These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. 

Jonathan Demme said he preferred to call Stop Making Sense a performance film rather than a concert film. The reasoning behind that is clear. He captured Talking Heads live on stage in a manner markedly different from most predecessor films in the genre. The film is dynamic and enthralling, intensely focused on the swerving rhythms of a band in sync with each other and the added visual trappings they brought to their show. Demme wasn’t trying to make a memento, a mere duplication of the the experience of standing the midst of a concert crowd. He was making a proper film, with all the demands that implies.

So how is that resulting cinematic creation sold? It requires a trailer that’s just as fearlessly challenging and innovative, promising a spectacle that’s simultaneously discombobulating and thrilling. Set aside all expectations, it asserts. This is what a concert film — what a performance film, rather — can and should be.

Other entries in this series can be found by clicking on the “Art of the Sell” tag.