Codes and conventions of a Radio Trailer.

Relating in our documentary.

Karen Pang

Should contain FACTS:

The topic of the radio trailer must be direct, which has facts and statistics if necessary and if a company is involved must include their name. And the utmost channel and time the documentary is broadcasting.

The information on this radio trailer should be interesting to keep the listener tuned in and it should include extracts from the actual documentary.

Voice over-

Be guiding for the listener through out the whole radio trailer, it’s main job is not only be formal but also intriguing as they talk about the documentary’s purpose and why listens should watch it.

Should include questions that makes the listen think of themselves or something that relates to their lifestyle.

Length:

Normal average radio trailers last around 30-40 seconds, as it wouldn’t be too long that it starts boring the listener, or giving too much away about what it’s advertising.

In our case it’s about the documentary that would be broadcasted on television, our goal is to give enough information for the listen to know what the documentary is about and why they should watch it.

The Music:

It should relate to what the voice over for example if it’s an emotional sad piece that they’re talking about the music should not be joyful but a sad piece that emphasises the seriousness of what the voice over is going on about.

For our radio trailer we used music I made on Garage Band programme, for a direct relation to our documentary.