Codes and conventions of a

radio trailer Looking at real examples

By Reema Chauhan

Our radio trailer • We want to make sure that our radio trailer promotes the documentary in a

way that makes the listener want to actively find more information out for themselves.

• It is important to look at real radio trailers to see the ordering of certain aspects of clips for instance do we hear the presenters voice first or the expert interviewee’s?

• I have very limited knowledge of the radio trailers in general so I want to look firstly at a general radio trailer that promotes any media product to understand the general formatting of what makes a good radio trailer and then one that actually promotes a TV programme for specific examples to use.

Coca Cola • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDj8QYigFnw • Target audience: due to the light, energetic and comedic tone and dialogue of the radio trailer, it seems that the primary

target audience are teenagers and young adults. Many of the visual adverts show many young adults drinking coca cola as a way of socialising with others and this shows the positive side of it.

• Tone of voice: the tone of the main person talking is quite happy and lively. This links in with the target audience who would see the light-hearted side of the trailer.

• Sound effect?: The most notable sound effect associated with coca cola is the opening of the bottle, the sipping of the drink followed by a sigh of release. This links closely with the slogan of “open happiness” which Is the last thing to be said and because it is short we easily remember it. There are also ambient sounds of the seaside which connotes the summer and a joyful environment.

• Use of music?: The theme song along with the extra music to sound like a beach party is upbeat to reinforce the ”happiness” associated with the product as well as it being catchy so the listen remembers it.

• Sound levels: The sound levels are consistent and you can hear everything clearly. Near the end, the background music increases in volume to increase to ’jolliness’ of the trailer.

• Length: It is thirty seconds long which is the average length of a radio trailer. Although it may seem short it sounds better as it captures your attention without being uninteresting by having a too long length.

BBC – Poldark• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHr6Wvghp0g• I wanted to look at a radio trailer directly from BBC as we our chosen channel to broadcast our trailer is on BBC 3. This is advertising a

drama show on BBC One called ‘Poldark’.• Target audience: I think the target audience is for people ages between 18 and 30 as the contents of the radio trailer includes quite

complex issues such as breaking the law and the consequences of such actions.• Tone of voice: The tone of voice from both the presenter/narrator of the radio trailer and the protagonist of the show, who is named

Ross Vennor Poldark, is very serious. This is links in both with the drama genre as well as this being an older audience compared to the coca cola advert. His voice is very deep and therefore masculine and with the title of ‘captain’ we can see him as the ‘hero’ on the show ( if we consider Propp’s character's theory) and we are interested about his journey and what type of action this involves. )

• Sound effects: There seems to be no sound effects but I think this is a very god feature as we listen carefully for the clues of information from the dialogue.

• Use of music: Along with the tone of voice, the background music is serious. It starts half-way through the trailer and I think this good technique but for our radio trailer we should have it at the start but increase the volume until the middle for the most important part. The genre of the music sounds quite rock and roll and this could link in with the theme of criminal activity mentioned in the dialogue.

• Length: The length is 41 seconds and this is conventional of a radio trailer. • Other comments: This builds interest and tension fantastically which is needed for a drama programme.

Summary• I really liked the Poldark radio trailer and think a lot has been learned as our topic for the documentary is quite serious so

this seems like a good model to look at when developing our own script. However, to make ours unique we wont follow it exactly of course but include our own ideas. I think the structure of the dialogue being presenter, character then back to presenter but feel we should start with vox-pops/interviewee quote.

• Important codes and conventions to consider are:• That the average length is 30-45 seconds and we need to remember to keep between this time frame in order to keep the audience’s interest. • At the end of the trailer we need to specifically say the scheduling information for example, in the Poldark example the female presenter says

“Poldark. Starts at Sunday night at 9. BBC 1”. • We need to consider what sort of music to use as the background music. In order to keep consistent brand identity it might be a good idea to

have the same sound track as the documentary. • In terms of sound effects such as the one’s used by Coca Cola we could video game effects but we need to consider if this is going to clash with

our background music. I don’t think it is detrimental as the Poldark trailer had shown. • We need to make sure that sound levels are consistent throughout and that when I do the voice over I need to be enthusiastic and clear about

what I am talking about. • We could use specific language such as the persuasive phrase with the verb “find out more” to encourage the listener directly to discover more

information about the documentary. • We need to include specific quotes that we have used in our five minute sequence and the one’s we find the most interesting or ambiguous.