Trailer Review - Huntdown

I love game trailers whose story, art and design blend together perfectly; this trailer for Huntdown is one of them!

Huntdown is a side-scrolling arcade shooter game with a Grindhouse movie trailerstyle presentation complete with narrator. With the exception of the studio logos it opens with a bang. Actually, it opens with "PRESS START" which indicates its arcade game style, and then cuts to a fast cut, action-packed montage introduction. 

The Grindhouse trailer narrator works perfectly for this not only because it's part of the game's vibe, but because the voiceover scripts for those trailers were typically heavy on exposition. This style allows the narrator to spell out the story in a fun way which doesn't feel like it's telling and not showing. It certainly doesn't hurt that the script is completely ridiculous and hilarious.

This trailer is a good example of a trailer narrator cutting well with the game footage and in-game dialogue. The shots illustrate what the narrator is talking about, and the characters build upon it with short interjections or quips.

For example: "ANNA CONDA, SHE KNOWS THE MEANING OF LIFE. THAT'S WHY SHE CAN TAKE IT AWAY SO EASILY" is followed by Anna Conda saying: "I'll blow your head off!" Her other interjections pretty much amount to: "BANG BANG!" but the way they punctuate each of the narrator's lines gives the trailer a nice flow as the narrator and characters exchange lines.

This trailer feels cinematic despite not having any of the production value or camera angles typically associated with the word “cinematic.”

The one spot where the dialogue doesn't really match the narrator comes after "JOHN SAWYER: CYBORG. HE'S BEEN A MAN SINCE HE WAS A BOY" which is followed by "Enjoy your flight" because he's kicking someone into a pit. This line doesn't directly reference his manliness, so it doesn't fit as well as something like the next line "EVERYTHING HE OWNS IS MADE OUT OF METAL" to which he responds "'ole reliable" in reference to one of his guns.

There's also a small moment where a character throws a grenade and another hits it with a stick. This is emphasized with one character saying "Batter up!" which is followed by "STRIKE!" 

After introducing the main characters there's a montage of the different factions which functionally amounts to a "Look at how much content there is!" montage, but within the context of the Grindhouse style trailer it feels completely natural.

The audio in this "Batter up, strike!" moment helps guide the eye towards the action.

Every line of narration and dialogue no matter how small has a shot which matches up with it. This might seem like a simple and obvious technique, but simple does not mean bad, uninspired, or unprofessional. Simplicity and fulfilling expectations are what allow editing to be an "invisible" art. Editing hampers comprehension when it's discordant, chaotic or random (unless the editing is intended to imbue those feelings)

There can be power in making drastic leaps from one shot to another, but when layering things like narration, dialogue and visuals, matching things up will usually create a better viewing experience for the audience. The writing and execution of the narration in this trailer is pretty much strong enough to stand on its own, but the small bites of character dialogue in between flesh them out that much more. When I initially saw the 2:23 runtime I was skeptical, but the trailer entertained me every step of the way.