Nikon Ahamed

Unit 2, 3, 22 Task 3

Conventions of film trailers

Trailers are a video based advertisement media used to raise awareness of a film and have the purpose to attract a specific target audience so that they then want to see the whole film, in this way those who invested in the film stand the best chance of making a profit on it. What trailers show is a brief narration of the actual film that should only hint and give some details of the main storyline so that it gives a general idea to the viewer about what he will watch and trailers must not give away too much of the story otherwise they will not be able to attract the audience as they will lose interest on the film due to the fact that they already know too much of the film.

Trailers are needed because a film cannot just come out by itself as not many people would want to watch it (as they may not like it), they became part of the production of a film as you need a hint, some starting point to initially convince the audience to watch the whole product.

Trailers are meant to give a sneak peek and establish the main characters without revealing the actual story, another main objective would also be to tell the audience the release date of the film. Trailers are important as they are a powerful weapon in the marketing campaign, posters as well are important, but trailers have much more power as they have a good combination of moving image and sound which makes the audience feel more excited about the actual film and all this gives us an impression of the film that still images by themselves cannot do. A trailer also tells you the type and genre of the film and telling this is important in film marketing because the decision the audience makes about what to see depends upon whether they have enjoyed other similar films.

Todorov’s narrative structure – The equilibrium theory (1969)This theory is applied in almost all of the trailers and it is essential to use as this is the way in which the media can easily attract the audience (in trailers). It can be modified and there can be some exceptions, but generally trailers follow this structure.

This is how it is structured, it starts from the equilibrium.

Identifiable titleThis is the title that the trailer “Kong Skull Island” has a unique style and has a specific effect on to the audience as the

font style gives it more meaning to the context. The markings, the colour and the fact that the writing is straight and sharp resemble “Kong” and how wild and strong a giant gorilla could be. The way it has been edited also tells us that “Kong” is huge, powerful and not feminine, the title also makes us think that the film is about frenetic explosions, battles and that there will be a lot of action scenes where there is fast phased scenes.

Here instead we can see that the text has more background telling; as we can see, the background is foggy as if it just came out from a place that was on

fire and this background reflects again the genre and the place in which the film has been set. It also relates to the cuts being made before as they were showing up fire.

Everything is in capital, only the size of the writings was different as depending on the size they had more emphasis on something on top of

something else, such as on the screenshot before where the date of release was much bigger than the rest. All this was conventional and has been done to attract the audience and to tell them the genre in general of the film they will watch.

In this other trailer, from “The Boy” (which is a horror film) we can notice the style of the writing being much more different to address the audience and the

theme in a better way based on its genre. It is conventional to have this dark, low key lighting screen with the main title because this is what people expect from horror themed films. The writings in specific look like they were professionally designed but then a kid or some sort of disruption has messed up the writings by doing scratches which tells us that the film will be about

something dark and that there will be an enemy figure who has the purpose to scare the audience. This convention element creates more meaning within the horror genre and makes it

look more like horror. Also the background is always dark as it makes the writing stand out even more and creates more suspicious tense as it looks like darkness is everywhere and there is few light which is a conventional element in a horror movie. The font of the writing looks professional as it is straight and sharp, but at the same time it resembles the old mansion which is the main location of the whole film.

The main title that appears in the trailer has the writing “Boy” in a much bigger size than “The”, this is to emphasise the word “Boy” to the audience, to make it stand out more as it looks like it’s the main key word that people should be aware of; also the scratches are

only on the word “Boy” making it look more visible and giving it more attention. Every single piece word is in capital so that people pay more attention to it and the importance of the attention instead depends on how big or small the writing is as the producers want to emphasise something over something else, such as the main title “The Boy” where “Boy” is much bigger than the article who has less importance.

Company logosCompany logos are important factors in the marketing of a media product as they show company names and give them credit and reputation and also

people, after seeing a specific well recognised logo might be more willing to watch both the trailer and the film as they expect it to be a good film due to the producers being famous and capable. This is a screenshot taken from the trailer of “The Ring 3” and here we can see Paramount’s logo being shown which should attract even more the viewer’s attention as it is a well-recognised name.

Sometimes in trailers, companies change their logo style or edit the logo to fit the genre or the context of the film in a better way. For example, in the trailer of “The Ring 3” we can see the Paramount logo being modified to fit the theme of the film as it looks like it’s flickering as if it’s disturbed. Also on the first screen-shot we can notice

that instead of the Paramount stars we have a ring which relates to the film and the title itself and these changes have been made to make the audience feel

disturbed, less relaxed and make them understand that in the actual film there will be an external presence that will cause problems.

In the trailer of “The Boy” we can see the logo of “STX ENTERTAINMENT” and there is no change made on it a part from the colour yellow that resembles light, brightness and in a horror film, escape. In this frame

where the logo is shown there is some source of light coming out from the top which makes the writing logo stand out even more as it gives more importance and meaning. It almost looks like the logo is the only element you should be paying attention at in this case. It is done to make it more eye catching for the viewers and to make it easier to impress the whole image (of the logo) in to people’s mind so that they remember this company in case of they see it in the future.

The same style has been applied for the other logos (H.BROTHERS – LAKESHORE ENTERTAINMENT) still to make them more remarkable

and to give them more impact in to the audiences’ minds. These changes made to logos and special effects are all conventions to fit the genre and to eye catch/surprise the audience and they all have a common purpose which is to give credit to the specific companies that made the film. Even in logos as for the other writings everything is in caps for the same purpose.

Music and other soundThere are a lot of conventions in music and sound as the producers wanted to create verisimilitude for the viewers so conventions have to be used.

The initial song played at the background remembers the period of time in which the film should be set at as the starting

music used to be used to convince Vietnam soldiers to go in to a fight, to pump them up and make them feel ready. This tells the viewers the time in which the movie and trailer will be located at.

Here is when the disruption of the Todorov’s narrative structure comes in place and the sound from being happy (music used to make Vietnam soldiers feel ready) it just suddenly goes darker. In this shot where the disruption starts we can hear a siren and screech as the

helicopter gets crushed; this makes the audience think that there is something wrong and that they should be

panicking as the actors do and show in the next few shots. This sudden crush sound makes us think that people in the film went suddenly from safe to complete danger and this is an unconventional element in such a media product.

A lot of incident music has been used in this trailer, specifically here where Kong smashes the helicopters and

here you can also hear the heart beat as everything slows down, this heartbeat also matches the helicopter blades moving.

Another conventional element that has been added in this trailer is the music background at the beginning,

we know it is being used as a symbol from the past, but it rises as the voiceover or the characters stop talking. A part from that also when actual characters are talking the music and sound added through editing lows down to let the viewers pay more attention to the discussion and less to the music as they are more important.

Transformers the last knight (2017)

The music used as a background makes us think about something ancient that is very old and this resembles the transformers as they are robots made of “metal” who have a long

life.

The music is really fast paced and this is conventional as in all trailers you want to make the audience feel excited about the actual film by using quick cuts, sound and scenes to attract them even more.

The music in the background matches the cuts and at some point, when Optimus appears it all the building up of tense stops, the sound goes much slower as he is revealed. Based on the previous film Optimus has always been the hero, the positive figure in the films and having all this tense

building up until Optimus appears can mean two things for the audience, one being his return one more time or him as an enemy. The scene where Bumblebee chases Optimus has only little sound that matches his

steps, but as Optimus grabs him and puts him on the ground the music completely shuts down. This is because the audience didn’t expect Optimus as an enemy therefore this should leave the viewers in a situation where they feel like they want to know more of what actually happened as after that scene there’s one more cut and then the trailer ends.

After the last scene the producers used a

conventional sound of an electronic machine turning on and we see an electronic eye which should make us think that Optimus has woken up again. Also after this we see all the circuits being turned on with a background music that again starts building up tense until we see the main title of the film “TRANSFORMERS THE LAST KNIGHT”. All these robotic sounds are also very conventional in such a genre, the blades touching the metal, the weapons are also much related to the genre.

Age certificationDepending on the platform age certification in trailers are not shown in UK unless it is for an audience composed by people over 18, although in UK it is not shown, in America there is a notification that will always tell you the age it is aimed at and whether it is approved by the Motion Picture Association or not.

In the trailer “The Boy” there is the American notification at the beginning telling that everyone can watch it.

This is because the trailer is American, but in others British there is no certification as the BBFC cannot rate them that early and due to this in trailers you see the writing “yet to be rated”. It will get rated 3 or 4 months before the release of the film.

Social media informationTrailers are made to advertise the film and to make people aware of the existence of it and because social media have a huge impact into the audience, at the end of a trailer you are always likely to see

the social media logos and websites so that the producers can create more audience direct interaction for the ones who are more willing to look up for some more information on these social media and want to interact with the actual makers. This also creates “hype” and makes the audience feel like they are wanted and important as pages forums are created accordingly for them. Because of all this, social media are a convention in trailers as they serve even more the purpose and the essence of the existence of trailers, which is to attract customers to make them watch the actual final product. In the trailer “The ring 3” no social media has been put to make the audience’s focus concentrate on to the release date and maybe on the website which is shown under the release date. Instead in the trailer “The Boy” we have a good range of well-known social media (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr and Instagram) shown at the end, instead of putting the names they only used the logos because the contrast of colours impacts more the audience and because they are well recognised names there is no need to write them as people will immediately know what and who they are by looking at the logos. Using logos of social media is conventional in a trailer as the society is moving forward towards a more modernised society that relates a lot with social media, so using them to interact even better with the audience suits better the purpose of a trailer.

CreditsCredits are a convention in trailers as they give credit to the people who participated in the making of the media product, but nowadays the credits

have shifted from the cast to the crew as there is more need to focus on the

people behind the camera who often times get ignored. The actors don’t appear in the credits as much as before as just by looking at the trailer the audience can recognise them which immediately gives them credit for being present actors in the film. For example in the trailer of “The Boy” the protagonist is Lauren Cohan who is an American actress and model, best known for her role as Maggie Greene on The Walking Dead which made her famous around the world. So by having her as an actress in this film people will be already more willing to watch it as she is well known for her good acting in “The Walking Dead”.

As of late even credits are being shown less in trailers as people do not pay much attention to them. Producers also stopped putting the credits to make the audience’s focus concentrate more to the action and to the actual scenes and cuts that are being shown as they are quite quick, they want people to get distracted less by the writing you would see on credits.

In the trailer of “Lights out” we can see that credits have actually shifted to the crew as they want to get credits and want people to focus on them as well. People who get credits are the director, producers, editors and cameraman.

In this trailer also we can see a common convention of extra advertisement as in the middle of the trailer they state that the producer who made this film is also the maker of another well recognised film

“The Conjuring”, this is being done a lot as of late to attract even more the viewers as they know that in this case “The Conjuring” is a film that had a lot of success so the viewers are more likely to have positive expectations about it.

In addition to that the director gets even more importance than the rest of the crew as he appears right in the middle of the trailer which gives him more power and leadership compared to the rest who gets nominated only at the end.

Names of people who get credited are also in a much bigger font than the rest of the writing still for the same reason as before as they have always been left out and need more attention, so by having a bigger

font their names get stand emphasised even more to the audience.

Release dateThe release date makes you, the audience, understand when the film gets released and this is extremely conventional as without it people would stay confused as they of course want to know the date of release.

The release date also makes the audience more involved on the actual release as it almost looks like they are participating to the countdown of the release.

At the same time the release date is often times related to the genre and the period of time.

Also, release dates are fundamental to choose as usually good films get released based on

their genre on certain periods. This means that they are conventional too as they have a relationship with the time it’s been released, for example in the trailer “Kong Skull Island” we can see that it says that it will be coming out in March 2017 which has a relationship with the previous King Kong's films released in USA as they all got launched in March. Generally horror films are released in Halloween and romance in Valentine's period for example, this is due to the fact that the timing and season is more appropriate for the audience and they can relate to it even better which means that they should be more willing to watch it.

Another example of a convention of release date is from “The Ring 3” which is coming out on October 28th. This is conventional for a horror movie as the end of October means Halloween and because Halloween is a creepy themed event. All horror films generally get released around that

time to give it more meaning and to have more people watching it as they would relate it more with the time it’s being released.