Initial Research into How Trailers Work - James

DREDD

http://youtu.be/KFDEBnHSSmQ

The overall message of the trailer is to encourage audiences to come and see the film and see if Dredd is successful in re-establishing peace. Trailers are effectively adverts for the film and operate in roughly the same way- they promise the audience a good experience in the same way as an advert for a product promises the audience a good result if they use the product.

The language signs that suggest this is a trailer are the voiceover, the company logos, the title slides and credits, the fast cutting in non-chronological order and the coming soon slide. These are all common formal features of trailers and help the audience recognise what they are watching. they will all have to figure in our trailer.

The narrative is established through action, character, pace, problem setting (Barthes' hermeneutic code) and dramatic dialogue making the situation clear. I think you can see most of Barthes' codes in operation here but hinted at very briefly - in particular the setting of obstacles for the hero to overcome. This will be a key feature of our trailer.

The genre is established through the music, the setting, the costume and props (guns etc) and the dialogue - this is important so that the audience can make genre-based predictions from the limited information they are given.

JEEPERS CREEPERS

http://youtu.be/ouUO42AkZV0

Overall message of the trailer is come and see this film to find out if the kids escape from the killer.

It is identified as a trailer through the fast cutting, the titles and credits, the opening screen and the release date and the cliffhanger ending - again, the common formal features. This trailer really reminds me how important the strong ending is as that is most likely what the audience will remember.

The narrative is established through identifying character roles, the danger (dark, the figure in the distance etc) and the hinting at the main action. I always thought trailers were summaries of the main action, and I think some are, but I am also starting to see some that give brief glimpses of action without you being sure of quite what you've seen. I think this is a better kind of trailer and will be more the style we are aiming for.

The genre is easy to identify through the opening dialogue ("they never found the car"), blood, bodies, music, sound effects, title slides ("what's eating you?"). Horror is popular so genre identification is important - some people will decide to see a film just because they like the genre.

OVERALL

Trailers work by:

- clearly establishing that this is a trailer through recognised formal signs
- indicating the genre and the main sense of the narrative
- inviting the audience to come and see the film through posing a main question / cliffhanger
- hinting - all these trailers gave less away than I thought. It is common to say all the best bits of films are found in trailers, but I think the key is when you see these highlights without any kind of context - you are not quite sure what you are seeing and when it might happen. Not sticking too closely to the chronological order of the film is therefore going to be really important.