Research into TrailersTHEATRICAL VS TEASER

What is a Trailer

In short, a trailer is a visual and oral commercial that is used to market a film to gain publicity and hopefully, when the film is released, the trailer would have helped the film attract a large following to make money and the film successful.

The term ‘trailer’ was coined from when film commercials for other films were shown at the end following a feature film screening, thus ‘trailing’ the main feature. However, now trailers are shown before a film begins.

Trailers usually consist of a series of selected shots from the film that’s being advertised, and since the purpose is to widen the films awareness in time for the premiere; these shots are most likely the funniest and most exciting from the film. But, due to the producers and directors not wanting to spoil the films ending, they pick the content for a trailer from the first half of the film so they can conceal the plot as best they can and to keep surprises for the full feature.

A trailer has to achieve all of this within 2 minutes 30 seconds according to MPAA law, even though studios can afford once a year to go over this limit it is best not to in case the studio produces a bigger film later in that year.

As I come to do my coursework I will have the choice of either creating a teaser trailer or a full theatrical trailer. The teaser tends to be much shorter, lasting around the minute mark, while the theatrical trailer can last for up till 2 minutes 30 seconds. Both have their advantages and disadvantages.

Teasers require less footage and therefore are less demandinf of filming and editing time. However, they also give less opposrtunity to show off editing skills. Narrative is particularly difficult to handle as the aim of a teaser is to attract interest / create buzz rather than give a ‘taste’ of the narrative.

Full theatrical trailers are easier to plan as they follow an established structure and have a clear aim, providing a glimpse into the key selling points of the film. However, they are very labour intensive in terms of producing the volume of footage needed to create a convincing trailer. They require a better sense of what the whole film would look like and it is easy to fall into the trap of telling too much of the story.

Teaser TrailerTeaser Trailers are meant to create a buzz amongst the audience and so they do this naturally by asking loads of questions while answering none of them. The significant differences can be seen below.

The duration is usually half the length of a theatrical trailer, roughly around 40 to 90 seconds long.

It creates a lot of mystery and potential towards the full release.

The shots won’t tell a lot due to teasers only being produced in the beginning stages of production so footage is limited.

Dialogue isn’t a must, there can be just voice-over, or just music.

On the other hand, it can be a continuous piece of dialogue.

The Teaser can also not include any of the full features footage, separate filming can be used with reference towards the film.

The lead actors and actresses names can be mentioned, although it’s unwise to mention too many!

Due to there being little information conveyed, the audience will be open to many ideas about the film keeping them interested in it.

Theatrical TrailerIn direct contrast to the teaser trailer: the theatrical is twice as long, contains more title cards, asks more questions and explains the plot in a simplistic form unlike the teaser which may have no clear cut path about the plot.

The theatrical tends to follow the 3 Act convention: Introduce characters -> Encounter problem -> Resolve problem.

Although be careful to not include too much of the last act.

While the teaser is released during production, theatricals are released once all the footage is taken.

Theatrical tends to be shown with a lot more frequency.

Shown closer to the release date.

The theatrical starts where the teaser left off in expanding on the information already laid.

A release date is shown, or if there has already been an estimated release, then it would be more specific.

The Dark Knight Rises - ComparisonsThe two The Dark Knight Rises trailers are conventional examples of a teaser and a theatrical trailer.

The teaser for example, is only 96 seconds long while the theatrical is 2 minutes 19 seconds long; both do have crossover content taken from the film such as inter-titles, however in a different order. The release date is exact in the theatrical (July 20th) unlike the teaser which just tells the audience ‘Summer 2012’. A notable point is that both versions contain footage from the previous Batman films, as well as this the teaser uses a lot less footage from the film than the theatrical and tells the audience limited information about the antagonist except for two brief shots of him. In fact, the plot is kept very quiet with only a few clues – for example, Police Chief Gordon says ‘Now there’s evil rising, the Batman must come back’. This leaves the audience puzzled making them ask themselves such questions as what evil? And why has the Batman gone, and where?

This is in a contrast to the theatrical which gives off more information about the villain Bane (the rising evil) and hints at what is exactly happening to Gotham.

Teaser

Theatrical