Trailers follow certain conventions to effectively market films. They provide a teaser of the film's plot through extracts and details. Trailers are used to generate interest and attract audiences to watch the upcoming movie. Social media is a major platform for distributing trailers to wide audiences. Trailer titles are bold and distinctive to help audiences recognize the film. Company logos reveal details about the production quality and genre. Music, sounds and cinematography add tension to highlight climactic scenes. Credits and release dates help audiences learn about the cast/crew and plan to see the film. Trailers also follow classic story structures and use dramatic irony to intrigue viewers.

1. Task 3
Jack kilminster
Conventions of trailers
What is a trailer?
A trailer is a short clip which gives advanced publicity to (a film, broadcast, or proposal) by
releasing extracts or selected details of (a film, broadcast, or proposal) giving the audience a
taster/teaser of what is yet to come.
Why are trailers used?
Trailers are used as a marketing source for a upcoming movie or production. It gives
audiences a teaser of the movie to come, attracting interest for people to come and watch
the movie being released.
Social media is plays a big part when it comes to expanding the reaches of a trailer, as
seeing this is the 21st century, and most people are on social media, a major platform to get
as many people as possible to see it would be social media, as once it's released, people
take this information and spread it, allowing more and more people to see it and gain interest
init. They also do this by releasing the trailer on many different platforms within social media,
so for example the upcoming King Kong movie, was released on youtube, instagram,
facebook, twitter, tumblr etc. This because (especially a movie like
King Kong) it can reach out to many different audiences through
these different platforms of media. Production companies will also
release a website related to the movie such as the the movie
“Rings” the website released, although as social media is aimed at
teens to young adults, most will not go onto the website unless it
has some interest to them.
Whereas more older generations would access the website maybe
to book tickets to see a premier of the movie. Another thing related
to social media platforms are audience interaction, which is where
the audience can get involved and have their own opinion relating
to the movie, for an example “Captain America Civil War” when this
movie was being released, interaction methods were introduced
such as “what side are you on?” this allowed people to vote and
have debates over the subject, getting the audience hyped for the
movie.
Another example was Batman VS Superman, another interaction
method were people could have their own say on who would win
,who was the better character etc.

2. Titles in a trailer are very conventional it's the brand name of the production the title is at the
end or beginning of the trailer and is made bold and to stand out, so the audience recognize
the movie by its title. when it's When trailers are released they come with a distinct title
which relates to the movie genre in a distinct way. Such as Harry potter the titles, they each
have a zig zag style with the P to link with harry potter’s scar, the titles also in the order of
the movies get darker due to the movies atmosphere gets darker and darker as more things
go wrong further you get deeper in the movie. Where “King Kong’s” title is more thick and
chunky to represent King Kong and the size of King Kong, it also has has special details in
the designs like in one title it relates to the tribes people in the movie such as the sharp
cutting of the name like it was chiseled out of stone, and then the other design it represents
the background of the sky to relate to the poster.
Another title example is “THE LORD OF THE
RINGS” the lord of the ring is distinctive as it
gives an example of how titles show keywords
and names are more important than others, like
in the title for “ THE LORD OF THE RINGS” the
words “the” and “of“ are small compare to “lord”
and “ rings” this is because these words are
more distinctively related to the movie. Another
link with the title and the movie is that the colour
of the title is gold linking with the main item used
in the movie “ the ring”.

3. Another branding example is the “RINGS” the whole point
of the title is to make the audience think about the movie
when they see the title, it has clear relativity to the rings
with quotes linking with the movie, and designs in the title
relate straight to the movie.
Company logos are very important when it comes to a
trailer, as it helps with the marketing of the movie, as when
the trailer it is released it is very conventional you see who
was involved in the process of making the movie.
Company logos are very good for the marketing of the
movie as it shows the audience who was involved in the
process of the movie which the audience can decide or not
whether it looks good due to what the companies have
been involved in producing previously.
An example of this is king kong skull island the company logos, reveal specific
characteristics about the movie such as its going to full of action this
is revealed as legendary were involved in the production and the
movies legendary produce are normally full of action examples of
these movies “ The Great Wall, 10,000 BC, man of steel, godzilla
etc.
These movies are all full with action, so the audience would know
seeing this brand the movie will be exciting. Some production
companies involved in the production you may not know such as
tencent pictures, but this company might of been the main producer
of the movie, and from this point if the movie is good, “tencent
pictures” might get a good name when it comes to producing other
movies. Whereas other production names involved in the movie
reveal straight away that it is going to be a good movie. Like in king
kong the first production company revealed was the biggest warner
brothers. The revealing of the company logos are also related to the
genre and style of the movie, so in the trailer for king kong the
company logo are revealed in link with a scene in the movie, seeing
as the movie is set in the 60’s/70’s they use a old fashioned
projector to reveal the logos, the quality of the logos are also old
fashion to suit the theme, like the warner brothers logo, they use the
old fashion warner brothers logo to suit the theme.

4. The production company involved in the rings was “paramount studios” a very big company
logo, which also lets the audience know that it is going to be a good movie seeing all the
previous movies they have been involved in. such as forrest gump, transformers, shrek, the
godfather and many more. Paramount studios are known for fantastic movies. With the ring,
there was a twist put on to
paramount studios to relate to the
movie, this was making it flicker, like
the tape does in the ring, the colour
scheme is change as well as the
stars to a ring to relate to the style of
the Rings movie.
Another example of a company logo
is in captain america's civil war plus
any other marvel movie, the
branding revealed by logo shows
the audience it's going to be a
fantastic movie jammed pack with action. Marvel always go through books of comic book
scenes to show where the
story origin is from, marvel is
one of the largest movie
franchises where people
instantly know the movie
they are going to watch , will
be enjoyable. There is
always lots of build up to a
marvel movie, as its part of
the marketing technique as
it creates major tension for
the people who now have to
wait for it to come out.
Another example is cloudy
with a chance of meatballs
2, they relate the movie
theme to the production
company involved, as the
first movie is about food
falling out of the sky, they
use concept for the
company logo, were a
banana knocks lady liberty
of her step. This is a great
relation to brand with the movie.

5. Music and sound are very key in trailers to create tension in the movie, it is conventional for
a trailer to have music and other sounds in the trailer as it adds feelings and atmosphere
wanting to be displayed and outputted on to the audience. In the trailer the rings , they use a
lot of non diegetic and diegetic sounds, diegetic sounds to add tension in the movie, like
matching the sounds to actions happening in the movie lie right in the beginning of the trailer
you have a woman wrecking her house to try and stop samara coming through her TV and
get it, non diegetic is used add extra tension to make it more jumpy and dramatic, for
example when they use narration as they go through the 7 days, but the main use is diegetic
as the characters need to hear everything going on, the screaming etc etc. it also adds
tension as you hear things such as choking, cracking which can make the audience feel
uncomfortable adding to the scariness of the movie.
Another example is in King Kong were they also use a mixture of diegetic and non-diegetic
sounds and music to add to the tension, diegetic noises used in the trailer where things like
monster screams and screeches, roars, crashes, bangs and others like music. The music
that was played “bad moon rising” was to relate to theme of the song a quite lively song,
which was used in the vietnam war to get soldiers pumped up for war, this was to relate to
the era of the movie.

6. The other sounds are usually music which is used to add tension and create drama for the
scenes, like when Kong roars or when he smashes and destroys the helicopters, non
diegetic sounds were used to add more to what’s going on in the trailer like when kong rises
from the fire, staring straight at samuel jackson in the movie you hear violins going into a
high pitch something you would expect to hear in a horror or suspense, as the music is very
sinister. Which is the whole point of the added sound or music in the trailer to suit the
climaxes of the action occurring to intensify the scenes. There is not a lot of synchronous
sound in trailers as in the production they want
to use non and diegetic sounds to emphasize
the scenes.
Another trailer example is the great wall, in
this they use a lot of non-diegetic sounds
and music to add to the tension to the
trailer, the music suits the trailer as it is a
lot of drum banging relating to the time and place it is set in the diegetic sounds in this are
match on sound such as the monster roars etc. the music is very fast pace which fits in with

7. the trailer as there is a battle going on, which is why fast pace music is used to add tension
and to create an atmosphere.

8. green band is an all-green graphic at the beginning of the trailer. Until April 2009, these cards
indicated that they had been approved for "all audiences" and often included the movie's MPAA
rating. This signified that the trailer adheres to the standards for motion picture advertising
outlined by the MPAA, which include limitations on foul language and violent, sexual, or
otherwise objectionable imagery. In April 2009, the MPAA began to permit the green band
language to say that a trailer had been approved for "appropriate" audiences, meaning that the
material would be appropriate for audiences in theaters, based on the content of the film they
had come to see. In May 2013, the MPAA changed the trailer approval band from "for
appropriate audiences" to "to accompany this feature" but only when accompanying a feature
film; for bands not accompanying a feature film the text of the band remained the same. The font
and style of the text on the graphic bands (green and red) was changed as well at the time the
green band was revised in 2013.
Trailers that do not adhere to these guidelines may be issued a red band, which indicates
approval for only "restricted" or "mature" audiences, as These trailers may include nudity,
profanity or other material deemed inappropriate for children.

9. Credits and release dates are also in important in
trailers, as credits let the audience know who played in the movie, who was part of the crew
involved in making it, who the music was by etc etc. as when normally watching a movie you can
normally tell whether it’s going to be good depending on who has a starring role in it and who is
part of the producing side of the movie, such as “Steven spielberg” when you hear that he has
directed the movie you are watching, it should be fantastic( in my opinion). However though most
trailers do not reveal the credits in the trailer they normally do this only in the movie as it is a
unconvention to do so, but on the other hand some trailers do go against this convention and
show the credits such as “Don’t
Hang Up” it shows the credits as
the end revealing the cast and
crew involved in the production
of the movie, it also shows the
company logos of the different
production involved in making
the movie. Another example is
the great wall which also shows
the credits at the end of the
trailer to show the actors involved and the
crew which took part in the production,
Release dates are important when it
comes to a movie as they need to be
released at the right time to make sure the production makes as much money as possible and
also to suit the genre of the movie, like a horror movie it is a convention for a horror movie to be
released near halloween, such as Rings which is released on the 28th of october, some
productions might also look at the audience’s time preferences, to see when would be the best
time for them to go to the cinema and watch the movie. Like half terms, are the best time for
teenagers and children to be free and many will go and watch a big movie they may want to see
, that is in the cinema. An example of this was the great wall and john wick 2 were both released
during the february half term in the UK. some movies also are released to match previous movies

10. before them like King Kong, having two movies before the 2017 release, the link they share is
that they’re all released around the late march
times
The equilibrium theory is a convention in trailers two examples of this is King Kong and Get Out,
the reason being they follow the 4 basic steps to Todorov’s theory,( which was introduced in
1969) the story must start off with a equilibrium, where basically everything is normal now this
can mean a lot of things like the walking dead the fact that there is zombies everywhere and they
go by fighting for their lives everyday is a equilibrium, it’s basically the normal day to day lives of
the characters in the story, in King Kong they are on a military mission, mapping out an
undiscovered island, and Get Out is about a girlfriend introducing her boyfriend to her parents.
The story then hits a disruption, where everything goes wrong, in King Kong, this is where he
shows up and starts destroying the helicopters, and in Get Out, it’s where the main character
starts notice things going on at the parents house which are not normal. It then must go into the
recognition of the disruption, King Kong the realisation kicks in when they find out what they are
actually hear for and in Get Out, the main character realises when they try to do to him what they
had already been doing to all the other black people before him. The last stage of Todorov’s
theory is the attempt to repair what has occurred, in King Kong this is where the army try to fight
back, and in Get Out it is also when he tried to fight for his life.
This is the 4 way process to the Todorov theory in a trailer.
Another thing they use in trailers is dramatic irony, which is when the audience knows something
is going to happen before the actors for example in Get Out the audience can already tell
something is going on and that something is going to happen to main the character before he
even knows it’s going to happen