Film Trailers; A2 Media Studies OCR

1. FILM TRAILERS
Holly Taylor

2. What are film trailers?
• A montage edit of clips from the film, roughly around 2-3 minutes
long in time.
• Include actors names.
• Rough storyline.
Famous film trailers include;
• Cloverfield; due to being very obscure about the film title and what
the storyline actually incoporated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvNkGm8mxiM

3. Purpose of trailers.
• To inform the audience what the film is about; storyline
and genre.
• Promote the film in order to persuade the audience to
watch the film.

4. How do they work and achieve their purpose?
They try to excite the audience so they will watch the film by;
• Featuring the best parts of the film.
• Introducing the characters and the storyline.
• Establish the genre and link to their target audience.
• They do not fully explain the plot therefore in order to find out the
resolution or ending you will need to go see the film in the cinema.
• Also by showing the actors off, it will generate more of a buzz as well
known stars will have followings that will want to see the movie. Also
some actors are known for being in a specific genre of film on
numerous occasions.
• E.g. If Jason Statham was in a new film, it would be obvious to many
who knew of him that he would be in a crime or action thriller film.

5. Who are they for?
A specific target audience i.e
• Teenage boys and girls
• Families
• Couples
• Male
• Female
• Age groups; 16-25, 25-35, 35+
• Specific fans of the genre, e.g. horror.

6. Where do we watch trailers?
• TV; before a related genre programme to the film. After
9pm it is watershed, therefore genres like horror would be
generally shown around this time.
• Online; YouTube (one of the main sites to post the video)
and then it can be shared on social media sites such as
twitter, Facebook etc.
• Cinema; before a related genre of film that is similar to
the trailer.

7. When are they released?
• Typically around 3- 8 months before the actual release
day.
• However can also depend on how anticipated the film is,
generally highly anticipated films release trailers towards
the higher end of the spectrum i.e. 7/8 months before
release.

8. Star Wars
• For example;
• Star wars trailer published in April yet the film is due for
release in December (8 months).
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngElkyQ6Rhs
• This film is generally more anticipated because of its
previous acclaimed films in the saga.
• The last film was 1983; as a result it leaves the huge
audience desperate for new clips/

9. Fifty shades of grey:
• Fifty shades of grey trailer published in July, yet the film
was released in February the following year (7 months).
• This film were generally more anticipated because of the
already established acclaimed book with a huge audience
who were desperate for clips.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfZWFDs0LxA