Film Trailers

The Science of Teaser Trailers:
A 'Teaser' Trailer sets out to introduce, excite and entice a films prospective audience. At the same time, 'tease' the audience, and whet their appetite for more of the film, and so get them to view or buy the film on release. Unlike a theatrical trailer, a teaser trailer is significantly shorter, and relies on word-of-mouth to increase exposure. A teaser trailer comes before the theatrical trailer, which is played in Cinema between two to three before its scheduled release. Teaser trailers generally air more on television or ‘TV spots’, due to their much shorter length, as air time is exceptionally expensive.

The Aims of a Teaser Trailer:

A teaser trailer aims to give the audience information about the film - what the story is about, who the stars are and what type of genre it will be. Genre is one of the most important aspects of film marketing, because a consumer's decision as to if they will pay to see a film, rests on if they have previously enjoyed viewing the genre. When an audience views a trailer they immediately begin to break it down to analyse what genre it is. In example, if we see dark shadowy figures or hear scary music, we immediately assume 'Horror', whereas images and bright colours assume to be targeted at children. Occasionally films can be released as a hybrid, a mixture of more than on genre, and may take longer for the genre to be decided by the audience.

How to make the audience go and see the film:
The main was to increase interest in a film is its marketing campaign, to increase exposure to the film. A marketing campaign must also show us how the film is different to others of the genre: the USP (Unique Selling point) that sets it apart. This is what separates each title from one another, and makes them different. The USP could be a variety of different things: a unique mix of genre - such as a Musical Western; it might be a distinct aspect, like innovative special effects (Avatar set to release in 2009), it could also be casting an actor out of type - i.e. an actor known from action playing a serious emotional role. The USP is important for the marketing of a film, as it sets it apart from potential rivals, and so is often the main feature of it's advertising campaign.
The Features of a Trailer:
Trailers are not to be classed as 'Mini-FIlms', but snapshots of an overall film. They are a genre in there own right and have several conventions:

• they highlight the 'best bits' of the film, the very sad, funny, action-packed or bizarre.
• Showcase the film's stars
• some visual images don't stay on the screen long enough for it to be recognised by the audiences
• conversations berween characters usually comprise one-liners
• dramatic camera-angles may be chosen to show events or characters
• action is intersperced with credits on screen
• vioceovers are used to tell the story and give credit information
• masic plays an important role in creating atmosphere
• title may not appear to the end
• trailer builds to a climax, where it ends
• montage of different feelings 

Research into Movie Posters

In this section I am not going to focus on specific genres, more upon the set-up of a shot, and what other content may be included.

Film - Toy Story Three
Genre - Family Animation
Made by - Disney Pixar
Tagline - No Toy Gets Left Behind
Evaluation - Toy Story Three is a perfect representation of a simplistic film poster, immediately giving you an idea of the film. A major criticism is that the poster does not include the name of the film, instead relying on past audiences of the older films to recognise its distinct type face. The type is easy to read, both blue against black, and white against black, with bold type allowing for quick easy reading. An important feature of the poster is the release date, giving the user exceptionally valuable information, which some other posters miss in favour of other information.

Film - Avatar
Genre - Action, Sci-Fi and Adventure
Made by - Twentieth Century Fox
Tagline - There is not yet a tagline released for this film
Evaluation - Avatar is another example of a simplistic poster, focusing more on the revoloutionary 3-D cinema to encourage sales. Although the name does not take up as large an ammount of space as other posters, it makes a dramatic point against the alien's face. Another aspect is the white light across the face reflecting in the type face, making it seem to fit in more. The information along the head of the poster 'From the Director of 'Titanic'' is another aspect of sales, as Titanic is one of the highest grossing films of all time, is placed specifically to encourage interest. The poster does not include a release date, but gives a website in the bottom left, relying more on the photos effect to get people interested. The contrast between the blue of the face's skin and the black featureless background increase the posters dramatic effect, especially the yellow of the eye, making it a strong drawing point.

Film - Alice in Woderland (Remake)

Genre - Adventure, Fantasy and Family

Made by - Walt Disney and Roth Films

Tagline - You've got a very impotant date

Evaluation - The essential part of a remake poster, is to immedietly make the consumer both release it is different, and understand why it is so. Alice in Wonderland was released as a series of four posters, all using exceptionally bright, almost overpowering colors, to reflect the films almost 'psychedelic' atmosphere. The type face also shows the sinister atmosphere of the film, with the sharp, pointed script. The almost strange, contrasting colors makes the poster exceptionally eye-catching, giving it a benefit not only to attracting audience, but also summing up the idea of the film. The poster also features a relase date, letting the user know immedietly when it is to be released. Another aspect of the photos is to show them as portraits of characters, with their names above, giving it a unique portrayal of a film poster, whilst introducing the consumer to the primary characters.

Other Posters in the series were:

All of the posters were exceptionally sinister, showing Burton's take on Caroll's already sinister story, which was missed in the previous Disney film.

Film - Star Trek 2009 (Remake)
Genre - Sci-Fi
Made by - Paramount Pictures
Tagline - The future begins
Evaluation - The poster is made primarily of two separate photos, over laid on one another, one in black and white and the other full colour with the type set on to it. As Star Trek is another remake, the poster has to set out to sell the new style of film to differing audiences. The type face used is exceptionally reminiscent to previous Star Trek films, but also fairly in tune with sci-fi styling. The colour photograph immediately shows the impressive special effects used and so, entice people to watch it.

Design Brief

Our Advanced Portfolio in Media consists of a promotional package for a new film, with a genre of our choice, which much include a Teaser trailer, and one of the following:

• A website or hompage for the film,
• A film magazine front cover, featuring the film as primary content,
• A poster for the film.

Lynn News Website Analysis

Access: The website is exceptionally easy, a search ‘Lynn News’ in Google returning it as the first result. Inter-site access is exceptionally simple; either by the website section guides (Figure 2). Another way to quickly access specific content is to use the ‘Hot-Key’ search, shown below the section guide, which takes you to frequently used subsections.

When first entering the Main page the audience is greeted by various headlines, easily distinguishable between content by titles such as News or Sport, which although easy to find certain sections, there are two points at which it fails:


1. There is no distinguishing between certain kinds of News, such as Community stories or Event stories, instead leaving it to the audience to move further into the site, by clicking on the News tab.

2. The stories are left exceptionally bland, with no audience grabbing photos or embellishments, leaving the major stories in a primarily text format.

The Website does not feature in the same way as the front page of the printed newspaper, and in this way leaves the news with no aesthetic draw.

Figure 2:

Like the Main page, the News section allows access to the rest of the Website via the same section guide. The News is left in a completely in text, and even when the user goes further into the stories no photos are used. An addition from the main page is the feature of a Tool bar, making access to various different areas exceptionally easy. A let down from the website however, is that the search bar did not work, leading the user to a blank page rather than the search results.

Lynn News-

Design: 4/10

Ease of Use: 5/10

Aesthetics: 5/10

Given Information: 3/10

Navigation: 3/10

Total: 20/50

Advert Idea 1

This Idea attempted to use humour in order to sell the product.

Design Brief - A Television Advert

The deisgn brief we have been given is to research, create, develop and produce, a telivision advert. The advert must:

• Show an original product, of our own choosing,
• Contain an original soundtrack (if used),
• Sell the product using an original advertisment idea,
• Have a proposed age and social group for the consumer,
• Have a decided channel of implementation, and an airing time.

Research into digital initiatives and companies

Digital Britain – The Initiative:

The Idea for ‘Digital Britain’ was first pioneered by the British government in late 2008. The initiative aimed to develop Britain both digitally and in telecommunications.
The government aimed to have 100% broadband coverage across Britain, with a minimum speed between 2 and 3 Megabits per second. The plan was attacked however, because for the system to work in businesses it should be dealt with in gigabits not megabits.
The aims over the next three years are:
•Universal access to broadband by 2012,
•Creation of a fund to invest in next generation broadband,
•Increase in opposition to digital piracy
•Creation of a new video game classification system.

News Corp. - The Company:

News Corporation was founded in 1980 by Rupert Murdoch, and has since became one of the worlds largest Media conglomerates.
Its current projects include: 20th Century Fox, Fox TV, Sky Deutschland and Italia, The Times, The Sun, News of the World and The Wall Street Journal.
News Corp Plc employs over 64,000 people throughout its many businesses with its shares selling for around $13.03