Conventions of Trailers

As we will be creating a trailer as part of our promotional package, it would be useful to know multiple different conventions of trailers to help us along the way. A trailer usually consists of a series of shots from the film being advertised, not always in chronological order. The purpose of the trailer is to attract an audience so that they will go and watch the film. This is usually done by giving the viewer a preview of the most exciting, funny or noteworthy parts of the film but in such a way that no spoilers are produced.

The length of trailers usually very between each genre and each movie. As a rough guideline, they usually last between one and a half minutes to two and a half minutes. Any longer than this and it is quite easy and quite possible that to much information about the storyline will be given away or the viewer will become bored and loose interest in the trailer and therefore, the whole movie. However, the audience need to have enough time to become engaged with the trailer as one that is too short may result in them not being "hooked" in to watch the full film in cinemas. 

A typical horror film shot- Shows chiaroscuro lighting.

In trailers, the length of each shot is usually kept to a minimum and the editing pace is often much faster than the full film. This keeps tension built in the audiences mind and excitement as they want to know more. Shots are always chosen to build on the storyline of the full movie but without giving away spoilers, this often means that in the trailer, you may only see part of a shot rather than the full thing. As we have decided to create a horror trailer, we will be using a slow pace of editing alongside eerie music to build tension, and linking back to Todorov's theory, when the disruption occurs, the pace of editing will increase to strike fear into the audience. 

Typical shot from a horror film- again shows chiaroscuro lighting and a high angled shot.

Titles are often used to present information about the movie that the audience will not have received from just watching the shots in the trailer. Things such as actors and directors are almost always put in the titles as famous ones often attract an audience of their own and thus increasing the chance of more people coming to watch the full film. Titles are also used to break up shots in the trailer to make it more of a "teaser" and the audience are aware they are only watching a trailer and not the full film. 

Trailers often include a piece of music over the entire thing, this allows much smoother transitions between the quick changes in location and quick editing pace. The piece of music is often chosen to make the audience feel a certain way, for example in a horror movie, a piece of music that builds tension and eeriness would be chosen. Voice overs are also sometimes used to develop the storyline that may not have been easy to follow from just watching the different shots within the trailer. They can also help the viewer get to know the character who is speaking. 

The genre of the trailer should be one of the easiest things to identify. It should be obvious from many different things such as lighting, type of shots, music, colour schemes etc. For example, a horror trailer will use more chiaroscuro lightening and darker colours will be used. 

There are millions of horror trailers on YouTube, some of which we will analyse and evaluate to gain inspiration for our own trailer.