What makes an effective teaser trailer?

By Eldaa, Victoria & Sherai

CharacterIn Columbiana the hero is Zoe Saldana who plays ‘Cataleya’. As the trailer unravels, we understand that she is seeking revenge after witnessing her parent's murdered.

In the beginning of the trailer, we see a flash back of a little girl who has been portrayed innocently. The idea that she is glaring into the camera with teary eyes, and she is appeared dressed in her school uniform whilst witnessing a group of assassins invading the house and killing her parents, effectively creates a sense of sympathy from the audience towards her. Therefore, as for the audience we are inclined and emotionally attached with Cataleya, and support the idea of her growing up to be a stone cold assassin. As a hero Cataleya restores the equilibrium by killing her parents assassin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCxPLlFWdFo 0:33

CharacterIn Lucy it is evident that she is the hero. Like in Columbiana, the audience are instantly inclined to the Lucy from the beginning. The idea that we see a young girl who has traveled abroad from America to China, to deliver a mysterious briefcase, emphasis that she is vulnerable. Moreover, Lucy is not aware of what is in the mysterious briefcase, this depicts to the audience that she is naïve.

As Lucy is captured and turned into a drug mule, In this scene is where audience begin to sympathize with Lucy. This close up shot of gives the audience of insight of Lucy emotions at this current moment. The fact that she is tied up against three men, looking helplessly we audience begin to emotionally incline with Lucy. We are instantly concerned about her safety, and want her to escape from the danger in order for her to seek revenge.

In these two scenes, Lucy is continuously portrayed has helpless as she is victimized . However, as a role of a hero Lucy finds strengths and seeks to restore the equilibrium by collecting all the harmful synesthetic drugs which has been implemented inside people's bodies, and effectively destroys them and kills the assassins and drugs dealers

CharacterIn the beginning of the Kill Bill trailer, the audience are introduced to a high low angle shot of the Bride in coma lying in a hospital bed. Automatically the audience are eager and concern to find out what had resulted to the cause of her being in for four years. Additionally, the fact that she is by herself with no visitors reinforces the idea that she is lonely and vulnerable. Therefore, as for the audience we emotionally feel sympathize with her as we also learn that she has lost her child after being in comma for four years.

Furthermore, as the trailer unravels the audience are exposed to different scenes of The Bride, fighting her opponent which are

predominately male. This idea effectively challenges the stereotypical perception of women in society. This also creates the

impression that the Bride is the hero because she carries on preserving by men who supposedly look more stronger and

powerful then her

ExcitementAll four movies Columbiana, Mr and Mrs Smith, Kill Bill and Lucy engage to the audience by offering exciting visual views and storylines to keep the audience enticed to movie.

For example The Mr and Mrs Smith film is classified as an action romance comedy, therefore the mix of genre suggests that the pace of the film may fluctuate depending on the state of equilibrium. In the beginning of the trailer, the pace of the film travels in a slow pace to emphasize a state of calmness. There’s a consistent range of shorts cuts and long shots, which allows the audience to focus more on the characters expression and study what type of people they are. A cross dissolve transition is effectively used to show a continuity and a build up to the disruption

Engima

What keeps the audience engaged and interested in the trailer is the storyline. For examples in Mr and Mrs Smith, the audience learn that they are both assassins who works for competing agencies. However, the fact that in the characters in the movie are not unaware of their partners occupation makes the audience even more eager to carry on the film. Likewise, in Kill Bill the audience eventually learn that the people who were attempting to overthrow the Bride was her own apparent close friends, which leaves the audience in disbelief due to the betrayal in the storyline.

Editing Colombiana

The Colombiana trailer communicates narrative just like every other trailer through the use of shots and sounds. Due to the chosen shots of the narrative, the story is revealed. We know that Cataleya is seeking revenge for the men that killed her parents when she was a child. Because the audience is provided with the story there is an absence of enigma. There isn’t anything that the audience need to find out other than will she get away with it however due to our knowledge of revenge centred films , we already know that she will. With this being said, the trailer is still effective in terms of the action provided. Referring to Todorovs narrative theory, the complication, transference and struggle are shown. These are used to portray excitement, action and to engage the audience.  

The editing within the trailer is fast paced throughout. The number of shots are put together with what is known as cuts. This is when one image is suddenly replaced by another, without a visible transition.Everytime the shot changes is a cut. The main editing techniques in this trailer are montages and wipes. In a montage, different images are assembled to build up an impression. The impression given off by the montage in this trailer is that there is a lot of killing taking place. A wipe is when one images replaces another with a distinct edge or separation between the shots. Unlike a cut, the transition in a wipe is visible. There are frequent cross dissolves and fades during the scenes of Cataleya as a child. One image dissolves into another to create a sense of time passing by. In a fade an image gradually fades in or out. There is a match cut that is used to show the growing of age of Cataleya the female protagonist.

Cutaways are used to interrupt a continuous scene of action with an insert of a shot of something else. This is used to give the audience a break from the action. In this trailer there is a cutaway to a pan of the city skyline. A common editing technique used is continuity editing. This is when sequences are edited so that time appears to flow, uninterrupted, from shot to shot. It is used to create a sense of reality.

Mr and Mrs Smith

In Mr and Mrs Smith the title and text are present throughout the trailer. From the start the title and text reflect what the voice over is saying. They appear in shots with stills from the film and on occasion on their own.

The narrative is communicated to us through dialogue, use of text and scenes. Just like The colombiana trailer, the story is completely given away in the trailer therefore there is an absence of enigma. With the information given out in the trailer the audience know what to expect. Due to genre we know that they will live happily ever after however the audience will watch it in order to see that happen.  

At the beginning of the trailer there is a series of slow paced fades. This is done to prepare the audience for the action. This is followed by a series of cuts and continuity editing. There is a continuous use of wipes which establishes the states of equilibrium. A cross dissolve is used also in effect with the wipes. A cutaway is used to break away from the state of equilibrium to a shot of action and also the cutaways to the title screens.

Overall the trailer is fairly slow paced, I think this is done to reinstate the romantic element of the genre.

Editing

Kill Bill

The text used in the kill bill trailer is used as a marketing technique. The first text given to the audience is the distributor and then it reads ‘the 4th film by Quentin Tarantino’.

This would instantly alert his fans to watch this movie. The text also tells the audience who the main star is. At the end of the trailer the text communicates narrative. The text tells us that in 2003 Uma Therma will Kill Bill. This gives the audience an introduction of whats happening. The use of her real name in reference to the title also makes the audience feel closer to her as a character.

There aren’t a different range of editing techniques used in this trailer compared to the others we looked at. Cuts are used throughout the entire trailer except the beginning where there is a series of fades. The editing was also slow paced. Although there is a lack of editing techniques the trailer is still effective based on the excitement that the title and text provide and the enigma .This trailer communicates narrative just like the others however the absence of the story creates a huge enigma for the audience. The audience want to know who bill is and why she wants to kill him.

Lucy

Cross dissolves are used at the start to represent the hallucination of the character. A number of very fast paced cuts are also used. The effect it had on me was that the character was being overwhelmed with information and things had just happened so fast. It as if the editing is used to make the audience experience exactly what the characters are feeling. There are a number of cutaways to buildings to give the audience a break from the instant display of action. Wipes are used to compliment the swift movements of the character on screen. For example the shots used with the wipes are of Lucy changing her appearance.

The audience is provided with Todorovs 3 middle steps of his theory which display action however this is also parts of the narrative that reveal the story. The enigma in this trailer is – how it all ends?

Sound

The use of sound effects in the 2014 Lucy trailer enhances the action displayed on the screen, it gives the action a more dramatic impact. What makes this an effective trailer is the insight it gives the audience and an idea of what violence to expect in the actual film. An example of this can be heard as she’s fighting her opponent, the sound is exaggerated as she grabs him closer to her and pushes him away.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVt32qoyhi0 0:48 

The dialogue used is brief and only gives the audience enough information to get an idea of what the film is about. 1:28

ExcitementThis engages the audience and creates excitement and anxiousness to see the film. This can be compared to 2011 Colombiana trailer in the aspect of using dialogue to give an idea of the story. Though the dialogue is spaced out and appears shorter than in Lucy, the choice of using rapid jump cuts and images more or less tells the story and the dialogue in a sense confirms it.  

The soundtrack unlike other trailers stops when there is dialogue and then continues as some trailers play the soundtrack as well as having dialogue. The use of sound effects fills this gap and is used to accompany the onscreen minor action whereas the soundtrack accompanies important clips from the film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCxPLlFWdFo

In the Kill Bill 2003 trailer the use of a voice over gives the trailer a more organised narrative. The voice over appears to tell the story as well as the action shown on the screen, which gives more information about the film than seen in both trailers of Lucy and Colombiana. However in the Mr and Mrs Smith trailer a voice over is used also, it gives the action shown on the screen more emphasis and intrigues the audience, it creates an idea that the film itself is just not an ordinary action film but something bigger. The uses of sound effects are similar to both Lucy and Colombiana and are used exactly in the same to enhance the action displayed.

Engage the audience

The most important element in making a teaser trailer or a trailer is to engage the audience and in order to achieve this action needs to be displayed. Through my research of the four trailers I’ve analysed one feature they all have in common is the appearance of action, a form of explosions or a source of violence. This is continuously shown throughout but yet do not show the audience too much, the source of action grabs the audiences attention and intrigues them into watching the film. 

Examples of action presented in the trailers.