British Kinematography (1953)

October, 1953 HARRIS : PRODUCTION OF TRAILERS 101 Some quite insignificant shots in themselves, when joined together by good narration, can give atmosphere and mood to the whole trailer without titles covering up the action. A narrative also, is a first-class link for story points which need to be conveyed clearly and concisely. A narrative can do all the explaining in a few feet, that might otherwise take many scenes to put across ; but perhaps the most effective aid of all in trailer making is the use of music. Nothing can so quickly destroy the mood and build-up of a trailer as an inadequate sound-track. An indifferent trailer can spring to life given good music, and a very good trailer can be dull and uninteresting because of a bad music track. Trailers, which are made up of so many bits and pieces from every part of the film in any kind of order, gain continuity by the use of music and effects. Trailer cutters spend a great deal of time laying music and are particularly adept in utilising the various chords and crescendos to point passages which need to be dramatized or accentuated. We often go right through the music of the whole feature to obtain particularly suitable bars and we also have an extensive music library of our own. In laying music for a trailer, we seldom use less than eight separate tracks made up of innumerable small sections so that the cutters' cue sheets for the sound mixer are a positive work of art. Censorship of Trailers The censorship of trailers is a most interesting subject and is a surprisingly bothersome item in trailer production. Every trailer sent out must be prefaced with a " U " Certificate, no matter what category the film itself is given. Whether the film is " U," "A" or " X " we must still obtain from the British Board of Film Censors a " Universal " Certificate for its trailer. This is easy to understand when we remember that trailers are shown in every kind of mixed programme, to audiences of all ages. A trailer can be made to look " double X " although we do not purposely try to create a wrong impression at any time, just for the sake of it. The Censor restrictions do, however, emasculate the trailer in many respects. We cannot make use of some of the most telling scenes from a film and this can be most frustrating. There are many censor restrictions which appear foolish, but which doubtless have good reasoning behind them. Here are some examples of the things allowed and things frowned upon by the British Censor. Generally speaking, the Censor does not like anyone being the target of any excessive violence. It is all right to fire a gun, but for the audience to see the bullet actually hit its target is seldom permissible. We must not show punching which is likely to distress children. For a man to slap a woman's face is taboo, although on the other hand, a woman may slap a man's face. Screams that curdle the blood are completely out. We have to play very carefully on divorce problems and the word " divorce " is not looked upon lightly, and wives being double-crossed by mistresses must be very delicately handled if at all. Risque dialogue is definitely out, as are risque scenes. Too much hip waggling is frowned upon and such words as " sin " and " shame " must be very carefully applied. There are, of course, many other Censor objections too numerous to itemize. As most films consist of some of these ingredients it is easy to imagine how difficult it is to make some trailers attractive to adult audiences. America is allowed much more scope in the use of screen violence and there are consequently greater censorship problems with American trailers. The Breen Office and the British Board of Film Censors do not always see eye to eye on these matters. To illustrate further these points some of the different types of trailers were shown. The first was a trailer of the film of Cosh Boy, a film which has already raised a great deal of controversy. It was given an "X " Certificate , hut the trailer, of course, had to merit a"U" Certificate. In spite of this the trailer was successful and also dynamic, largely because the subject matter was not only sensational, but also drew a moral.