Example of a teaser trailer- Captain Marvel.

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.

View the teaser here.