TRANSITION PROJECT

By Natasha Dingwall

DEFINITIONS

Trailer

A trailer shows the ‘best bits’ of an upcoming film to create hype and exciting for its target audience before it is released. They are shown often before a similar genre film is shown in a cinema allowing them to directly target the genre specific audience. Trailers are usually around 2:30 to 3 minutes long including the film title, credits and idents within this time. A trailer is made to show the storyline or idea of an upcoming film and show its genre and its USP. These are important to include in a trailer to show the audience what the film will be like and how good it will be, often in more high budget films well known actors are shown in the film trailer to attract the audience as they know the actors playing in the film which appeals to them. 

SHORT FILM

A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film and is an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits. Shorts can be either amateur or professional productions however most commonly short films are made by low budget producers are for this reason are distributed to local or niche audiences.

CODES AND CONVENTIONS As I have already stated the timings for a trailer are around 3 minutes and a short film is no longer than 40 minutes long.

Both include;

Credits/title

Sound/sound effects

Narrative

Character introduction

GENREIdeas for genres:

Horror

Thriller

Drama

Romance

Romantic comedy

Comedy

Action

Sci-fi

Adventure

Animation

Documentary

Western

Genre dependant each trailer shows different codes and conventions to emphasise the genre to the audience to attract them. Different sound effects, film edits, shot and character types are used depending on which genre is chosen. Without the correct codes and conventions the genre is not obvious to the viewer and therefore can not target a specific audience type. This is why codes and conventions within a short film or trailer are so important.