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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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: 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.
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