J.J. Abrams' Mystery Box Was Designed For Trailers
Whether or not you've seen Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, you might've at least seen people talking about J.J. Abrams' style of storytelling which frequently relies heavily on "Mystery boxes." The idea behind this style is to create a story with several mysteries in order to keep the audience engaged. At the simplest level they want to know what's in the box, but beyond that they might start speculating and filling up the internet with endless discussions.
For example, a few of The Force Awakens' mystery boxes are:
Who are Rey's parents?
Who is Snoke, and what does he want?
How did Maz get Luke's lightsaber?
I hoped to get a thorough explanation of his use of mystery boxes via his TED talk, but I didn't really learn anything other than the fact J.J. Abrams has a very loose definition of "Mystery box." Where I DID find a thorough breakdown of his philosophy of storytelling was via Film Crit Hulk's recent public Patreon post.
[J.J. Abrams] said that when making The Force Awakens they would look at every moment and ask, “is it delightful?” As if his sole intention was to shovel scoop after scoop of ice cream upon us. All throughout his work it’s like he’s been asking a different set of questions:
What can I write to manufacture the audience’s affinity?
What can I reference that would make the audience happy?
What is the quippiest thing I could have the character do right now?
What’s the thing that would most surprise the audience, regardless of whether it's appropriate?
What line of dialogue can I use that sounds nice or gets at a vaguely established idealogical notion?
How can I best hide what’s really going on in the plot?
How can I cryptically hint there is more going on without actually answering or pointing toward anything?
What framework of conflict can I put in place that just allows the characters to move through it as fast as possible?
How can I make it seem fast and exciting without any actual ingrained drama between the characters, just constant threats?
Any of these questions seem familiar?
After I read this paragraph I realized J.J. Abrams' style of storytelling might not be the best for feature films and TV shows, but it's PERFECT for trailer making!
He's even famously used this sense of mystery in marketing for films he's directed or produced. The trailer for Cloverfield famously played in theaters with credits, but no title. After a trailer with the potent imager of the Statue of Liberty's head screeching down the streets of New York City, how could people NOT wonder what the movie was?
Cloverfield might be the time J.J. Abrams' mystery box formula was most successful in terms of film marketing, especially because the idea of releasing a trailer this was was incredibly novel. The trailers for Super 8 were also quite obtuse with the first teaser referencing Area 51, and its shots of a train crash and something being contained by a metal door. Even though the full trailer showed substantially more of the film, the "thing" everyone is referring to is never shown; all we can glean is something is causing destruction, panic, and mysterious occurrences like an object flying through the wall of a house.
Two of Film Crit Hulk's questions at play here are:
How can I best hide what’s really going on in the plot?
How can I cryptically hint there is more going on without actually answering or pointing toward anything?
The answer to these questions for the trailers for Cloverfield and Super 8, is to show the effects of the mysterious thing, but hide the cause. Therefore, planting the question "What is the thing which could cause all of this!?"
Instant mystery box!
Were this a TV series or trilogy of movies, the mystery could grow boring or uninteresting if not answered soon enough, or the answer could end up completely disappointing, but since these are trailers, this formula works great! The audience is given a series of images which play on things they might like, such as monster movie tropes, and Spielberg-like visual language and characters, but satisfaction is withheld because nothing is resolved or answered. Presumably, this is exactly what people who complain about spoilers in trailers want before going into a film: appealing flavor and imagery but no plot details.
Also, look at the full trailer for The Force Awakens:
The first line of dialogue in this trailer directed at Rey is literally: "Who are you?" which is one of the big J.J. Abrams mystery boxes of the new Star Wars trilogy.
Finn's line is: "I was raised to do one thing, but I've got nothing to fight for." This doesn't tell us what the one thing is, and we also still don't know anything about him. Just that the character is feeling lost.
Kylo Ren then says: "Nothing will stand in our way. I will finish what you started" as he looks at the burned helmet of Darth Vader. We don't know whose way he's referring to, and we don't really have a good idea what Darth Vader started which he wants to finish.
Rey then says: "There are stories about what happened" to which Han Solo replies: "It's true. All of it." This could be referring to SO many things, but we don't really know precisely what they're talking about. But it sounds cool and mysterious; we want to know what are the things that are true.
These lines of dialogue really fit this question:
What line of dialogue can I use that sounds nice or gets at a vaguely established idealogical notion?
I typically describe this sort of trailer dialogue as being big and grandiose, but the above question gets closer to the heart of what sort of dialogue feels good in a trailer. The part about being vague is especially true, because the more vague the grandiose idea sounds, the more universally it can apply to just about any visuals you cut to it.
These two trailers illustrate a few of the questions Film Crit Hulk extracted from J.J. Abrams' style, the questions at the top of the list are also well suited to trailer making because they're simply about showing the audience appealing and exciting things, which is what all trailers try to do. Finding the most appealing shots is relatively simple, but showing a story which interesting without spoiling key components can be much more difficult, so read and re-read those questions.
So while everyone is still talking about The Rise of Skywalker, and either praising or critiquing J.J. Abrams' style of storytelling which teases things out, purposefully withholds information, and moves from scene to scene so fast there's no time to realize there might've been little to no point to the scene. Watch his movies and see how the scenes connect (or don't connect) and yet still seem to work while you're watching them, even if they don't hold up to closer scrutiny by the time they've sat in your brain longer. This style of storytelling might be just what your teaser or story trailer needs to be interesting and successful!
