Minority Report- Dystopia Trailers

Minority Report. Stephen Speilberg. PG-13. 2002.

In the year 2054 while a specialized police department called the "PreCrime" arrests criminals before they commit murder in the future, an officer that works for this organization is predicted to commit murder.

After spending quite a bit of time on YouTube, I have come to a sad conclusion: most dystopia trailers are cheesy and boring. They all use the same structure: a deep-voiced narration inter-cut with headache-inducing action shots and short snipits of clichéd dialogue. We've seen it all before. So what? Well I was finally able to find a trailer that didn't damage my eyesight. The trailer for "Minority Report" (2002) was one of my favorite movie trailers because it was simple and intriguing. Usually, creators of movie trailers try to hodgepodge clips from every scene in the movie over some dramatic orchestral underscoring. Instead of confusing the viewer and spoiling the predictable outcome, the makers of the trailer for "Minority Report" were able to clearly convey the concept of their film using images and quotes that were interesting and meaningful. The film is based in the year 2054. There is a new police department called "PreCrime" that arrests criminals for crimes they have not yet committed. In the beginning of the trailer, several staccato establishing shots flash by to give the viewer an idea of how this grim future would look. Many of the clips are shot in high-contrast to create shadows and gloom. The viewer is then intoduced to the PreCrime officers as they take on an arrest of a man that is supposedly going to murder his wife later that evening. We then see short segments from a scene with Cheif John Anderson (Tom Cruise) and the head of the "PreCrime" squad after Anderson is predicted to be the next target. We see Anderson's transformation as he starts to see that this perfect system is fundementally flawed. This trailer gives the viewer a good idea  of what the film is about without over or under-informing. Hopefully I'll get a chance to actually watch this movie and see how the trailer lives up to the real film. I want to use some of the interesting editing effects in my dystopia trailer to make the setting more realistic. Even if the props are not perfectly-made, simple editing techniques evenly sprinked over the film will give it an authentic look.