Research into Similar Products: Characteristics of a Film Trailer

For a film trailer there are usually different characteristics which are used to gain the film's chosen demographic. knowing the film's genre will help to know what type of soundtrack or score should be suitable for the trailer in that genre. Although many films are different they still follow the same generic codes when it comes to trailers. Before looking at the codes and conventions I researched into the industry standard for a movies trailer. From my research Hollywood, MPAA ( Motion Picture Association of America) and CARA (The Classification and Rating Administration) all state that films should be between 90 seconds to 2 minutes. Some films can exceed this and go to 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Looking at Films made by the BBC, such as 'The Sense of an Ending' and 'Their Finest', I found that these trailers reside between 2 minutes - 2 minutes 30 seconds.

Usually a film will have various trailers. They would first have a teaser trailer which is about 20 - 30 seconds long and then an official trailer which will last around 2 minutes. These trailers will show more content to the film and would get the audience excited for what is to come. Trailers should never reveal too much of the films plot to the audience, as if this was to happen then audiences would be less inclined to watch the film as they are aware of the story line and the plot of the film. 

Although these three films are different in terms of Genre each of these are not above 2 minutes 30 seconds, and if the are its because the BBFC will provide guidance before the film trailer begins to inform the audience who should be watching this film which takes about 6 seconds. Therefore the film trailers here are between 2 minutes and 2 minutes 30 even though the Genres are completely different.

• The film immediately introduces us to our main protagonist(s). The actors playing these character may be a selling point for the film. People who know the actor or follow his or her work may be more likely to see the film if they are familiar with or admire the actor/actress. If the characters is likeable or relatable they may feel they have something in common with the character which would engage the audience before viewing the film.
• The Film production Logo pops up either just after some dialogue and a basic introduction to one of the characters or directly at the beginning of the trailer before anything is shown. This will inform the audience who produced and distributed the film to the audience. Some audience  members may base if they watch a film on what film company is involved with its production. This will determine if someone is interested or not. The big six are the biggest film conglomerates in the world. These include:

Warner Bros. Pictures
20th Century Fox.
Paramount Pictures
Universal Pictures
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Walt Disney Studios

• The film title will usually be at the end of the trailer which can be decorated, such as Thor/ Ragnarok has, to create a more memorable appearance for the film and allow the film to remain in the audiences mind. Throughout the trailer there may be reviews that come up. For example. La La Land and The Witch both have reviews and comments from film critics and newspapers. This will create a great expectation for audience members and would make them more likely to see the film as they want to know what makes this film so good?
•  Film trailer's sound effects and music is a crucial part to a trailer as it can create tension for specific genres such as a thriller. Using Soundtracks and Sound effects that should be suitable for a specific genre type or narrative. Voice overs are also very effective too, which helps summarize the plot in the trailers time limit. Sound would be non - diegetic and added in post production except for dialogue unless its was a voice over 

Now I have looked deeper into film trailers i can now decide what i want to feature in my trailer generally. First I must research into genre and see what specific film trailers look like based on their genre. Overall I have found out quite a lot from researching into film trailers. I didn't realise the effect certain aspects have on audience members, such as the text used and Actors used. These are just two examples of how film companies try to lure audience members to see their film and will be something I am heavily considering to make use of in my trailer once i have the genre and plot line created and refined. I will look at more film trailers and analyse them individually looking at them scene by scene.