Looking into the history of film trailers, they were played at the end of films in cinemas, however people left the cinema as soon as the film finished so they began to show them before the film began making them a lot more popular with the audience giving them a bigger promotion. The original trailers were constructed very simply without fast and fancy editing that we see in the present time but that all changed when a man named Andrew J Kuehn revolutionised this form of media by creating trailers that audiences are familiar with today.
Film trailers have main purpose, which is to attract target audience's; they do that by telling the story of a film in a exciting way without giving the plot away. The trailer will show the best bits of the film building up excitement and anticipation of the audience who will feel obliged to watch the film to fulfill the full satisfaction of the narrative. There are two different types of film trailers; the first one is knows as a teaser trailer. These trailers are very short and last around 30-40 seconds, they show very little actual film footage and normally shown long before the film is released therefore they 'tease' the target audience.
The second type of trailer is called the theatrical trailer which are shown a few months before the film is released.
Looking at the conventions of horror trailers, they start off slow, normally we hear slow and creepy music playing in the beggining of the trailer, we see various shots from the film that will help the target audience put together the basic narrative and plot of the film, after this we normally will experience complete silence in the trailer which is followed by a various amount of shots which are shown with fast editing building up excitement and anticipation in the audience. This is followed by a 'black out' where the screen goes black, this will be followed by a 'sting', a moment that will make the audience jump with fear leaving them scared.
Straps are used in film trailers to help the audience understand the narrative of the film a little better; alongside straps voice-overs are used too. Normally a male voice which will sound deep, slow and dramatic. These functions are not al used at the same time, sometimes it will be a voice-over and strap-lines or strap-lines and dialogue. Either way it's a good way keeping the audience 'in the know' of what is happening on screen and keeping them up with the narrative and plot.
Mise-en-scene, lighting and music is used to help signal the genre of the film to the target audience in a very obvious way. Music is used to create the tone and mood of the trailer, it can help the audience see what type of character the person on the screen is. Lighting also does this, for example under lighting would create a horrific effect showing the audience the character is sinister. Mise-en-scene elements include hair and make-up, costume, props, body language, lighting, colour and so on which have their own way of signaling a certain thing that the audience need to know about the film or character e.g the genre of the film.
Symbiotic links is something that links a film poster and a film together keeping the audience familiar with the film. Editing is something that is very important in film trailers, if a trailer is poorly editing e.g too long, they can reveal too much of the film and the plot leading to the audience getting bored and not watching the film. But a fast and snappy trailer keeps the audience's on their toes and gets them excited, which will lead them to watching the film. Additional conventions of a film trailer are the film title, strap-lines, release date and the directors and actors names.
A good example of a horror film trailer that uses basic codes and conventions.
The trailer starts off slow, with strap-lines and dialogue leading us through the trailer telling us the narrative, we see a black out, and then the trailer gets faster and faster, we see the title of the film and then the sting.
No comments:
Post a Comment