Pre-Production: Trailers

As part of my pre-production, prior to planning my own trailer, I have carried out some background research to help me.

A trailer is an advertisement for a feature film. It is a series of selected shots from the film being advertised, these are normally the most funny and exciting clips as a trailers main purpose is to attract an audience. It allows the viewers to quickly get an understanding of the film genre and the main purpose of the film.
A trailer is normally exhibited in the cinema, before a film begins. This could limit the audience however, as the viewers all have similar taste in movie genre, as they have all chosen to watch the same film. The actual exhibition of the trailer will be incredible visually as the screens are large, but also the surround sound will make it more appealing. I think to show a trailer at its best, it has to be shown in a cinema. A trailer is also shown as part of a normal television advertisement, it is normally shorter than the cinema version as it has less running time. The distributor will pay for the trailer to be on at a certain time and on certain channels. There is a larger demographic for trailers shown on the television as it is viewed by a larger audience.
Recently, the fixation of viral marketing has been very popular with showing trailers. You can see them on the production company websites or video websites such as Youtube. However the format of these make the picture and sound not as good. Another way trailers are exhibited is through radio, although this is limited as the audience is not able to see the full effect of the advertisement.
A genre convention is a typical or standard plot, character, setting, theme etc you expect to be shown in that genre. It is something we presume to have certain things within that particular genre. For example, a convention of a horror might be the scary music in the background. You instantly recognise the music played and associate it with a horror movie and the horror genre.
Charlotte Green