Trailer Research

In the movie industry there are mainly two types of trailers, Full Length and Teaser trailers.

Full Length Trailers

 

 

Full length trailers are designed to entice the audience into watching the film and implies the genre, plot and storyline of the film to the audience without giving away and key information which would spoil the film for the viewer. Music is a key concept of trailers as the actual scenes from the film are not long enough to emotionally capture the audiences attention so using music allows the audience to become emotionally involved with the trailer despite it's lack of content. Another key concept of trailers is the use of voice overs. The voice used is usually a deep and sensual to fill the trailer with emotional content and to actively engage and involve the audience in the trailer.

Directors, producers and screen writers are often listed in the titles of the film, this can give the audience clues as to what sort of film the trailer is advertising for example, Red Eye (2005)'s official trailer seems to be advertising a romantic comedy, however, just before the genre of the trailer changes a title displaying Wes Cravens name appears suggesting to viewers that the film is not a romantic comedy as Wes Craven is well know for producing Thrillers such as A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) and The Last House on the Left (2009). Also displaying directors, producers and screen, writers can aim their advertisements towards a directed fan base, for example, someone who likes Quentin Tarantino is more likely to watch a film by him compared to someone who doesn't.

 

 

Teaser Trailers

 

 

Since the 1960's directors having been taking a much more significant role and has lead to more stylistic versions of trailers, which involve montages of scenes and silent or sparse music. Unlike full length trailers, teaser trailers are usually released about a year to a year and a half before the film, the main intentions of the trailer are not to inform the viewer about the content of the film but to simply let them know that the film will be coming out. Often teaser trailers are include cryptic messages which lead up to a much larger product launch. For example the sequel to 'The Hunger Games', 'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' is due to be in theatres 22/11/13 and have released the following teaser trailer...

 

 

 

In the trailer two main enigmas are created one of them being the love affairs that were established in the first film and the questioning of the female protagonists life lasting to the end of the film. These questions that can only be answered by watching the movie. This all builds up to a very excited and hyped audience resulting in extraordinarily high profit.