CandC of movie trailers

1. Codes and
conventions of a
trailer
Kiran Patel

2. What is the point of a trailer:
 A trailer is made to help advertise the movie
to an audience
 The trailer is edited to show the plot of the
movie usually by introducing the main
characters, having a quick brief of the
story, and saying the history or back story
of the movie. They do this by either having
a narrative or inter-title popping up on the
screen.
 However they do not try to spoil the whole
plot by showing quick shots of the action or
showing a glimpse of the villain


3. What is the point of a trailer:
 Godzilla (2014):
 In this trailer you
rarely see Godzilla
expect for quick
shots of it’s scale
or body part; they
do this to keep
the audience in
suspense until the
very end of the
trailer where you
finally see the
creature’s face

4. What to expect in the trailer:
 During the beginning of the trailer people
would see the production company logo,
also in some trailers they have inter-title
text which says “From the creator/director
of…”, so they know what sort of movie to
expect from that director
 They slightly change the distributors logo by
adding effects or altering the font style or
colour. They do this to let the audience
know the genre of the film



5. WHAT TO EXPECT IN THE TRAILER:
 Most trailers have one of the main characters
narrating bits of the trailer (After
Earth/Transformers). Whereas other trailers
have very little on-screen dialogue and has
music in the background of it
 Every movie trailer has to have cuts. Most of
these cuts are fades into black or the next
scene, they do this to introduce a mystery
aspect to the trailer. They usually include
numerous fast cuts of one scene to briefly
show action
 They also add jumps into the trailer or leave
certain scenes on cliff-hangers to add tension
or suspence to the trailer

6. From the creator of:
 Insidious:
 At the beginning of
this trailer they use
“From the makers
of, so fans of
“Paranormal
Activity” or/and
“Saw” will be
interested in seeing
the movie because
they would know
what to expect

7. From the creator of:
 Avatar:
 Unlike “Insidious”, the person
who made the trailer decided
to put James Cameron’s credit
at the end; this could be
because he is highly respected
in the movie industry it would
surprise the audience, making
them want to see the movie

8. Changing the production logo:
Tron Legacy: As you can see the
infamous “Walt Disney Pictures”
Logo has been given a blue haze
and a slight static effect over it
to represent the sci-fi/
electronic genre of the film
The Pyramid: To go with the
feel of the movie the “20th
Century Fox” was given a
sepia effect to be continuous
with the opening of the trailer

9. What to expect at the end of the
trailer:
 In nearly almost every trailer the date, a billing
block and the title of the film are shown. This is
because this will be the last thing the audience
sees so it will stay fresh in their minds so they
may research it later.
 Some trailers do not show the names of actors
during the trailer since they want the audience
to pay attention to what is happening on screen
so they show the names in the billing block
 They decide to show the billing block in case
someone in the audience may see a famous name
and be excited.


10. What to expect at the end of the
trailer:
 Pacific Rim:
 In this billing block,
they had most
famous actor (Idris
Elba) second
because he wasn’t
the main
character; even
though he had
little screen time
he was above
other actors due to
his popularity at
the time
