From looking at the collection of teaser trailers, and analysing the 3 in detail previously on my blog, I think that a thriller teaser trailer would be the most exciting to make, and also a teaser trailer that can generate a buzz and anticipation. From the teaser trailers I noticed that thriller trailers have quick cuts and the camera angle constantly changes. I noticed that much of the music goes along with the action in the trailer, and builds up when tension and the story picks up. Lighting is often dark and lots of shadows are shown, and commonly the films are shot at night time or in very isolated areas, creating the sense of isolation and no escape.
However one teaser trailer that i looked at was Phone booth, which is a thriller film. This film I believe does not fit the expected conventions of a thriller film. All of the action is shot in the daylight, meaning natural lighting; it avoids darkness meaning there are no shadows. Its located and shot in a busy area within Newyork, with the majority of the film in a phone booth. In some ways it could be linked to the conventions because its all based around one male protagonist and some parts of the editing are very quick. However it does challenge the normal conventions and could be classed as a psychological thriller as it gets the audience involved in the film on the edge of there seat trying to work it all out rather than a action packed thriller.
Thursday
Genre
For more initial research I wanted to look at a variety of different teaser trailers so that I could look at the different plots and conventions of a teaser trailer, but in particular to look at the different types of Genre. Genre refers to types of all different medias which are recognisable and memorable because they have a number of identifiable elements which add to create a story and characters. Genres are useful for the film industry because it helps to market films. Certain Genre’s have visual motifs or icons of that genre which make marketing films to audiences easier.
Some conventions of Genre are;
Plot
Characters
Settings
Modes of Narrative
Music
Stars
Ad Visual Imagery
All these conventions of genre make up what the audience want to see and what the audience enjoying watching. Genre of an film is key because if gives the audience a range of pleasures, including Anticipation, Expectation and Prediction.
Genre theory is the characteristics, features and conventions that make up categories, usually within film and broadcast. Each genre is recognizable by an audience because of these common features and conventions. These are not rules and are not always defined leaving genre open to innovation and overlapping. Genre itself is a French word meaning "class" or "kind" and for many years has been applied to media texts. Common film genres include Horror, Action and Comedy. It wasn't until the 50's that the actual word genre became a common term and was increased with the upsurge of film critics. It then developed from an academics only word and was widely used to help market films from the 70's onwards. Now every DVD store is laid out in order of genre to make it easier for the customer to find what they like.
I decided to look at variety of teaser trailers from all different genres to see the comparisons between them. Here is a list of the teaser trailers i watched.
The Lovely Bones
500 Days of summer
Valentines Day
Twilight
New Moon
6th Sense
Step brothers
The back up Plan
Mirrors
Inception
Silence of the lambs
Paranormal Activity
What lies beneath
Creep
The devil wears Prada
Psycho
The Hangover
Transformer
Toy Story 3
Some conventions of Genre are;
Plot
Characters
Settings
Modes of Narrative
Music
Stars
Ad Visual Imagery
All these conventions of genre make up what the audience want to see and what the audience enjoying watching. Genre of an film is key because if gives the audience a range of pleasures, including Anticipation, Expectation and Prediction.
Genre theory is the characteristics, features and conventions that make up categories, usually within film and broadcast. Each genre is recognizable by an audience because of these common features and conventions. These are not rules and are not always defined leaving genre open to innovation and overlapping. Genre itself is a French word meaning "class" or "kind" and for many years has been applied to media texts. Common film genres include Horror, Action and Comedy. It wasn't until the 50's that the actual word genre became a common term and was increased with the upsurge of film critics. It then developed from an academics only word and was widely used to help market films from the 70's onwards. Now every DVD store is laid out in order of genre to make it easier for the customer to find what they like.
I decided to look at variety of teaser trailers from all different genres to see the comparisons between them. Here is a list of the teaser trailers i watched.
The Lovely Bones
500 Days of summer
Valentines Day
Twilight
New Moon
6th Sense
Step brothers
The back up Plan
Mirrors
Inception
Silence of the lambs
Paranormal Activity
What lies beneath
Creep
The devil wears Prada
Psycho
The Hangover
Transformer
Toy Story 3
Creep Teaser Trailer
The Creep teaser trailer starts with hand held shots of someone walking through the London Underground. The diagetic sound of heavy fast breathing adds to the suspense and anticipation for the film. The inter titles at the beginning of the film saying " missed the last train home?", straight away tells the audience the basic plot of the story and that it is all going to be based around this event. The main character again is featured as a female, giving this stereotypical view of women in horrors being the weaker gender. There's a diagetic sound of a train however it cant be seen in the shots which adds to the suspense. The dark lighting from inside the carriage adds to the dramatic feeling and close up of the lady’s face also shows the fear. The non diagetic music also picks up and gets much louder as the action starts to begin. There’s a sound of a heartbeat as there is quick cuts between scenes. At the end the pace of editing really picks up and the music again gets quicker. The way in which the shots have been put together in Montage editing works very effectively and there’s a contrast between low lighting with shadows then really bright lighting.
When a Stranger Calls Teaser Trailer
When a stranger calls is a good teaser trailer to show all the conventions of a good teaser trailer. The beginning of the teaser trailer firstly sets the scene, with the long drive up to the house where the girl is baby sitting. Because the house is set far away from other houses, and the time of day that the film is shot we can automatically see that the film is going to be a thriller or a horror. The main character also is a girl, again showing this representation among horrors of females being the weaker gender. The diagetic noise of the telephone ringing from the beginning also gives a creepy and suspicious feel to the film. The Inter titles between shots also help towards the genre of the film, with things like " she thought it would be a quiet night". The lighting in the shots gives a major indication to the film and that something scary is going to happen. There’s lots of fades between the shots, and also lots of close ups of the telephone gives a big indication to the plot and narrative. The music builds up and gets louder as the drama and action begins to take place in the teaser trailer, the cuts between the shots become more quicker and fast paced also. the ring of the telephone also keeps playing to, with action and cuts between each ring. Inter titles also begin to show, with words like alone, isolated, trapped, all on a red background with red being iconography of danger. The words " you cant escape the terror" also come up again, and from then the action becomes so quick its so hard for the audience to see what is going on, almost in a blinking action, therefore making the audience watching the teaser trailer to then want to go and see what happens. The trailer is 1.43 seconds a little longer than a conventional teaser trailer, so if the length was shortened it would the perfect teaser trailer. The effect of the quick pace editing, diagetic noise from the ringing of the phone and the lighting all add to the feeling and the emphasis on the thriller film.
Friday
New Moon Teaser Trailer
I choose to analyse the New Moon teaser Trailer because i found that it fitted the conventions of a teaser trailer very well. The Twilight Saga is already a well known collection of films with a book ready made audience who are already huge fans. New Moon is classed as a 2nd film franchise, a follow up to the first film Twilight. Its Genre is fantasy, but also has a hint of romance, with the typical teenage love story. The target audience for these films are teenagers, but in particular teenage girls. The use of good looking men, and the love story all relate back to the audience. Also the girls voice is the voice that dominates throughout the trailer meaning the core target audience can relate to her. The trailer also shows the emphasis on the moral dilemma from he love triangle between Bella, Jacob and Edward. The trailer also focus's more on Jacob, and Edward(Robert Patterson) is hardly featured within the trailer. This is because Robert Patterson already has a huge fan base from the first film, and fans of Robert will almost certainly go see the second film. This trailer is heavily dominated on the story line between Bella and Jacob, and shows Jacob in a new image, also featured topless. The inter titles between the cuts also are shown in a fantasy way, with the text a orange glowing colours keeping the theme the same throughout The inter titles also relate to the dialogue that was just spoken, when Edward says " you don’t belong in my world Bella" and the inter title saying 'When Forever Ends'. The trailer has cross dissolves between the scenes and the music stays at a steady pace until the drama in the trailer builds up and then the pace of the music builds up with the emphasis. The Teaser trailer is around 50 seconds fitting in with the key convention of a teaser trailer.
Thursday
Conventions of a teaser trailer
Conventions
Listed below are some of the more recognisable conventions of film trailers:
• voiceovers are used to tell the story and give credit information
• the stars of the film are showcased
• key points are sometimes conveyed through titles (words on screen)
• conversations between characters often consist of one-liners
• dramatic camera angles may be chosen to show events or characters
• action is interspersed with actor or director credits on screen
• music plays an important role in creating atmosphere
• the film’s title may not appear until the end
• the trailer builds to a climax, where it ends
• montage (a series of shots from different points in the film, edited together) is often used to highlight the most dramatic, humorous or fast-paced aspects of the film
Structural conventions
A trailer will often be structured around the most appealing aspects of a film without taking conventional narrative order into consideration. For example, you might see a funny moment taken from the ending of a comedy near the beginning of the trailer for that film, or a selection of clips chosen to attract the widest possible audience, such as a romantic clip in the trailer for an action film. Some trailers will aim to provide a basic narrative structure to guide us through the film’s storyline. A trailer structure may look like this:
Opening: establishes setting and introduces character
Build-up: relationships established; development of characters and their world
Problem: a dilemma or series of complications: characters faced with an obstacle (or several) to overcome. There may be more than one ‘problem’ in the narrative
Events: a series of events as characters try to overcome obstacles and solve problems. Further complications may arise in the process.
The conventional narrative of a film will normally adopt a classic storytelling structure, for example:
Beginning: order is established;
Middle: order is disrupted
End: order is restored
A voice over is also a convention of a teaser trailer. A voiceover is an instantly recognisable convention of a film trailer that;
- Helps the audience to make a sense of the narrative by giving us background information
- who the characters are
- information about the director, production or star persona
- helps to build a sense of anticipation
- reinforces the title of the film
- sets the tone for the film
Distribution
The Duration of a trailer is one defining feature, a fill theatrical thriller will generally run for 2 minutes in the cinema, where as a teaser trailer will run for no longer than 1 minute. A distribution company may decide to release more then one trailer for a film, particularly if its a big production company with a huge budget for marketing. For example, a teaser trailer may then be followed by a longer theatrical thriller which usually plays in cinemas 3-4 weeks before the film is released. Most trailers are created and produced at the same time as the film is being edited. The timing for teaser trailer campaigns must be shown far enough in advance to generate a hype about the films release.
Global releasing is where the film is being shown in a range of countries, which means it may have a range of release dates. In this case, each trailer will need to carry out the correct information to ensure that audiences know enough about the film. Sometimes the trailers may be re-cut for different countries and different audiences. In recent years, the changes in technology have had a big impact on the way that film titles are released internationally. When films are released earlier in the US for example than they are in Europe pirate copies of these films and trailers often appear in Europe before its official release date. As this can eat into potential profits and huge loss for distribution and production companies, the people involved in promoting a film have to carefully control when a film is released. For this reason films are increasingly being released on a day to day basis, meaning that the film is released around the world on the same day in order to reduce the international trade of pirated copies.
Listed below are some of the more recognisable conventions of film trailers:
• voiceovers are used to tell the story and give credit information
• the stars of the film are showcased
• key points are sometimes conveyed through titles (words on screen)
• conversations between characters often consist of one-liners
• dramatic camera angles may be chosen to show events or characters
• action is interspersed with actor or director credits on screen
• music plays an important role in creating atmosphere
• the film’s title may not appear until the end
• the trailer builds to a climax, where it ends
• montage (a series of shots from different points in the film, edited together) is often used to highlight the most dramatic, humorous or fast-paced aspects of the film
Structural conventions
A trailer will often be structured around the most appealing aspects of a film without taking conventional narrative order into consideration. For example, you might see a funny moment taken from the ending of a comedy near the beginning of the trailer for that film, or a selection of clips chosen to attract the widest possible audience, such as a romantic clip in the trailer for an action film. Some trailers will aim to provide a basic narrative structure to guide us through the film’s storyline. A trailer structure may look like this:
Opening: establishes setting and introduces character
Build-up: relationships established; development of characters and their world
Problem: a dilemma or series of complications: characters faced with an obstacle (or several) to overcome. There may be more than one ‘problem’ in the narrative
Events: a series of events as characters try to overcome obstacles and solve problems. Further complications may arise in the process.
The conventional narrative of a film will normally adopt a classic storytelling structure, for example:
Beginning: order is established;
Middle: order is disrupted
End: order is restored
A voice over is also a convention of a teaser trailer. A voiceover is an instantly recognisable convention of a film trailer that;
- Helps the audience to make a sense of the narrative by giving us background information
- who the characters are
- information about the director, production or star persona
- helps to build a sense of anticipation
- reinforces the title of the film
- sets the tone for the film
Distribution
The Duration of a trailer is one defining feature, a fill theatrical thriller will generally run for 2 minutes in the cinema, where as a teaser trailer will run for no longer than 1 minute. A distribution company may decide to release more then one trailer for a film, particularly if its a big production company with a huge budget for marketing. For example, a teaser trailer may then be followed by a longer theatrical thriller which usually plays in cinemas 3-4 weeks before the film is released. Most trailers are created and produced at the same time as the film is being edited. The timing for teaser trailer campaigns must be shown far enough in advance to generate a hype about the films release.
Global releasing is where the film is being shown in a range of countries, which means it may have a range of release dates. In this case, each trailer will need to carry out the correct information to ensure that audiences know enough about the film. Sometimes the trailers may be re-cut for different countries and different audiences. In recent years, the changes in technology have had a big impact on the way that film titles are released internationally. When films are released earlier in the US for example than they are in Europe pirate copies of these films and trailers often appear in Europe before its official release date. As this can eat into potential profits and huge loss for distribution and production companies, the people involved in promoting a film have to carefully control when a film is released. For this reason films are increasingly being released on a day to day basis, meaning that the film is released around the world on the same day in order to reduce the international trade of pirated copies.
Why is the trailer important?
The trailer is a important weapon within a marketing campaign for a film. Posters and other ancillary products are important in capturing the initial interest of the audience and drawing them into the cinema, but they cannot convey the excitement and atmosphere of a film in the same way a trailer does. The combination of moving image and sound is an exciting experience, and the thrill and buzz that is created is different to what could ever be experience through a still image on a poster.
A trailer aims to give the audience information about the film, such as what the story is about, who the stars are and what genre or type of film it will be. Genre is important in film marketing because our decision about what to see will partly depend upon whether we enjoyed other similar films. When we view a trailer we are automatically decoding what we see and hear to establish the film’s genre. We call these recognisable sounds and images conventions of the genre. Occasionally a film will be a mix of more than one genre, and then it may take more time for us to decide what it is. This adds to the excitement.
Another indication as to the genre of a film is the stars. As a cinema-going audience the audience is use to associating certain stars in certain genres. A trailer will always ensure that we are made aware of whom the stars are, as this will encourage the audience to see the film and help them recognise the genre.
How does the trailer show that a film is worth going to see?
Whilst the marketing campaign uses genre to gain our interest, it must also show us how this new film is different to others in the same genre: this is known as the USP (unique selling point) of the film. The USP is what separates one film title from another released at a similar time or within the same genre. The USP could be many things. The USP is important for marketing the film as it sets each release apart from its rivals, and so is often strongly emphasised in the marketing campaign.
A trailer aims to give the audience information about the film, such as what the story is about, who the stars are and what genre or type of film it will be. Genre is important in film marketing because our decision about what to see will partly depend upon whether we enjoyed other similar films. When we view a trailer we are automatically decoding what we see and hear to establish the film’s genre. We call these recognisable sounds and images conventions of the genre. Occasionally a film will be a mix of more than one genre, and then it may take more time for us to decide what it is. This adds to the excitement.
Another indication as to the genre of a film is the stars. As a cinema-going audience the audience is use to associating certain stars in certain genres. A trailer will always ensure that we are made aware of whom the stars are, as this will encourage the audience to see the film and help them recognise the genre.
How does the trailer show that a film is worth going to see?
Whilst the marketing campaign uses genre to gain our interest, it must also show us how this new film is different to others in the same genre: this is known as the USP (unique selling point) of the film. The USP is what separates one film title from another released at a similar time or within the same genre. The USP could be many things. The USP is important for marketing the film as it sets each release apart from its rivals, and so is often strongly emphasised in the marketing campaign.
What is a teaser trailer?
A teaser trailer is a short version of a movie trailer which is designed to pique the interest of the audience, getting them excited about an upcoming film. Teasers, as they are called, are typically released months in advance, sometimes as much as 18 months before the expected release date of the film, and they are used to build anticipation and curiosity about the films they advertise. Teaser trailers can be seen before feature films in some movie theaters, and they are also released online and shown on television. Classically, a teaser trailer lasts between half a minute and a minute. It may include footage from the film, often in a rough stage, since the film has not been completed, or it may utilize entirely new source material. In some cases, a teaser trailer is simply an abridged version of a regular movie trailer, including the film's tagline and key footage in a condensed version which is more television-friendly.Teaser trailers may also include hints and clues which viewers can follow, if they feel so inclined. It is becoming increasingly popular to include web addresses in teaser trailers, so that viewers can go look up the film online, and some movies had used these addresses as a jumping-off point to involve viewers in an alternate reality game or series of puzzles, thereby drawing them into the story of the film. Others offer viewers the opportunity to sign up on a mailing list for news about the film, including notifications when longer movie trailers are released.
From a marketing perspective, the teaser trailer is a brilliant tool. The brief advertisement is usually not terribly costly to make or expensive to air on television, and it can suck viewers in, getting people hyped up about a movie months before it is released. Teaser trailers are often used to promote big budget films, with the goal of getting a return on the investment as quickly as possible, and they are also utilized to increase fan interest, create a buzz and anticipation.
Introduction
For my A2 Media Studies Coursework I have chosen to create a promotional package for a new film, to include a teaser trailer, together with two ancillary products, which I have chosen to create a film magazine front cover, and a poster for the film.
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