[Orange Brat]

Saw this trailer on the front of Saw III. Perfect melding of image, music, rhythm, and meaning. The audience was rowdy before it played and hushed up while it played. Kind of eerie.

[Spiwak]

Originally Posted by insane_cobra

No no no... Not having any additional sound is exactly what makes it good.

I disagree, obviously. What makes you like the lack of other sounds?

[insane_cobra]

Well, obviously, it makes you concentrate on the song and its meaning. But there's also... I don't know, it's hard to explain. Hearing footsteps, shooting, growls, would just remind you that what you're watching is game footage. In a way, the lack of ambient sound complemented with the usage of a well known song bridges the gap from game world to reality. It makes you distance yourself, but also take what you're seeing more seriously.

Anyway, here's how Epic explained the whole deal.

[Spiwak]

lol - "makes it more poignant." I find that funny, since the guy himself even said earlier in that clip that the game "is a big violent shooter" or something to that effect. I'm sure peeps playing this game really give a shit about its "poignancy" like its Fallout or something.

It still makes me uncomfortable watching it because of the total incongruency of the sound and image (aside from clever lyrical match-ups), especially since the song is so bad. I think they could have created something poignant without making it really gimmicky and pretentious; or even better, just let the game speak for itself.

[eriq]

You misunderstand. The whole idea works... it would be strengthened with "subtle" sounds mirroring the action on screen. The key highlight is, of course, the track. But without some hint of background noise, in my opinion, it comes across as pretentious and forced.

[EvoG]

Having no sound is, as Insane said, exactly the reason this works. How many movies for example had moments where it wasn't important the sounds of the action (not ACTION, but events on screen) and more important the drama the music imparts. Usually involving slow motion sequences, all in all this type of dramatic 'sale' can be very moving.

Now, if you dont like the song, pffft, what can be said, though it would help to be objective. As a whole, the juxtaposition of the meaning of the song AND how violent this game is superb in demonstrating the incredible loss a war hardened veteran feels for his world. The senseless, neverending violence that, as depicted, he fights alone and against overwhelming odds.

Quite powerful, but to each their own.

[eriq]

nope. sorry. doesn't work.

[EvoG]

Well thats fine eriq, though I'll ask...are you interested in the game? There may be points of view here that perhaps aren't in line with the game itself? Since I'm immensely eager to play this game and love the genre, I enjoy these 'juxtapositions' more?

Anyway, watching that video explaining the trailer, its interesting that he hit on all the points we're talking about here, and even the girlfriend factor, which I'll be damned is completely true. My girlfriend happens to work in this industry with me as a character model/texture art director, yet she's not normally as eager as I am for this kind of game, yet she absolutely loved this trailer (it helped that the game looks amazing, so there's an academic reason to enjoy it as well).


Cheers

[RLacey]

I just can't get over how badly the music actually fits the trailer. Since they couldn't rewrite the song, they could at least have cut the trailer so that camera changes or action occurs along with the changes in the music.

Instead it's a bit like me turning a film onto mute and then playing an unconnected song on the radio. It might kind of work, but not well enough to actually have been worthwhile.

(I actually quite like the song. And I don't mind the images. It's the way that they've been put together so lazily that annoys me.)

[Spiwak]

Originally Posted by EvoG

Having no sound is, as Insane said, exactly the reason this works. How many movies for example had moments where it wasn't important the sounds of the action (not ACTION, but events on screen) and more important the drama the music imparts. Usually involving slow motion sequences, all in all this type of dramatic 'sale' can be very moving.

You can't compare the use of one particular element--that is, in this case, the lack of diegetic sound--to its use in other works and make general assumptions about its effectiveness like that, especially movies for which this particular scene without sound would be isolated within the context of the rest of the movie and hopefully united with the atmosphere and feel of the rest of the movie. In this case, it doesn't work partly because it's awkwardly edited and partly because there's no sound with which to relate the world at all, thereby exposing the moving parts of the work and making me realize the entire time that someone is editing this trailer, that it isn't real. It's distracting.

Now, if you dont like the song, pffft, what can be said, though it would help to be objective. As a whole, the juxtaposition of the meaning of the song AND how violent this game is superb in demonstrating the incredible loss a war hardened veteran feels for his world. The senseless, neverending violence that, as depicted, he fights alone and against overwhelming odds.

That'd be cool and all except for the fact that it's SO obvious, and it doesn't actually enhance the image (the footage itself already created that same feeling, without the need for the music). Remember the intro to Fallout? That was a brilliant sequence that did the exact same thing, except in that case it was actually poignant, and a little less desperate.

Quite powerful, but to each their own.

Exactly. Didn't work for me or eriq. Apparently it did for tons of video gamers.

[eriq]

are you kidding me? Gears of War is the REASON I am buying an Xbox 360. Just search my posts. I cannot WAIT to play it.

[EvoG]

Great...and did you know this song plays continuously through the slow parts of the game? MUHUHAHHAHHHAHAAHA...*cough-wheez*

[Spiwak]

Well hopefully it won't have more than 2 slow moments then.

[insane_cobra]

Each lasting an hour.

[JemyM]

When it comes to moving game trailers, this is a classic.

[eriq]

Ah yes .. that's Quantic Dream's next game or something right? It's so cool.

[Spiwak]

It's aight.

As far as trailers go I think Psychonauts had the best ones, simply because they utterly convinced me that I HAD to have the game, which is exactly the point of a trailer.

[insane_cobra]

Originally Posted by JemyM

When it comes to moving game trailers, this is a classic.

Eh, I found that one almost laughably pathetic. And unsettling for purely technical reasons.

[Once A Villain]

I agree with eriq. I'm a guy who can't wait to play GoW, I'll get it the day it comes out for sure, and yes, the visuals are spectacular. Still, this thread is about the trailer, nothing else. As a trailer, it's alright. Nothing special. It didn't get me any more interested in the game than I already was, and the whole purpose of a trailer is to get people hyped for the game. The videos of gameplay do a much better job of getting me excited. The images with only music in the background are so cliche now, hell they were cliche four years ago when I put a scene like that in a screenplay I wrote. And that was still before Peter Jackson did his version in Return of the King with Pippen singing over shots of soldiers being massacred. That's nothing new.

However, call the other trailer for Heavy Rain technically inept or whatever, but I had a much stronger response to it than the other trailer. The gun stuff was actually a bit...unsettling. And coming from me, that's saying something. Seeing as how I own guns and I feel comfortable around them. Not so much the case when an emotionally distraught woman is waving one in my face, that's for sure. Interesting trailer.

[insane_cobra]

I thought the script was too dramatic (laughably so) and her performance over the top. You know, overacted. If I was in charge of that audition, she wouldn't get the job.