Trailer Conventions

Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

It begins with a diegetic voice of Legolas explaining something horrific about the antagonists in the film and how they’re becoming stronger. Suddenly fast paced editing creating a montage effect while a non-diegetic voice over occurs stating “the end has come”. The New Line Cinema logo comes on the screen revealing the institution. The main characters are then all shown in different locations whilst cutting to each other revealing the different intertwining plot lines such as a war and carrying ‘the ring’, where different characters split up and complete different objectives.  Showing the plot is a common convention in films as it indicates and highlights what to expect in the film. Orchestral music is played in the background which is common for adventure films as it makes everything more atmospheric. The antagonist is then revealed which happens a lot in film trailers.

The release date is then shown while as a tagline saying ‘The Journey Ends’ appears stating it is the final part of the film. The editing speed picks up once again acting as another little montage revealing a lot of action sequences which is typical of adventure and action related films. There is some use of non-diegetic voice over which appears to use dialogue from the film to emphasize the story as well as the music which speeds up and hits a crescendo. The film’s title appears on the screen against a black background which then gets replaced with the release date of the film and the website for it, which are typical conventions of film trailers. They are used to encourage the audience to find out more information about the film and when it is being shown, as well as giving them a better, more connected experience after they've seen the film.

Dark Knight

A hero, villain and damsel in distress are all presented, which also links with Propp’s theory of characters. Strauss’ theory of binary opposition is also used with night and day, evil and good. Plot devices are presented to intrigue the audience and give narrative exposition such as the Joker. Slight humour is peppered throughout to provide variety.

The off screen voice of the joker is unsettling and provides a voice over like narration. Enigmas as to how Batman will fight back and overcome adversity. Other common conventions include institutional information, release date, website and the film title with ominous music at the end.

Pulp Fiction

Music from the soundtrack is used to lighten the mood as a lot of the trailer is about violence and death, whereas the soundtrack is quite upbeat, and a voice over talks about the various awards the film has received, with words like loyalty and betrayal in red font on a black background signifying death, murder and blood. Using words like ‘loyalty’ and ‘betrayal’ to give an idea of the plot.

There is also some humour throughout, with frequent soundtrack changes to give variety, and the voice over says the main cast showing it as ‘all-star’ with Uma Therman, Samuel L Jackson and John Travolta and many more. The title of the film is shown at the end along with gun shots that we hear with flashes over the title. Institutional information is shown at the end, and the film is made to look ‘retro’.

Once Upon a Time in America

The trailer begins with a voice over explaining the emotions the film brings out for the audience focusing on the story, showing romance, crime and drama. An orchestral soundtrack plays throughout showing different emotion and ambiguity, leaving it to the audience’s imagination as to what will happen. Propp’s character theory is shown with a hero, the Princess or Prize (the woman he loves) and maybe a false hero to keep the audience guessing.

Robert De Niro is mentioned as a big name actor and then the stylized font is shown a long with the voice over to reinforce it so the audience won’t forget. Then he says ‘rated R’ and institutional information is shown along with more actors and the director.

Avatar

Lots of narrative exposition showing the Avatar race and tense music punctuates the fades and transitions to different scenes. Lots of locations are used to show how big and epic the film is, which helps establish the genre of the film as these are common elements of the genre of sci-fi action, whilst also showing Todorov’s narrative theory with an equilibrium and then disruption also providing enigma, due to the fact he is now an Avatar.

‘From the makers of’ is also used to give familiarity and a reliability to the film, as big successful franchises such as Alien and Terminator are used, so the audience feel more insured the film will be worth watching. James Cameron is mentioned several times, big name actors are shown, and at the end the title is shown along with a website address. 20th Century Fox and the film maker are shown at the beginning, and the film rating information.

The Thing (2011)

The Thing (2011) is a horror/sci-fi cross over and is a prelude to The Thing(1982). The trailer begins rather slow paced and reveals the institutional logo which is Universal studios. A non-diegetic voice over of a male figure occurs at the start of the film in a rather hushed tone, but it is using dialogue from the film to narrate the story. The voice over begins to explain what is happening and straight away explains the plot of the film, about a creature being discovered. It then cuts to the main protagonist, or whom we assume is due to the camera being focused on her more. A cut to the ice in Antarctica where many people are gathered, yet the camera is focused on the ice revealing a creature trapped inside of it. Due to it not being human, you assume that it is the antagonist of the film. They begin to have fun and relax after finding the creature and begin to play the guitar, but the trailer edits to the creatures ice block which has thawed out while the guitar becomes more high pitch and distorted making it more ominous. Then the characters begin to be attacked/killed which is a typical convention of horror films, as well as showing lots of blood, panic and suspicion upon the members. 

The editing gets more fast paced while the tempo of the music speeds up. A tagline then appears saying 'In A Place Where There Was Nothing. They Found. Something' to help increase the atmosphere of the film but also allows the last tagline to dissolve the 'some' out of 'something' to create the title of the film. During the tagline, a montage of the film is shown in between each line which gives the audience a feeling of wanting more, which then ends with the film title coming up with the website address and information about the soundtrack which is a common convention in any film trailer. The reason for this is that it promotes the film and allows people to go home, search the film title and find a webpage of it immediately and share it with their friends on social networking sites allowing the film to have free publicity.

My Wife is a Gangster

Institutional information is shown at the start, going straight into an action scene with rock music to emphasize how intense the fight scene is with over the top style fighting. A voice over is used with pink and blue text on a white background which juxtaposes the brutality previously seen.

Equilibrium and disruption is also shown with the two getting married but the Wife becomes a gangster, as well as action, there is also humour shown as it doesn’t take itself too seriously, the woman being more manly than the husband etc. 'Asian box office smash hit’ may convince western audiences to see it as it has been successful.

American Pie

American Pie: The Reunion is a comedy film and a sequel to a film franchise. The trailer begins slow paced at the beginning but then speeds up as soon as what the film is becomes clear. The music then cuts to a non-diegetic song which has a fast tempo and seems rather upbeat. It helps give the impression that it is quite a modern and popular song which could attract a modern audience and create the effect of a fun and people having a great time. Then straight cuts and ellipse edits are used to change shots revealing all the different main characters and ones which are going to effect the film. Due to it being a comedy film, the trailer involves some of the comedy moments in the film using both dialogue and actual clips. The institutional logo of the film then came up showing that Universal Studios produced it. It then reveals romance in the film by playing some soft, low tempo'd music whilst showing couples together which allows you to get a feel of the narrative and sub-genre of the film.

 The films name then comes up following the basic conventions. Finally, it ends with the website address and links to social networking sites to allow the audience to search up on the film and share it with their friends and allowing it to go viral.

Institutional information is common throughout and must be included legally with film ratings, directors, actors etc. which can also help sell the film and give reliability as well as familiarity to the audience as they may have seen their past films or follow their careers.

Todorov’s narrative theory is also shown; some trailers present more narrative than others, like Pulp fiction shows quite a bit of the story as does Avatar. But Once Upon a time in America shows barely anything, these can both be quite effective methods of reaching audiences and making them interested.

Trailers also show the main characters, adhering to Proppian character roles with usually a hero and villain, prize and helper as it is shown in the Dark Knight with Batman as the hero, Alfred the helper and Joker the villian. However, some show less than others to present mystery and enigma.

All the trailers try to show variety with the scenes they choose e.g. humour, romance, drama and action, they also have a variety of shots, dialogue, sound effects and CGI etc.

Binary opposition tends to be shown in darker films like the Dark Knight with good and evil, or juxtapositions in other films like My Wife is a Gangster between action and seriousness with light hearted elements.

Trailers also like to show off the film with awards and nominations, as well as previous films and big franchises that the director has done, big name actors and studios, also text to show what the story explores and what emotions it brings out.

Enigmas help to give mystery and intrigue into the film which makes it interesting, and the fast paced cuts and epic music combine making most of the film trailers analysed appealing.

While use of some common conventions is good, the structure of a trailer is sometimes very predictable, and some of the trailers could benefit from less action orientated scenes e.g. Once Upon a time in America uses less action orientated scenes but hints at them with the voiceover and a shot of a gun. In addition, most trailers use the best scenes in the film, so when it is seen in full, it is nowhere near as good. Although this does what the trailers intended goal is which is to bring in a wider audience and attract people to watch the film.

Interactive trailers could engage audiences to find out more information and give more entertainment value. This could be done on Youtube through annotations and links that appear on the trailer at a certain time which perhaps takes you to other videos linking to that event. Or seen in Super 8 with a video game attached, and Fast Five which had trailers for each character as they appeared in the main trailer. Websites like IGN also analyse and break down trailers to show parts which the audience may not have seen, with clues to the films plot which are well hidden. Therefore attention to detail in trailers is key to get audiences excited.

Exploring Structural Theory

Roland Barthes

Roland Bathes was a French literary theorist, philosopher and critic. His ideas explored a diverse range of fields and he influenced the development of schools of theory such as structuralism, semiotics and social theory. His theory on media codes though was the most important to the media in structural terms.

His media codes were the Hermeneutic Code (Enigma code) and the Proairetic Code (Action Code). The Hermeneutic Code refers to any element within a story which isn’t fully explained making it become a mystery to the viewer. The purpose of using these is to keep the audience guessing and keeping them involved which helps create a better atmosphere with the enigma finally being revealed at the end or in some cases not revealed at all leaving the audience to make their own conclusions. An example of the Hermeneutic Code can simply be a monster in a horror film. The creature will be hidden a lot of the time and at the end of the film it would be revealed as revealing it beforehand could ruin the shock of it and element of surprise. The Proairetic Code on the other hand are utilised to build tension, referring to any other action or even that indicates something else is going to happen such as someone picking up a gun which makes you assume there will be some action and violence in it.

                                                                                                                   

Vladimir Propp

Vladimir Propp was born in 1895 in Russia. He was a media theorist who analysed over 100 folk tales and realised that certain characters appeared repeatedly in all of the different tales. His theory is useful because it avoids treating characters as if they are individuals and reminds us that they are merely constructs as well as the fact that some characters are just there to progress the narrative.

The recurring characters which are commonly used are the hero, villain, the helper and the damsel in distress although they are some others as well as some of them being tweaked such as a heroine instead of a hero. The hero and villain are the most common Proppian character types mostly because it helps involve competition in the film which makes it more interesting to watch, as well as following the typical fairy tale stories. There is also sometimes a damsel in distress but this isn’t necessary in some cases.

Tzvetan Todorov
Tzvetan Todorov is a Franco-Bulgarian philosopher. He lived in France since 1963 and writes books and essay about literary theory, thought history and culture theory.

Todorov created a theory which proposed that all narrative structures contain five core stages. These are a state of equilibrium, a disruption of order, a recognition/realisation that this disorder has occurred, an attempt to resolve the disruption and a restoration of the equilibrium or a new equilibrium in cases which the past cannot be brought back (such as murder). So for instance, in an action film such as Die Hard, he is going to see his family on Christmas (Equilibrium). The building he is in gets took hostage (a disruption). John McClane then realises this has happened (recognition of the disruption). He then goes to save the building from the terrorists (attempt to resolve the resolution). Finally it ends as the building has been freed and he can spend Christmas with his family (Equilibrium).

In most trailers, they’d usually show the film at a state of equilibrium to show everyone that it can be nice and happy which then quickly changes or reveals the disruption. These two elements are common and are nearly shown in every trailer out. Such as action (the bad guys), romance (another lover), spy (conspiracy) etc. They won’t reveal the new equilibrium though as it would reveal the plot of the film and wouldn’t give the audience a reason to watch it.

Claude Levi-Strauss

Claude Levi-Strauss is a French  theologist who came up with the theory of binary oppositions amongst other theories.

The binary opposition theory is the theory that helps us understand where meanings and ideas are helped to be shaped by the human mind. Strauss and Barthes came up with the idea of binary opposites as they came to realise we understand certain words by their opposite, or in this case the ‘binary opposite’. They realised that words purely act as symbols for society's ideas and the meaning of words, therefore, he believed that they was a relationship between opposing ideas.

Some examples of binary oppositions which are commonly shown in film trailers are:

Protagonist vs. antagonist, which is a common binary opposition and is often shown in a large amount of films and trailers to act as a disruption (such as what Todorov proposed).

Dark vs. light, which can be shown in action/thriller/horror films.

Good vs. evil, which are commonly shown in genres such as action, superheroes and thrillers.

Past vs. future, this can be shown in Sci-Fi films and history ones, with the most notable one being ‘Back to the Future’. 

Feminine vs. masculine this is particularly seen in horror/ thriller films as females are generally seen as being victims and males are seen to be killers, although this can be swapped around to see women as ‘femme fatales’.

Pure vs. impure as in a lot of romantic films, the antagonist of someones love may be seen as ‘impure’ and be going out against the protagonist who would be seen as a ‘pure’ person.

With these oppositions, it helps the audience identify and relate towards them, even if they don’t know it. It also helps then establish a genre of the film and what to expect within it to gain a larger audience.

John Fiske

John Fiske is a media scholar whose areas of interest included popular culture, mass culture and television studies. According to Fiske, he believes that there is a difference between story and narrative which is evident in films and trailers. The narrative is the aspect of the story shown through the piece of media which therefore can manipulate our ideas and perception of the story. While as the story includes the same aspects but also shows points of the story which don’t follow the continuity which allows the audience to know there is a difference in time between the shots.

Within trailers, the relationship between the story and plot is different slightly due to the main reason for having a trailer is to convince the audience to watch the entire film, therefore they may focus more on the story to grasp the audiences attention, or use narrative more to create an atmosphere and raise some enigmas. For instance, in an action film it may focus more on the story and would reveal some of the plot and scenes of the film such as gun fights and car chases for example E.g. James Bond franchise. While on the other hand, horror films would mostly use narrative to create an eerie atmosphere and raise enigmas, as well as editing the trailer to make it seem faster paced and jumpy.

Welcome!

My name is Kieran Brooks and I do A-level Media Studies at BRGS sixth from. This is my blog to show evidence of my research, planning, shooting and editing of my A2 Production Portfolio - Film Trailer, Website and Poster.