Fringe video trailers

There is a new trend in theatrical promotion. It's the use of the Theatrical Trailer. Not unlike a movie trailer, it tries to suck you in and make you want to see the shows that are being put on the stage. For the 2009 Fringe Festival there are all sorts of these pieces of visual media out there on the internet. One might wonder if this phenomenon would really be effective and catch on without some prompting from an outside body. Well, wonder no more!

The Fringey Awards website provides a clearing house for 2009 Minnesota Fringe Festival entries to offer up their renditions of theatrical trailers. AND, it gives you a chance to vote for your favorite. Someone will be dubbed the best! Yay!

Here's my qualms: I don't believe that many of these groups would've made these videos without the advent of this website. Ooh! There's a place for people to do web videos about their Fringe shows. Huh? Maybe we should make one! Yeah... let's do that. Got an idea for one? No. Let's do it anyway!

I spent a for longer amount of time than I would care to admit watching the trailers this morning. And I've come away less excited for this year's Fringe than I ever have before. Normally, I'm reading descriptions, hearing buzz, talking to the artists, and doing all that teases my dramatic taste buds enough that I want more. These tidbits of cinema had the opposite effect. In fact, there were some shows that I had initially wanted to see that I no longer have any desire to take in, entirely based on the fact that the video turned me off or bored me.

perhaps you should go look at them yourself and see what you think.