Remember in the mid 2000s when everyone became obsessed with different ways the world could end? That sound was at the beginning of (in some cases, throughout) like half the trailers on TV. War, zombies ,climate change, BWOWWWW!
@@doctordothraki4378 Comedian Pablo Francisco knew LaFontaine personally, and always had hilarious anecdotes of the voiceover guy in his standup routines. Always talking about how his voice sounded creepy, and gritty, even when he wasn't behind a microphone. LaFontaine always unintentionally made ordering a simple Pizza sound like the decision that could save mankind from extinction!
Don LaFontaine was a very generous man. I emailed him one time and asked if he would read dialog that was going to be used on a video of my daughter. I offered to pay and not only did he do it for me but also said to just make a donation to a charity instead. R.I.P.
I wrote to him & he sent me one of his scripts plus a photo, both signed. Then he died not much long after. He was so nice & generous. I was extra sad that he wasn't more recognised & acknowledged. That said, I'll always have positive memories of him.
The “in a world” and “one man” stuff was also becoming cliché and people were starting to notice, especially since it was all coming in the same voice for every single trailer
To the point that LaFontaine himself did a "In a world..." parody in a Geico commercial. th-cam.com/video/ZJMGS7l0wT8/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=KentCadoganLoftsgard
This summer, get ready for a rebooted Armie Hammer, even more diabolical and cannibalistic than ever, as he violently plunges his manhood deep into Timothée Chalamet’s sweet innocent flower blossom.
It may be hard to believe but when I saw the trailer for Arachnaphobia, I thought it was a comedy. The trailer I saw had John Goodman and most of the scenes were laughable. Try watching a horror film with the idea that it is a comedy. It is like trying to eat chocolate colored vanilla pudding-it is a confusing experience.
Let's make trailers, what don't show anything from the movie. Imagine it like the Star Wars crawling text, but in a trailer format instead of just some text.
RIP LaFontaine I still remember hearing his work in the 80/90's when I was growing up. Screen Junkies - Honest trailers - At least the legacy even if comedic in nature is still continued Also some of the most talented Voice artists are in Anime or Video Games, the cast of "critical roll" are widely known for their work, but one of the best voice cast IMO was "Soul Reaver".
Trailers were called that because originally the “coming attractions” were run at the end of a show; but after a cartoon, newsreel and a double feature, people weren’t watching them. Although they were placed at the very beginning of a show eventually, the name stuck. Always wondered why the hell they were called ‘trailers’ in the first place.
Perhaps at first they were considered to be trailers to the previous viewing session. I remember when always during trailers and commercials the lights were still half-lit and the curtains not fully opened as most people were still entering to find their places. Only when the actual film began, the lights fully dimmed and the curtains completely opened. Then there was a period in the 80s and 90s we simply called them previews and only older people still called them trailers. Which these days apparently has been adopted by the millennials again.
Well they can hardly adapt to using actor voiceovers instead. I guess chopping up actual dialogue from the film could work, but it would be a completely different show.
To me, one of the most effective trailers was the one for the 1979 movie Alien. No words, no voice over. It’s hauntingly mysterious and peaks the curiosity.
now, i dont like the voiceovers. they try to contain the story as a story that we watch. i like to lose myself in the world of the movie. that alien trailer, that was like if u were watching a story in a movie, and then went to the bathroom, and that trailer is what happened. its what happens OUTSIDE of the story, it happening somewhere.
Great trailer - The teaser for little children does something similar but just uses dialogue snippets from the movie - with the sound of an approaching train.
In the same film universe, Prometheus also had an amazing trailer with the "I'm David" lifelike robot teaser. Unfortunately it was a little too long for TV so it was online only and not a lot of people saw it at the time, and then the movie itself had less to do with David himself and more to do with exploring the planet. But man, it was a good trailer. Really gave you a sense of unease, something something uncanny valley, something something secretly malicious AI takeover, you know?
It's probably because the top 10s are all sequels, remakes, reboots, or something else that means most people already know what it's going to be Oh shit I was right
In 1994 we were pitching a TV series to ABC called Hypernauts. My business partner wanted to use LaFontaine to do the intro to the teaser we were producing. At that time we were a small FX house and we wanted to move into production. So we rented time in a small studio in Burbank and we secured Don's services. We'd been in the studio for maybe half an hour and at the exact scheduled time of the recording the King walks in with the lines we'd faxed him on a single page. He walks straight through to the booth and nods to the engineer. The engineer hits record, Don delivers his lines and nails it in one take. The engineer thumbs up the take and Don asks us if it was 'Ok', we affirm it was perfect and he walks out of the booth. My partner gives him his check, he say's 'Thanks' and he's gone. He was in the studio for maybe five minutes. No schmoozing, just vocal gold. We sold the show.
@@thundereffect2319 Yep. My business partner Ron passed away a few years back but yes, we came up with and sold Hypernauts. Both Ron and I grew up on Gerry Anderson's shows ( Fireball XL5, Stingray, Thunderbirds and all the way up to Space 1999) and we wanted to do our own.
I disagree. You don’t want to put in somebody that people would be comparing… or a game of “can you top this!” The last thing you want people thinking about is whether he sounded like Don or not because it distracts from the message. He pretty much was a spoiler himself because the bar has now been lowered. Good Lord. Good and lowered! So it’s really a tough call to find a replacement that doesn’t sound like you’re just copying him! I wouldn’t want to be in those shoes. Realize there is not as much creativity floating around or energy by creative directors as you might think. They don’t have a “go-to” to to go to anymore and that threatens their comfort level now without Don and that makes them very nervous. They got lazy.
Yep. Similar to how some Fortune 500 companies will make use of visas to hire foreign labor because they claim they can't find qualified people within the US. It's bullcrap if you want me to believe that, in a country of 300M people, you can't find at least a handful of qualified applicants. DLF, while good at what he does, isn't the only one who can do movie trailer voices. Movie execs just used his passing and their lack of motivation to find a replacement as an opportunity to find alternatives to the move trailer voice.
The voice over you hear in the Die Hard with a Vengeance trailer isn't Don Lafontaine, it's actually Hal Douglas. The Independence Day trailer isn't his voice either. I believe that was Nick Tate. However, Don Lafontaine was the king of movie trailers of that era for many years.
The movie trailer guy is no gone completely. Every now and then I hear a "Mr. Big Voice" on a movie trailer and I get excited when I do. I miss this type of trailers!
I honestly kind of miss the trailer voice overs. It's like they're presenting something they know you're going to love. Maybe Jon Bailey can take Jon's place in being the new trailer narrator. I think they need to come back, especially for horror movie trailers.
Still can't forget Don LaFontaine's GoldenEye voiceover: "On November 17, United Artists brings you.....JAMES BOND" 7 years had passed since a James Bond film was released up to that point and hearing that just got you pumped up. Yeah, James Bond is back!
I remember watching Phineas and Ferb with my granddaughter and he did the voice over for The Chronicles of Meap and he ended it with "In a world ... there I said it."
I want to know what happened to the *movie soundtrack?* Back in the eighties a movie needed a hit song to push that blockbuster movie. *Ghostbusters, Top Gun, Back to the Future and Footloose* are films that you can recall just by hearing a song. It seem that who was starring in your movie was hust as important as who was singing the main song. Big talent was approached to sing and do huge big budget music videos for films Hollywood was gambling on. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger's Last Action Hero had a scene making fun of the trend with M.C. Hammer. Who had a hit with Addams Family called Addams Grooves. Rap stars, pop stars even country singers were tapped for films were their style fit. But then all of a sudden it stopped. Films that would normally have a big song at the end of the movie and a music video released the week of the films debut were gone. Why? What happened to change this? Why did earlier Superhero films like Spider-Man and Batman have full soundtracks but later sequels didn't. Batman had songs by Prince, Seal, and U2. But today's Superhero films don't. But somewhere in the mid to late nineties the trend stopped. Some franchise like James Bond still use the big celebrity song and music video. But the trend is gone. I've often wondered why it died. Films with a hit song are remembered more fondly and have a deeper nostalgia than films that don't. So Cheddar I'm hoping you can answer this mystery for me.
At a guess, I'd say the music market has fragmented to the point where you usually can't reach all the music genres with a single song. Also, back then, they could drive exposure with radio airplay (payola, anybody?). That's no longer possible.
Let's remind ourselves that guardians of the galaxy vol 2 had a original song, just like black panther and spiderman into the spiderverse, trolls had cant stop the feeling and dispicable me had happy...
Besides the A Star is Born soundtrack, I think the last non animation movie song hitting big that I can remember vividly is Too Close from Taken 2 which I think was 2014. The Guardians of the Galaxy soundtracks I associate with all the retro songs, not anything written specifically for them. So yeah, I agree that there is more of a disconnect between movies and music now than in the late 70s, 80s and 90s, but I think that era is the anomaly when you look at movie history. Before the 70s, movies having a signature song weren't as common if they weren't marketed a musical. I think it probably coincides with the rise of music videos as an art form and smart movie execs realized it was an easy way to market the hell out of a movie to do the tie in.
Then the stage repeat and comes the decline of series and surge of movies because theatre screen is more profiting than television series. Because... People dont watch television anymore. And who knows what will happen after this covid
Glad someone said it. Whole Don had a MAJOR part in it, trailers are still alive and well, just not in theaters, but as TV spots. Look up Howard Parker, Gabe Kunda, Ashton Smith and Ben Patrick Johnson
Add The Social Network's trailer too. Both of those trailers basically created the aesthetic of the modern movie trailer. TSN's usage of somber covers of popular songs, and Inception's infamous *BWOOOOONGs* (and other usable ominous bass sounds).
Thanks. Great recap. I knew and worked with Don (I was Head of Production/Executive Producer at McCann-Erickson Advertising in L.A. and did trailers with him - clients were Columbia and Sony) - not only was he the most used SAG member, he also charged double-scale...wow, I can only imagine the $$$! He was at SBV Talent at the time and was a very nice man...and really did travel in his personal, chauffeur-driven white limo.
To specify, one voice-actor monopolized the business and then died, and his death coincided with a rise in blockbuster movie adaptations that didn't have to sell a movie on its plot, but on the audience's familiarity with the product and a focus on the spectacle.
yep basically trailer voiceover was associated with exact tone of voice from one single person. Whole culture of trailer voiceover was built on a single person. Just to show how Hollywood acts more like family business...it's hard to get in it but if you get in it you're set to go for a lifetime easy if only you do whatever is expected from you.
It does strike me that it means we're only 10 years or so away from an entire generation of film-goers who have never heard a trailer voice outside of Honest Trailers.
My boyfriend and I were just talking about how we miss this guy and how they really need to bring voice over actors back in modern day. this guy was amazing and made you want to go see the movie.
Maybe that’s why the film industry changed? Movies are all franchise based and audiences don’t need voice overs because they have literally seen the same characters and settings for about 20 movies now. Great.
That style definitely became oversaturated to the point of annoyance, with the tense music building to a crescendo as a montage of images cycle faster and faster, until the screen goes black followed by the sharp loud drop, and then a brief aftermath as the trailer ends as sort of an exclamation point. I can't think of the ones right now, but there's been a few times the trailer was so predictable it played out just as I imagined, glad they've been getting away from those. Some years earlier I also couldn't stand when it was a thing to stagger testimonials throughout the trailer like "SISKEL AND EBERT GIVE IT TWO THUMBS UP" "THE SPELLBINDING PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR ACCORDING TO THE NEW YORK TIMES" "A MODERN CINEMATIC MASTERPIECE" .....that couldn't have gone away fast enough.
I’ve always thought having a “celebrity crush” is stupid, but Ali Larkin has stolen my heart. This girl has taught me more than any teacher I’ve ever had. Thank you and please keep teaching me about stuff I didn’t know I need to know.
The actual reason trailer vo's aren't common anymore has nothing to do with Don's passing. Ashton Smith, Scott Rummell, Jim Tasker and others took over that business. It was a dispute between the agents, the unions and the performers that had to do with being paid for "scratch reads" (auditions). The producers didn't want to pay for these scratch reads any longer, and the union and the performers disagreed. So the movie companies started running trailers without voiceover.
And you can't understand what 90% of movies about anymore. I really miss the voice overs. But I am old...almost everything I have grown up with is gone.
*Social media is the new VO* That's why. The way films get promoted nowadays means the audience will know the director, the actors and the plot long before it premieres.
Don LaFontaine was truly a master at his art. He could make anything sound interesting. "In a world filled with peanut butter sandwiches.... all the jelly has gone missing. Find out where all the gelatinous fruit has gone in this breathtaking thriller coming to theaters near you on February 30th."
Now I know why my interest in movies has declined: Fontaine grabbed your interest by asking questions or keeping you in suspense! Clips and dialogue pretty much tell you the story already, so why not wait until it appears on cable or DVD?
Pretty much all parodies still use it cuz they're being made by people who still have narration ingrained in how we imagine trailers to be. But Hollywood has definitely pretty much stopped using them. If there's actually a point they're missing here, it's that at any time that trend could directly reverse or go on some completely unforseen direction
I very much enjoyed LaFontaine's voice-overs. He was an absolute MASTER at it and I remember when he suddenly died, it was almost like when Mel Blanc (The man that did ALL of the voices of Warner Brothers/Looney Tunes cartoons - Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, etc., etc., etc.) died. A MAJOR voice characterization actor was totally gone. I'm 53 so I'm old enough to remember when movie previews sounded all dramatic and cornball. The LaFontaine's voice came along and changed all of that. We got to have him for 30 years and I consider that a blessing. You just KNEW a big movie was getting ready to be advertised when his voice came from the TV. EVERYBODY stopped and listened. I miss that but I'm glad we got to have LaFontaine as long as we did. Im so glad you, Ali, have taken on the world of TH-cam and are dominating as one of the top narrators/presenters. I'm so glad to see young people getting in there are making it happen. You are obviously quite intelligent and have a broad scope of knowledge. It seems you have an endless trove of subjects/topics that you cover. You're very professional and can keep the audience interested throughout. My two daughters both have gone on to become an Ophthalmologist and a Veterinarian, so it's good to see you having such expertise and education in another profession. Keep cranking out the good content and I'll keep on watching. Take care and God bless. 😊
The guys that edit for a trailer never get the credit they deserve. I love editing videos and I do it just for fun, but man, it’s not easy. It takes hours and it has to make sense because they’re not only cutting pieces from the movie but they have to synchronize the background music and the dialogues, the seconds for each scene, the pace of the trailer, the slow beginning and slowly intensifies until it reaches maximum intensity and at the end leaves the viewers wanting to see the movie. The movie itself might not be that good, but the trailer has to sell it. The trailer editors need credit at the end of each trailer. Edited by: (names)
It's not just movie trailers where VOs have disappeared. Try finding a narrated promo on premium cable these days; the post-LaFontaine-era concept outlined in this video is now used for promotions on HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, Starz, Epix and the like. It's kind of a shame, too. My favorite of those promo announcers was Bill St. James, who did work for HBO, Cinemax, Showtime and The Movie Channel from the early 1980s to the late 2000s, but was basically "the" voice of Showtime from 1988 to c. 2010. (He still does VO work to this day, mainly for NBC Sports.)
I miss the old trailer narrations to a large degree but I like the new format too where just the movie scenes are enough. I watch movie trailers - that's how I know if I want to see the film or not. They are important to me. I also like to go back and see the old trailers for fun.
One thing to note about dialogue from actors used in trailers - in the last 10 years marketing departments have started getting involved with notes to scripts before shooting begins so dialogue or even scenes can be added to be used in the trailer to explain the plot. In the movie, it might not make sense to have a long winded use of character names and explaining the plot - but several takes can be done for the teaser trailer. Marketing execs are on the set for filming of those scenes so they can get what they need. So it's really shifted from using voice talent to using the cast. With comedies, some actors are very aware of what type of material needs to be used for the trailer, so they ad-lib it and takes will be noted for trailer material. Trailers are far less something done after the fact and far bigger part of actual filming.
Trailer VO artists also became Caricatures of themselves. There were and still are more than a dozen of the more famous trailer voice artists. Don was just one. As the individuals became more well known, their art became diminished because the voice became more prominent than the trailer itself. It was too much of a good thing. Voice artists mostly work from home these days. Beau Weaver, Hal Douglas, and Will Lyman and literally thousands of others work from amazing, self built, home studios. Artists no longer need a full studio to make broadcast quality recordings and receive direction. Having said all of that, this video ACTUALLY has merit. You did a great job not just re-hashing obvious and trite facts. Very well researched and presented.
Eyes Wide Shut only had the title said by him, I think, or a similar voice. I remember noticing it then (1999) that it seemed like the movie trailer voice over was dying out. Actually I have it wrong, the official trailer didn't have a voice all (just Chris Isaak music) but the TV spots had the voice at the end saying the title.
I love this deep dive into the subject, because i am a long time fan of Don LaFontaine. Generations of movie trailers have this man to thank, i think that's incredible
Video: "so a trailer at the time looked a little something like this"' TH-cam: *interrupts video to play back to back ads for movie trailers* Me: "Well played youtube, well played"
Thank you for a great video article. I still miss the power of voice as the main attention of focus. Listning can also be intelligently joyful just as much as the picture, if done well of course. I wish there were more people that care for attention just as we do.
9:18 I wasn’t expecting the background music to be such a bop. I wasn’t even listening to what the dude was saying; I was just jamming out to the beat!
The best trailer voiceover is for No Retreat, No Surrender 2. "The fortress is impenetrable. The enemy is unpredictable. The commander is invincible. But THEY are unbelievable. As the mission to save a friend... becomes the battle to free a nation." Really gets me pumped!
He was replaced by the Inception BWOWWWWWW sound
I heard that the voice over guys got together and agreed that going "bwowwwwww" was beneath their talents...
Remember in the mid 2000s when everyone became obsessed with different ways the world could end? That sound was at the beginning of (in some cases, throughout) like half the trailers on TV. War, zombies ,climate change, BWOWWWW!
I'm just gonna leave this here:
th-cam.com/video/Pc71YvWG0GQ/w-d-xo.html
Then that was replaced by the slowed down, gloomy version of a classic rock song.
@@doctordothraki4378 Comedian Pablo Francisco knew LaFontaine personally, and always had hilarious anecdotes of the voiceover guy in his standup routines. Always talking about how his voice sounded creepy, and gritty, even when he wasn't behind a microphone. LaFontaine always unintentionally made ordering a simple Pizza sound like the decision that could save mankind from extinction!
Don LaFontaine was a very generous man. I emailed him one time and asked if he would read dialog that was going to be used on a video of my daughter. I offered to pay and not only did he do it for me but also said to just make a donation to a charity instead. R.I.P.
That's a great story. Thanks for sharing it.
I wrote to him & he sent me one of his scripts plus a photo, both signed. Then he died not much long after. He was so nice & generous. I was extra sad that he wasn't more recognised & acknowledged. That said, I'll always have positive memories of him.
He was actually my grandfather. I never actually met him, because i was born in 2009, but I feel honored to be related to such a legend!
I knew Don from the voiceover forums when I first broke into the voice industry, he was a very generous mentor for newbs even though he was very busy.
That was nice
I like how cheddar is always explaining the disappearance of things I didn’t even realize were gone.
Lol especially when they haven't really disappeared... more like evolved with the rest of media.
Several months ago I had the thought that the movie voice disappeared, but I didn't know why. Seeing this video felt like Cheddar was reading my mind.
Can they explain how my social life disappeared?
Many of them are not gone.
@@ThaNarc virus thingy = 0 social life?
The “in a world” and “one man” stuff was also becoming cliché and people were starting to notice, especially since it was all coming in the same voice for every single trailer
Yep. And at the same time the industry was banking on that very familiarity, which still worked ... until 2008
Don’t forget “now he’s back” or “they’re back”, for any sequels
I miss it
To the point that LaFontaine himself did a "In a world..." parody in a Geico commercial.
th-cam.com/video/ZJMGS7l0wT8/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=KentCadoganLoftsgard
I think that's what made those fake trailers in Tropic Thunder so hilarious 🤣🤣
IN A WORLD...
...where one man...
...accidentally creates an industry...
...one day... ...one fateful event...
...CHANGES EVERYTHING!
The one that still makes me laugh is,
"In a world of DANGER"
IN A WORLD WHERE EVERYTHING IS LIT ON FIRE AND LAVA IS YOUR ONLY SOURCE OF NUTRITION
My favorite start of a trailer:
This summer.....
My favorite: "In a world..."
This summer, get ready for a rebooted Armie Hammer, even more diabolical and cannibalistic than ever, as he violently plunges his manhood deep into Timothée Chalamet’s sweet innocent flower blossom.
@@poolerboy *_In a world full of chaos and destruction where a Mastermind takes over, only one team shall rise above the threat._*
The This Summers usually begat a Summer Blockbuster so it piqued you right from the get-go.
Haha same here
Let's bring back trailers, I mean teasers, that don't REVEAL THE WHOLE PLOT and 2/3 of the jokes/action scenes.
You mean the only 3 scenes that are vaguely interesting.🤣😂
Amen to that!! It is ruining movies for me!
It may be hard to believe but when I saw the trailer for Arachnaphobia, I thought it was a comedy. The trailer I saw had John Goodman and most of the scenes were laughable. Try watching a horror film with the idea that it is a comedy. It is like trying to eat chocolate colored vanilla pudding-it is a confusing experience.
Let's make trailers, what don't show anything from the movie. Imagine it like the Star Wars crawling text, but in a trailer format instead of just some text.
60-90 seconds are enough
RIP LaFontaine I still remember hearing his work in the 80/90's when I was growing up.
Screen Junkies - Honest trailers - At least the legacy even if comedic in nature is still continued
Also some of the most talented Voice artists are in Anime or Video Games, the cast of "critical roll" are widely known for their work, but one of the best voice cast IMO was "Soul Reaver".
When she said, "... But in 2008..."
Me: Yeah, of course, the recession--
"He died"
SAME. OMG. Haha
I don't want to live in a world without Don LaFontaine.
@@jimbo573 ok then. Here
👉🔪
I'm sorry someone died but... I'm secretly so glad movie trailer narrations stopped. I hated listening to them.
That went from “0-100 real quick
Trailers were called that because originally the “coming attractions” were run at the end of a show; but after a cartoon, newsreel and a double feature, people weren’t watching them. Although they were placed at the very beginning of a show eventually, the name stuck. Always wondered why the hell they were called ‘trailers’ in the first place.
That's a good piece of trivia! Thanks
Perhaps at first they were considered to be trailers to the previous viewing session. I remember when always during trailers and commercials the lights were still half-lit and the curtains not fully opened as most people were still entering to find their places. Only when the actual film began, the lights fully dimmed and the curtains completely opened.
Then there was a period in the 80s and 90s we simply called them previews and only older people still called them trailers. Which these days apparently has been adopted by the millennials again.
Honest Trailers still uses them!!
Yes!!!!
I'm addicted to that channel
So, out of spite for no longer promoting movies, they've turned to mock them.
Absolutely!!
Well they can hardly adapt to using actor voiceovers instead. I guess chopping up actual dialogue from the film could work, but it would be a completely different show.
Art Gilmore and Don LaFontaine, both legendary voiceover actors. Their legacies continue
The fact that after his death movie voice overs are scarcly used, and he had the monopoly over them, is a fitting tribute Don La Fontaine himself.
These days They seem To only Do it for comedic affect for Animated Kids movies.
Not that it was a monopoly, he was just the best. One one could come close to Don.
It really was "One man." Lol
My middle school got Don LaFontaine to come in and live narrate our graduation speech, it was awesome!
In a world where TH-cam didn't exist, I'd be more productive with my time.
Same
Same
Honestly though, I'd know way less and the productivity I'd gain would be massively offset the need to "reinvent the wheel" on most subjects.
@@gljames24 that is true
Lol no you wouldn’t. Like me, you’d find something else to waste your time. Don’t lie to yourself
To me, one of the most effective trailers was the one for the 1979 movie Alien. No words, no voice over. It’s hauntingly mysterious and peaks the curiosity.
now, i dont like the voiceovers. they try to contain the story as a story that we watch. i like to lose myself in the world of the movie. that alien trailer, that was like if u were watching a story in a movie, and then went to the bathroom, and that trailer is what happened. its what happens OUTSIDE of the story, it happening somewhere.
Great trailer -
The teaser for little children does something similar but just uses dialogue snippets from the movie - with the sound of an approaching train.
In the same film universe, Prometheus also had an amazing trailer with the "I'm David" lifelike robot teaser. Unfortunately it was a little too long for TV so it was online only and not a lot of people saw it at the time, and then the movie itself had less to do with David himself and more to do with exploring the planet. But man, it was a good trailer. Really gave you a sense of unease, something something uncanny valley, something something secretly malicious AI takeover, you know?
It's probably because the top 10s are all sequels, remakes, reboots, or something else that means most people already know what it's going to be
Oh shit I was right
Not avatar tho
@@themilz3649 Yeah Avatar was totally original /sarcasm
@@themilz3649 I think they meant the top 10 of 2019, and they were right; they were all sequels or reboots.
@@SunflowerSpotlight oh ok. Yea all the movies from 2019 top 10 were sequels and reboots
Yeah. Plus Lafontaine was THE NARRATOR for trailers. He could convince you to see any movie.
In 1994 we were pitching a TV series to ABC called Hypernauts. My business partner wanted to use LaFontaine to do the intro to the teaser we were producing. At that time we were a small FX house and we wanted to move into production. So we rented time in a small studio in Burbank and we secured Don's services. We'd been in the studio for maybe half an hour and at the exact scheduled time of the recording the King walks in with the lines we'd faxed him on a single page. He walks straight through to the booth and nods to the engineer. The engineer hits record, Don delivers his lines and nails it in one take. The engineer thumbs up the take and Don asks us if it was 'Ok', we affirm it was perfect and he walks out of the booth. My partner gives him his check, he say's 'Thanks' and he's gone. He was in the studio for maybe five minutes. No schmoozing, just vocal gold. We sold the show.
wait really you are the guy behind hypernauts?
@@thundereffect2319 Yep. My business partner Ron passed away a few years back but yes, we came up with and sold Hypernauts. Both Ron and I grew up on Gerry Anderson's shows ( Fireball XL5, Stingray, Thunderbirds and all the way up to Space 1999) and we wanted to do our own.
Pure professionalism!
I miss them they often were the best part of some of the more forgettable movies I saw.
Movies in general are better in trailer form for some reason.
yeah how can i know what the hell moive is about.. that why Drive got sue...they just love it.. since any PR is a good PR...
I miss that voice on trailers, takes me back to previews on my favourite vhs tapes or at the cinema.
It’s nostalgic sure. But it got old hearing it all the time
Plenty of voice talent out there, DLF passing was just an excuse to cut out having to pay for a narration.
Redd Pepper could've done just fine. Sounds like a way to cut costs indeed.
Thats exactly what it is, if it's a change, it's because of cost, if they figure it helped make money, they would keep it.
I disagree. You don’t want to put in somebody that people would be comparing… or a game of “can you top this!” The last thing you want people thinking about is whether he sounded like Don or not because it distracts from the message. He pretty much was a spoiler himself because the bar has now been lowered. Good Lord. Good and lowered!
So it’s really a tough call to find a replacement that doesn’t sound like you’re just copying him! I wouldn’t want to be in those shoes.
Realize there is not as much creativity floating around or energy by creative directors as you might think. They don’t have a “go-to” to to go to anymore and that threatens their comfort level now without Don and that makes them very nervous. They got lazy.
There’s also Kyle Hebert (the DBZ narrator). He does some trailer voiceover stuff too.
Yep. Similar to how some Fortune 500 companies will make use of visas to hire foreign labor because they claim they can't find qualified people within the US. It's bullcrap if you want me to believe that, in a country of 300M people, you can't find at least a handful of qualified applicants. DLF, while good at what he does, isn't the only one who can do movie trailer voices. Movie execs just used his passing and their lack of motivation to find a replacement as an opportunity to find alternatives to the move trailer voice.
The voice over you hear in the Die Hard with a Vengeance trailer isn't Don Lafontaine, it's actually Hal Douglas. The Independence Day trailer isn't his voice either. I believe that was Nick Tate. However, Don Lafontaine was the king of movie trailers of that era for many years.
I think you totally nailed it. First definitely sounded like Hal, and the second like "a voice, 65 million years in the making."
In a world, where Don LaFontaine rests in peace…
You read it with his voice in your mind
Until now...
*Steven Schapiro enters*
Who are you kidding? He is busier now, with a bigger limo.
"Coming this fall...."
One man...will get sick of movie trailer narrators.
The movie trailer guy is no gone completely. Every now and then I hear a "Mr. Big Voice" on a movie trailer and I get excited when I do. I miss this type of trailers!
I honestly kind of miss the trailer voice overs. It's like they're presenting something they know you're going to love. Maybe Jon Bailey can take Jon's place in being the new trailer narrator. I think they need to come back, especially for horror movie trailers.
Especially the Disney voice over trailers from back in the day
I donnt really think we need them back.
Still can't forget Don LaFontaine's GoldenEye voiceover: "On November 17, United Artists brings you.....JAMES BOND"
7 years had passed since a James Bond film was released up to that point and hearing that just got you pumped up. Yeah, James Bond is back!
What a lot of people don't know is that Don LaFontaine was also the voice over in the title sequence of "America's Most Wanted"
I remember watching Phineas and Ferb with my granddaughter and he did the voice over for The Chronicles of Meap and he ended it with "In a world ... there I said it."
Haha 😂😝
I want to know what happened to the *movie soundtrack?* Back in the eighties a movie needed a hit song to push that blockbuster movie. *Ghostbusters, Top Gun, Back to the Future and Footloose* are films that you can recall just by hearing a song. It seem that who was starring in your movie was hust as important as who was singing the main song. Big talent was approached to sing and do huge big budget music videos for films Hollywood was gambling on. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger's Last Action Hero had a scene making fun of the trend with M.C. Hammer. Who had a hit with Addams Family called Addams Grooves.
Rap stars, pop stars even country singers were tapped for films were their style fit. But then all of a sudden it stopped. Films that would normally have a big song at the end of the movie and a music video released the week of the films debut were gone. Why? What happened to change this? Why did earlier Superhero films like Spider-Man and Batman have full soundtracks but later sequels didn't. Batman had songs by Prince, Seal, and U2. But today's Superhero films don't.
But somewhere in the mid to late nineties the trend stopped. Some franchise like James Bond still use the big celebrity song and music video. But the trend is gone. I've often wondered why it died. Films with a hit song are remembered more fondly and have a deeper nostalgia than films that don't. So Cheddar I'm hoping you can answer this mystery for me.
At a guess, I'd say the music market has fragmented to the point where you usually can't reach all the music genres with a single song. Also, back then, they could drive exposure with radio airplay (payola, anybody?). That's no longer possible.
It's not a mistery you're just cherry picking
Movie industry doesn't care about staying power, everything is about the opening weekend
Let's remind ourselves that guardians of the galaxy vol 2 had a original song, just like black panther and spiderman into the spiderverse, trolls had cant stop the feeling and dispicable me had happy...
Besides the A Star is Born soundtrack, I think the last non animation movie song hitting big that I can remember vividly is Too Close from Taken 2 which I think was 2014. The Guardians of the Galaxy soundtracks I associate with all the retro songs, not anything written specifically for them.
So yeah, I agree that there is more of a disconnect between movies and music now than in the late 70s, 80s and 90s, but I think that era is the anomaly when you look at movie history. Before the 70s, movies having a signature song weren't as common if they weren't marketed a musical. I think it probably coincides with the rise of music videos as an art form and smart movie execs realized it was an easy way to market the hell out of a movie to do the tie in.
As an aspiring voice actor, I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed this.
What about the decline of movies and the surge of series, why have 2 hours of content if you can have 50
Because there isn't enough time for 50.
Then the stage repeat and comes the decline of series and surge of movies because theatre screen is more profiting than television series. Because... People dont watch television anymore. And who knows what will happen after this covid
Neither movies nor series declined, wtf are y'all on??? Ever heard of streaming?
It's good to hear someone pronounce Casa Grande correctly!
we traded narration with BWAAAAAAAAAAAA noises
Hollywood traded it.
Us Hollywood producer types slave for days so you can have the best BWOWWW noise.
And quick fade outs/ins to every shot.
The movie narrators actually made you want to see the movie, especially Don Lafontaine.
DUDE!! La Fontaine didn’t voice Die Had 3, that was Hal Douglas and the Independents day trailer is Nick Tait (Aussie Actor also did J Park)
damn oops
“An adventure 65 million years in the making...” Yeah. Neither of those were LaFontaine.
They didn’t sound like him.
Good call. I was going to comment the same on the Hal Douglas. But then I came across your comment.
Glad someone said it. Whole Don had a MAJOR part in it, trailers are still alive and well, just not in theaters, but as TV spots. Look up Howard Parker, Gabe Kunda, Ashton Smith and Ben Patrick Johnson
His voice is very familiar
Ray
Redd pepper
Was Inception also partially responsible? I feel like that film’s trailer changed the style for the entire industry
Add The Social Network's trailer too. Both of those trailers basically created the aesthetic of the modern movie trailer. TSN's usage of somber covers of popular songs, and Inception's infamous *BWOOOOONGs* (and other usable ominous bass sounds).
Batman begins, when you have Liam Nesson doing the talking. 😉
Thanks. Great recap. I knew and worked with Don (I was Head of Production/Executive Producer at McCann-Erickson Advertising in L.A. and did trailers with him - clients were Columbia and Sony) - not only was he the most used SAG member, he also charged double-scale...wow, I can only imagine the $$$! He was at SBV Talent at the time and was a very nice man...and really did travel in his personal, chauffeur-driven white limo.
A video about voiceovers uses the on-device microphone for the in-apartment shots...
OMG Thank you!
That drove me nuts! How the fuck do you have so many views with such horrible audio?
@@KingofCrusher It’s not that bad.
Kate Saber It’s like women. Depends on what you’re used to.
BRING IT BACK!!
HELL NO.
Hes dead
No thanks
How?
GET A NEW TRAILER NARRATOR AS A REPLACEMENT
THE INDUSTRY SHOULD'VE WENT FOR THAT
The voice actor died
To specify, one voice-actor monopolized the business and then died, and his death coincided with a rise in blockbuster movie adaptations that didn't have to sell a movie on its plot, but on the audience's familiarity with the product and a focus on the spectacle.
Spoiler!
knew it
Right he died. And they stretched this video to 10 mins for the ad revenue off his death. Good people here
yep basically trailer voiceover was associated with exact tone of voice from one single person. Whole culture of trailer voiceover was built on a single person. Just to show how Hollywood acts more like family business...it's hard to get in it but if you get in it you're set to go for a lifetime easy if only you do whatever is expected from you.
It does strike me that it means we're only 10 years or so away from an entire generation of film-goers who have never heard a trailer voice outside of Honest Trailers.
"In a world, where movie trailers have no voiceover, one man's life has ended."
Actually, his life ended, and THEN there were no voiceovers.
My boyfriend and I were just talking about how we miss this guy and how they really need to bring voice over actors back in modern day. this guy was amazing and made you want to go see the movie.
His "In a world" voice is missed.
Maybe that’s why the film industry changed? Movies are all franchise based and audiences don’t need voice overs because they have literally seen the same characters and settings for about 20 movies now. Great.
I cant stand how pretty much every trailer now days has the same over the top thudding music like - dun.. duunnn DUUUNN THOOOOOOMMMM drop. Ech.
It's already changing. Now most trailers use a slowed down soulful cover of a popular song. I think it started with 50 Shades of Grey.
That style definitely became oversaturated to the point of annoyance, with the tense music building to a crescendo as a montage of images cycle faster and faster, until the screen goes black followed by the sharp loud drop, and then a brief aftermath as the trailer ends as sort of an exclamation point. I can't think of the ones right now, but there's been a few times the trailer was so predictable it played out just as I imagined, glad they've been getting away from those. Some years earlier I also couldn't stand when it was a thing to stagger testimonials throughout the trailer like "SISKEL AND EBERT GIVE IT TWO THUMBS UP" "THE SPELLBINDING PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR ACCORDING TO THE NEW YORK TIMES" "A MODERN CINEMATIC MASTERPIECE" .....that couldn't have gone away fast enough.
One thing this video did not say was, which trailer the first was to decide not to use any voice over. Would have been interesting to know.
I’ve always thought having a “celebrity crush” is stupid, but Ali Larkin has stolen my heart. This girl has taught me more than any teacher I’ve ever had. Thank you and please keep teaching me about stuff I didn’t know I need to know.
The actual reason trailer vo's aren't common anymore has nothing to do with Don's passing. Ashton Smith, Scott Rummell, Jim Tasker and others took over that business.
It was a dispute between the agents, the unions and the performers that had to do with being paid for "scratch reads" (auditions). The producers didn't want to pay for these scratch reads any longer, and the union and the performers disagreed. So the movie companies started running trailers without voiceover.
I never knew that Don La Fontaine was a recording engineer! Great stuff
You're not the only one who didn't know that
Though in hindsight it makes sense that he'd initially started out as a studio engineer
And you can't understand what 90% of movies about anymore. I really miss the voice overs. But I am old...almost everything I have grown up with is gone.
I miss this, and we still have The Epic Voice Guy from Screen Junkies :)
YES!
I have wondered about this off and on for fifteen years. Thank you for the story.
I miss Don LaFontaine! Of course, I'm 73, so a great many of the movies I've known and loved had trailers with his voice.
His voice always gives me nostalgia
*Social media is the new VO*
That's why. The way films get promoted nowadays means the audience will know the director, the actors and the plot long before it premieres.
Don LaFontaine was truly a master at his art. He could make anything sound interesting. "In a world filled with peanut butter sandwiches.... all the jelly has gone missing. Find out where all the gelatinous fruit has gone in this breathtaking thriller coming to theaters near you on February 30th."
Yo I read that in his voice
"In a world where there are no more trailer voicovers...there are...Honest Trailers?"
O no
Now I know why my interest in movies has declined: Fontaine grabbed your interest by asking questions or keeping you in suspense! Clips and dialogue pretty much tell you the story already, so why not wait until it appears on cable or DVD?
"The Mask"
They call him Cuban Pete, he's the king of the Rumba beat.
PYONGYANG GETTING NUKED IN 3..2..1...
We seem to be missing the radio ads that used voice overs as well. There were a lot of radio ads there were entertaining on their own.
I miss Don LaFontaine, his voice always made me smile
Fun fact: they are called trailers because originally they came after the movie. So they trailed the movie.
Sneak P E E K
You're giving the audience a peek into the new movie, not the peak of... a mountain.
I was beginning to think I was the only one who noticed.
Trailer: _b u t t h e t w i s t i s t h a t_
Every breathing being on the planet: *pls don't*
these guys clearly haven't heard of Honest Trailers
Pretty much all parodies still use it cuz they're being made by people who still have narration ingrained in how we imagine trailers to be. But Hollywood has definitely pretty much stopped using them. If there's actually a point they're missing here, it's that at any time that trend could directly reverse or go on some completely unforseen direction
Parodies don't count
I very much enjoyed LaFontaine's voice-overs. He was an absolute MASTER at it and I remember when he suddenly died, it was almost like when Mel Blanc (The man that did ALL of the voices of Warner Brothers/Looney Tunes cartoons - Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, etc., etc., etc.) died. A MAJOR voice characterization actor was totally gone. I'm 53 so I'm old enough to remember when movie previews sounded all dramatic and cornball. The LaFontaine's voice came along and changed all of that. We got to have him for 30 years and I consider that a blessing. You just KNEW a big movie was getting ready to be advertised when his voice came from the TV. EVERYBODY stopped and listened. I miss that but I'm glad we got to have LaFontaine as long as we did.
Im so glad you, Ali, have taken on the world of TH-cam and are dominating as one of the top narrators/presenters. I'm so glad to see young people getting in there are making it happen. You are obviously quite intelligent and have a broad scope of knowledge. It seems you have an endless trove of subjects/topics that you cover. You're very professional and can keep the audience interested throughout.
My two daughters both have gone on to become an Ophthalmologist and a Veterinarian, so it's good to see you having such expertise and education in another profession. Keep cranking out the good content and I'll keep on watching. Take care and God bless. 😊
What would have been interesting is the transition from "all trailers have voice overs" to "all movie trailers have the Inception horn".
I recently made an "In a World" joke and the person I was talking to had no idea what I was referencing.
"Oh no! What are we gonna do now that La Fontaine is dead?"
...bro hire another dude???
Morgan Freeman or James Earl Jones could have become millionaires (In a world... where they weren't already millionaires).
@@stephenderry9488 What about Dwayne Johnson or Morgan Freeman to narrate the trailers? Or maybe a female actress for some film trailers?
After all, he himself started as an impromptu replacement for another guy.
You can use his voice in a synthesizer and get a pretty good result
Celebreties make bad narrators. A good narrator is supposed to be anonymous. Famous narrators inadvertendly steal the show.
The guys that edit for a trailer never get the credit they deserve. I love editing videos and I do it just for fun, but man, it’s not easy. It takes hours and it has to make sense because they’re not only cutting pieces from the movie but they have to synchronize the background music and the dialogues, the seconds for each scene, the pace of the trailer, the slow beginning and slowly intensifies until it reaches maximum intensity and at the end leaves the viewers wanting to see the movie.
The movie itself might not be that good, but the trailer has to sell it. The trailer editors need credit at the end of each trailer. Edited by: (names)
They changed it to *BBWOOOOO*
We actually do refer to them as bwams when scoring music lol.
What is this referring to?
@@JJ-rm7jw It's the sound that apparently started with this trailer th-cam.com/video/8hP9D6kZseM/w-d-xo.html
It's not just movie trailers where VOs have disappeared. Try finding a narrated promo on premium cable these days; the post-LaFontaine-era concept outlined in this video is now used for promotions on HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, Starz, Epix and the like. It's kind of a shame, too. My favorite of those promo announcers was Bill St. James, who did work for HBO, Cinemax, Showtime and The Movie Channel from the early 1980s to the late 2000s, but was basically "the" voice of Showtime from 1988 to c. 2010. (He still does VO work to this day, mainly for NBC Sports.)
0:49 sneakpeak killed it for me. Sneak peek.
I know, I hate silly spelling mistakes.
Lol true
I miss the old trailer narrations to a large degree but I like the new format too where just the movie scenes are enough. I watch movie trailers - that's how I know if I want to see the film or not. They are important to me. I also like to go back and see the old trailers for fun.
0:27 "So how did we end up *in a world* without movie trailer voiceovers"
Well played HAHAHA
I don't get it, what do you mean?
Somehow i always glance down and read quote comments the *very moment* it's said in the video
I miss the narration. Every time I see an old trailer I notice the absence of it in today's trailers. I really hope you bring it back for some movies.
Hey, I know that 1940s trailer voice! It’s the transatlantic accent!
One thing to note about dialogue from actors used in trailers - in the last 10 years marketing departments have started getting involved with notes to scripts before shooting begins so dialogue or even scenes can be added to be used in the trailer to explain the plot. In the movie, it might not make sense to have a long winded use of character names and explaining the plot - but several takes can be done for the teaser trailer. Marketing execs are on the set for filming of those scenes so they can get what they need. So it's really shifted from using voice talent to using the cast. With comedies, some actors are very aware of what type of material needs to be used for the trailer, so they ad-lib it and takes will be noted for trailer material. Trailers are far less something done after the fact and far bigger part of actual filming.
They could've just hired Pablo Francisco as a replacement :)
LITTLE TORTILLA BOY
Or Steven Schapiro
It wasn't mentioned in the video but I honestly think the stand up comedians' ridicule played a big part in why DLF was never replaced.
Trailer VO artists also became Caricatures of themselves. There were and still are more than a dozen of the more famous trailer voice artists. Don was just one. As the individuals became more well known, their art became diminished because the voice became more prominent than the trailer itself. It was too much of a good thing. Voice artists mostly work from home these days. Beau Weaver, Hal Douglas, and Will Lyman and literally thousands of others work from amazing, self built, home studios. Artists no longer need a full studio to make broadcast quality recordings and receive direction. Having said all of that, this video ACTUALLY has merit. You did a great job not just re-hashing obvious and trite facts. Very well researched and presented.
So, it ended because DLF died?
Basically, yes. He was THE movie trailer voice. Getting someone else to fill in just wouldn't feel right.
Yea. The rest of the video is just fluff for the algorithm
The whole video is fluff.
This is quite fascinating.
Now they make honest trailers on TH-cam in format like that😂
Thank you for actually showing your references at the end! So many TH-camrs I watch give good info, but leave out their sources
I don’t like trailers for movies I know I will watch. Tells to much of the story
And i don't like trailers for movies I'm not going to watch either cause I'm forced to see to much of the story
@@mgelliott86 that’s funny
The most recognizable voice in the world 🌎. What a gift!! He made you want to see movies and television shows. I'm sure that he had a huge fortune.
"So I'll miss this one gig. What's gonna happen? It's not like someone else will replace me and monopolize the industry so I'll never work again!"
Eyes Wide Shut only had the title said by him, I think, or a similar voice. I remember noticing it then (1999) that it seemed like the movie trailer voice over was dying out. Actually I have it wrong, the official trailer didn't have a voice all (just Chris Isaak music) but the TV spots had the voice at the end saying the title.
"it's 1994..." and I graduated from high school 😂😂😂😂
I love this deep dive into the subject, because i am a long time fan of Don LaFontaine. Generations of movie trailers have this man to thank, i think that's incredible
The host clearly needs a mic if not a voiceover
I was JUST thinking about the stereotypical “in a world...” trailer voice! 🤯
Video: "so a trailer at the time looked a little something like this"'
TH-cam: *interrupts video to play back to back ads for movie trailers*
Me: "Well played youtube, well played"
Now trailers last 3 minutes, and they tell you the whole story and spoilers included
Thank you for a great video article. I still miss the power of voice as the main attention of focus. Listning can also be intelligently joyful just as much as the picture, if done well of course. I wish there were more people that care for attention just as we do.
9:18 I wasn’t expecting the background music to be such a bop. I wasn’t even listening to what the dude was saying; I was just jamming out to the beat!
4:51 YOOO THAT 86 THO
k
I was looking for this comment, and yeah I guess it's a Corolla GTS, (88), (US's version)
yea
The best trailer voiceover is for No Retreat, No Surrender 2.
"The fortress is impenetrable. The enemy is unpredictable. The commander is invincible. But THEY are unbelievable.
As the mission to save a friend... becomes the battle to free a nation."
Really gets me pumped!