A2 Media Studies Research on general codes and conventions of film trailers

1. GENERAL CODES AND
CONVENTIONS OF FILM TRAILERS
BY GEORGE SULAIMAN

2. FILM PRODUCTION LOGOS
Usually within the first part of the trailer, the film production logo will be shown. The production
company's reputation can benefit the film trailer, for example if people have seen and enjoyed
another FilmFour film, then they may see the logo on a new movie trailer and decide to watch it
because they enjoyed the last film that filmfour created.
It also creates an idea of the type of film the trailer is trying to sell. For example people will see a
DreamWorks logo and know that it will have a big budget, and they have a reputation of making
family friendly films.

3. FILM TITLE
The film title is in every trailer, so you know which film it is you want to watch and it is generally at the
end of the trailer, so that you see if after you are already interested in the film and you are more
likely to remember it. The font, colouring and back drop are also usually a good clue as to the genre
of the film. For example, 21 Jump Street and Little Man look more comedic and light hearted
because of their bright colours and friendly font, whereas The Conjuring is unmistakably a horror film,
shown by its dark back ground and ominous white font.

4. BBFC AGE CERTIFICATION
Any film released in the UK is awarded an age certification by the British Board of Film
Classification, and the age is shown towards the end of a film trailer. This provides a guideline for
the target audience age, for example, if the film is awarded a U certificate, its a family friendly film,
and therefore you will get many children going to watch it. It also means that people younger
than the age certificate won't be lead onto think they can go watch the film in the cinema. Film
certification is also very important because it can hint at the content of the film. If a film has a 15
certificate, the audience can guess that there may be moderate to higher levels of violence,
sexual scenes and bad language, so if the audience member doesn't enjoy that type of film, they
won't go to watch it, and vice versa they might enjoy that type of film.

5. SOCIAL MEDIA
A new convention of film trailers is to add website URLs, twitter 'hashtags' or accounts
to follow, or instructions to 'like' their Facebook page. This encourages the audience
to find out more about the film and also if many people are talking about the film on
social networking sites word-of-mouth can become an effective advertising
campaign. The popularity of Twitter means that millions of people across the world
can tweet about a new film coming out, spreading the word and gaining the interest
of millions of other people.
This is a screen shot from The Conjuring trailer beginning showing the Twitter hashtag
and a Facebook link, which stays on the screen throughout the trailer.

6. INTRODUCING THE CHARACTERS
An important feature of film trailers is the introduction of characters, whether they have
big Hollywood actors or not. This is essential because an audience get pleasure from
movies by connecting and relating to the characters, by their individual similarities, for
example, if there is a prominent young female character, people from the target
audience who are young and/or female connect to the character and are more likely
to go watch the film. Moreover, if the film has famous actors and/or actress', and the
audience have enjoyed some of their previous films, or are fans, they might go watch
the new film because they know that they enjoy the actor's work and how they usually
play their specific role in the movie. If the actors are famous then they will often be
accompanied by a caption with their name, so their reputation benefits the film and
therefore attracts a large audience to be encouraged and persuaded to watch the
film.

7. MUSIC (SOUNDTRACK) AND
VOICEOVERS
Music is a key feature, and can make or break the film trailers. They show the pace of film,
genre and often the budget, for example a film may ask an artist to specially make a
soundtrack for their film, the bigger the film budget, the bigger the artists on the soundtrack.
And people may think that a bigger budget means a better film. Voice overs are important
to guide the audience through the film plot and characters. A voice over can either be an
external voice which is added on top of the footage, or the voice over can be sections of
dialogue from the actual film. By having voiceovers, it allows the audience to understand
some aspects of the film i.e. when watching a movie trailer, a voiceover will be distinct to
the background of the film and will allow the audience to think about what the story could
lead up to which is where this could lead to being the selling point to a firms target
audience, as voiceover’s tend to grab the attention of its viewers and will persuade them to
watch the movie when it comes out into the cinema.

8. NAME CAPTIONS
In every trailer there will be name captions, these can be actor's names, director's
names or producer's names. This is important because an audience can see a director
or producer which they are either fans of, or weren't. Actors like Brad Pitt and Tom
Cruise have similar filming roles i.e. Action, Adventure, Shooter, etc, and having their
name on the trailer possibly saying ‘Starring Brad Pitt and/or ‘Tom Cruise’ allows the
audience to decide if they like the style of the new film, and whether they will watch it.
By having these big names of actors as well as actresses, this will allow the audience to
see how much of a big actor/actress they play in the film and will immediately get an
impression that the film will be exciting and enjoyable and that the audience will be
looking forward to going to watch it in the cinema.

9. TIME LENGTH
Regularly, a film will have more than one trailer made, with different sections of the film
edited together. There is always an official full trailer which lasts sometime between 1.30 -
2 minutes, but often you will find, especially in horror, action or thriller films, they have
shorter 10 second trailers which help build hype and will just have a short clip which may
or may not have the film title shown. Generally, the shorter trailers are called a ‘Teaser
trailer’ where the teaser trailer may be between 10 seconds – 1:30 minutes, and allows
the audience to see a small portion of what the film is and who may Starr in the film
however, may not present the characters names therefore allows the audience to wait
for the main official trailer where they can get more taste about the narrative of the film
and will identify who will Starr in the movie and what type of genre the movie will be due
to the characters seen and the location of the movie.

10. RELEASE DATE
The release date is essential for attracting a large audience to the opening night of a
film release. The release date is shown on trailers a couple of weeks before the film is
released, giving time for a wide audience to have seen it, but close enough to the
date that people can plan to see it soon, rather than forgetting about it by the time the
date comes around. The release date is usually shown at the end of the trailer, like the
film title, so that the trailer grabs the audience's attention then gives them the
information they need to go see it in the cinemas.