Film trailers tend to follow certain codes and conventions to attract audiences. They typically begin with the film studio logo to establish brand recognition. The film title is usually featured prominently near the end to be memorable. Trailers also include billing blocks with key cast and crew, genre-specific music and voiceovers to set the tone, and fast-paced editing with short clips to build intrigue without revealing too much of the plot. Common camera shots like establishing shots and close-ups of stars are also utilized. Overall, trailers aim to tease audiences and leave them wanting to learn more about the film.

1. Film Trailers:
Codes and Conventions
George Coates

2. • There are many different codes and conventions that all film
trailers tend to use, even though there are many different
genres of films there seems to be some general rules that
film trailers tend to follow. These things have been tried and
tested in many film trailers so producers know what
audiences like and expect to see.

3. Film production logos
• The logo of the film production company
tends to appear in the first part of the trailer.
This is done for the benefit of the production
company, for example if audiences like the
product that Twisted Pictures made, they will
remember the logo and associate it with
other films they have released and may be
more likely to see it if they enjoyed the
previous ones.
• For example, if Disney released a new film,
people would recognise the logo and
associate it with having a big budget and for
creating popular and entertaining family
friendly movies.

4. Film Titles
• The title of the film that they trailer is
promoting always features in the trailer.
Typically it is towards the end of the
trailer so that it is one of the last things
the viewers see and what they
remember. The font, colour and
backdrop all tend to hint at the genre for
the film. For example Pixels and Inside
Out are comedies, they both use bright
colours to connote their comedic theme.
However The Avengers: Age of Ultron is
an action-adventure movie and uses
red’s and grey’s to connote the more
violent theme.

5. Billing Blocks
• Billing blocks appear at the end of trailers, they tend to be a similar format to the
posters of the film. They include key information such as the film studio and
production companies involved, the title, the release date, names of the actors
(sometimes alphabetically or with the main cast first), names of the main crew
(music, editors, costume etc.) and the social media information.
• All billing blocks tend to use the same or similar sans-serif poster text no matter
what the genre is.

6. Music and Voice Overs
Music is a very key feature in film trailers
and often reveals a lot about the type of
film that is being promoted. It often sets
the pace of the editing, shows the genre
and can sometimes reveal the budget of
a film. Some producers may hire an artist
to sing a particular song or the entire
soundtrack for the film, such as ‘Skyfall’
where Adele was hired to sing the theme
song.
Voice overs are also crucial, although
dialogue in trailers tend to be from the
film itself, it tends to guide audiences
through the narrative. They also show
audiences who is in the film such as
Leonardo DiCaprio in ‘The Wolf of Wall
Street’.

7. Intertitle Text
These appear in many different trailers
but can be more genre specific than
other elements of trailers. They can be
used to tell audiences about the
narrative, show cast, for reviews and
for awards/nominations. For example
in ‘Not another happy ending’ they are
used for showing the narrative, in
‘Macbeth’ they are used to show
reviews and awards and in ‘Straight
Outta Compton’ they are used to show
names of some of the main cast.
The positioning of these also tend to
be central.

8. Editing
Trailers tend to use short and
significant clips form the films in order
to attract the audiences, making the
most common type of editing in trailers
quick cuts between different parts of
the film. The editing tends to follow the
pace of the music and also tends to
speed up towards then end.
Lots of fade to blacks and cross fades
are used; this is done in order to try
and get the trailer to make sense to the
audience when they see sudden
costume or set changes through the
trailer.
This common type of editing can be
seen in the ‘Ant Man’ trailer,

9. Camera Shots
• Whilst there are a variety of
different camera angels that can
be used in filming, trailers only
tend to use a few. For example,
they use establishing shots to give
the audience an idea of where or
when the film is set or to set the
tone of the film such as in ‘The
Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part
2’ and close-up’s to show the
audience who is featuring in the
film as shown in ‘The Suicide
Squad’. The close-up’s tend to be
of the most recognisable actors in
the film