Location Shots

Here are the location shots for the scenes I plan to film - as you can see they all connotate a house of a wealthy female - suiting my protaganist perfectly. In the shots I have circled the things I will have to consider before I start filming e.g men's clothing and shoes as well as pictures of her as a young girl that wouldn't be there unless she was still living with her family (which she is not). Doing this prepares me for the real shooting of my teaser trailer and ensures I don't send the wrong messages to my audience.

I plan to film on a day that is forecast to have similar weather to that which can be seen in the shots. The fact that each shot is well lit proves that I can rely on ambient lighting to film my teaser trailer.

Casting My Actress

I had to be careful when choosing my actress as this would determine how people receive the products I am trying to create - this is because the actress I choose is featured in each product and therefore the reception of my actress to my audience is crucial. I narrowed it down to three people:

Melissa: I wanted to use Melissa because I felt she had a statement look with her bright red hair that could work perfectly in making my products stand out. However, she hasn't got any acting experience and did not feel comfortable playing the role I was looking for.

Sabrina: I wanted to use Sabrina as she seemed very comfortable in the idea of playing the role I was looking for however her schedule did not fit and she did not have time to be there when I needed to her.

I finally decided on...

Jessica: Jessica was the perfect choice to be in my teaser trailer, poster and magazine cover. I know of other people who have used her for their media products as well as myself and therefore it is a safe bet that she can do the stuff that I need doing. One thing I tried to look for in each girl is prominent eyes which Jessica has - this is because in my teaser my actress is not actually seen speaking and therefore the eyes need to translate alot of the emotion. Jessica has an almost 'deer in the headlights' look about her which is perfect for the shots I plan to do with her catching onto the fact she's being watched. 

In order to go about casting my actress in the most realistic I have ensured that I have her fill out a model
agreement release form. It is an adult release form so it covers my actress and model Jessica White as an over 18 year old in all my media forms [the magazine cover, poster and teaser trailer]. Below is the form filled out by both me and the model/performer.

Experimenting with Debut Professional

   As you can see from my storyboard I want to have some shots in my teaser trailer of the social networking sight Twitter to symbolise the instant fame that comes with being a reality TV star. To do this my initial idea was to record the computer screen using a camcorder however I have recently thought of another way that I could do this... I thought of using a programme called Debut Professional which records the screen of a computer/laptop in a video format.
   I have experimented with this [as seen below], the first is a full screen recording of Twitter whilst I scroll through the messages which in my final show will me messages addressed to the reality star in my teaser whilst the second is a cropped recording of the Twitter stream itself. My next steps now are to take the video files from home into school and upload them into the programme, Final Cut, that I am using to edit my teaser trailer so I can see the quality of the video but also see if the file types are compatible. I will then choose out of the two different styles shown below which looks best.





UPDATE: Unfortunately using Debut professional I can only save in file types that aren't compatible with Final Cut or iMovie so they don't come out in high definition. Instead the recordings from above come out pixilated as can be seen below.

Storyboard Animatic

   These are my initial ideas set out in a storyboard. Like I have already my teaser trailer will begin with a blank screen/studio logos with the first set of speech played over it. I then wanted to have 3 quick shots of a computer mouse moving with the directors hand, then a computer screen with an editing programme in view and then finally the director then typing vigorously on the keyboard.
   I want to use the same pace for the next 3 shots that alternate between different pieces of make up being applied to the young woman's face. I then want their to be a shot in the style of a hidden camera (shot in a fly on the wall documentary style) shown in the examples below which will show two drinks and the hands of two females and then the next set of speech shown in the animatic. Following this will be another hidden camera style from the corner of kitchen showing the young female who is part of the reality show being filmed doing mundane chores. There will then be a shot in the same style of that showing the the two women having a drink but this time it will be a close up of the woman wiping a table.
   I then want to show the woman in a more public space with a hidden camera still watching her which freezes on her face to fully establish this character to the audience. Text will then show over a blank screen as seen in the animatic. A shot of the computer with social networking site, Twitter, on screen will show a series of Tweets aimed at the reality star.
   A black screen will show before cupboard doors are opened again to show the reality star going about her everyday life not knowing their are cameras. The view will then change from the corner of the room where the girl will seem quite paranoid, the shots that follow will be fast paced showing her walking through the house being watched by each camera before she leaves the house panicked. The next piece of text will then show followed by a zooming out shot of the director at his computer slowly revealing a wall covered in photos of the girl and articles about reality TV revealing his character as a manic obsessive.

Examples:

NOTE: This animatic aims to materialise my initial ideas, however, as I move on in the production of my teaser trailers I might feel that crucial changes need to be made or things need to be altered to suit the aims of the teaser and my target audiences.

Script Ideas

Here I want to make note of the intial ideas I had over what speech I want to have during my teaser trailer.

My first idea was to start my teaser trailer with a either my studio logo or a black screen accompanied by the speech between the producer of the Reality TV show and the woman he asking to be a part of it...

Producer: ''I'm creating a new reality show.''
Woman: ''OK?''
Producer: ''I want you to be a part of it..''

I feel that this sums up the key theme of what the film is about at the same time as creating alot of intrigue because it is only speech over a black screen meaning the focus is entirely on what they are saying. This is a similar technique to that used at the beginning of I Am Legend where you can hear the speech of the characters but on screen is the studio logos.

Initially I wanted the majority of the teaser (i.e the middle section) to be based on visuals so certain shots that give hints to the storyline whilst being accompanied by the increasing speed of sound from either computer clicks, keyboard noise or the sound of electronical computers to represent the technological side behind the reality show for example the huge amount of editing that goes into it.

My next idea for speech was towards the end of the teaser...

Woman: (screaming) ''This is not what i signed up for!''
Producer: (shouting) ''This is exactly what you signed up for, it's a reality show on you, all of you!''

I want to now make a storyboard and then a animatic to have the ability to visualise my ideas. During this I might change what I hve expressed in this post but I now have ideas to work on.

SCRIPT UPDATE:

After recording the script as a dummy run and playing it to a sample of my target group I got feedback that the speech as a sound was too complicated - at first I didn't entirely understand what they meant but researching further into teaser trailers I realised that alot of them take speech from the original movie and cut it to make the information shorter and easier to digest by the audience. So in theory the full feature film would still include my original script but for the purposes of the teaser trailer the speech is shortened.

I have changed:
Producer: ''I'm making a new reality show.''
Woman: ''OK?''
Producer: ''I want you in it..''

to:
Producer: ''I'm creating a new reality show.''
Woman: ''OK?''
Producer: ''I want you to be a part of it..''

AND

Woman: (screaming) ''This is not what i signed up for!''
Producer: (shouting) ''This is exactly what you signed up for, it's a reality show on you, all of you!''

to:
Woman: (screaming) ''I didn't sign up for this!''
Producer: (shouting) ''It's a show on you, all of you!''

Film Classifications

The themes concerning my trailer has given me the initial idea that it would either be classed as a 15 or an 18 so in this post I am going to research into the two classifications to see which one suits my teaser the best. The first is a table that I made showing what is permitted and what is unacceptable in terms of the 15 classification certificate.

Next is brief information including a bullet point list on the 18 classification certificate I have put together.

Most 18's are allowed to include strong references to the themes discussed in the 15 certificate. The following areas, however, are completely unacceptable:

• Where material is in breach of criminal law or created through criminal offence.
• When material appears to risk harm to individuals or, through their behaviour to society e.g. detail portrayal that may harm morals such as eroticising sexual assault.

18's are permitted to include sexual material as long as it seeks to inform/educate in matters such as seuxality, safer sex, health etc. 

Taking into account these two certificates I have decided that my teaser will advertise a feature film that would theoretically be an 15. Obviously my teaser will not portray this certificate explicitly in hope that this would stop any restrictions in terms of exhibition. Whilst my research shows that an 18-29 year old market suits the audience for my teaser, holding a 15 certificate stops it from isolating any other audience ages above 15. 

The Thriller Genre

Thrillers must...

• Stimulate the viewer's mind using techniques such as anticipation, heightened expectation, tension, suspense etc.
• Keep the audience at the ''edge of their seats'' as the plot builds towards a climax.

Whilst researching into other conventions of a thriller I found out that they often portray the world very negatively making it seem dark and corrupt. My particular sub-genre of thriller; Psychological Thriller, is based on mental and emotional conflict rather than physical.

Themes in a Psychological Thriller...

• Mind – Human consciousness; the location for thought, memory, intelligence and emotion. The mind is often used as a location for narrative conflict, where characters battle their own minds to reach a new level of understanding or perception.
• Reality – The quality of being real. Characters often try to determine what is true and what is not within the narrative.
• Perception – A person's own interpretation of the world around him through his senses. Often characters misperceive the world around them, or their perceptions are altered by outside factors within the narrative.

These themes relate closely to the storyline I am trying to portay in my teaser. Portraying these with the series of shots/signifiers during my teaser will allow the audience interested in this particular genre to know that this film is right for them. As my market research has shown, storyline is key to attract the interest of my audience and therefore exploring into how I can show Perception, Reality and Mind whilst also sticking to the themes of a thriller is vital to the success of my teaser.

Questionnaire Results - Confirming Thriller Choice

One question I asked was in aim to confirm my choice of thriller. Out of the 4 different types my choice of Psychological was actually the most popular with over half of both males and females put together choosing it as their preferred choice. The second most popular was Technology thriller and whilst putting this particular choice into my questionnaire I realised that my teaser for film holds certain conventions of techno-thrillers such as the heavy use of technology based around reality TV and it being a key theme of post-modernism noted by theorist James Francois Lyotard but in the same respect this trailer exploits the negatives of this: the idea of being watched all the time in this day and age.

This has therefore coming second most popular has confirmed the combination of thriller genres that my teaser will aim to portray.

Questionnaire Results - What to include in teaser

Because of the popularity that the Thriller genre had with both females and males I have plotted both of their results in one pie chart to answer what would raise their interest in a teaser trailer as one target group.

The thing they felt would raise their interest the most was actually the effect of creating suspense which is a very popular technique I have discovered with the teasers I have deconstructed. The second most popular thing was storyline which will be the technique of providing the audience with clues to what genre the film is or hints as to what themes and plots their are within the full film. Music and Sound was the next most popular answer followed by Cast and Action. This would make me think that it is perhaps more the effect of the trailer that raises interest with audiences rather than who they see is in it, especially within a short 30-60 second clip.

Conclusion

• Creating suspense will ultimately raise the most interest with my target audience. 
• The clues to the storyline is very important to allow my target audience to know what they could be watching if they are to see the film. 
• Music and Sound also plays an important part in grabbing the attention of my audience, something I have seen done with teasers for 2012, Inception etc. where music helps to tell the story whilst also creating suspense. This is almost the point that will help the first 2 - Suspense and Storyline.
• It seems that the studio, director and distributor were not main selling points for my target audience. This works well as the film would have an independent background so these would not be the selling points the same way they are for Warner Bros films.

Questionnaire Results - Genre & Gender Audience

Conclusion

It is clear to see the differences between which genres are more favourable with each gender. For females, the most popular genre is Romantic Comedy followed by Thriller and then Comedy. The least popular were Documentary and Sci-Fi Adventure and Comedy didn't perform horendously bad but the key thing I wanted to take from these results for females is that Thriller is still a popular genre even if it didn't perform as the best. Because those who answered this questionnaire had to choose 3 genres each, thriller being chosen 25 times means that at least half of the females that answered chose it as one of their 3.

For males, Thriller actually performed as the most popular genre being chosen 37 times for one of the 3 genres that were my target groups favourite. Action was second popular for the boys followed closely by again, Comedy. Because Thriller was more popular with both genders than I had expected it has altered what I thought would be a male target audience alone.

After researching into the audiences of thrillers throughout the past century using IMDB, this sample research has slightly contradicted this and those who I have asked in the age group I am aiming for, Thrillers seem to be more popular to females than shown in the audience for figures on IMDB. However I have to take into account that those figures shown on IMDB are users of the site and are therefore the types of people who feel the need to rate the film and are more fans of media in general rather than just someone who has watched the film. I also have to take into account that the market research I have conducted is with only a sample of 100 people all in the same locational area and therefore this cant be heavily relied on.

My conclusion is that my audience would include both males and females however taking into account the storyline and features within my film I believe a thriller based on reality TV and the celebrity culture would primarily reach a female audience. However, I also have to realise that the history of thriller's audience demographics indicate a popularity with males meaning there would still be a large fraction of males within my audience that I would be aiming my trailer at.

Questionnaire Results - Exhibition

I sampled my questionnaire with a group of 100 (50 male/50 female) that suited the target age I was intially going for which is 18-30 and then plotted the results into individual pie charts so I could look at the answers as a percentage. I haven't plotted results for each gender as I could see from my results as frequency charts that the most popular answers were agreed with both males and females. 

The first question from my questionnaire that I wanted to focus on was where my target audience actually watched most of their films? The outcome was that 36% of the results watched the majority of their films at the cinema followed by TV then DVD being the most popular forms of watching Films. The least popular format for watching films was online via sites such as YouTube, Channel 4 and LoveFilm.

However, when asking how often my target audience go to the cinema the majority (at 35%) only went once every few months. But altogether 53% went at least once a month or more including 12% that went once a week. 

A really important question I asked my target audience was where they view trailers the most; this came back as a majority (32%) watching them via YouTube as well as 18% watching them at the cinema. Formats such as DVD, TV and online Trailer Websites were less popular.

 I also wanted to confirm with my target audience that trailers shown before a film persuaded them to see the feature length film. As you can see 86% said that this was.

Conclusion


These results have confirmed the formats of exhibition that would be most suited for my trailers.

With a majority of my target audience watching films at Cinema I notice that this is one of the most popular routes to take for exhibiting a trailer. As well as this the results came back that the trailers that my target audience view before a film whether it's on DVD, at the Cinema or via online methods do persuade them to see the entire film if including the qualities that attract them the most.

However, when asking people where they view most trailers the most popular method was YouTube which hints that perhaps those out of my target audience that are avid cinema-goers either don't pay attention to the trailers or arrive after the majority of trailers have finished.

Postmodern References Market Research

To ensure I wasn’t referencing/paying homage to styles that would not be recognised by my target audience I conducted some market research. I asked them two questions, one asking them if they would recognise a reference to George Orwell’s Room 101 and another asking them if they would recognise fly on the wall style angles from Reality TV/Documentaries such as Big Brother and Channel 4’s The Family. As you can see from the question and their tallies I have put together from the results below the majority from my target group sample said they would not recognise the references to ‘Room 101’ but they would recognise the fly on the wall angles I want to use.

Conclusion: This market research has altered my decisions in what I want to reference and whilst I will continue to borrow interest into reality TV by ensuring that they recognise the fly on the wall style it is clear that the reference to Room 101 as a House No. would be lost to the majority of my target audience. 

Reality Show Iconics - Stylistic Conventions

Here I have print screened some shots from reality TV shows The only way is Essex, Made in Chelsea, The Hills and Big Brother to show some of the similar stylistic conventions of all four. The top two photos show the establishing shots used in Made in Chelsea and also The Hills, as you can see both use text devices to give factual and locational information about where the scenes are set.

In the bottom four photos you can see that a shot has been provided from each reality show and eachone again used a text device but this time to introduce the characters that are in these scenes. The Hills has done this since it's beginning in 2006 and this style was then adopted by the creators of The only way is Essex in 2010 and those of Made in Chelsea in 2011. Big Brother has also only just adopted this technique in its recent series on new channel 'Channel 5'.

These stylistic conventions are therefore very familiar to the genre of reality TV and my idea was to somehow incorporate this in some of the shots within my trailer to again emphasize the theme of reality TV within it. These sort of styles will attract a wider audience than just those interested in a thirller because people who are avid watchers of reality TV will recgonize them and therefore I will have borrowed their interest by capturing it in my teaser.

As you can see the angles are very high, often in the corner and on the diagonal often used in shows such as Big Brother and I'm a Celebrity get me out of here as well as for day to day life in the positioning of security cameras. Therefore these angles hold connotations of unobtrusive camera work often implying that the people being watched are unaware. It creates the fly on the wall documentary style that I want to incorporate in my teaser trailer.

UPDATE: Unfortunately, after looking into the software that is available to me I am unable to add text over images - to stop this from being a problem I will focus on stylistic conventions that I have already looked at such as the Big Brother angles.

Reality Show Iconic - Big Brother [& discussion into my teasers postmodern message]

Modern Reality TV show Big Brother takes its name from the famous film '1984'. The original version of this film directed by Michael Anderson in 1956 showed the poster above as a propaganda technique for the plot of the film. The film is based on a book written by George Orwell in 1949 which also had a second film adaptation in the year 1984. The storyline follows Winston Smith who lives in London under a totalitarian society led by the figure 'Big Brother' which censors everyone's behaviour and even their thoughts. This is very similar to my teasers storyline in which the woman is being watched in ways she did not agree too and the director is 'Big Brother'. 

As well as these posters being an icon from the original adaptation, the book/film is also famous for introducing the room 'Room 101' - a torture chamber in where the leading party in charge subject a prisoner to his or her own worst nightmare, fear or phobia. There have been several references to the idea Room 101 since such as the British TV show Room 101 where celebrities list their pet peeves as well an idea for a task in the 2005 series of Big Brother and more recently an idea for the episode The God Complex in the 2011 series of Doctor Who. My idea was to reference the number 101 somewhere in my teaser for example, the house number for where the woman lives - therefore her greatest phobia being her fear of entire exposure and this fear being located in her home (Room 101).

Using these iconic references as inspiration for my teaser will help to reveal it's themes/messages but also pay homage to the films' storyline in which a utopian society is only found through 'following a grand-narrative - a dictatorship'. Lyotards' theory of post-modernism describes it as an era that declines these grand-narratives and instead focuses on micro-narratives. Therefore post-modernism can be seen as declining the society presented in the film '1984'. However, my teaser is about a film that attempts to exploit the truth about reality TV, a product of Postmodernism. Like I have said before, modern Reality TV is often scripted or manipulated whilst focusing on themes such as glamour and appearance. I see Reality TV as its own grand-narrative as it falsely entices its consumers on what can be seen as a prime example of Baudrillard's theory of hyperreality - the idea that we only experience prepared realities such as edited war footage, tabloid talk shows and my own focus; Reality TV.

By adopting my own postmodern techniques such as paying homage to previous films and adopting it's styles for inspiration I am taking the discussion further into Baudrillard's theories and his ideas of simulation and simulacra - the process in which representations of things come to replace the things being represented. This would beg the question whether postmodernism is positive or negative because...

• Products of the era such as Reality TV are examples of hyperreality being falsely presented
• My teaser itself is presenting this question through it's own technique of postmodernism - simulacrum.

UPDATE: Click this LINK to see an update on this research after market research

My Questionnaire

This is my questionnaire that I will give to 50 males and 50 females that are within the age bracket that I am aiming my teaser at. The results will help me to identify the best routes of exhibition suited to my teaser as well as a brief overview of what to include in my trailer and ensure that the decisions I have made already such as creating a Psychological Thriller for an audience including both males and females have been suitably made.

History of Demographics - Thrillers

Using IMDB I have analysed some of the demographics for previous films that suit the genre of my teaser trailer. I chose a film from the 1920s, 40s, 60, 80s and 00s so I could see if their was any dramatic changes in the gender of audience throughout the years and as you can see this is not the case and the male audience has consistently been the primary sex to have watched thrillers.

The Lodger [1927]

Stranger on the Third Floor [1940]

Bunny Lake is Missing [1965]

The Firestarter [1984]

The Eye [2008]

My initial ideas were that a teaser for a thriller film with a female protagonist as well as themes of reality TV, would attract a predominantly female audience. However looking at previous thrillers, such as these, has shown me that in terms of IMDB stats thrillers have been mostly popular with males. Looking at the popularity of these films with the age group 18-29 year olds has determined my target audience age group but as well as taking these factors into account I will also do a market research questionnaire with a sample of 50 males and 50 females from this age bracket to learn more about what they want from a teaser but also how popular the genre Thriller really is with each gender.

Post-modernist Film Review

Because I am aiming to create a teaser for a film that questions that expresses ideas of post-modernism I wanted to look at an iconic postmodern director Quentin Tarantino. His film 'Pulp Fiction' is full of references to different eras as well as iconic movies which he has used for inspiration for multiple scenes as well as plot devices. It is therefore a film with typically postmodern conventions.

Freidrich Jameson said, ''Postmodernism is a gratuitous eclecticism cannibalising the styles of the past'' and therefore I want to illustrate how the film does this for my own understanding of Freidrich Jamesons' views.

Because my teaser is for a film that questions postmodern values through the focus of Reality TV, I also wanted to see if I could draw inspiration of how I can use certain clues (such as props, shots etc.) to guide the audience through my teaser or even for my movie poster or magazine cover. I now want to find props, shots and lines that are iconic because of there association with reality TV. I can then look into possibly using these for either my main product or ancillary products.

Themes/Representations in Reality TV

As you can see I've noted that one of the major themes is glamour and this has inspired some of the ideas for shots within my teaser that I will go on to put together in a storyboard. The aim is to exploit these themes within my trailer to really promote the post-modern message within what would be the full feature film.

Reality TV - Real or Fake? [Theme in my Teaser]

Example - The Hills

The Hills is another Reality TV show of the modern age that is based heavily on their glamorous lifestyles whether it be their jobs in fashion, public relations or the music industry as well as the dramatic problems between friendships. The audience never got to know the families of the young adults very well and throughout it's life on MTV we only see them if they are being asked advice on relationships, friendship problems or just to spur on the next narrative of the show.

In the final scene of the final series the show confronted questions that had been posed during its history of whether it was real or fake. Flashbacks of all series' are shown until a shot of Brody standing infront of the Hollywood sign is zoomed out to reveal that the scene was filmed on a set. Director Adam DiVello commented on the final scene with:

 ''When we set out to make the show, it was a reality show without the conventions of a reality show... [Viewers wondered,] 'Were these things shot on soundstages or were they shot in their apartments?' But I think everyone knows it was a reality show, obviously.''

This is one of the main themes that has spurred on the storyline of my teaser trailer. Friedrich Jameson said the following about Postmodernism, 

• ''In a postmodern age we are living in an hallucination, a reality evaporating into mere spectacle- we are fixated on products, commodities and on image''

This particular quote can sum up modern day reality shows in a sentence, commenting directly on reality it describes exactly how unreal it can actually become in this era - ''an hallucination''. It also comments on the concern with image, something that seems to be the theme promoted in most reality shows nowadays. 

I want to focus on the fact that in these modern shows the reality is not actually the reality in most cases and instead the cast are manipulated into certain situations by directors. As someone who watches reality shows such as The Hills religiously I understand how it is to be sucked in by what you know is unlikely to be a reality because of its sheer entertainment. Because of this I want my teaser trailer to question peoples' choices in supporting something that creates 'instant celebrities' through their ability to be part of what is ultimately a façade.

VISO Trailers [EXHIBITION]

• "One of top FIVE entertainment channels on YouTube''
• "Ahead of popular channels including BBC
• "Over 260k channel subscribers"
• "YouTube's leading sources of movie trailers"

It's clear from this article that VISO trailers as an exhibition format is a very good option for movie trailers because of its sheer popularity, the hundreds of thousands of subscribers waiting to see the next trailer or the  background advertising technique where the film is plastered all over the sites pages.

VISO Trailers is a YouTube channel that shows all sorts of movie trailers as well as special features for recent releases. The channel, being YouTube's leading source for movie trailers would be perfect for the exhibition of any teaser as whilst watching any trailers on YouTube, the related videos bar includes multiple trailers uploaded by this channel therefore increasing the chances of an increased viewership.

VISO Trailers also has its own facebook page, recently created, but still reaching 16,251 likes. The facebook page provides direct links to trailers, the chance to discuss movies, photos of recent releases (Movie Posters, film stills, etc.), polls that can be answered by the pages viewers as well as a link to their Twitter page which has 7,216 followers. All of this comes together to provide a great viral marketing scheme for all different trailers, viewers have the option to share the trailer in multiple different ways whether it's via facebook or just interacting with the information they see so that this activity can be observed by their friends or they can retweet the tweets from VISO Trailers twitter account. 

Exhibition of Teaser Trailers

As said in the previous post; most teaser trailers are created before or during the actual production of the full film itself. The most common way of exhibiting a teaser trailer is to attach it to a film with a similar genre during it's exhibition in a cinema. Doing this hooks the audience immediately as they will have come to see this particular film because of its genre and therefore the teaser would directly meet their interests. An example of this is when The Incredibles had a teaser trailer that was attached to Finding Nemo 18 months prior to the films release...

   

The films are similiar in several different ways..

• They are both distributed by Walt Disney Pictures and use Pixar Studios.
• They are both animated.
• They are both aimed at the same audience: Young Children and Family Audiences.
• Both have elements of comedy and adventure.

As most movies have official websites specifically created for the audience interested in the film, teaser trailers are often shown there. For example, Inception shows all of the trailers shown to promote the film on the video section of the website. 

For TV exhibition, teasers for movies (or TV Spots) are shown during the usual ad breaks. A most recent film that does this is Contagion which shows several different teasers which can all be viewed on the WarnerBrosPictures YouTube channel as well as between TV Programmes. As you can see the WarnerBrosPictures has themed their channel around the release of the film even a few weeks after the actual release date.

In the USA, exhibitors will pay millions of dollars to secure a 30-second ad break during the Super Bowl because of it's high viewership (in the past reaching 50% of households). Also, playing TV Spots during a break for a programme that may hold similarities to the film that is attempting to be promoted would increase interest much like the attachment to similar genres in cinema exhibition.

However, recently the exhibition of teaser trailers has modernised and, as well as using these techniques, video sharing websites such as YouTube have allowed a new way for exhibition. 

As you can see here, most distributors such as Sony Pictures will exhibit the teaser trailers for the movies that they distribute such as 'The Social Network'. The trailer was released in June whilst the film was not released in the UK until October and was available for anyone who searched any words related the the movie. As well as those who deliberately searched for footage concerning the movie, there are those who could be watching other trailer from Sony Pictures and could be directed to this through the Related Videos bar on the right hand side. 

Teaser Trailer Techniques

Clues to the Narrative

During my analysis for the teaser trailer of Inception I noticed that, throughout, themes that are closely related to the narrative are shown. The fighting scenes that defy gravity, the spinning top and the text 'Your Mind' come together to show the balance between the control we have and the control we don't have over our minds which is perfectly suited to the film about those who can create dreams within dreams with the power of their mind.

Music/Sound [For flow or to dramatise the narrative]


In most of the teaser trailers I have looked at, loud sounds accompany the text shown on screen instantly dramatising the information given to the audience.

Sound is also used to emphasize the genre of the film. For e.g the sound effects in the second teaser for Inception gradually speed up, building suspense until the climax of the trailer. Each shot is faded out whilst dramatic beats are again sounded all in which create a more exciting experience for the audience.