Teaser Trailer Pros and Cons?

[thehumantrashcan]

I remember the Signs teaser being amazing and the trailer being a bit of a let down.

 

But you all go look up the Alien teaser and trailer.  Oooh, now that's how you do it.

[Rose]

On 10/1/2021 at 12:38 AM, CaddySedai said:

 

I showed the teaser to friends who never read the books but do like fantasy stuff. They definitely were interested in it. 

 

I think the hard part is as a fan you can’t really distance yourself from that.

I showed it to my sister (who got three chapters into EOTW at my insistence a few years back before giving up) and to my husband (who stopped somewhere in TDR) and they both want to watch it. My sister said it made her want to pick up the book again. Even my mom who isn't a fantasy fan at all was intrigued. (She probably won't watch it though. She never watches fantasy shows). And a friend of mine who's never read the books but has heard me talk about WoT for years has agreed to watch it with me every week when it comes out. So it's definitely generating interest.

 

I agree the teaser was pretty generic though. All it said basically was "this is an epic fantasy with magic and battles and world-ending stakes where women play an important role" but apparently that's enough for now. I do think WoT has something extra going for it, which is that there's an existing fan base and we're hyping the hell out of it. Would my friends and family be interested in the show if I hadn't pointed it out to them? Maybe not. But I have, and now they're going to watch it.

 

I've watched a lot of reaction videos from non-book readers on YouTube as well and I've noticed many of them decided to watch the trailer because their social media followers told them about it. The WoT fandom is out there spreading the word and making sure booktubers and other social media influencers hear about it. I've seen a couple who'd never even heard of WoT but watched the trailer at their followers request and are now reading EOTW.

 

[TheMountain]

A teaser just dropped today for House of the Dragon (GoT Prequel). I think it's relevant as a comparison for obvious reasons.

 

[Elder_Haman]

Pretty generic fantasy trailer. If I wasn't familiar with GoT, I wouldn't be able to differentiate this from any other fantasy property. Doesn't tell me anything about the story or the characters...

[Skipp]

51 minutes ago, Elder_Haman said:

Pretty generic fantasy trailer. If I wasn't familiar with GoT, I wouldn't be able to differentiate this from any other fantasy property. Doesn't tell me anything about the story or the characters...

 

But it is serious and gritty. You can tell this because everyone is wearing black in one form or another.

 

On a more serious note they are certainly using a different lighting style than WoT and that can change how people interpret the tone of a show.

Edited October 5, 2021 by Skipp

[thehumantrashcan]

25 minutes ago, Skipp said:

On a more serious note they are certainly using a different lighting style than WoT and that can change how people interpret the tone of a show.

I do believe we got the same lighting when we saw Trollocs and the Myrddraal.  The WoT trailer used a variety of lighting.  The village bright and cheerful, Wintersnight was dark and dreadful, the scenes in the forest with Logain's followers was grey and misty, lighting at the white tower was bright and almost glittery.  The difference in lighting is the WoT teaser shows a variety of moods that the lighting and editing team are going for while the GoT team is going for gritty the whole way through, if the teaser is showing us what the whole series is going to be with a minute of quick scenes.

[king of nowhere]

It reinforces my point: if you are not familiar with a specific brand, every trailer looks generic.

[Beidomon]

To be fair, HBO didn’t really need to do a lot here because everyone is already familiar with the franchise. But the casting, wardrobe, and cinematography already look better. I know I’m used to GOT so I’m biased, but that my impression currently. 

[CaddySedai]

I'd challenge that. Before the HBO series I had barely even registered GoT on my radar.

 

It wasn't until the show that I even bothered to read them. And here's the crazy bit. I owned it. Someone had given me a copy as a gift of the first 3 books and I never even cracked it open.

 

I still am not impressed with the books. 

 

LOL

[TheMountain]

I was definitely surprised by how generic it was, but I think that it did at least one thing much better:

 

What is the show about?

 

House of the Dragon: The story of a royal family whose base of power is their dragons, and how they conquered the world.

Wheel of Time: The story of a band of female magicians who fight evil and protect the world with whispy white things.

 

[CaddySedai]

And to clarify my prior post. It isn't that they are or aren't written well. Its more that...they never captured my imagination. 

 

I never cared to put myself mentally in their world.

 

Throughout my life I have always imagined myself in those worlds. I have lived beneath the golden canopy of Lothlorien. I boldly went where no one has gone before, and I also did it in a galaxy far far away. I traveled back to the future in a DeLorian DMC-12, and came back after an Excellent Adventure. I visited Avalon and even once rode a Luck Dragon to the Ivory Tower. I learned magic as a student in Slytherin and then wearing my trademark Green I was there during Tarmon Gai'don.

 

I never once saw myself anywhere in GoT. 

[JaimAybara]

2 hours ago, Beidomon said:

To be fair, HBO didn’t really need to do a lot here because everyone is already familiar with the franchise. But the casting, wardrobe, and cinematography already look better. I know I’m used to GOT so I’m biased, but that my impression currently. 

I think one of the issues WoT will run into is they need to spend considerable amounts of money on multiple aspects visually: the weaves, trollocs, wolves, Shadar Logoth, the dream world, etc. and this is all on a consistent basis. Within GoT it was present but far less frequent and usually built up to over time, and as popularity grew so too did their budget. I love the costuming on Tudors and Game of Thrones but both of those shows for the vast majority we are really watching Daes Dae’mar with a build up to a climactic fight or magic usage. So a much larger portion was likely devoted to wardrobe and sets explicitly. I know this is partially head canon, but these outfits are frocking spectacular from the Tudors. 
 

*Also thigh high boots and how they’re supposed to look. 

Edited October 6, 2021 by JaimAybara

[CaddySedai]

Well we also have historical basis for said outfits. That's a little tougher when the place, time, and people have never existed outside of art and page.

 

I do not think you will see THAT much ornate costuming. Some, but not a ton. Mostly when dealing with royal and noble groupings. 

 

[TheMountain]

I agree, the budget of GoT is often compared to the WoT show, but WoT has a LOT more going on visually that would drive a CGI budget through the roof. To make it to the same standards, I think you would need a lot more money. GoT writers stayed away from the fantasy aspect as much as they could (poor dire wolves). You can't do that with WoT and still be WoT.

Edited October 6, 2021 by TheMountain

[JaimAybara]

Caddy Sedai, 

For sure, I think you’re right about that, but this is definitely the idea I thought Jordan painted for a certain some characters and their outfits. I picture this with scrollwork on the arms and the high necks or hard collars, for the “lord” look. 
 

I also hope they highlight how some nations are all about peacocking and their excessive formality, while contrasting it with those that are not.

Edited October 6, 2021 by JaimAybara

[TheMountain]

The Tudors shots you posted fit my head canon as well.

[CaddySedai]

1 minute ago, TheMountain said:

I agree, the budget of GoT is often compared to the WoT show, but WoT has a LOT more going on visually that would drive a CGI budget through the roof. GoT stayed away from the fantasy aspect as much as they could. You can't do that with WoT and still be WoT.

 

Because I would classify GoT as low fantasy up until the point the Dragons are introduced. Then it middles in no-mans land. Occasionally stepping into magic but mostly avoiding it like the plague. 

 

One can even say their dragons are steeped in more of a mythical beast system as opposed to more "magical" dragons (See Dragonheart, AD&D, et al) 

 

So I would say it isn't in the same fantasy "Class" as WoT. As WoT isnt in the same class at LotR (High fantasy) 

[JaimAybara]

1 minute ago, TheMountain said:

The Tudors shots you posted fit my head canon as well.

Right? I always got a late Medieval early Renaissance vibe for clothing in many ways, paired with all the new cultures and or mixture of cultures he created. A couple instances in particular that drove this home was when they were “not” playing Daes Dae’mar in Cairhien and Tear. 

[CaddySedai]

6 minutes ago, JaimAybara said:

Caddy Sedai, 

For sure, I think you’re right about that, but this is definitely the idea I thought Jordan painted for a certain some characters and their outfits. I picture this with scrollwork on the arms and the high necks or hard collars, for the “lord” look. 
 

I also hope they highlight how some nations are all about peacocking and their excessive formality, while contrasting it with those that are not.

 

Fair enough. We shall see. I have a feeling they are going at it from an almost Ren-Fest costuming approach. Which if done right might be wonderful. And provide me with fodder I can use to bring an Aes Sedai in battle gear finally to my local Florida Ren Faire ?

[JaimAybara]

2 minutes ago, CaddySedai said:

 

Fair enough. We shall see. I have a feeling they are going at it from an almost Ren-Fest costuming approach. Which if done right might be wonderful. And provide me with fodder I can use to bring an Aes Sedai in battle gear finally to my local Florida Ren Faire ?

That sounds awesome! I’ve always wanted to go to one, I will have to get around to that myself.

[thehumantrashcan]

12 minutes ago, JaimAybara said:

That sounds awesome! I’ve always wanted to go to one, I will have to get around to that myself.

I'll be sure to show up with my TVA costume.

 

I have to say, this whole thread really fascinates me on how differently everyone sees how this series is supposed to be.  For example these costumes, despite the writing being very descriptive and detailed, we all come up with different head cannon.  I've read so many people who want it to be a fusion of post apocalypse and medieval, Renaissance, Medieval, very multicultural, etc.

Edited October 6, 2021 by thehumantrashcan

[CaddySedai]

8 minutes ago, thehumantrashcan said:

I've read so many people who want it to be a fusion of post apocalypse and medieval

 

Just no.

 

Its long enough after the Breaking that you wouldn't have people dressed Post Apoc. The whole theory behind that style is that an apocalypse happens. The means of producing clothing like before is disrupted and so you find a mix of pre-disaster and post-disaster clothing. Gradually giving way to an almost pre-industrial form of clothing (relying on materials at hand etc - so leather and cotton jump to prominence rather than polyester, spandex, etc.) and then eventually - assuming society rebuilds (so not an apocalypse rendering large communities impossible - radiation, zombies etc) then that gives way to a gradual evolution back to similar but different.

 

So that would work after the breaking. But three millennia later? Something of a stretch. Even if they havent gotten back to mass produced garments, nah.

Edited October 6, 2021 by CaddySedai

[JaimAybara]

7 minutes ago, thehumantrashcan said:

I'll be sure to show up with my TVA costume.

 

I have to say, this whole thread really fascinates me on how differently everyone sees how this series is supposed to be.  For example these costumes, despite the writing being very descriptive and detailed, we all come up with different head cannon.  I've read so many people who want it to be a fusion of post apocalypse and medieval, Renaissance, Medieval, very multicultural, etc.

Oh totally. I love hearing about everyone’s head canon. It also demonstrates just what a huge task we have given the show runners. I will be happy with whatever they choose as long as the costumes don’t feel like costumes. 

[CaddySedai]

16 minutes ago, JaimAybara said:

Oh totally. I love hearing about everyone’s head canon. It also demonstrates just what a huge task we have given the show runners. I will be happy with whatever they choose as long as the costumes don’t feel like costumes. 

 

Not  FEEL like a costume... Oof you are gonna hate the Children of the Light. Here's a spoiler...fresh off the press

 

  ? (joking obv. Props to anyone who does a discount Solaire lol. Credit to the vibrant crafter for the image. )

Edited October 6, 2021 by CaddySedai

[JaimAybara]

17 minutes ago, CaddySedai said:

 

Not  FEEL like a costume... Oof you are gonna hate the Children of the Light. Here's a spoiler...fresh off the press

 

  ? (joking obv. Props to anyone who does a discount Solaire lol. Credit to the vibrant crafter for the image. )

This looks like good fun.