Teaser trailers are short clips between 30-60 seconds that are released early in a film's production to generate hype and interest without revealing major plot details. They typically include dramatic action scenes, epic music, and display the director/producer/actor names without much narrative context. The goal is to entice audiences to learn more about the film without fully explaining the story.

1. Teaser Trailers
Sophia Leiper

2. What are “Teaser Trailers”?
Teaser trailers are either a sequence of short clips or one clip form a
film that have been compiled to give a brief insight – they are normally
between 30-60 seconds – into what a film may be about. They contain
the minimum amount of footage so as to “tease” the audience. They
often contain parts of the film that isn’t in the released version as
teaser trailers tend to be released while the film is still being made or is
in post-production. Teaser trailers are often made for “blockbusters”,
big-budget, or popular themed films. Their purpose is solely to entice
audiences to watch the film. A simplistic way to explain their purpose is
to say that teaser trailers are used to build up the “hype” around the
movie. This is possible due to the word-of-mouth process that is used
to share news (which now includes social networking).

3. “Teaser” Trailers vs. “Normal” Trailers
Teaser trailers are short and give the bare minimum of the plot away,
whereas full length trailers tend to reveal a lot more. As teaser trailers
are released so far in advance from the actual film or the full length
trailers themselves, they often feature dates such as “Next Summer”
compared to the full length trailers that tend to have a date on them so
as to encourage the audience to go to the cinema. Also, teaser trailers
tend to move a lot faster than full length trailers because they want to
keep the audience interested.

4. Conventions of “Teaser Trailers”
As previously mentioned, teaser trailers tend to be used for
“blockbusters” and the big-budgeted films, these tend to be action
films and therefore, many teaser trailers are for action films. As trailers
tend to use the “best” parts of the film (so as to get the audience’s
attention), most of the teaser trailers are quite “dramatic”. Alongside
this, the music used is normally “epic” sounding and is used to
enhance the excerpts shown. Unlike full length trailers, voiceovers are
only sometimes used often in teaser trailers – rather, they rely on the
short and snappy sequences of action to entice and propel the trailer
forward.

5. What do Teasers Include?
Teaser Trailers tend not to include a lot of information
about the film they are promoting so as to leave the
audience guessing and questioning what may be in the
film. One of the many examples of this is the teaser
trailer for the Da Vinci Code which doesn’t include any
footage at all. Most teaser trailers include the name of
the producer and/or director and often some of their
more “known” works and the names of any major
actors. This is because some of the audience will watch
the film because they are interested in seeing the work
by these people more than the film itself. These are
often shown in inter-titles. Similarly, if the film has a
well known logo accompanying it, the logo is usually
shown – such as in Batman: The Dark Knight Rises.