Film trailers typically include several conventions to attract audiences. They usually begin with the production company logo to establish reputation. This is followed by the film title at the end to ensure viewers remember it. Age certification is also displayed to indicate appropriate audience. Trailers also increasingly include social media promotions. Character introductions are important to help audiences relate and connect to the story. Music, voiceovers and montages are utilized to build tension and immerse viewers in the film's atmosphere and genre. Trailers come in different lengths to generate hype, with full trailers usually between 1-2 minutes.

1. FILM TRAILER
CONVENTIONS

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 trailer and decide to watch it
because they enjoyed the last film they 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 the viewers know which film it
is you want to watch and it is generally at the end of the trailer, so
that the audience 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 Kick Ass and We're The Millers
look more comedic and light hearted because of their bright
colours and friendly font, whereas The Conjuring is evidently a
horror, shown by its dark back ground and ominous white font.
This highlights it as a supernatural horror film.

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, it is
a family friendly film, and therefore it is likely that will get many
children will go to watch it. It also means that people younger than
the age certificate won't be led 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.
Most horror films have an age certificate of 15 or 18, due to the
inevitably disturbing content contained within, and due to the fact
that this age bracket falls makes up the target audience for many
horror films.

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. Evidently, this has become
a feature of only the most recent horror films, and due to its
more teenage-orientated audience, is mainly used in slasher
films.

6. Character introductions
An important feature of film trailers is character introductions,
whether they have big Hollywood actors or not, and these are
presented through the introductions within the narrative and the
straps displaying the actors names. This is essential because an
audience get pleasure from films 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. Also 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. If the actors are famous then they will
often be accompanied by a caption with their name, so their
reputation benefits the film.

7. Music and voice overs
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. Within the context of a horror film,
voice overs are used consistently, and the film usually starts with a
slow, orchestral melody that progresses into stabs, crescendo’s, and a
combination of diegetic and non-diegetic sound. These are all utilised
in order to build up tension and immerse the audience in the
atmosphere of the film, before taking away that dreamlike state by
doing everything possible to scare them back to reality while forcing
them to watch.

8. Montage
This is a convention mainly found in horror films, referring to a sequence of
shots towards the end of the trailer that are sped up and contain most of the
climactic elements of the trailer. Each shot is unlikely to be more than 2 seconds
in length and therefore only offers visual samplers of what is to come, enticing
audiences to go and watch the film in order to find out. Often, the montage is
supported by a score that builds up in accordance with the shots. Almost all
horror trailers are likely to use a montage, regardless of subgenre.

9. LENGTH
Usually 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.