Conventions of Trailers

1-5Conventions of Trailers Isabelle Blake

The trailer for We Are Your Friends starts with fast paced camera movement and cuts introducing life events that many young people go through using editing to lay text over the images. The voiceover, text and signifying climax and break in the non diegetic music leads to the statement This is not our future. This grabs attention as this is a change in the norm and as the voiceover begins to introduce why things are different for our generation main characters are introduced on screen as they have reappeared in clips taken from different scenes of the film. The plot is shown in short clips containing memorable and important quotes to show the best parts of the film, the action shots showing problems and obstacles the main character, whom is a well known film star (Zac Efron - therefore enticing an audience of teenage girls) , but not revealing too much that it ruins the film. The shots are edited with the idea of Barthes Hermeneutic Code however the fight scenes show their may be a character snare complicating the plot . The text for this trailer is in capitals and is a cream colour against a black background which conveys the modern themes and ideas in the film. The title is customised with music recording symbols in place of letters to represent the main characters aspirations of being a DJ.Opens with production company and closes with title of film, release date and billing block at the bottom of the screen. Due to the hype of social media it is followed by links to social media sites where people can follow the activity of Warner Bros and the films official social media pages.

Click Picture for Trailer

This trailer opens with a stereotypical dad singing a well known song to create humour leading to the genre of comedy. The trailer includes non linear clips of comical and climactic cliff hangers to advertise the best parts of the film segmented by scene using inserted text to help the storyline make sense for example Take a trip with the next generation, this attracts a range of audiences. The wide ranged audience is also shown by the variation in non diegetic music that makes the trailer more entertaining, it includes songs that would be recognised by older and younger generations that are identified by stereotypes. The music fades as scenes change or as there are diegetic sounds and cuts when there are more important scenes that the audience is supposed to pay more attention to. The text appears fast to match the pace of the cuts and pace of the overall scenes which adds to the humour and the title is animated to match the road trip theme as it swipes onto the screen in a car motion.

Click Picture for Trailer

Point Breaks trailer creates an action adventure genre with the opening clip being a quote about life and death, followed by the sequence of a plane hijack, where point of view and close up shots are used to create mystery and tension. CGI is heavily used throughout the trailer to include extreme stunts that follow the storyline, the extreme stunts are used as focus points for the voice over alongside an eerie soundtrack that has pleonastic sounds to intensify the action taking place on screen. Cuts are used to make the trailer fast paced suited to the action adventure genre and fade transitions are used for the text to add mystery heightened by the smoky backdrop that fades to reveal the next scene and the grey tones to the locations and lighting. Main characters are introduced by frequent reappearances and the use of close ups to make the audience aware of the importance of the characters. I really liked this trailer as it was exciting to watch and the mise en scen was created really well. I hope to create music similar to this for my trailer or a music with such an impact. Also the grey tones/effect to the lighting would also work well with our theme and the overall feel we want to achieve because it suits our genre and foreshadows the idea of a false world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncvFAm4kYCo

The trailer for Mad Max - Fury Road gives the audience a summary of the plot and setting of the film through mis en scne and sound. The voiceover talks of seeing the living and the dead and the costume of the antagonist portrays a dystopia and sci-fi due to his look that is made to look frightening and almost ghostly, as he wears make up to make his skin look extremely white to go with his grey hair and he wears a mask that gives threatening and dangerous connotations. The locations of the desert are shown in short fast paced clips segmented by cuts to make the film seem high intensity and thrilling, which is also added by the use of CGI for explosions, props such as cars/tanks and guns and unachievable locations or sets. The pleonastic sounds throughout the trailer add to the excitement and verisimilitude they are trying to create to make the film seem more like a sci-fi than a non fiction. The non diegetic music creates tension and backgrounds the eerie voiceover that talks through the trailer to help with the plot and to identify character by talking in first person and showing a close up of Max when he says Me and showing the antagonist as he refers to others as them. The impact of the voiceover in this trailer is powerful and I hope to be able to create this in our trailer by using garageband to distort the voiceover and by writing a good script that will make the audience interested and captured like this one. The idea of war or a fight is shown in the design of the titles as a deep blood red is used and splattered against yellow words leading to connotations of lots of death and a broken world.

The trailer for suicide squad is a non linear sequence that begins with the view from outside a window, framing the potential antagonist and foreshadowing entrapment, the close up of her cutting meat creates an uncomfortable tension as there is a continuous sound bridge of the conversation between the characters in the following two shot that cuts back and forth between the entry scene to the location they are talking about. The scenes throughout include low level lighting which foreshadows the darkness and evil throughout the film, also being portrayed by the eerie non diegetic music of high pitched singing to slow drums and symphonic music. The billing block have been changed to a metallic red and black theme suggesting danger and death. The Warner Bros sign has also been animated so that it turns like a clock suggesting the time is a theme running through the film. The uncomfortable suspense of the trailer is heightened by the close ups which distinguish characters due to the detail shown in them. The costume and make up distinguishes the suicide squad and those keeping them encaged and controlling them as the mise en scen of the two sides is juxtaposed between verisimilitude characters such as the people in suits and people wearing armoured uniform, compared with the suicide squad who are heavily made up, some even using CGI to create their character's look.This trailer has been really inspiring for my trailer as there are lots of money shots such as the window and the cutting of the meat, things which we could use as inspiration in our trailer. I also love the music and want to include some sort of high pitched singing to foreshadow something wrong in our trailer, the build up to the title of the film is something I would like to re-create too.