Forms and Conventions of a movie trailer

Google Definition of trailer: A trailer or preview is an advertisement or a commercial for a feature film that will be exhibited in the future at a cinema.

 
In the majority of trailers there is a central story and narrative to promote the film further. No matter how long the trailer is, it should still deliver the basic elements from within the film to the audience; e.g. who the characters are, the problems they will face and the overall development from the start and the finish of the film. After viewing any trailer, the audience should be able to recall the rough outline for the plot of the film, permitting how well the trailer was produced/ how interested you are in the film genre etc.

Marketing

The film trailer needs to be specifically tailored for the selected target audience. The trailer must be best suited for the selected target audience and should include different forms and conventions that are perceived as good by the target audience, so that the trailer will make the film seem more appealing too them. The film trailer then has promote the film to be released at a suitable time, for example; there is a higher chance of people watching your film if it is released in early winter in comparison to the middle of summer, purely because less people visit the cinema in nice weather.

A secondary type of marketing is viral marketing; a way of manipulating someone else' success and then advertising your product; in this case, a film trailer. Viral marketing is when a company will use a pre-existing social network, or other popular areas, to advertise their their movie. A prime example of this is the banner at the top of YouTube; the site gets so many different users each day, a production company will want to advertise here to gain popularity. 

 This technique is most commonly used via the internet, it targets the general population. Viral marketing revolves around informing and then trying to lure a potential target audience through all the various forms and conventions a film trailer should entail. 

Sound

Sound is a vital element in a film trailer; its main input within a trailer is to set tone and emotion for the audience to pick up on and enjoy. While the majority of trailers don't actually include music from the main film, a few trailers will include original material from the film. For example, a horror movie like Insidious uses the main song within its trailer.


The main sounds often used in trailers will be sound effects rather than a backing sound, which will almost always be sound enhanced to provide higher entertain value for the audience.

Editing and Camera Work

Good editing is one of the most important elements when creating a film trailer. It is an element that is relied on so much during the production of the film trailer; if the editing isn't flawless and unnoticeable it will most likely make your film appear low production value. Editing uses video effects, video transitions, various paces, a range of filters and varying shot length all to create a tone for the film trailer; although all this editing would be useless without good camerawork; editing can only make your video seem high production if the camerawork behind it is of a high quality. Camerawork includes angles, movement and composition of the camera. Good camerawork will use a range of different shots and then these will be edited together effectively to create a high quality film trailer with a high production value.

 Todorov's Narative Theory

 

Information and Titles

Within the trailer; there will be essential information and titles evident. The information about the film will include; release date, certificates for the film, who produced it etc. Also within the trailer the title will be included several times to help promote the film and embed the title into the audiences mind; this will encourage them to watch the film when it is released.

Response
The emotion that is portrayed in the trailer is a key feature in setting the tone. By judging the emotion it can tell a lot about the story.  Horror films promotes horror and fear, in contrast, action films aim to convey thrill and excitement. SCI-FI encourages the audience an escape from reality, and a difference to real life. A film about romance try to make the audience 'feel good' or sometimes depict a tragic, unattainable relationship. All of the said above genres and more manage to convey these emotions and tones to the reader by adding in the specific forms and conventions suitable for that genre. For example, a horror film will usually be filmed in low level light but will important areas will be carefully lit to attract the audiences attentions.