Research: Analyzing Teaser Trailers

I am going to analyze some short trailers to get an idea of what I think works and what doesn't, as well as the conventions of a trailer. I will try to work out what makes a trailer successful and what makes the viewer want to see the film.


The Social Network Trailer

'The Social Network' Trailer Analyses

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Knocked Up

Research: A Small Focus Group

I have decided to create a small focus group. The purpose of this group is so I can get an idea of what my target audience would like to see. I have chosen four people to be part of my focus group, two from my media class so they can analyse what they like about trailers and products from a media student perspective, and two who have not taken media, so I have an idea of what a person consuming the average amount of media like an average person would think.

Amy Scott.
Amy Scott is a member of my media class. As she is 17 and female she would be the target audience I am pursuing in creating my media project, so I think her opinions are worth a lot to this research. Amy enjoys independent films, as well as comedies. She has an interest in Biographical films, as well as comedies and dramas. She watches a lot of television as well, ranging from dramas to reality television. I think Amy is quite representative of the average teenage girl.





Here is Amy analyzing a couple of film trailers:

Research: Questions from the Website

These are my responses to the questions from this website.



1) a. When you have watched the show reel once, try and think of the one thing that you remember most. It might be:

• the name of a film
• a particular image or line
• the stars

I remember Robert Downey Jr from the clip from iron man 2, as well as the people talking over the clips to say what they like. This is most probably because the Robert Downey Jr scene is quite prominent and is one of the first shots, and the people talking are quite memorable and different.

     b. Compare what you remembered with others in your group. Did you all remember similar aspects? Or were they all very different?

Different people in the group remembered similar things to me, with one person saying that they remember the bear from toy story 3s line. This shows that one liners are memorable in trailers and they are what stick in peoples minds. The fact that different lines were remembered could be a reflection of our individual film preferences.

     c. How do you think the information you remember relates to you and your friends as a 'target audience'?

2) List the different audience members that you see expressing their opinions. Why do you think these individuals' responses have been selected?
You see a wide variety of people expressing their opinions on films. The majority of the people talking are of a younger demographic

Research: A History of Film Trailers

This is a presentation on the history of film trailers with some key facts and information I have researched. This was presented to the class and was presented with videos. The file upload website I used does not allow the videos on the presentation to work, so the videos included in the clip are below the slideshow.

Film Trailer History

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Casablanca


For slide 6, the videos are here:


Very Nice Very Nice


Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb


The videos in slide 8 are:


Night of the Iguana


and


ET


and the video in slide 10 is:


Life As We Know It

Initial Work: Proposal for Advanced Portfolio

Name: Ceiridwen Fowles

Title of Brief: 
Teaser Trailer for A 'Coming of Age' Comedy Film for Older Teens to Late Twenties

Outline of ideas: 
My film trailer will be a short sequence of a comedy film. It will involve a very small number of people - a maximum of three - and would be quite stand alone. As it is a teaser trailer, not much of the story will be revealed, however audiences will get a glimpse of the characters and situations involved in the film, as well as the light tone.

Auxiliary Products: 
I will create a film magazine as well as a film poster to accompany my trailer.

Target Audience: (age, gender, socio/economic group)  
I will be creating a film for a female teenage audience, as I feel most comedies that are 'coming of age' are for females. The audience will be from mid-teens to early twenties of most socio/economic groups.

How will your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? What is your inspiration? 
I think my product will aim to conform to most of the conventions of films of a similar genre as that formula of film has proved very successful in the past. However, my protagonist may seem different from the average protagonists of films. 

How will your main product and ancillary texts compliment each other? 
I feel that my product should have a dominant recognizable character, which may not be achieved in a teaser trailer. I therefore hope that the ancillary texts will enable me to further develop that character identity.

How will you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
I will use video recording materials and editing programs in construction, which could include iMovie and photoshop. I will also use internet sites like imdb.com and youtube.com to see which films and trailers are popular to attempt to see a pattern and code to follow when creating my product. I will use research and ideas collected from other medias in my planning of the package I will create.
How will you incorporate the following concepts?

Genre:
I will show the genre by the mise-en-scene and noise, both diegetic and non-diegetic, in the trailer, as well as the films they are grouped with in the magazine and the names of directors and stars of the film.
Narrative:
I will show part of the narrative in the poster and suggest things in the trailer and front cover, however as this would be a teaser package I would not give too much away.
Representation:
I would show representation of the characters in their costumes and actions as well as the photos in the posters and front cover.
Audience:
I would show which audience to appeal to with the front cover and the type of magazine it is, as well as the other films featured.