UFC 134: Rio Brazilian Trailer Sets the Bar

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Following a story.
The typical UFC trailer is a paint-by-numbers affair: take one part sludge metal (aged ten years), mix with copious amounts of brutal strikes and primal screams denoting male dominance, sprinkle sound-board audio memes, quick cut at every opportunity, bake at 5,000 degrees for 30 seconds. Serve in your most generic kitchenware.

So, it's nice to see this local Brazilian trailer for next month's UFC: Rio:


UFC Rio - Versão do Diretor from Leandro Rial on Vimeo.

The trailer is simple in both concept and visuals. It uses a soft piano arrangement from a popular rap track. The lyrics are on the nose, but the message is clear and appropriate. It's a fight trailer that shows no fight footage. It's effective because it creates an emotional response in the viewer. It tells a story.

Contrast that with the UFC's latest effort for UFC 132:


There's no story here. No creativity. Just thirty seconds of brutality backed by P.O.D.'s classic hit "Boom." You could swap in any six fighters without changing the message ("Citizen! Spend your hard-earned dollar to watch these warriors do battle in the chain-linked cage!"). It's the visual equivalent of background noise.

The UFC has broken the mold before -- UFC 129, UFC 128, and UFC 124 all featured departures from their typical effort. They weren't full departures -- Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg still narrate over a series of fight clips, but the trailers are much more effective at conveying an actual story and providing a hook for why we should care in the first place.