Film Trailer’s Introduction

Alice Sophie Turrell

What is a film trailer?

A film trailer is the most important part of the marketing for films as it what shows the audience what to expect and builds the anticipation for the movie. They are made to sell the film and get attention, so often the best shots will be used and the editing with match in with the genre. For example, if it is a horror, the music will be eerie and the shots will be short and jumpy showing some of the scariest scenes and a lot of action.

They can be as broad or as closely relating to the storyline as it needs to be to gain the attention of the audience.

When are they shown?

There are many different ways in which film trailers are shown and promoted, and they always link into the genre of the film, popularity of the actors and if is part of a trilogy for example.

The different ways are; • Before a movie of a similar genre at the cinema e.g. Insidious 2 was shown before

the conjuring as they are both horror films. • On a DVD before a film e.g. Man of Steel Trailer was shown before The Dark

Knight Rises are they are both films based on DC comics and both produced by Christopher Nolan.

• On the TV on a certain channel, at a certain time, or in the adverts for example a film aimed at teenagers or a comedy would be advertised in the evenings on MTV.

• Some highly anticipated films premiere their trailers on popular movie shows. For example, the final trailer for the Eclipse (Twilight Saga) was introduced on the MTV Movie Awards 2010.

Conventions

• Music matches the pace of the film and sets the mood e.g. love song for a romance.

• Cutting and editing matches the pace of the film e.g. action films have faster cuts and edits to create suspense.

• Dialogue from the film used to tell the story and make it seem more personal e.g. in a war film they could have screaming or shouting from the film.

• Text added to create more suspense and help tell the story e.g. a horror film could mention “based on true events”.

• Structure often follows the structure of the film e.g. start to finish.

Possible Genres

Action – Man of Steel

Man of Steel was a highly anticipated action movie. This was due to its massive Superman fan base, and high expectations of director Christopher Nolan (auteur criticism).

The first trailer released for Man of Steel is quite emotional, opening with emotive music, and then going on with sound clips from the movie to highlight the emotional side and secretive side to the film; for example how Clark Kent (Superman) dealt with growing up with powers. The different scenes alternate between him as a child and then as an adult still dealing with his powers. Then halfway through the trademark Superman logo and outfit are introduced which then makes the trailer pick up pace, both in music, shot types and how fast they cut between them.

The shot types used are also important as they are mainly looking up at at the characters, especially Clark to show their importance. This type of shot is also used for the rest of the characters which are introduced in the video.

Although this video gives a lot of information about the characters and the pace of the movie, it does not give too much away about the actual story line. Withholding the storyline from the trailer or not revealing as much in the first released trailer will create a greater buzz and anticipation for the film.

All of the factors above that are used in the trailer make it clear to indicate that the movie is an action film. The trailer also contains both elements of the action and the emotion in the film, therefore attracting a greater audience.

Drama – A Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orange is mainly drama, but cleverly includes elements of Comedy, Thriller and Science Fiction.

The trailer matches the fast pace of the film showing really short clips of the movie that almost look like they appear in flashes. These clips are separated by different words describing the movie appearing on the screen for a few minutes such as “thrilling” and “sardonic”. Also mixed in with these is the flashing multi – coloured title of the film. This jumble of shots mixed up with the words and vivid colours do not appear in a chronological order, but seemingly a random one, mixing up the more creepy and gruesome shots in with the more humorous ones. This matches the mixed up storyline that jumps between comedy, sarcasm and crime.

The music played does not seem to match the pace, as Beethoven does not match the fast and jumpy cuts. However, it is the main song used throughout the entire film in both the more negative and positive scenes, so in that sense it fits perfectly.

The lighting in the shots is very bright and vivid, making the colours look quite saturated, which matches well to the flashing titles. This also with what the main character is wearing in some clips gives the trailer a circus type of feel, which is not what you would necessarily expect from a thriller style drama film.

Although the shots used do show pieces from near enough every scene in the movie, it comes across as complicated and does not really reveal the storyline at all. This I think was done intentionally to play on the viewers mind and make them want to watch it and find out more.

Horror – Haunting in Connecticut

Haunting in Connecticut is a typical jumpy horror movie, which is clear and evident from the trailer,

The trailer goes along with typical conventions of horror trailers, building suspense and creating excitement and fear for the viewer.

Before you even see any film clips, one of the characters start narrating, “why do bad things happen to good people?” which indicates that she is central to the film and is talking after the events have taken place as she is talking with hindsight. Then, clips start playing in a chronological order. These are broken up by text, including “Based on a True Story”. When saying this with horror movies, it creates a more realistic eerie feel, and also helps the viewer to connect with the characters on a more emotional level.

The shots themselves are quite slow, and fade into each other at first creating suspense. These are accompanied by eerie, quite classical music that is typical with a slow horror trailer that builds momentum. This helps create a darker, slightly uncomfortable feel. As the clip fades to dark at around 0.38, there is a noticeable thud and the music picks up pace a bit, yet staying with the old fashioned style. This gives a clear indication that the trailer is going to start revealing some of the scarier and jumpier clips. As more and more is given away about the story line, the pace in the editing becomes faster and the music darkens.

The lighting throughout the clips is dark which is typical of horror trailer and film, as brighter, more colourful shots would not give the same feel.

All in all, this trailer conforms to typical conventions of a horror trailer to create suspense and put excitement and fear into the viewer, making them want to watch the film when it comes out.