Conventions of Film Trailers

Titles • Every film trailer includes a variety

of titles. One of these titles is a disclaimer which displays which audience the film is suitable for. This has to be shown at the beginning of the teaser trailer so that no one who in unsuitable will watch it.

• Another set of titles that are included are the producers and

distributors of the film. An Example of this can be seen in the teaser trailer for the film ‘Inception’ as the picture to the left shows. These need to be included because the studio needs some credit and it also promotes the company to the audience.

Titles • Other titles include the director of

the film and the actors in the film. From the photo on the right you can see an example from the film ‘Red’. This is important because It can attract the audience as some people prefer certain actors or directors. As Bruce Willis is a famous actor he may have an established fan base which will be attracted to see this film.

• As well as this, an important part of a teaser trailer is that it tells the audience when the film will be coming out as this is the point of a teaser trailer.

Order of Titles • All teaser trailers seem to have a similar sequence of titles.

• The Disclaimer and the Production titles tend to come at the beginning of the teaser trailer. This could be because the audience is not as interested in these titles.

• Therefore the actors names normally come in the second half of the teaser trailer because it will make the audience wait for them to appear. As well as this, it makes It easier to remember as they will be the last thing in the audiences mind.

• The last title to be shown is when the film that the teaser trailer is advertising is too come out. This is because it will make the audience watch the whole trailer as they want to know when it is going to be released in cinemas. As well as this, it leaves it on sort of a cliff-hanger because the audience has to wait till then to see what happens in the film.

•However there are exceptions to this such as ‘Iron Man 3’ and ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ whose teaser trailers do not use hardly any titles.

Sound• One popular sound choice in teaser trailers is a

voiceover. This voiceover can come from a character in the film or an extra person who speaks over the top of everything in the trailer. Examples of a character voice over can be seen in the trailers for ‘Don Jon’ and ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’. This appeals to an audience because it helps an audience get to know more about a character before even viewing the audience.

• Other choices for sound tend to be parallel mood music which helps provoke emotion in the audience. The music can be used for either tension such as in the ‘Iron Man 3’ trailer or for sadness such as ‘The Notebook’ trailer. This music helps guide the narrative along in a trailer seeing as the trailer doesn’t give much of the plot away.

Editing• Teaser trailers tend use short clips of different parts of

the film to entice the audience. This means that the most common type of editing used in a teaser trailer is a cut between different shots. This sort of editing can be seen in the teaser trailer for ‘Iron Man 3’. However these quick cuts tend to be transitioned used a fade to black because this helps it to flow. It can be

used in all sorts of films

such as romantic films

as trailers such as ‘The

Great Gatsby’ use it to.

This is the easiest editing

to use because it fits lots

of clips into a short time.

Editing • Another popular choice of editing in teaser trailers is a

fade This sort of editing can be seen in the ‘Star Trek into Darkness’ trailer. However this editing tends to be used in calmer moments of trailers, or romantic trailers because the fade makes the trailer smooth and calm or in a romantic trailer dream like

especially when using a

fade to white. Therefore

this is a popular choice

of editing in teaser trailers.

Camerawork

• There is a variety of camerawork used in teaser trailers as the camerawork is just from shots from the film. However the most common type of camerawork used is close ups to show emotion, long shots to show dramatic scenes and extreme long shots to show location. This are typically used because they help with narrative in the trailer when there is not a lot of time to explain what is happening.

Applying theories

• If you believe in the hypodermic needle theory then Teaser Trailers tend to follow this because the producers and directors are ‘injecting’ the audience with information in a way that will manipulate them into seeing the film.

• However some audiences will take the information from the trailer and interpret it in their own way and therefore following the audience reception theory. For example, those who disagree with the footage and are not persuaded to see the film are a negotiated audience, however those who are persuaded are a dominant audience.