What We Have Learned About Trailers So Far

What have I learnt about trailers so far?

What do the trailers do so the audience know what’s happening?

As we already know, trailers have a different sense of chronology. They are basically a compilation of different scenes from a film. Because the usual chronology is disturbed in a trailer, it is important that the maker of the trailers show clearly to the audience, what is going on. One of the ways they can achieve this is by placing one or more key scenes in e.g. a serious injury, death or an accident. This seems to give the audience something to build around and help make sense of the trailer. They may also include a voiceover in order to describe the key aspects of the movie. Many key characters may also be placed in. Aspects of mise-on-scene may also be included in the trailer which helps create a genre and as described by the theorist ‘Fowler’, our knowledge of genre leads to certain expectations, so in time this will help the audience understand what is going on. Sometimes trailers are chunked thematically, with otherwise unrelated shots given a common theme through e.g dialogue, voiceover, slide.

What is the role of sound?

Sound can have a distinctive role in a trailer as it can help establish a mood, setting or general feel. This gives an understanding of genre. Yet non-diegetic voice overs can also be used as a key aspect of sound which helps describe key events, characters and information. This also gives the audience a greater understanding of what is going on. Dialogue also explains key relationships / who people are.

What is the role of editing?

Editing can be very influential when it comes to the general feel and pace of the trailer. For example, a trailer for an action film will use fast cuts in order to provide a sense of pace and suspense, yet a rom-com may use slower cuts in order to show that it is light hearted. Editing is also key in the fact that is provides the audience with titles that supply key information meaning the audience can gain a greater knowledge of the film that they are watching the trailer for. It needs to generate the tension and interest needed to make the viewer want to see the whole film so often trailers end on a cliffhanger.

George

What I have learnt from trailers

Over the past months through studying and watching trailers I have learnt many things from the production of them to the editing techniques involved. While creating trailers, companies consider hundreds of shots of different scenes that only a certain amount will end up in the full trailer. A full trailer will usually consist of 60 to 90 shots that are moulded into one trailer showing off different events throughout the whole movie. The trailer will not necessarily be shown in a chronological order and will most likely not appear in the same order as the film,  but the audience will be able to make sense of it due to techniques like a voiceover bringing context to the scenes playing. The audience needs to be able to understand the general storyline from the trailer of the full movie so that they are interested and will want to go see the movie when it is released. For a viewer to understand a trailer if it is not chronologically ordered a voiceover may be used which brings plot points and themes to what is happening, The voiceover can start off as a main character in the scene talking and then the voice continues as different scenes are being shown. Or it can be voiced by an outsider, usually male.

Sound is a key element in trailers. Sound can be used to make the viewer understand the emotion behind the current scene of it is a sad or rather a romantic scene or it can be to generate tension or suspense within the trailer where a sequence of scenes leads up to the penultimate action scene at the end. Sound can also be used to bring context to certain scenes within the movie in the form of a voiceover which can start as a main character talking in the trailer progressing to the voiceover carrying on over different scenes or it can just be dialogue that can play over other scenes, so that a lot of information is being given in the most efficient way.

Editing is also a huge part of making a trailer as it is where the producer will decide how a scene will transition into another, whether it will be fast cuts to produce a sense of urgency or the lead up to an action scene. The editing will also decide where certain shots will go and what order they will go in, be it chronologically ordered or not. Editing will decide where the music will be placed and if there is a voiceover where about it will be placed and how long it will run etc. Editing includes what different filters are used over the scene and transitions behind the scenes which could mean that the scene changes to the next through fast cuts or through techniques such as fade to black for either ending scenes or scenes where there is a deep emotional feeling happening.

Overall there are many different techniques that are used to create a trailer whether it is successful or not, that all need to be used in the right way where they all complement each other to provide a clean cut product that will entice and interest the audience and viewers to go and see the full movie. Some trailers will take the best parts from films and display them or some will take some of them so that the movie still provides surprises and will ultimately do well in the box office.

Brendon

Evaluation of Trailer

Overall our attempt at creating a trailer for the first time has helped us establish what we need to do for the final product as we made many mistakes. One of the most noticeable mistakes which we picked up on from the trailer is that we needed more screen time on the other important characters, as  the audience would be able to identify anyone as important apart from the main character due to the lack of the screen time.

We also think that the sound isn’t clear, when the dialogue between the characters’ as there appears to be an echo, which makes the speech unclear in certain parts. Next time we would try to film the trailer in a location, where there would be a less chance of an echo. However, we also need some more dialogue as  the story would not be that clear from such a short piece. Next time we think a voiceover may be more suitable for the trailer, because the audience would have a better knowledge of the film as the voiceover would give the audience a lot more information than just the conversation between characters as it gives them an insight into what is happening in the plot.

The shot of the diary entry needed more screen time as the audience could not read what it said due to the lack of time, therefore they would be missing out information. Maybe next time we would use a title slide to display the diary entry as then that way the audience would be able to read it easily and we would prolong the screen time so they had longer to read it.

Another mistake we made was that we spent too long on the conversation, as in most trailers we have analysed the longest shot we have seen lasts around a few seconds, whereas our longest shot lasts for almost fifteen seconds which is half of the total time the trailer runs. Therefore next time we need to shorten the conversation and have a bigger variety of shots, as it felt more like a mini film than an actual trailer.

The sound in the trailer suited the genre, yet  the lighting and the track didn’t create the right ambience for the film, as it wouldn’t really scare the audience. The lack of music to build up to the end also had a negative effect on the trailer as it didn’t really build any emotion up whatsoever, when the character was attacked. This has shown us that we need to make all the elements of media to create the right audience otherwise it will not work the way we want the audience to perceive the trailer.

However if we had maybe more props to work with then the last scene would have been an effective trailer, but we have to be realistic, and we should not have showed all of that clip, as it wouldn’t have looked like a zombie attacking the main character and therefore would have created a low emotional verisimilitude and distanced the audience.

Finally overall, we have learnt a lot about not what to do for the final trailer and what we need to do to make the trailer effective. We have realised that to make the film believable we have to make sure that the trailer looks believable. One last point to addweI also think that we should keep the camera on the tripod, because as we can see from the bug scene that the shot appears to be shaky, which  makes it look less like a trailer, but more like a home video.

George and Brendon