Lame Trailer Clichés: The Freeze Frame

Yes, another weekly feature. It was something I came up with while selling someone a Lotto ticket at work and gazing at the TV playing the trailer disc. I've seem craploads of trailers in my time thanks to working a DVD shop, and more often than not they're pretty silly. So every Monday, I'll look at a certain lame trailer cliché that seems to pop up in quite a few of them.

Ah, the freeze frame. They're activities we do in our first years of Drama, just so we can create complicated situations with a single movement. Alas, trailers use them in a different way. Many different ways, in fact. Some can be effective, others are just...well, what's the point? Freeze frames are supposed to be the production stills, not subjected to the trailer, which can move and speak. Let's take a look at the four different freeze frames:

1) The 'Introduction' Freeze Frame.

Most of the time, this one is quite effective. Especially in the case of The Change-Up - an otherwise awful film - which shows the life of Dave perfectly. And hey, the second freeze frame sums up the movie perfectly. It is a giant shit in the face. (full trailer here)

2) The 'Situation' Freeze Frame/Half Freeze Frame.

When I say 'the Situation', I'm not meaning that guy off Jersey Shore. These freeze frames go hand in hand. First off, there's the use of black and white, which we'll get to later. Then we have the words, which in both instances use the word 'normal' - just so it makes it's point. The split screens are meant to 'put things into perspective', somehow. But all they do is make me lust after Chris Evans' muscles, and then how well he fits into that suit. (full trailer here)

3) The 'Let's Look at Our Wonderful Cast' Freeze Frames.

So everyone knows that New Year's Eve had the who's who of everyone who has ever been in a romantic comedy (plus Robert De Niro), so of course they had to throw a few freeze frames in there somewhere. They just had to over-expose them, as if the photos were being taken. Just so you could get the feel of the holiday and the romance going around. And then you have a freeze frame which is obviously taken by someone who didn't go to freeze frame school... (full trailer here)

Just to give the movie a more relevant, Paranormal Activity feel.

4) The Worst Kind of Freeze Frame in the World.

I'm not just saying this because Trespass is a bloody awful movie and the trailer matches that. These black-and-white freeze frames showing the 'terror' just have to stop. Why does everyone think that black-and-white is a symbol of something terrifying happening? If it is, then I'm sure that The Artist must have been a very terrifying experience. I mean, do you feel unsettled by looking at that? All I can think is that they picked the wrong moments to freeze frame. (full trailer here)

If you're making a trailer (for whatever reason), don't use freeze frames. They're just so corny. Unless, of course, you happen to be making a giant shit in the face movie.