Film Trailer Research

By Matt Everatt

What Kind of Film trailer’s did you use for your research?

• The film trailers I used for my research were films that consisted of the thriller genre and the comedy/romance genres such as:

• Obsessed• The Naked Truth…

• Towards the end of a trailer for the last 2 minutes or so there is always a build up on the thriller then the screen blacks out. I find this really effective in drawing a target audience to go and watch a film corporation such as Universal’s film I would like to use this in my media production.

• I find the over the shoulder shot to be rather useful for instance in this shot as it portrays the fear of one of the main characters as she gets pulled through the ceiling trying to help the other woman who is obsessed with the main character’s husband.

• I would find using this shot in my main production rather useful particularly if I can film a shot such as this would draw my audience in if I used the shot correctly as well as the technique to black out the screen after the final shot of my main character been kidnapped along with the voice in the background of her boyfriend screaming her name or the words ‘I love you’ as the screen blacks out.

• Throughout most trailers of today's day and age the title of the film a long with the date it will be released at the end of the trailer, I am going to incorporate this for my Media trailer.

• I find the way the title is presented quite surreal in a way because behind the text is a mirrored image but a lot bigger along with the black background this title screen effect is brought to life.

• However I don’t think I would be able to create this title screen because it seems a little too advanced to achieve. Although I will use the shot placement in my trailer as it will give my target the realism and authenticity of a film trailer.

• I find this shot rather effective in showing the audience the extreme lengths of this woman’s obsession as she rips the face of the main character’s wife off of the picture.

• I think this sort of shot would work well in showing the audience how the kidnapper is really set on ripping my main characters life apart. Also it adds realism to the trailer because if a couple is in a relationship there is always a jealous man or woman or the relationship takes a turn for the worst.

• This shot could be used as my second to last shot or I could jump the shots and distort the trailer because most trailers today don’t follow a linear sense from start to end the trailer usually jumps around from scene to scene with speed editing.

• This sort of technique is quite good because the light font when looked at from different angles can either be hidden or shown in clear view.

• The words in particular add to the sense of secrecy because it is talking about people who are in a relationship hiding something from their loved ones, I am going to use this style of font for my ancillary task which is a film poster because the effect of hiding the words all adds to the theme of secrecy.

• Although I am going to use this kind of style in my ancillary task I don’t think I will use it in my film trailer because I want to give my target audience a trailer where they have to guess what will happen next.

• I want to try and incorporate lots of different shots into my trailer and bounce around from scene to scene rather than follow a line of beginning, middle and end like ‘the ugly truth’ but jumble it up a lot more.

• However I do find this shot rather good because the audience can really see and feel the emotion the characters share and how they use it to bond with each other. Especially here the audience can see the man and woman are having fun and interacting and get on well with each other, but the audience can also see through the man’s expression that he seems confused like he doesn’t really know or care about what the woman says and that he is only in this for one thing.

• I want to add this shot to one of my scenes to focus on one of my main characters undoing's and confusion to why he left his girlfriend like he did which could make the audience sympathize with him or they could see it as a punishment for what he did and in a harsh way see that he deserves everything that happens.

• Towards the end I want to include a shot of the boy and girl together much like the ending scene to ‘the ugly truth’.

• I want to use this kind of shot as a big pay off or in some audiences eyes a happy ending rather than just leaving the audience guessing however this could work two ways because I could still use this shot and add a little dialogue towards the end of my trailer or I could stick this shot in one scene of the two of them being happy and in love then film a shot of something going wrong.

• But I am going to use a shot like this to show my audience all the happy times and despite everything the boy did to the girl has finally realised what he did was wrong, also it shows the girl’s vulnerable side because she wasn’t expecting him to dump her but in the end they made everything right which could also add to a moral of some kind by saying don’t give up on love or this could happen to you.