giving an idea as to what kind of style the film will have (this particular trailer demonstrates some of the brutal violence that takes place in the film and sets it to classical music, demonstrating the edgy, slightly arthouse feel of it).

While I like the look and feel of the film, for me the structure of the trailer is slightly formulaic: this trailer has much in common with most modern trailers, for example it does not leave that much of the story to the imagination and uses fades to black frequently. An example of a trailer that does not use these types of trailer conventions to as high a degree is the second trailer for the film Inception: admittedly, the trailer I am going to make will be longer than this one though there are aspects of it that I would like to borrow in order to make a slightly more interesting trailer.

The trailer for this vaguely resembles a three act structure - the first part of the trailer acts as exposition, introducing the character of Cobb and giving some explanation to the concept behind the film. However, there is less of a distinction between the second and third acts - rather than have a second act that develops the plot, the whole second half of this trailer, with the aid of music, is a montage of sorts though tells some of the story without giving away too many plot details. Rather than using fades to black to separate clips from one another, the Inception trailer puts the studio idents after the first act to distinguish it from the rest of the trailer and uses graphics with taglines and actors as the trailer escalates. Something I particularly liked in the trailer was the way in which it consistently reverted back to the same shot of Leonardo DiCaprio's character falling into a bathtub in slow motion: it is in these shots that fades to black would usually be used, though having this shot cut back to repeatedly adds more style to the trailer and puts emphasis on the shot in question - if I adopted this approach to my trailer I would certainly want to have an impressive, long lasting shot that I could repeatedly come back to rather than fade to black.