So last night I saw The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. The movie was great, but I could really tell how far the film industry has really come. The scenes were so unnecessarily long, and it for the longest time it felt like the movie wasn’t going anywhere. Despite that though the ending was very awesome.
What really stands out about old movies to you? What old movies have you seen?
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I love that movie. I thought that those long scenes of no talking did a good job of building suspense and tension. And yes the Mexican stand off scene was one of my favorites of all time
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I think The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly was intentionally made that way; it wasn’t just because cinema was less advanced then. If it were faster-paced, that awesome showdown at the end wouldn’t feel as awesome, because there would have been less buildup. And when you think about it, the showdown shouldn’t be as exciting as it is–more violent scenes than that often happen at the very beginning of movies. It’s exciting because all the slow buildup has gotten you invested in the characters. Now, that being said, you probably could cut a little and not be much worse off. But a fast-paced movie couldn’t have a simple showdown like that at the end, because it would seem anticlimactic. Does all this rambling make sense? xD
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Oi. Now that I think about it, that’s very true.
As an editor I can tell you that editing and scene timing has been one of the most drastic changes in movies.
You can tell what decade a movie was made in based on how long the camera angle holds before switching to a new angle. It all comes down to editing, each decade has its own “rule” for editing timing.
Glad I could be of service. 
How many older, slower movies have you seen? It can be really hard to adjust to that style if you’re not too familiar with it.
@Veneras This is very true. I’m in love with the 80’s style personally.
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The 80s had good cinematic editors, but trailers were at a particularly low point.
Oh gosh, I’ve seen some pretty bad trailers from the 80’s. It’s not as bad as the 40’s and 50’s though, when every trailer claimed the movie it was advertising was “the greatest film you’ll ever experience!!”
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Trailers have come a long way since then. In fact, it’s only been since the early 2000s that trailer editing has been taken as seriously as story editing
That’s interesting. I hadn’t heard that, but it makes sense. A lot of more recent trailers walk you through part of the plot, or try to give that impression anyway, instead of just showing random scenes.
Yeah, the goal of a trailer is to tell a story, raising the suspense for the actual story.
You may also notice that most modern trailers draw most of their synopsis from the dialogue instead of a narrator.
If a trailer looks awesome but uses a narrator, you can always tell the film has a weak story.
Wow, I never put that together, but it seems to make sense. I’ll have to keep an eye out for trailers that use narration. Off the top of my head, Man of Steel essentially used narration in its trailer (it was a narration-like speech from within the film), and it was pretty bad IMO.
Getting back to the original topic: “Old movies” is a reeeeeeaally broad category, but a few favorites are Casablanca, Forbidden Planet, The Maltese Falcon, and Ben-Hur.
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Well speaches from within the film itself is usually a good sign. An example being the fellowship of the ring, which features a narration from Gandalf. Another one being the amazing spider man 2 trailer which features a first-person speach from peter parker.
I hate do this, but if we look at the trailer for Mask of Light it features a third-party narrator. This was just bad editing because they could have used Vakama’s narration.
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Hm, I guess so. Though TASM 2 also wasn’t too good IMO. Maybe I’m just weird or something. 
Oh, Mask of Light, you’re so easy to pick on. It’s kind of strange they didn’t use Vakama in the trailer, really. He has a very attention-grabbing voice.
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I actually havent seen TASM2, haha. I’m not talking about good per say. This trick pertains only to how well the story is developed.
Vakama is one of the best casted in the series… I think if Jaller and Tahu had been casted differentlty, the movie would have been SO much better, and more barable for my poor parents who made fun of me for it…
quick digression, what do you think of this? I know it aired YEARS ago, but just take a look
Oh, haha. Well, tbh one of the reasons it wasn’t good was that the story was really disjointed. I dunno, maybe it was more cohesive in an earlier draft.
Yeah, Vakama was awesome, and I thought most of the Toa were pretty good. They just fell down on the two leads.
Hm, well…It uses a lot of dialogue clips, but it seems as if it’s trying to get it’s main points across with text (which amounts to narration). So…I’m not really sure? It held my attention for 30 seconds, if nothing else.
So, I saw Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
Good lord is it amazing, Fantastic movie, for anyone who cares to see it.
@John_Smith
with TV shows its different, as the message of a movie trailer is conveyed in 2minutes 28 seconds, a TV trailer has but 26 seconds. Using text-cards for a TV show is a little more excusable.
Usually in a movie, text cards should only be used to convey the movie’s release date and tagline. Take for instance the avengers, one of the most beloved super hero movies, and the posterboy for trailer editors.
simple, enticing, perfect. The culmination of all the right things to do.
Except Banner’s time-bomb line, never made any sense.
@Nyran I need to see that movie. I’ve seen Mr. Deeds Goes To Town, also directed by Frank Capra.
@Veneras That makes sense. You’re a fount of knowledge about trailers!
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This is the oldest most nostalgic movie of my child hood, and Mata Nui do I still love it.
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