Film Trailers

Anyone wanting to extricate maximum enjoyment from a film must avert the eyes from all pre-release publicity – especially trailers. The modern trailer strikes with precision, annihilating the expectation of excitement, the bliss of ignorance. Where once a trailer was a sophisticated tease, it has now become a brutal compendium of potted highlights, filleting the movie it is meant to be promoting (Gibley 2006)

There are many codes and conventions of trailers All trailers are different, but they stick to a general list of rules because they have been tried and tested Trailers have changed and evolved, as have their films and audiences.

Film Production Logos Usually within the first part of the trailer, the film production logo will be shown. The production company's reputation can benefit the film trailer It also creates an idea of the type of film the trailer is trying to sell. For example people will see a DreamWorks logo and know that it will have a big budget, and they have a reputation of making family friendly films.

Film Title The film title is in every trailer The font, colouring and back drop are also usually a good clue as to the genre of the film. For example Kick Ass and We're The Millers look more comedic and light hearted because of their bright colours and friendly font, whereas The Conjuring is evidently a horror, shown by its dark back ground and ominous white font.

Classification Any film released in the Ontario is awarded an age certification by the Ontario Film Authority

Social Media A new convention of film trailers is to add website URLs, twitter 'hashtags' or accounts to follow, or instructions to 'like' their Facebook page. The popular rise of the “Red Band” trailer on YouTube

Character Introductions An important feature is character introductions, Essential because an audience get pleasure from films by connecting and relating to the characters (for example if there is a prominent young female character, people from the target audience who are young and or female connect to the character and are more likely to go watch the film) Also if the film has a famous actors and/or actress, and the audience have enjoyed some of their previous films, or are fans, they might go watch the new film because they know that they enjoy the actor's work.

Music and Voice Overs Music is a key feature, and can make or break the film trailers. They show the pace of film, genre and often the budget. Voice overs are important to guide the audience through the film plot and characters. A voice over can either be an external voice which is added on top of the footage, or the voice over can be sections of dialogue from the actual film.

Length Usually a film will have more than one trailer made, with different sections of the film edited together. There is always an “official” full trailer which lasts sometime between 1-2 minutes

Release Date Usually shown at the end of the trailer, like the film title Grabs the audience's attention and gives them the information they need to go see the movie