A trailer is an advertisement or
a commercial for a feature film that will be exhibited in the future at a
cinema. The term "trailer" comes from their having originally been
shown at the end of a feature film screening .That practice did not last long,
because patrons tended to leave the theatre after the films ended, but the name
has stuck. Trailers are now shown before the film. Trailers consist of a series
selected shots from the film being advertised. Since the purpose of the trailer
is to attract an audience to the film, these excerpts are usually drawn from
the most exciting, funny, or otherwise noteworthy parts of the film but in
abbreviated form. For this purpose the scenes are not necessarily in the order
in which they appear in the film. A trailer has to achieve that in less than 2
minutes and 30 seconds, the maximum length allowed by the MPAA.
When making a film trailer, producers have to be very careful to not tell/show everything that happens in the film. It is always a good idea to leave the audience/viewer wanting more, this way they will go and see the full film. Trailers have to blend with the same genre as the actual film otherwise it won’t make sense.
There are many different genres
for film trailers, these are action, adventure, comedy, crime and gangster, drama,
epics/historical, horror, musicals/dance, science fiction, war, westerns, chic flicks, detective and
mystery, fantasy, melodramas, road films, romance, sports, super natural,
thriller/suspense and many more.
Here in a little more detail is
some of the main genres in film:
(http://www.filmsite.org/subgenres.html)
Action - Action films usually include high energy,
big-budget physical stunts and chases, possibly with rescues, battles, fights,
escapes, destructive crises (floods, explosions, natural disasters, fires,
etc.), non-stop motion, spectacular rhythm and pacing, and adventurous, often
two-dimensional 'good-guy' heroes (or recently, heroines) battling 'bad guys' -
all designed for pure audience escapism. Includes the James Bond 'fantasy'
spy/espionage series, martial arts films.
Adventure - Adventure films are usually exciting
stories, with new experiences or exotic locales, very similar to or often
paired with the action film genre. They can include traditional swashbucklers,
serialized films, and historical spectacles (similar to the epics film genre),
searches or expeditions for lost continents, "jungle" and
"desert" epics, treasure hunts, disaster films, or searches for the
unknown.
Thriller/suspense – Thrillers are often hybrids with other
genres - there are action-thrillers, crime-caper thrillers, western-thrillers,
film-noir thrillers, even romantic comedy-thrillers. Another closely-related
genre is the horror film genre. Thriller and suspense films are virtually
synonymous and interchangeable categorizations. They are types of films known
to promote intense excitement, suspense, a high level of anticipation,
ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, anxiety, and nerve-wracking tension.
Comedy – Comedies are light-hearted plots
consistently and deliberately designed to amuse and provoke laughter (with
one-liners, jokes, etc.) by exaggerating the situation, the language, action,
relationships and characters. This section describes various forms of comedy
through cinematic history, including slapstick, screwball, spoofs and parodies,
romantic comedies, black comedy (dark satirical comedy), and more.
Science fiction – Sci-fi films are often quasi-scientific,
visionary and imaginative - complete with heroes, aliens, distant planets,
impossible quests, improbable settings, fantastic places, great dark and
shadowy villains, futuristic technology, unknown and unknowable forces, and
extraordinary monsters ('things or creatures from space'), either created by
mad scientists or by nuclear havoc.
Below are some examples of recent
film trailers which have been shown on TV, online and in cinemas before the
film starts:
House At The End Of The Street - Seeking
a fresh start, newly divorced Sarah (Oscar-nominee Elisabeth Shue) and her daughter
Elissa (Oscar-nominee Jennifer Lawrence) find the house of their dreams in a
small, upscale, rural town. But when startling and unexplainable events begin
to happen, Sarah and Elissa learn the town is in the shadows of a chilling
secret. Years earlier, in the house next door, a daughter killed her parents in
their beds, and disappeared - leaving only a brother, Ryan (Max Thieriot), as
the sole survivor. Against Sarah's wishes, Elissa begins a relationship with
the reclusive Ryan - and the closer they get, the deeper they're all pulled
into a mystery more dangerous than they ever imagined.
Paranormal Activity 4 - The
Paranormal Activity film series continues with this fourth entry from Paramount
Pictures and returning directors of the previous film, Henry Joost and Ariel
Schulman.
The Apparition - When frightening
events start to occur in their home, young couple Kelly (Ashley Greene) and Ben
(Sebastian Stan) discover they are being haunted by a presence that was
accidentally conjured during a university parapsychology experiment.
The Pact - After their mother
passes away, sisters Nicole and Annie reluctantly return to their childhood home
to pay their last respects. While staying overnight in the house, the sisters
sense a mysterious presence in their midst: noises startling them in the night,
objects moving about, a fallen picture of an unknown woman posed next to their
mother. Annie begins experiencing a series of intense and disturbing dreams --
visions that lead her to uncover something terrible about her mother's past
that is finally revealing itself.
The Possession - Inspired by Los
Angeles Times writer Leslie Gornstein's article "A Jinx in a Box,"
this horror film from Ghost House Pictures and director Ole Bornedal (Night
watch) tells the tale of a broken family that comes under attack from a
malevolent supernatural entity of Jewish folklore. Shortly after her parents
(Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Kyra Sedgwick) divorce, a young girl purchases an
ornate antique box at a yard sale. In the weeks that follow, the young girl
forms an intense fixation on the box, her behaviour growing increasingly
bizarre as she falls into the grip of a diabolical apparition. When the girl's
father discovers that the relic is in fact a holding cell for the disconnected
soul of a deceased person who has been denied entry into the afterlife and
needs a human host to inhabit, he fights to rid her of the evil that threatens
to consume her body and soul.
The lighting within a horror
movie is essential. In horror movies/trailers, the lightening cannot be bright
and summery colours as this will not give the effect of a horror movie,
although this type of lighting will be very good for romance film trailers. In
a horror trailer the lighting is for the majority of the time is dark and dim,
quite gothic looking. This type of lighting gives off a scary dark feel to what
the viewer is watching. When an area is dark, you cannot see what is about to
happen or if something is going to take place or jump out at the screen, this
causes a feeling of suspense.
From watching a number of horror
film trailers, I have found that for each trailer the clothing the so called
‘scary’ characters are wearing either seem to be white clothing or dirty
coloured clothing such as blacks, greys and browns. Props are also sometimes
used in a horror movie trailer as they are used in the actual full films.
Recently the films that are out
at the moment, for instance, House at the end of the street and Paranormal
Activity as well as The Possession are all set in the same location which is
houses. In my opinion I think setting a horror film in a house is a very good
idea as when you’re watching it, it makes you think about your own house. The
mise-en-scene can also link with the location, as within the mise-en-scene it
may show objects such as a barn, garden shed, pond, furniture,
images/pictures/paintings etc.
In horror film trailers, a range
of different shots are used. Close-ups are often used to show the expression of
a character and to show their emotion. A long-shot/establishing shot is used to
show the location and surroundings of where the film is set. A body shot would
be used to show a person or a set of people together.
There are only a few characters
shown in a trailer, as a trailer is like a mini version of the actual film.
Characters can consist of the enemy, the hero, kids, parents, pets, bad guy and
good guy.
Makeup plays a huge part
in making a horror film/trailer scary. Without this then the film will not
look scary. Image is very important within film as you aim to give off the
correct impression. Below are a few examples of makeup design for horror films.
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