Conventions of Film Openings, Theatrical Trailers and Teaser Trailers

For my first blog post, I completed a deconstruction on the conventions of film openings, theatrical trailers and teaser trailers. My A2 coursework task is to create a trailer of a film with my group, and so I have also defined what a trailer is and the two different types of trailers clearly below:

Definition of trailer

A trailer is an advertising form for a film that will be exhibited in the future at a cinema. Trailers consist of a series selected shots from the film that are best to attract an audience to the film containing parts of the film that are the most exciting or funny. A trailer has to achieve this in less than 2 minutes and 30 seconds, the maximum length allowed by the MPAA.

Def. of teaser trailer

In a teaser trailer the producers are trying to “tease” the potential target audience about the film, leaving them wanting more.

Def. of theatrical trailer

A theatrical trailer is made later on in the development stages of the film. It is more in-depth regarding aspects of the film such as the storyline and characters.

The following deconstructions highlight the conventions of a film opening, a theatrical trailer and a teaser trailer:

Film Opening

• The purpose of a film opening is to show action and begin the viewer’s interest so they get immediately hooked into the film.
• Introduce the key characters 
• Introduce pre-plot or beginning of the narrative- give idea of what the film subject entails 
• Establishes the location/scene of the film with establishing shot/s 
• Titles- production company, director, actors, etc 
• A key event will occur 
• Sound is present to elect interest within the viewer’s- mostly non-diegetic. It also sets the mood for the rest of the film 
• Genre is established

Theatrical Trailers

• Duration is around two and a half minutes, mainly due to the fact that the film is in its final days of editing and therefore the producers have more material to work with 
• Shown closer to the release date 
• Contains more footage of the movie 
• Much more in-depth relating to storyline and character developement
• Heavily edited 
• Voice over’s / titles 
• Reveals more of the plot than the teaser trailer

Teaser Trailers

• Duration is around a minute and a half because the producers are in the early stages of production and therefore they do not have enough footage so are working with what resources are available to them. 
• Creates mystery and "teases" the target audience
• Doesn't show too much of the footage 
• Only created for big budget films with large target audiences 
• Used to advertise an upcoming film to create anticipation and interest 
• Famous producers/ actors are exploited to get audience’s attention 
• States when the film is going to be out e.g. “This spring”