Film Trailers:Codes and Conventions

George Coates

• There are many different codes and conventions that all film trailers tend to use, even though there are many different genres of films there seems to be

some general rules that film trailers tend to follow. These things have been tried and tested in many

film trailers so producers know what audiences like and expect to see.

Film production logos• The logo of the film production company

tends to appear in the first part of the trailer. This is done for the benefit of the production company, for example if audiences like the product that Twisted Pictures made, they will remember the logo and associate it with other films they have released and may be more likely to see it if they enjoyed the previous ones.

• For example, if Disney released a new film, people would recognise the logo and associate it with having a big budget and for creating popular and entertaining family friendly movies.

Film Titles• The title of the film that they trailer

is promoting always features in the trailer. Typically it is towards the end of the trailer so that it is one of the last things the viewers see and what they remember. The font, colour and backdrop all tend to hint at the genre for the film. For example Pixels and Inside Out are comedies, they both use bright colours to connote their comedic theme. However The Avengers: Age of Ultron is an action-adventure movie and uses red’s and grey’s to connote the more violent theme.

Billing Blocks• Billing blocks appear at the end of trailers, they tend to be a similar format

to the posters of the film. They include key information such as the film studio and production companies involved, the title, the release date, names of the actors (sometimes alphabetically or with the main cast first), names of the main crew (music, editors, costume etc.) and the social media information.

• All billing blocks tend to use the same or similar sans-serif poster text no matter what the genre is.

Music and Voice OversMusic is a very key feature in film trailers and often reveals a lot about the type of film that is being promoted. It often sets the pace of the editing, shows the genre and can sometimes reveal the budget of a film. Some producers may hire an artist to sing a particular song or the entire soundtrack for the film, such as ‘Skyfall’ where Adele was hired to sing the theme song.

Voice overs are also crucial, although dialogue in trailers tend to be from the film itself, it tends to guide audiences through the narrative. They also show audiences who is in the film such as Leonardo DiCaprio in ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’.

Intertitle TextThese appear in many different trailers but can be more genre specific than other elements of trailers. They can be used to tell audiences about the narrative, show cast, for reviews and for awards/nominations. For example in ‘Not another happy ending’ they are used for showing the narrative, in ‘Macbeth’ they are used to show reviews and awards and in ‘Straight Outta Compton’ they are used to show names of some of the main cast.

The positioning of these also tend to be central.

EditingTrailers tend to use short and significant clips form the films in order to attract the audiences, making the most common type of editing in trailers quick cuts between different parts of the film. The editing tends to follow the pace of the music and also tends to speed up towards then end.

Lots of fade to blacks and cross fades are used; this is done in order to try and get the trailer to make sense to the audience when they see sudden costume or set changes through the trailer.

This common type of editing can be seen in the ‘Ant Man’ trailer,

Camera Shots• Whilst there are a variety of

different camera angels that can be used in filming, trailers only tend to use a few. For example, they use establishing shots to give the audience an idea of where or when the film is set or to set the tone of the film such as in ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2’ and close-up’s to show the audience who is featuring in the film as shown in ‘The Suicide Squad’. The close-up’s tend to be of the most recognisable actors in the film