Many different people have different preferences when it comes to trailers. To decide how I should make mine in order to appeal to most people, I sent a survey out to my media class to see what they think, that way I can see what would be best to do when I come to make mine.
Narrative is the term used in Media Studies to describe the way in which a story is presented to an audience. For the most part different genres of film have the same narrative codes and conventions, however there are some that may be slightly different. Narrative is important as it gives the audience an engaging and enjoyable story.
There is usually a set structure when it comes to narrative, which could be applied to most media texts, but mainly film. Todorov's Narrative Theory is a great example:
Equilibrium
Disruption of equilibrium
Recognition of disruption
Attempt to repair disruption
New equilibrium
Another good theorist for film narrative is French semiologist Roland Barthes. Barthes stated that narrative should use five different codes in order to remain appealing to the audience:
Action
Enigma
Symbolic
Semiotic
Cultural
Binary opposition is another huge factor in media. It is putting two completely opposite factors together and set off against each other. Some examples are: Strong vs weak, old vs young, day vs night, big vs small, hero vs villain etc.
The first teaser for Captain Marvel has dropped, lets break down the codes and conventions we see in it.
Yesterday, the much anticipated trailer for Marvel Studio's Captain Marvel was released globally. It is set to be released on the 8th of March 2019. It is the first film by Marvel Studios that has a female lead and ties in with the continuity of the already established Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise.
As we can see, the teaser uses many of the codes and conventions that a teaser trailer should have.
Lets start off with the structure.
A teaser should start off by establishing the setting and characters. As we see here, the first shot is of Brie Larson's Captain Marvel falling from the sky into a Blockbuster Video store.
This establishes the main character, as well as the setting, Captain Marvel crashes into a Blockbuster Video store, meaning that the film is set in the past, the 1990's. We continue to get establishing shots, with dramatic angles and we begin to hear a climactic score build up in the background.
Throughout the beginning of the trailer we hear dialogue from Samuel L Jackson's character, Nick Fury, talking to Captain Marvel and eventually we see them meet. This ties in with the second main convention of a teaser trailer, establishing character relationships. The only characters we hear interacting are these two, however we also see lots of other characters interact and therefore can begin to piece together pieces of the plot, which helps give the audience a clearer understanding of the film.
We are the introduced to these green aliens, the Skrulls, which are set to be the film's antagonists, although very briefly, however it is as Fury is saying "We have no idea what threats are out there" which subliminally shows the audience that they are going to be the main antagonists.
Another convention seen, or rather heard, is the use of a dramatic score a track called Luminous and Unstoppable by Aleksandar Dimitrijevic, which starts off with quiet piano music and throughout the trailer builds up into a grand orchestral climax at the end, this helps build audience hype and anticipation.
Finally, we see the use of the title card at the end of the trailer. This is almost universally used as it also builds up audience hype.
Every major Hollywood film releases trailers before it's release. This is to generate and increase audience anticipation in order to boost box sales.
Trailers fall under two classes, theatrical trailers and teaser trailers. Teaser trailers are released prior to the theatrical trailers. They are shorter and often have climaxes that leave the audience wanting more. Theatrical trailers are similar to teaser trailers and have many of the codes and conventions of a teaser trailer, however they are longer and show more of the film's plot.
The maximum length a trailer can be is 2 minutes and 30 seconds. However, the studio is able to make exceptions once a year. This is one of the MPAA guidelines. The MPAA, or the Motion Pictures Association of America, is situated in Washington DC and it represents the 6 largest film studios in Hollywood, whereas the UK has the BBFC.
