What is a teaser trailer?

From what I have learnt from the teaser trailers I have analysed is that the structure of a teaser trailer is to keep as much of the storyline hidden as possible because that needs to be saved until the official trailer is released closer to the time. Its purpose is to add hype to the upcoming release and to just 'tease' the audience to make them aware of the film. They are often shown up to a year ahead of the film actually being released and are normally only made for big budget films. The majority of the teasers I have watched contain little of the actual footage from the film as possible because of how early on in the making of the film they are released, this often means the teasers contain alternative footage that may not be used in the actual film. They are usually around a minute and a half long, enough time to get the audience’s attention and fulfil its purpose without giving away too much information.
Because of the two different genres of the teaser trailers there are hardly any if no similarities between them apart from Paranormal Activity and The Strangers. They both target a different audience, although the age group targeted could be similar between all three. The connotations and conventions used in The Strangers and Paranormal Activity are also similar, the camera loosing signal and the old footage of The Strangers create the same sense of fear between the trailers. They all feature small amounts of footage from the actually film and none of them give away much of the storyline, The Strangers gives away the most out of the three however because from the footage shown you can have an idea of what is going to happen. It is a very typical horror film, with a couple being harassed by being in the wrong place and the wrong time.

The Strangers teaser trailer

Written and Directed by: Bryan Bertino

The Strangers has been constructed visually mainly through the editing and sound. It is within the genre of horror, this is portrayed through the screams and sound effects used during the teaser. The scream and then a silence followed by a harsh and unexpected knocking at the door are all conventions of a horror. The editing used in the trailer tells the story through snap shots and short clips from the film, it starts by introducing the different reason for people's house choices and runs through a short slideshow that ends in pictures of rundown houses with massive 'X's drawn across in red implying the idea of murder and danger again referring back to the genre. The change in the design and look of the houses from the strat of the slideshow to the end is the first sign of the genre too. The information revealed is mainly the idea that thre unknown people in unusual masks are stalking a young couple who we assume from the beginning have just moved in. The sound of the clicking of each slide show is emphasised as the trailer goes on showing distinctly each movement and shot as it happens especially at the end when the woman is dragging herself along the carpet. It reinforces the idea of despair and horror. Low lighting is used throughout to emphasise the shadows and the music played at the beginning appears to be out of date which gives the impression that it is being played through a phonograph this gives a sinister feel. As the slideshow at the start stops a view of the house through the trees fades into view giving the impression we are looking through the eyes of someone watching them

Paranormal Activity 2 teaser trailer

Written and Directed by: Oren Peli and Tod Williams

Paranormal activity 2 is presented in the style of ‘found footage’ from CCTV cameras set up around the house. By using such realistic footage and giving the impression that it isn’t contrived is what made the previous film such a big hit because the effect it had on the audience was much greater than that of a normal horror film.

In this particular case this trailer has been constructed through the use of three different CCTV cameras. There are no technical camera movements or angles the only movement of the camera is at the very beginning of the trailer when it zooms into the darkness of the open door. Information used to sell this film is clever because their USP is the CCTV cameras used making the storyline feel realistic, this then allows the audience to relate to the lives of the characters and the situation and disturbance that is being portrayed in their lives. They have introduced the trailer by using footage from the previous film. This teaser successfully makes the audience feel uncomfortably as the camera flickers and looses signal throughout the trailer. The genre is made aware of through the screams and reaction of the audience, this also creates an expectation within the audience because they are aware of how the previous film caused such a reaction. The storyline isn't given away at all instead connotations of the genre have been used. For example the dog barking at an open door gives the impression there could be the presence of a ghost because of the idea that animals have a sixth sense that humans don’t have. They have tried to portray the peace of the house at night and the small disturbances of the rocking chair moving by itself in the nursery and this child appearing in the mirror but not in the cot. What makes this so effective is the concept of things happening a night whilst the characters are sleeping and unaware of the situation, this creepiness and vulnerability links the audience to the characters.

500 Days of Summer teaser trailer

Written and Directed by: Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber and Marc Webb

‘Sweet disposition’ is the song played throughout this teaser which is significant because of the meaning of the song and the lyrics; the music itself is a convention of the genre. Throughout the trailer you only hear one voice, the characters don't speak making it vague and giving you only a brief introduction of the characters. The way this teaser has been constructed is by having the narrator tell us the story as we watch the characters in clips of their lives giving the audience a very inpersonal view on them. This makes it slightly quirky and gives the impression of it being an indie romance. The camera angles are often close ups, especially of the girl giving the impression she is the main focus of the boys life whereas we don't get the same impression from the girl. The camera tends to speed up and slow down in certain places to dramatise the length of time and the feeling of it slowing down or speeding up. Often in romcoms/or romance films they use time to portray the feelings of the characters. The narrator refers back to the name of the film throughout, "500 days of..Los Angeles, of promises, of uncertainty...of Summer" this repetition is used another three times throughout the trailer. This again links back to the idea of Summer(the girl) being the cause for all of these emotions and feelings for Tom. One part of this teaser which works very effectively is when the camera focuses on two different images; on the left is his expectations of him and Summer talking intimately and on the right is his reality, it is as if even he is not sure of which to believe anymore. This gives a slight hint into what the film may entail.

Film Magazine Conventions

I have analysed three different film magazines all with different genres of films and have highlighted the key elements and conventions used and the similarities and differences between the genres:

The Omen Film Poster

The Omen falls under the genre of horror and the conventions used in this teaser poster show this specifically through the use of the dark colours used and the way the fog creates a sinister approach to the image by blurring out the background and allowing only parts of the foreground to be shown. The eye is drawn to the young boy and the dog, they both look out of place in the image because of the location. The features on both are hidden however the eyes of both the dog and the boy stand out making the audience feel uncomfortable. The physocology of using children in a horror film is that it evokes a sense of uneasiness in the audience because of the idea that children should be vulnerable and innocent. Also the date of the film's release is a convention if this genre because the number 666 is associated with the devil. To emphasise this point further the tag line has been used almost like a religious quote and written to highlight the idea of the date being a significance to the film. You could also agree that the USP of this film would be the 666 because of all the emphasise on it and the symbolism of the numbers. Anything to do with religion is a significant representation to the genre of horror and is associated with the idea of good over evil. It is used in this poster through the use of the 'O' casting a shadow in the shape of a cross this again helps emphasise the sinister atmosphere created around the poster.
I think the intended audience for this teaser poster would be adults or young adults because the elements of horror portrayed wouldn't be suitable for a younger audience. I would also agree that males would be the main target.

Adulthood Film Poster

Adulthood is a youth culture film following the lives of a group of teenagers and what its like to live in the inner city. From the positions and the body language of the characters and the clothes they are wearing gives an idea into their social class and automatically casts a stereotype over the characters. We associate the character in the middle to be the leader of what might be a gang because of his stance and the connotation of the hoodie being associated with a gang and lower class of society. The dark colours also have an impact on the atmosphere created around the lives of the characters, as if portraying a bleak and hard lifestyle. Usually youth culture films dramatise on the issues teenagers face and how they deal with that through fighting, smoking, and breaking the law. Again the colours are all fairly dark and the skyline leading onto dusk is another convention used because of the idea that crime is committed at night when people feel more vulnerable. From the skyline we can see the outline of the tall flat blocks and buildings which are associated with the social class of the characters on the poster. The audience for this poster is intended for teenagers and young adults of both genders but mainly males because of the gang culture idea portrayed from the poster. The title is written in capitals apart from the 'd' which is in lower case this could be a connotation that although the characters are entering adulthood they haven't fully made the transition there, it creates the idea that they are bringing part of their past from 'kidulthood' (the previous film) with them.

500 Days Of Summer Film Poster

500 days of summer is one of the film poster I chose to analyse because not only is it one of my personal favourites but because of its quirkiness and complete contrast to ‘The Black Knight’ (a previous film poster we looked at in class) in genre, target audience and budget I thought it would be an interesting choice. I chose an early release film poster which is more of a teaser poster which means its purpose is to make the target audience aware of the film without giving away too much information. It is an indie romcom with a slightly quirky edge to it; the colours used on the film poster are all harmonious and pastel colours. It has three main colours to it; blue and yellow, these are all used as coventions within the genre of romance because they complement each other, they are also associated with summer and the sky which is the image made by the photos which again links back to happiness and love. The light blue background keeps the focus on the main point this being that the image is made up of lots of different photos of one girl in a mosaic style with a young man at the bottom sketching. All the images of her are close up ones which would create the idea that she is the main focus of his thoughts. However next to him the tagline writes “this is not a love story, this is a story about love!” which creates the impression that this isn’t your normal boy meets girl love story but it has a twist. The messages on this poster are primarily visual because it has hardly any written information and is primarily made up of a serious of images because of it being just a teaser poster and not wanting to give too much away.

The main target audience for this film is females because of it being a romcom but I would say the target age would be young adults who are generally interested in indie films because of the type of actors starring, especially Zooey Deschanel who has a quirky edge to all the characters she tends to play. I do however think that this film could have quite a large audience because of it being a romcom with a twist and I’d assume a lot of people could relate to the storyline. The genre conventions used are the typical boy and girl featuring on the poster which automatically tells us it is a romance, also it’s a simple layout with no action going on or any major graphics used. The USP used on this particular poster would be the tagline because of how it contradicts itself, the poster is selling the film with what seems to be a romantic storyline however with a twist making the audience ask why it’s not a love story and how can it be a story about love but yet it’s not what it seems. The information given on the poster is a lot less then on “The Black Knight” because it doesn’t give any date it just gives the name of the film, a small tagline at the bottom and a list of the producers and stars in the film again due to it being a teaser poster.

I think this poster is refreshing and the simplicity of it works well because of the quirkiness and the cartoon like feel with the small sketches around the image like doodles which could represent the idea of the boy falling in love as he sketches in the corner of the poster. I agree it communicates effectively with the audience because it includes all the connotations and conventions of a romcom film poster with the colours used and the boy and the girl, it all follows the pattern of a romance film however it suggests there is more to it! I also like how they’ve tried to make it slightly unique and instead of just having a boy and a girl on the film poster they’ve create an image in itself by using cut out photos of the girl (Summer) and how it creates the idea that she is on the boys mind and makes you ask the question is the love just one way or does she feel the same? And if so why is there so many images of her and only one of him?

Initial Schedule

My initial schedule is the list of deadlines for which each of the different areas of this project has to be finished by. By following this plan it will help me with time management and keep me organised, enabling me to refer back to what still needs to be completed and when by:

• Primary and Secondary research into similar products deadline (both main and ancillary): 11th October

- research and analyse into teaser film posters: 30th September 2010

- research into magazine front covers and teaser trailers (all primary research): 30th September 2010

- summary of my findings, what is a teaser trailer?: 30th September

- cross media campaign: film poster, teaser trailer and magazine front cover for the same film: 4th October 2010

- new media: 11th October 2010

       -  audience research using new media: interviews, questionnaires etc..

       - new media production

- research into the digital video camera we will be using (Sony A1E): 5th October 2010

- secondary research into film reviews and production: 11th October

       - cost of production?

       - audience reviews

       - box office

- selecting film posters: 15th October 2010

- selected genres for trailer (any final or added research here):

- treatment: 15th October 2010

• Planning deadline: 5th November (extended to 12th November)

- social realist drama conventions: 21st October 2010

- film and magazine title: 21st October 2010

- possible cast: 21st October 2010

- selected actors and costume designs: 5th November 2010

- character profile: 9th November 2010

- script and structure of trailer: 26th October 2010

- storyboard: 5th November 2010

- location and props ideas (with budget list): 5th November 2010

- shot list: 5th November 2010

- final cut pro for storyboard and music: 9th November 2010

- shooting schedule: 9th November 2010

- risk assessments: 5th November 2010

- risk assessments for each location: 10th November 2010

- call sheet: 10th November 2010

- music for trailer: 12th November 2010

   - cut and edited: 15th November 2010

- possible fonts for trailer and ancillary project: 12th November 2010                 

- teaser trailer title's: 15th November 2010

• Trailer (main task): 17th December

- filming: 2nd and 3rd December 2010

- editing on final cut: 14th December 2010

• Film poster and magazine front cover (ancillary task): 4th January 

- mock up of film poster: 

- finalised film poster:

- mock up of magazine front cover:

- finalised magazine front cover:

• Audience feedback: 
• Final evaluation deadline: 17th January

Action Plan

The breakdown of our course consists of 3 sections:

• Pre-Production: Primary and Secondary Research
• Filming and production
• Post-production: Evaluating

Pre-Production: consisting of Primary and Secondary research

• Primary and secondary into Similar products: 

                     - both main and ancillary texts

• Research into target audiences
• Research into the new media: 

                      - Sony A1E, iMovie, Photoshop, Blogs etc...

• Research into cross media advertising

Filming and Production: 

• teaser trailer
• promotional magazine front cover
• film teaser poster

Media Brief

For my A2 media project the brief says that my group and I have to create a cross campaign for a genre of film. The genre we have chosen is youth culture/gang, for this we will be creating:

• teaser trailer
• film poster
• promotional magazine cover

To achieve this I will do primary and secondary research into previous teaser trailers - from a variety of genres to get as best understanding of the production as possible, film posters, magazine covers, reviews, audience questionnaires and anything else that will help me gain as much knowledge in this area and production for when my group come to make the final media campaign.