Key Conventions of Film Trailers by Sebastian Begueria

Film trailers carry a series of different conventions which are used effectively and are aimed to attract the audience so that their questions can be answered by watching the trailer.

Firstly, the title and release date are put forward at the end of the film trailer. This is used so that during the trailer the audience become eager to find out what the film is called and when the film is out. It is also placed at the end of the film so that the viewers are more likely to remember the name as it's one of the last things they see in the trailer.

Another convention is the name of the main stars which are displayed on the trailer early on. This is so that the audience know who they expect to see. Furthermore, many people tend to watch films just because of the stars so therefore, by making the public aware of who will be starring in the film will keep them interested.

One essential aspect that trailers are criticised for doing is giving away too much of the film. An important convention in a trailer is to include key moments from the film yet not in sequence. This way, the trailer does not give away all the crucial information from the film. Many people will feel that there's no point in watching the films if the trailer has giving away too much information as there wont't be any surprises and will be expecting too much of the film.

Another popular convention of film trailers is music. Music can be effective as it gives away a lot of information such as the style, genre and plot of the film. The music brings all these elements together which fits very well in place.

On screen text is also quite popular in film trailers. Many people will argue that too much text ruins the trailer as it's not visual enough as the audience focus more on the text. However, if the on screen text is limited and only used for essential information for example by including the stars, producers, tag-line, title and release date then that can be effective and be used powerful as the style of the text can show certain aspects such as genre