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1. The Purpose Of A Trailer Emma Marshall
1.What are the purposes of trailers?
The purpose of a trailer is to tease and persuade the audience to go and watch the film in full in the
cinema. It is a form of promoting the film on a variety of platforms in order to be viewed by mass
audiences. The genre of the film should easily be identifiable by viewers through common
conventions and the pace of the editing. The usual kind of trailer is called da 'Theatrical Trailer' which
lasts about 2:00-3:00 minutes long.
2. How do audiences watch trailers?
Audiences can watch trailers on YouTube, TV, social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter
and before the beginning of a film both in the cinema and on DVD.
3. How do audience engage with trailers?
Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter & even YouTube allow and enable the audience to
engage with trailers as they are able to share and like the trailers on Facebook, tweet about the film
on twitter and re-post comments about it and if they have a YouTube account, they can subscribe to
certain channels and receive all the latest updates concerning a specific trailer etc. They can also
share the trailers from YouTube to post on other video sites.
4 .What is the relationship between exhibition platforms for trailers and audiences; are certain
platforms for certain type of audiences?
Films are shown on TV before watershed on certain channels for children. This would show child
friendly content and trailers are generally rated as ‘PG’ and ‘U’.
On the other hand, films which are targeting teenage/adults are usually advertised on social
networking sites like 'Facebook' and can also be shown on TV before and after watershed and can be
rated 12/ 12A/15 and 18.
5 .How do institutions encourage audiences to 'investigate' a film's details?
(Date/info/games/competitions/discussion/forums etc.)
Institutions encourage audiences to investigate film details through social networking sites at the end
of their trailers. Competitions and games are held on their websites to get the audience to engage
more and exchange between themselves.
6. Explain the role of social media for trailers (Advantages/Disadvantages)
An advantage of social media is that it helps in distributing the trailer to a wider audience, meaning
the trailer can be viewed by a mass audience. It also lets the audience interact with the institution and
learn more information about the film.
A disadvantage of social media is that any criticism towards the film can cause people to be
discouraged to watch it on websites such as ''Rotten Tomatoes.'' Also not everyone may have social
media so won’t be able to interact.

2. The Purpose Of A Trailer Emma Marshall
7. Imagine trailerscould not be exhibited via social media, what impact would this have on
audiences and institutions?
If trailers couldn't be exhibited via social media this would impact the institution negatively as it means
their products wouldn't reach a global audience as easily. This also means that audiences wouldn't be
able to interact with the institution as much, and audiences wouldn't be able to interact with each
other as effectively as contact would be limited to word of mouth.
8. How has exhibition of trailers changed over time?
The exhibition of trailers has changed over time as there is now more access to them through
cinema/home/internet or even on the go. Beforehand they could only be exhibited in limited areas
such as on TV or in the cinema as social media didn't exist. The change of exhibition over time has
made it easier for audience to access them any time convenient time.
9. How are trailers rated and regulated? What institution is responsible for rating trailers? How
is this different from the whole film?
Trailers are given lower ratings as they are accessible on social networks by everyone, especially
children. In result of this, if trailers were rated, it would be restricting the amount of viewers who can
see trailers.
10. How does the rating of films affect the audiences?
(Children/ teens /older /different ethnicities/ minority groups etc.)
The rating of a film trailer may affect a range of audiences as some groups of people may not find
something appropriate even though the institution may classify it as appropriate for that specific age
group. For instance, some minority groups may be against homosexual activities therefore wouldn't
want their kids exposed to it at a young age. It may also affect children positively as it will stop them
from being exposed to inappropriate things such as swearing or violence.
12. Identify/explain any other issues you think are important about the exhibition of film
trailers
The independent industry does not have a lot of money to promote their films in comparison to the
marketing of blockbuster films. This is an issue as the majority of indie filmmakers become
restricted to niche audiences, meaning they fail to make profit.