The document summarizes conventions used in movie trailers through analyzing several examples. It discusses how the We Are Your Friends trailer uses fast pacing and edits to introduce the plot and characters. The Point Break trailer creates an action-adventure genre through its use of quotes, extreme stunts, and an eerie soundtrack. The Mad Max - Fury Road trailer depicts a dystopian setting through costume, locations, and a voiceover discussing the living and the dead. It aims to seem high intensity through fast cuts. The Suicide Squad trailer uses tension-building techniques like uncomfortable close-ups and low lighting to portray darkness and evil.

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Conventions of Trailers
Isabelle Blake

2. ✤ The trailer for We Are Your Friends starts with fast paced camera
movement and cuts introducing life events that many young
people go through using editing to lay text over the images. The
voiceover, text and signifying climax and break in the non diegetic
music leads to the statement ‘This is not our future’. This grabs
attention as this is a change in the norm and as the voiceover
begins to introduce why things are different for our generation
main characters are introduced on screen as they have
reappeared in clips taken from different scenes of the film. The
plot is shown in short clips containing memorable and important
quotes to show the best parts of the film, the action shots showing
problems and obstacles the main character, whom is a well known
film star (Zac Efron - therefore enticing an audience of teenage
girls) , but not revealing too much that it ruins the film. The shots
are edited with the idea of Barthes Hermeneutic Code however
the fight scenes show their may be a character snare complicating
the plot . The text for this trailer is in capitals and is a cream colour
against a black background which conveys the modern themes
and ideas in the film. The title is customised with music recording
symbols in place of letters to represent the main characters
aspirations of being a DJ.
✤ Opens with production company and closes with title of film,
release date and billing block at the bottom of the screen.
✤ Due to the hype of social media it is followed by links to social
media sites where people can follow the activity of Warner Bros
and the films official social media pages.
Click Picture for Trailer

3. ✤ This trailer opens with a stereotypical dad singing a
well known song to create humour leading to the
genre of comedy. The trailer includes non linear clips
of comical and climactic cliff hangers to advertise the
best parts of the film segmented by scene using
inserted text to help the storyline make sense for
example ‘Take a trip with the next generation’, this
attracts a range of audiences. The wide ranged
audience is also shown by the variation in non
diegetic music that makes the trailer more
entertaining, it includes songs that would be
recognised by older and younger generations that are
identified by stereotypes. The music fades as scenes
change or as there are diegetic sounds and cuts when
there are more important scenes that the audience is
supposed to pay more attention to. The text appears
fast to match the pace of the cuts and pace of the
overall scenes which adds to the humour and the title
is animated to match the ‘road trip’ theme as it swipes
onto the screen in a car motion.
Click Picture for Trailer

4. ✤ Point Break’s trailer creates an action adventure genre with
the opening clip being a quote about life and death, followed
by the sequence of a plane hijack, where point of view and
close up shots are used to create mystery and tension. CGI
is heavily used throughout the trailer to include extreme
stunts that follow the storyline, the extreme stunts are used
as focus points for the voice over alongside an eerie
soundtrack that has pleonastic sounds to intensify the action
taking place on screen. Cuts are used to make the trailer fast
paced suited to the action adventure genre and fade
transitions are used for the text to add mystery heightened by
the smoky backdrop that fades to reveal the next scene and
the grey tones to the locations and lighting. Main characters
are introduced by frequent reappearances and the use of
close ups to make the audience aware of the importance of
the characters.
✤ I really liked this trailer as it was exciting to watch and the
mise en scené was created really well. I hope to create music
similar to this for my trailer or a music with such an impact.
Also the grey tones/effect to the lighting would also work well
with our theme and the overall feel we want to achieve
because it suits our genre and foreshadows the idea of a
false world.
✤ https://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=ncvFAm4kYCo

5. ✤ The trailer for ‘Mad Max - Fury Road’ gives the audience a summary of
the plot and setting of the film through misé en scène and sound. The
voiceover talks of seeing the ‘living and the dead’ and the costume of the
antagonist portrays a dystopia and sci-fi due to his look that is made to
look frightening and almost ghostly, as he wears make up to make his
skin look extremely white to go with his grey hair and he wears a mask
that gives threatening and dangerous connotations. The locations of the
desert are shown in short fast paced clips segmented by cuts to make the
film seem high intensity and thrilling, which is also added by the use of
CGI for explosions, props such as cars/tanks and guns and unachievable
locations or sets. The pleonastic sounds throughout the trailer add to the
excitement and verisimilitude they are trying to create to make the film
seem more like a sci-fi than a non fiction. The non diegetic music creates
tension and backgrounds the eerie voiceover that talks through the trailer
to help with the plot and to identify character by talking in first person and
showing a close up of ‘Max’ when he says ‘Me’ and showing the
antagonist as he refers to others as ‘them’. The impact of the voiceover in
this trailer is powerful and I hope to be able to create this in our trailer by
using garageband to distort the voiceover and by writing a good script
that will make the audience interested and captured like this one. The
idea of war or a fight is shown in the design of the titles as a deep blood
red is used and splattered against yellow words leading to connotations of
lots of death and a broken world.

6. ✤The trailer for suicide squad is a non linear sequence that begins with
the view from outside a window, framing the potential antagonist and
foreshadowing entrapment, the close up of her cutting meat creates an
uncomfortable tension as there is a continuous sound bridge of the
conversation between the characters in the following two shot that cuts
back and forth between the entry scene to the location they are talking
about. The scenes throughout include low level lighting which
foreshadows the darkness and evil throughout the film, also being
portrayed by the eerie non diegetic music of high pitched singing to slow
drums and symphonic music. The billing block have been changed to a
metallic red and black theme suggesting danger and death. The Warner
Bros sign has also been animated so that it turns like a clock suggesting
the time is a theme running through the film. The uncomfortable
suspense of the trailer is heightened by the close ups which distinguish
characters due to the detail shown in them. The costume and make up
distinguishes the suicide squad and those keeping them encaged and
controlling them as the mise en scené of the two sides is juxtaposed
between verisimilitude characters such as the people in suits and people
wearing armoured uniform, compared with the suicide squad who are
heavily made up, some even using CGI to create their character's look.
✤This trailer has been really inspiring for my trailer as there are lots of
‘money shots’ such as the window and the cutting of the meat, things
which we could use as inspiration in our trailer. I also love the music and
want to include some sort of high pitched singing to foreshadow
something wrong in our trailer, the build up to the title of the film is
something I would like to re-create too.