Research Into Similar Products: The Notebook Trailer

Since my trailer is a romance to a degree, I thought to check out the trailer of one of the best romantic films; The Notebook.

The Notebook Trailer:

"Noah was a country boy, Allie was from the city...They had nothing in common, but after seeing Allie that night, something inside Noah snapped."

The trailer completely tells the story in all it's drama, in all it's love triangles and all the dilemmas the characters go through. But one thing I'm not sure about is whether they reveal too much of the story or are they showing their audience just enough.

For example, the moment Allie visits Noah when he accomplishes his promise of completing the house:

This was a MASSIVE part of the film, and I just wonder whether it needed to be shown in the trailer; would showing it have spoiled the moment for the audience or not?

Another thing which could be helpful is that they show practically the whole scene (just chopped down a bit) of Noah meeting Allie for the first time at the fairground...

Obviously this is the moment the characters first meet; and it shows a lot about their personalities - especially Noah's daring character of going 'over and beyond' to win the woman he loves.

This makes me wonder if there's a significant scene in my trailer which I want to reveal in depth.

One thing I'm glad that they didn't show though is the BIG KISS IN THE RAIN scene!

If this scene was shown in the trailer then it would certainly have been a spoiler to a degree. Thankfully they just used elements of this scene with some cross-cutting:

But since I'm just making a trailer, (no one will be able to see the film unfortunately...) maybe I should show all the best scenes; but then again you do need to just 'tease' the audience, so showing too much may not conform to the point of a trailer.

But in terms of what I'll take from this to inform my trailer, is that I'll keep in mind what to show the audience and when, as well as the importance of the storytelling without making the potential 'outcome' of the film predictable.