As I'm doing my teaser trailer for a horror film I decided Scream 4 was an appropriate film to research. I have looked into the different marketing strategies used to advertise the film.
This is the teaser trailer for the film:
(This trailer was found on Youtube)
This teaser trailer uses a lot of fast cut shots, mainly between the main characters. It uses a lot of action and not much dialogue; this means that as soon as the idea of the film has been decided, they can get it out to the audience. In this case, as Scream is a franchise, most people know what it is generally about and it is therefore un-necessary to show much more than a very general outline of the plot and the main characters. The teaser has only really got one set of dialogue, in voiceover form, which is the distinctive voice of 'Scream'. This has been really useful to give me ideas of shot lenghts and what sorts of shots to include.
The website opens to a widescreen view of the theatrical trailer, which is far more in depth than the teaser trailer giving a much clearer idea of the storyline. There is a lot more dialogue and it is a lot longer. There is a clear difference between the two trailers and this has helped to differentiate between teaser and theatrical trailers. The website also gave a link to the Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/#!/Scream4
Posters/billboards:
The billboard is simplistic but eyecatching. As the Scream films are so franchised, loads of details aren't necessary; all that's needed to advertise the long awaited Scream 4 film is the signature 'Scream' motif and the name of the film.
TV Interviews:
This is an interview with Scream 4's star Neve Campbell. Lots of films often use TV interviews with the stars as a way of publicising their film. It can be a really good advertising technique, especially as audiences might particularly like the star and will watch the interview and probably the film for that reason alone.
For our A2 coursework we have to create a teaser trailer so I've done some research into exactly what 'Teaser trailers' are and what they include in order to make mine as good as possible!
A teaser trailer is a trailer that is made, mainly for Blockbusters just to get the idea of the film publicised in it's early days and not necessarily illustrate the actual plot. They often use a lot of action instead of dialogue, especially as sometimes they're made before the film is even filmed.
They're different from 'normal' trailers in many ways which include: trailer length (teasers are often shorter), content (teasers are often more action and less dialogue) and many more.
Teaser trailers are often made and released very early on in the production of the film, sometimes before any filming has even began.
As-well as having done some research into teaser trailers I've decided to find a few examples to analyse so I know exactly what sort of thing I'm going to be working on.
Scream 4 Teaser Trailer (Found on Youtube)
This uses many of the forementioned conventions of a teaser trailer. The trailer is made up largely of a series of quick-cut, fast paced action shots, to engage the audience. As the film is part of a very well known franchise it means that when creating the trailer they could use distinctive elements from the previous films to instantly familiarise and engage the audience. It starts with the very distinctive sound of the phone ringing (exactly how the very first film had started), and is then followed by a shot of the main character and a voiceover of the also extremely distinctive murderer on the phone. The trailer then has a series of very fast-cut shots of most of the main characters, giving the same effect of familiarising the audience. There is very little dialogue in the trailer, instead credits are used to give a general outline of the plot. This is a very typical teaser trailer, providing everything needed to engage the audience, without having to go into depth about the plot, with a very short running time.
Inception Teaser Trailer (Found on Youtube)
This is again showing many of the typical teaser trailer conventions I found out about in my earlier research. It starts with credits displaying the well-known directors name (Christopher Nolan), shortly followed by another credit stating that Nolan was also 'The Director of The Dark Knight', a fairly recent commercially successful block-buster. This instantly engages the audiences interest. This is followed by a rather epic and spectacular birds-eye shot of the city, engaging the audience further through the use of brilliant cinematography. The trailer then cuts to a shot of well-known actor Leonardo Di-Caprio, pulling in the audience even further, having still not included any dialogue nor any hint at the plot line. Following this are a series of fast-cut shots including: credits provoding a very basic plot idea, incredible cinematography shots and shots of Leonardo. All of this, as-well as a dramatic score meant that they could get audiences excited about the film very early on, without even having to explain the plot.
Twilight, Breaking Dawn Teaser Trailer (Found on Youtube)
This teaser trailer veers slightly away from the typical teaser trailer conventions that the other two used; there is a lot less action in it as well as being a bit longer than the others. However, other than that it uses a lot of the same conventions:
Credits giving idea of plot-line
Not masses of dialogue
Voiceover
Dramatic music
It, like Scream is also franchised and has used that to it's advantage, showing shots of the main characters one after another. Most similarly to the others, it manages to engage the audience with very little plot give-away, especially by ending with a shock/cliff-hanger.
