CONVENTIONS OF A TRAILER

It is quite apparent that looking at trailers is a new experience, so I have looked at conventions of trailers to help me form my idea and think of ways to challenge it, there are various questions that need to be addressed when creating a trailer.  The first thing that needs to be demonstrated is the principles of the character, basically, who are they? Why would the audience like them or dislike them? However, you do not want to give away to much information, as it is a trailer and not the official movie, but enough content needs to be provided to hook the audience in with the content, so that they want to watch the film.

From the characters being introduced the next function a trailer needs to show is a plot device, this is basically an enigma also known as a puzzle, for example, a problem for the hero? Or even an epic war that needs to be overcome.

The twist in the enigma needs to appear near enough at the end of the trailer, this is the stage where the viewers are seriously going to fly of their seats and book tickets to watch the film. You want it to be interesting but not to complicated as the ‘mystery’ or ‘puzzle’ still needs to be solved, the question is how? When? Where? This is going to occur. The follow up in the actual movie, like I have noted before, cannot give of to this extent of information away because then it would not be interesting to go watch and turns into a short film.

The creator still needs to reveal a small amount of the ending this can be done in chronological a mixed order. The beginning can appear in the end, with flashbacks to make it identifiable, or the end can occur at the start of the trailer to and the build up can be how it concluded to that stage.    

The pace of a trailer is also very important to keep in mind, a good trailer starts of slow to keep the viewers interested and grip their attention gradually. This slow start speeds up the deeper we get into the trailer, with clear cuts and transactions the pace increases and gets the viewers completely attached, this all builds up to the climax and at that point the name of the film is revealed.

In terms of names and titles, it is crucial to know when they are supposed to appear. The name of the film must always come up at the end of the trailer, simply, so that the viewers see this last and remember the name of the film; the more people that remember the more views for the film and is also a clever advertising technique. The makers, producers and directors names can all appear in the begging, this will not happen throughout as other techniques will be the focus for example, the voiceover and narrators voice or the captions of the trailer.