Trailer Conventions - Conclusion

In a previous post I outlined the similarities of the conventions used in different types of trailers, but during my research I also noticed a number of differences between teasers, theatrical trailers and TV spots.

The differences between the release dates between the films I looked at is that, for the teaser trailer the release date is very vague (for example, 'Summer 2012') as they might not have a specific date for the release of the film as it is possibly over a year away from release (which also means that 'Summer 2012' is easier to remember than a specific date). The release date for the TV spot is even more specific (for example, 'This Friday') than theatrical trailers, as TV spots usually come out much later in a film's marketing campaign, close to a film's release, often in the final week before the film comes out. The release date for the theatrical trailer comes out also very close to the end of a film's marketing campaign, perhaps a few weeks before the TV spots, and has a specific date (for example, 'July 20').

There is also a difference with the editing for each trailer. For example, in the teaser trailers there are a variety of different transitions (along with possibly a voiceover), whereas, in the TV spots, there are flashes (around 1 second each) of different clips from throughout the movie. In the theatrical trailers the editing is a lot slower and there are more fades and dissolves.

The length of the trailers is also different. The teaser trailer is much shorter than the theatrical trailer, for example, it is one minute thirty five seconds. The TV spots are much shorter, lasting for approximately thirty seconds, as it is of course a TV advertisement (and packed full of lots of action shots, edited together very quickly). The theatrical trailers are the longest of all, often around two minutes thirty seconds (the one for The Dark Knight Rises, for example, is two minutes nineteen seconds).

What the theatrical trailers, TV spots and the teaser trailers reveal to the audience, is also quite different. Theatrical trailers include detailed information regarding the plot/narrative of the film, and introduce many more characters. Audiences watching these trailers get a clear sense of the storyline and these trailers are often broken into distinct sections (introducing the story at the beginning with slow editing and lots of dialogue, before having a quickly edited montage of exciting bits from the film towards the end). However, teaser trailers reveal very little about the plot and withhold information from the audience, in an attempt to hook them into finding out more (by maybe going on the website). TV spots are usually just full of intense action moments or eye candy, in order to drag the audience to the cinema in the week of the film's release.