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.
