History of Trailers

I have done some research into the history of trailers and i am going to explain the purpose of the them and the conventions they have.

There are three types of trailers: 

• Teaser- A short version 
• Theatrical Trailer-  A long version in movie theaters (cinemas) and on the internet 
• DVD Trailer-   A medium version, shown on TV and on the internet 

Teaser

A Teaser campaign is an advertising campaign which typically consists of a series of small, cryptic, challenging advertisements that anticipate a larger, full blown campaign for a product launch or otherwise important event. These advertisements are called "teasers" or "teaser ads". A teaser trailer upcoming film, television program, video game or similar, usually released long in advance of the product, so as to "tease" the audience. 

Movie teasers, unlike typical theatrical trailers, are usually very short in length (between 30-60 seconds) and usually contain little, if any, actual footage of the film. Sometimes, it is merely a truncated version of a theatrical trailer. Teaser trailers are often made while the film is still in production or being edited and as a result they may feature scenes or alternate versions of scenes that are not in the finished film. Teaser trailers today are increasingly focused on internet downloading.

Theatrical 

A trailer or preview is an advertisement or a commercial for a feature film that will be exhibited in the future at a cinema. The term "trailer" comes from their having originally been shown at the end of a feature film screening. Trailers are now shown before the film (or the A movie in a double feature) begins, 

Movie trailers have now become popular on DVDs and Blu-ray Discs, as well as on the internet and mobile devices. Of some ten billion videos watched online annually, film trailers rank third, after news and user-created video. 

Trailers consist of a series selected shots from the film being advertised. Since the purpose of the trailer is to attract an audience to the film, these excerpts are usually drawn from the most exciting, funny, or otherwise noteworthy parts of the film but in abbreviated form and usually without producing spoilers. A trailer has to achieve that in less than 2 minutes and 30 seconds, the maximum length allowed by the MPAA. 

Trailer Conventions 

• Genre
• Plot
• Short Clips
• Voice-over
• Music
• Cast
• Director 
• Studio logo
• Jump cuts

These are all the things we expect to see in a trailer. We also expect to be told how the film will affect us and why we should watch it. 

In our group we have discussed what we are going to put in our trailer. We have already sorted out our cast and who is going to play which character. We have our genre and plot sorted out as well because we have been doing lots of brainstorming and recently made our final decisions. We are thinking about voice-overs and whether we should use them, if we decide to use them then we want them to fit in well with the flow of the trailer and the appropriate time to use them, We still need to discuss the type of shots we are going to include and we are also going to start designing our logo.