For my next task I am going to choose five existing teaser trailers and analyze them purely in terms of the conventions that they share. I will be listing the conventions that I find in bullet points & short sentences.
For my next task I am going to analyse two existing films that already have a teaser trailer and a conventional theatrical trailer making note of the differences and similarities that I find, in hopes of getting a greater sense of what the conventions are of theatrical trailers and teaser trailers. The first film being Captain America and the second Transformers: Dark of the moon.
The first similarity I had noticed between the theatrical trailer and the teaser trailer was the fact that they both introduce the central protagonist but whereas in the theatrical trailer we are given a much more in depth/detailed account of his story in the teaser trailer we are given hardly any information about his character traits.
Secondly I had noticed that both the theatrical trailer and the teaser trailer include the production company logo's but in the teaser trailers they are shown at the beginning for a short period of time whereas in the theatrical trailers they are shown later and are on screen for much longer period of time.
Another notable difference was the contrast in editing between the theatrical trailer and the teaser trailer. The theatrical trailer for captain America had much longer takes than it's teaser counter part, I had also identified that the majority of cuts in the teaser trailer where fades where as in the theatrical trailer this was much more rare. Also in the teaser trailer, most likely to accommodate the lack of narrative the editing is much more rapid.
An additional noticeable difference is the timing of content within the trailers.
The teaser trailer seems to get to the action from the outset but the theatrical trailer builds up tension by giving you a much more in depth introduction to the central protagonist.
The theatrical trailer almost gives you a summarized version of the film without revealing to much about the narrative but the teaser trailer exactly what the name suggests, it 'teases'. Giving the audience little information about the film but instead introduces stars in the film or source material that would attract them to it building up a larger fan base for the movie.
Having looked at a range of posters from different genres I have identified the following conventions which seem to crop up time and time again . When creating my posters for my films marketing campaign I will include these conventions to help make the poster look as authentic as possible.
For my fifth poster I decided to look at the film 'Possesion' which is from the horror genre. Again regardless of the genre the poster contained almost identical design and layout features as those found in the other posters I have looked at.
The next film I decided to annoatate was the romantic comedy "How to lose a guy in 10 days". Obvious references to genre include 'eye candy, a dominant central image of the romantic leads and a soft colour scheme, the mojurity of conventions found in other film posters from different genres are still visible.
"Looper" is a science fiction film and despite the fact this is a different genre it still follows the conventions typical of the poster medium. Here you can see clear indications of the genre in the mise-en-scene, but in all other respects it shares designer layout features with the other posters I have looked at.
For my second poster I wanted to look at a completely different genre to that of "Lawless", so I chose the independent drama "Drive". "Drive's" poster showcases the differences between an non-independent film like "Lawless" and an independent film like "Drive", for example "Drive's" poster has an award nomination where as the "Lawless" poster does not. However both posters still share many conventions.
The first poster I am going to analyse is the poster for a new gangster movie called 'Lawless'. Here I am just looking for the design and layout conventions of posters rather than conventions of genre. In order to succesfully create my own poster I feel that I should gain a solid understanding of the elements that appear on all posters marketing films, I am going to look at a number of posters from different genres to see if they share similar conventions.
For my media studies A2 production coursework I am creating a marketing campaign for a film which will include a teaser trailer, a poster and a magazine front cover.
I will be posting all of my research and planning and my evaluation on this blog. I will begin my research by looking at a range of film posters to identify the conventions found in these texts.
