Trailer Research

The first stage was to commit time into researching the general conventions of film trailers, the exploration into film trailers (whether that's international, teaser, feature or cinematic trailers) is vital and ensures that my partner and I complete a successful trailer that will meet up to viewer prospects. Without primary research collected to analyse and evaluate each convention used in similar film genres that we wish to compete with we would struggle in creating an effective film trailer, without it we’d have to simply rely on already learned film trailers and the outcome would obviously be less successful. Reviewing different film trailers used for different purposes ignited the idea into creating a simple TV trailer that lasts around 2:30 minutes long, when analysing trailers categorized in the thriller genre it seemed that most fitted into this time bracket, thus suggesting that we had to follow the convention. It became evident that the genre we wished to produce was a thriller as this genre was the most frequently viewed when we were simply researching what we wanted to do. Thriller films have the greatest impact on viewers and I feel to provide more suspense, viewer pleasure and greater thought processes. For a beneficial result we ensured that we had reviewed more than one genre of film during research, to broaden our ideas, develop existing concepts and choose a definite genre that we wished to proceed with; this ranged from; romantic comedy, spoofs to horrors.

After research had took place as stated before it became evident that our mind-set was completely focused on thriller genres as we found the trailers most gripping creating a sense of excitement, stimulation and pleasure. We concluded that the research had been deeply beneficial and was a significant source to provide a deeper understanding in trailer research. The typical thriller genre includes the beginning, which reveals the storyline of the film, the suspense just before the end that acts as the cliff-hanger that essentially makes the viewer want to watch the film. From researching established film trailers I have picked up the common features that appear in them as usually thriller films ensure they create the same viewer emotion which is to create suspense, tension and excitement.

Additionally each trailer that I’ve viewed, especially in terms of the thriller genre show the different characters who pan out to fit the protagonist/antagonist role where usually the protagonist generically becomes the hero. Through research it has developed our awareness of what conventions are genuinely needed within a trailer; we gathered that we will have to carefully pan out a sequential storyline to ensure it makes sense and that the viewers are on board. The limited time provided for a trailer (usually around 2:30 minutes) suggests that dialogue from characters will have to be clear, concise and relevant to again ensure that the viewers are on board about what our film is about.

Furthermore, research has allowed Becka and I to have a deeper insight in how a successful film trailer is created and all the conventions used throughout. Without taking time to research we’d have limited knowledge on how a trailer is thoroughly developed for viewer pleasure, we will now apply our learned knowledge when producing our own movie trailer.