In A World Where...

After a brief period of feigned disinterest, I broke down and bought an Apple TV shortly after they were introduced. Prior to the "version 2" upgrade, I mostly used it to watch Podcasts and the occasional downloaded TV show. It's gotten more use since the upgrade and we've been quite happy with the movie-rental experience. But the great not-so-hidden feature I really love is the ability to view trailers for movies in the iTunes store.

I love a good movie trailer. A well-made trailer gets you interested in the movie without giving away too much of the plot or deceiving you into thinking it's a completely different movie. The very best are creative and original in their own right. Apple TV has trailers for pretty much all of the movies in its catalog (I should note that these are also available through iTunes as well). I admit I've spent far too much time lately viewing these things. Unfortunately, only a handful have really stood out.

Today Kottke has a post about Pablo Ferro and his work with Stanley Kubrick. Ferro's trailers for Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb was the first one I came across that really caught my eye:

It's weird and trippy and absolutely brilliant. Ferro also made the trailer for Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange which somehow manages to be just as unnerving and cringe-inducing as the movie itself, yet completely different.

Kottke's post also mentions that Ferro did the opening titles for Dr. Strangelove. I remember when I saw the movie for the first time (circa 1986 or so) how similar the titles were to those in the Talking Heads movie Stop Making Sense. Well, it turns out Pablo Ferro was responsible for those, as well.

In case you don't get the title of this post, watch this (warning: R-rated).