Music In Trailers

We chose to use a "rock" song in the background of our trailer as many trailers now do the same thing, especially in horror film trailers and for films aimed at teens and young adults (our target audience), as a rock or alternative song can emphasise the mood or certain aspects of the genre in the film and make them more appealing to the audience. The effect of using a popular rock song in a trailer can entirely change a persons mind about a film.

In the Gamer (2009) trailer, Lionsgate used the song "Sweet Dreams", the 80's Eurythmics song, covered by Marilyn Manson, which had been released in 1995 on the "Smells Like Children" album. The song was also featured in the 1999 film House On Haunted Hill. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3zcdADFYzE

The Season Of The Witch (2010), from Atlas Entertainment, also uses Marilyn Manson music, "The Long Hard Road Out Of Hell". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLoKm_vUsFY

Daybreakers (2009),used the method as Gamer, using the Placebo cover of Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" in the trailer for the film, also by Lionsgate. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayYiMygqlfo

The Crazies (2010), from Overture Films, did the same thing, this time using a more alternative song, R.E.M's "Mad World". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEMZwQulT1Q&feature=fvw

The trailers use these popular songs to emphasise the plot and mirror the feelings the song evokes in the listener to the film itself. The subjects in the songs can be interpreted to have similar themes to the films themselves. Even if only a few lines from the song do this, the trailer simply makes the into louder, so the audience will recognise the song, then use the rest of the song as background music, until the appropriate lines appear, with the similar themes, usually at the end of the trailer as the fast paced montage of images flash by.

I think the use of these songs is very clever. Fans of the music could be entirely turned around on the film after hearing the song on the trailer. I believe the choice of music can gain enthusiasm and audience members. If given the choice, we would have chosen to use a similar approach to our background music. Instead, we used the Sound Track Pro program and found a rock song that fit in with the action and mood of our trailer. We found that the music pulled all the parts of the trailer together and united it and also gave it a bit more of a "Wow" factor.