Conventions of a trailer

A trailer is a product that is used to advertise and promote a film to a potential audience. When looking at film trailers there are some conventions that we expect to see in a successful trailer such as;

Sound- Music in trailers are key to feature film trailers, giving the audience a sense of the mood, pace and genre of the film as a whole, combined with moving image can create a variety of atmospheres.

Voice over -  A voice over can be used to tell the story and aid the audience understanding of the action on screen . However this has become a less common feature in trailers over the years.

Short clips - The trailer consists of short clips edited using jump cuts, these sequence of clips show fragments of the whole plot not just setting the scene like an opening sequence. These clips are not always in chronological order allowing the audience to be unaware of the whole story line but understanding what the film is about, the trailer should make the audience want to find out what actually happens in the film rather than get everything from the trailer.


Production company logo - Production company logos can draw in audiences because of their reputation. For example Disney is known for making good quality family films that can be trusted to be worth viewing. A production company logo may also give an indication to the genre of the film from association, such as Film4 you would expect a gritty social realism film. The logo can also indicate the genre of the film by being adapted. Such as in the Harry Potter films the Warner Brothers logo was adapted.

Text - Depending on the film, there are a variety of levels of text used, some using the minimum of film title and release date and others stretching to names of the main cast, especially if this will actor will attract a larger audience, or even  on screen text that breaks down the plot for the viewer. If the director is known for success in other films, their name may appear in the trailer, in some cases it is presented as 'the director of'

Character Introduction - In the trailer the main characters are introduced, the audience begins to learn their relevance to the story and relationship with others


Editing - In trailers editing is mostly fast paced to allow a large amount of clips to be included in the trailer and show off the film, however a common technique is beginning with longer clips to build suspense and then use short clips

Social Conventions- A new convention in trailers is that we are starting to see links to social networks and even hashtags that fans can use to talk about the film, these are often in the hope that many people will use the hashtag and promote the film to their social media followers.

In trailers, conventions are usually typical to the genre so you would expect to see different conventions from each. By recognizing these conventions the audience can understand the genre of the film.

The importance of a good trailer being able to convey to the audience the mood of the film and what it will be about, this can be seen with this fan made trailer where The Harry Potter series is portrayed as a Teen Comedy, this has been achieved simply by a change in music and editing and the selection of the clips used.

In a trailer we expect to be told why we should watch the film, and especially why it is worth paying the money to see it in the cinema when it is so easy to access films for free online. This is why Trailers are so important as part of the promotion of a film, due to the rise in piracy, trailers need to work harder to make an audience want to watch the film in a cinema rather than the comfort of their own home.

- Samantha