A film trailer is a form of film production that tells the story of a film in a speedy and condensed fashion. Originally, trailers were very slowly edited and simple, with hardly any narration and just words all over the screen whereas nowadays film trailers are bursting with sounds, images and footage from the film that they are advertising. Here are some of the main conventions you will see each time you watch any film trailer:
Trailers are of a three part structure; the beginning which lays out the key element of the story, a middle section that tells us more about the narrative and then that reaches a climax which is a visual montage of edits that are usually accompanied by a strong piece of music.
Male, deep, dramatic and slow voice over’s and straps are usually used to set up the story and help to explain what is going on, if necessary.
Shots in a film trailer will never be shown in a linear pattern and are never in the order that they are in the film. This is so that not too much of the story has been given away and so it doesn’t spoil the ending.
The names of prominent stars will normally appear either at the beginning or at the end of a film trailer.
Film company logos are always shown at the beginning of a film trailer.
They often finish with a sting, which is a last burst of action that will make you jump. These are usually more for horror film trailers.
The director’s name or previous films may be mentioned if that film was a great success or well known film e.g. from the director of ‘Harry Potter’ comes a new...
Film trailers are 2-3 minutes in length as film makers are only allowed a maximum or 2.5 minutes of cinema time to show their trailer.
Music, lighting and mise en scene elements compliment the genre of the film. E.g. dark lighting, eerie music and so on would suggest to the viewers that this trailer was promoting a horror film.
Music is used in film trailers to set the tone, to build up tension and to complement the action that is taking place on screen.
Film trailers try to include the relevant iconography to the genre/ sub genre so that the audience can recognise the style of film, but at the same time, they try to include a wide range of different shots to keep their target audience interested, and also to attract a wider audience.
Dead Black Out’s are often used for effect in horror film trailers which is where the screen goes black before the next scene of action takes place. Other popular edits include; Eye line matches, where we see a person/ character, then the action cuts to show us what they are looking at, and sometimes can cut back to the reaction of the person/ character. A cut in is also used a lot which is where we see a person, or an object, and then the camera moves in (cuts in) to a more significant part of that person e.g. a watch, or in the case of a horror film, a knife, weapon, or to show blood etc on their hand. Other edits such as cross cutting, simply cutting from action back and forward, and match on action which is the same piece of action, but being viewed from a range of different angles are another two popular edits that are used in any piece of moving media.
