Where There's Hope, Adventure, and Wild Things.

Remember the awesome children's book, Where the Wild Things Are? It's going to be out in theaters next month (October 16th to be precise). I have seen the trailer at least twenty times over the past few months, and I enjoy it every time. The cinematography is stunning, the "wild things" are extremely realistic, but most of all, the music fits the images / scenes perfectly. In class we discussed how cinema "added the elements of temporality, movement, and eventually sound to photography" (Stutken and Cartwright, pg 189). This trailer is an exquisite example of a good narrative storytelling with music and movement. Please watch the first trailer:

It is a creation of conscious and intentional ordering of images that match with the music uncannily well. When the song hits a loud note, there are explosions and abrupt changing of scenes, when there is a fast-paced cheery melody there is a collection of running scenes, etc... Even a short 2 minute clip can render strong and diverse emotions. Now, a few days ago, I stumbled upon a new trailer of the movie. Although it uses segments of the same song, the narrative is telling a different story, since the scenes are ordered in different way. This new trailer has more dialogue than the first one, so that also plays a role in the certain mood and narrative it projects.

So in this trailer, some of the running scenes were used in different parts of the song than the first trailer and new scenes were added. The different combinations of the sequence of moving images and sound truly creates a different story/narrative. Each frame builds on the previous one, so the order and sequence of images mean everything when trying to convey a certain emotion. Adding the right music to a film or trailer definitely sets the mood and can enhance the effects. I think the first trailer did a flawless job of matching the music and the scenes together, but the second trailer definitely allowed a more powerful link to the characters. So which trailer did you enjoy more?