DRAINED Teaser: The Inspiration

The main inspiration for my sophomore level is the teaser for Portal 2 (Bellow)

This trailer is great because it opens with mystery and suspense. At first the viewer can't really see what exactly is being shown, but as the camera zooms out and pans down, the familiar shape of GLaDOS begins to show. This builds on nostalgia from the first game, as well as provides a quick recap of how the main antagonist ended up in the end. Now building from that, the trailer could have shown the remains of GLaDOS as just that, a recap, or it could show that she is alive. Clearly the better option was to surprise the audience with her singular eye powering up, with no other movement. When the screen cuts to black you can hear her signature monotone and sarcastic voice, solidifying her as the main antagonist once again. The trailer music then starts and quickly revs up to show all the exciting new content, and finishes with the Portal 2 logo, along with one final quote from GLaDOS.

Where the trailer fails is in having one too many lines of dialogue, specifically the "How have you been?" This line takes away from the much stronger "It's been a long time" showing that she remembers you, and also because it bleeds into the transition from black to the other clips. Having just the first line, fade from black, and the music picking up, would have been a much better way to handle that, in my opinion.