A film trailer is an advertisement that promotes an upcoming movie. Trailers condense the film's story into a highly polished piece that aims to attract audiences in a short time period. They showcase scenes and deleted scenes to inform viewers about the cast, genre, and plot in order to encourage people to see the film. Trailers are distributed on television, websites like YouTube and social media, and in cinemas. They utilize conventions like dramatic camera angles, music, and montages to build excitement and highlight the action and climax.

1. The functions of a Film Trailer

2. Overview
 A trailer or preview is an advertisement or a commercial
for a feature film that will be exhibited in the future at a
cinema. The term "trailer" comes from their having
originally been shown at the end of a feature film
screening.
 Trailers tell the story of a film in a highly condensed
fashion that must have maximum appeal. In the decades
since film marketing has become a large industry, trailers
have become highly polished pieces of advertising, able
to present even poor movies in an attractive light. Some
of the elements common to many trailers are listed
below. Trailers are typically made up of scenes from the
film they are promoting, but sometimes contain deleted
scenes from the film.

3. The Function
 Important part of a films marketing campaign
 Adverts for a film
 Inform target audience about the film
 Encourage the audience to see the movie
 To show which cast members feature in the movie
 To show which genre the film is

4. Where can you find film trailers?
 Tv adverts
 Youtube
 Social networking sites
 Itunes
 Cinema
 IMDb
 Internet in general

5. Features of a film trailer
 Designed to grab the attention of the audience for a
short space of time
 Designed to create excitement for the audience so
they would come and watch the film
 Shows the audience that the film is worth going to
see

6. Conventions
 Dramatic camera angles
 Credits shown between action
 Voiceovers are used to tell the story
 Titles usually appear at the end
 Montages may be used to highlight the action
 Shows the start of the film
 Highlights the main scenes
 Music played used to create an atmosphere
 Builds up to the climax

7. Distributors
 The distributors are in charge of all the functions and
features of a film and used to create a USP (unique
selling point) of a movie to show the target audience.
 A USP separates one film to another so it makes
every movie different within the same genre.