conventions of a trailer evaluation

1. In what ways does your media
product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real
media products?
Conventions of a Trailer
Laura Garcia Del Pino

2. Distribution Company
We decided that Path’e! would be
a good distribution company for
our film; ‘The Heist’, because it
distributes big films such as Selma,
Mandela Long Walk to Freedom
and Pride, they also distribute
smaller, niche films such as;
Suffragette and The Illusionist.
Our film would be classed as ‘niche’
as neo-noir is not a main stream
genre which is why a distribution
company that distributes many indie
films would be good. However we
also had to take into account the fact
that our film was also on the front
cover of EMPIRE magazine, which
features, well known and successful
films therefore so we had to include
a distribution company that through
the years has gained more audacity in
the film canon so would release films
worthy of the cover of EMPIRE. This is
why we believed that Path´e! was the
best company to use for our film.

3. We created a logo for our production
company to have a more professional
look to the trailer. It was created using
Photoshop and drawing the city
buildings individually. We believed it
was important to include a clip of our
production company in the beginning of
the trailer which can be seen in almost
all trailers.
For example:
Production Company
It was important to add a clip of our
production company because it is
one of the most common
conventions of film trailers. Which
is why it was essential to include, as
many film logos give an indication
as to what the genre of the film will
be. Therefore if we were to apply it
to our own production logo we can
see that black is used and connotes
a serious atmosphere about the
company, which is what we
intended as the film which would
be produced by our company
would be indie, serious and
thought provoking films.

4. Titles
• During the research phase
of the trailer, I analyzed
other film trailers and saw
that titles where one of the
main feature and
conventions which
separates a trailer from a
short film and titles are
what help an audience
identify that what is being
shown is a trailer. For
example titles are used to
tell the story and can add a
more serious tone to the
film and it can also
reinforce the name of the
film and the release date.
This can be seen in our
trailer where I placed the
the release date and the
name of the film. Including the release date allows the audience to
know when it is released and something to look
forward too

5. Titles
• We took inspiration from other trailers with a the same genre
of film; neo-noir. And also their filming style and this is the type
of titles they included in The Brick trailer.
For example the titles they used
where dark and they used blue
with black background, which
reflects on the serious nature of
the film. Therefore we took
inspiration from The Brick trailer
and we also used a dark
background and titles to show
the serious nature of our film.

6. Dialogue
• Dialogue is often used to briefly
outline the plot without giving away
the ending of major parts of the
narrative.
We used dialogue to show a
conversation between our
protagonist and another main
character. During the
conversation they hint to the
audience what the characters
are planning to do and what
the narrative will entail but it
does not give it completely
away.
During research we mainly used the Brick
trailer and I noticed that there was a lot of
dialogue throughout and especially
between characters, which is why I
decided to use the characters to
communicate to each other. However I
did notice that there was a lot of dialogue
over other scenes and was used as non-
diegetic sound. I think to improve the way
used dialogue in the trailer I should have
included and recorded voiceovers to put
throughout the trailer to give strength to
the narrative.

7. Soundtrack
• Another conventions of trailers are their soundtrack. A soundtrack
is mostly used to compliment the trailer by helping to set the mood
in which the director is trying to create. For example in the Brick
trailer it begins with not much music being used but as the trailer
progresses more sound effects and music begin to get louder which
helps to build up the pace of the trailer and shows shows that the
film is full of tension. The same applies for our soundtrack, I used
two soundtracks and used one of them to cut and rearrange in
certain places. Our trailer starts of with a very paced beat to
introduce the trailer but as the trailer progresses there is a change
of soundtrack and the tension and action increases , I think this
helped to increase the pace and show the emotions of the c
characters throughout the trailer. To improve the soundtrack I
would have added more sound effects to heighten the tension
when there is an important moment to highlight the importance of
that scene.