FILM TRAILERS

Film trailers are a big business. The unveiling of a new trailer is an event in itself, so much that it is often preceded by a teaser, which is normally 30 seconds long.

A movie trailer is one of the best ways and an effective one, for luring an audience to come to the cinema and pay to view your movie compared to other forms of promotions, like wallpapers and interviews. This method can be used to promote movies on television and through the internet where there are millions of users.

Showing the right movie scenes would be the filmmaker's ace in capturing the interest of their audiences. This would give their audience an idea of what the film is all about and would also be their determining factor if the film would be of particular interest to them. Likewise, showing bad scenes is equally detrimental to the movie.

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CODES AND CONVENTIONS OF A FILM TRAILER

Film Production Logos – Usually within the first part of the trailer, you get a shot of the film production logo. The production companies reputation can affect the trailer – e.g. If people see a DreamWorks logo then they’ll know that this film will have a large budget and they have a reputation of making family friendly films.

Film Title – The film title is in every film trailer and how could it not? The font, the colouring and back drop are all important elements in how your film is being represented and is usually a good clue to the genre of the film. E.g. –

You can tell ‘The Hobbit: An unexpected Journey’ is a fantasy/adventure film due to it’s film title, as the font looks as if it was created a long time ago referring to an adventure. ‘Tron Legacy’ is a science fiction film, which you can predict due to the electronic/scientific writing used for the film title and lastly, the film title ‘Scream’ already depicts that it is a horror film, but the red writing which signifies blood or fear helps push the theme.

BBFC Age Certification – Almost all films distributed in the UK have a BBFC film rating which is shown towards the end of the trailer. This provides a guideline for the target audience age and allows the audience member to figure out whether this is a film they’d like to say due to the age rating E.G. – if a film has a 15 audience rating, they can expect there to be moderate levels of violence, sexual scenes and bad language.

CODES AND CONVENTIONS OF A FILM TRAILER

Social Media – a new convention of film trailers is to add website URL’s, twitter hashtags or accounts to follow and/or instructions to like their Facebook page. This encourages the audience to find out more about the film and also if many people are talking about the film on social networks then the biggest selling method ‘word of mouth’ comes into play. The popularity of social media means that millions of people across the world can tweet about a new film coming out and a million people can view it.

Character introductions – Character introductions are essential as the audience are then able to connect with or relate to the characters within the film. For example, if there is a lead female character, this may lead girls within the target audience age bracket to connect with the film and go and view the film.

Music/Voiceovers – Music is a key feature within film trailers. They show the pace of the film, genre and often the budget. Voiceovers can guide the audience through the film trailer. A voiceover can either be an external voice which is added on top of the footage or it can be sections of dialogue within the film.

Time Length – Usually a film will have more than one trailer made, but in our case we will only make one trailer. Within a film marketing process, there is always one full trailer which lasts somewhere between 1 and a half minutes to two minutes.

CODES AND CONVENTIONS OF A FILM TRAILER

Release date – This is essential for attracting a large audience to the opening night of a film release. The release date is usually shown at the end of the trailer which then grabs the audience’s attention and gives them enough information to go and view the film.

Name captions – in every trailer there will be name captions, whether it is the director, lead star or producer’s names. This is important as audience can see whether they’re a fan of the director or producer who had involvement within the film therefore determine whether they want to view it. Directors such as Martin Scorsese or Quentin Tarantino have distinct filming styles and also have distinct target audiences therefore if their name is a part of a film, that target audience will always flock to see the film.

LIST OF THINGS THAT MAKE A GOOD FILM TRAILER -

I have created a list of things that I think are required to make a good film trailer:

1. It should be humble – A LOT of films are claiming to be ‘The best film you’ve ever seen’ or ‘The best film of the year’ so audiences go into the cinema with that mindset and their hopes high. I think good movie trailers are the ones that don’t need critic reviews or over-stated titles to tell you the movie is good

2. Often movie trailers give away too much information or not enough. Successful movie trailers find the right spot in between the two which tells us what we can expect from the movie without giving away any crucial plot points.

3. Use good music. I think music can make or break a trailer. The music must genuinely reflect the mood of the movie.

4. You must be able to capture the mood of the movie within the trailer. It is important to focus on emotion rather than plot points. I must be able to make the audience excited to enter the trailer/film.