Genre Changing Trailer | Jaxmine Onyango

Trailer Forms

Theoretical trailers exist to introduce the main setting, narrative and characters of the film. There can be mulitple versions of these to better suit a different type of audience (like international or national) or for re-releasing of movies (these can quote critical responses and list rewards)

For example, the final trailer for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker immediately shows the characters and tells the narrative of the film, the first scene is of the main character running but we don't know why. The trailer then focuses on some action scenes later on. There's voiceovers of the characters thoughts and the plot isn't explicitly told. Compared to The LEGO Movie, this trailer shows the characters normal life and then shows how they got into the main plot of the film. As The LEGO Movie is more of a comedy, they explicitly tell the story in their trailer and it feels less dramatic than Star Wars

Teasers are like their namesake, teasing the audience but not showing much of the plot. Teasers are used at the start of a marketing campaign but by the time a movie is about to be released there can be mulitple of them, showcasing different shots and themes within the film. These are usually short and range from 30-90 seconds, featuring many fast cuts

The teaser for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker begins the same way the final trailer does, with the main character heavy breathing on a black screen, but this teaser shows her in a different location. There are many fast cuts and there's no suggestion of what the story could be. The teaser only focuses on action scenes and shots of the locations. Unlike the Star Wars teaser Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse teases the story with the scene of the gravestone, but it doesn't say what it means either and only hints at something being wrong. The shots focus more on the one character in the trailer than the location instead of multiple like the Star Wars teaser. Both have fast cuts that leave the audience wanting more

TV Spots are played in an ad run of a TV network. These trailers are more like standard ones, showing a bit of the plot and characters, but are as short as teasers. It's usually made around before the film comes out, acting as a final push to get audiences interested

These trailers are less common as we have more streaming services, but Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has one aswell despite being released in 2019. This trailer starts of bombastically with choral music instead of the breathing like the other trailers. This trailer focuses entirely on the action scenes to catch the audiences attention and the plot isn't mentioned at all. This is almost a complete opposite of the first Toy Story film released in 1995 as that TV spot had the voiceover of a narrator describing what the basic premise of the film was. Toy Story had much less action scenes, which makes sense for it's genre. They're both only 30 seconds long but do quite different things

member berries. (2016) Disney Pixar Toy Story TV Spot Commercial Trailer (1995). [Online Video.] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtKgfTz8iuE

Sony Pictures Entertainment. (2017) SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE - Official Teaser Trailer. [Online Video.] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii3n7hYQOl4

Star Wars. (2019) Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker | “Duel” TV Spot. [Online Video.] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjdjyvnOGtg

Star Wars. (2019) Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker | Final Trailer. [Online Video.] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Qn_spdM5Zg

Star Wars. (2019) Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – Teaser. [Online Video.] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adzYW5DZoWs

Warner Bros. Pictures. (2013) The LEGO® Movie - Official Main Trailer [HD]. [Online Video.] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ_JOBCLF-I

Trailer Production Agencies

There's alot of scrutiny from audiences about trailers and that most people don't know that directors aren't the ones making their trailers. Businesses that make trailers might often go unnoticed by the public because of this

The scene is competitive in that there are alot of agencies working on making one seperate trailer. It's different from traditional advertising because there's other businesses competiting with eachother. After the trailers are finished the studio looks at all the versions and picks which one works best

The director often gets involved in making the trailer as it's their movie. They either join early or after a studio picks the trailer they like the most, there are times where directors will join at the beginning. For the most part, directors usually go to specialists for their movie trailers as they know they can't make it all themselves

For how long it takes to make a trailer it can depend on the movie and the campaign, but it usually lasts three or four months. If the director is there it can take longer as there are different stages, making the process go back and forth

There are specific shots that are just for announcements or teasers, but the director has to be there early in these cases. Something most people don't realise is that the trailer companies do work with the directors at the beginning but they don't know what's actually going in the final feature until it's done. As the trailer can come out before the final movie, the scenes in that trailer sometimes don't make it to the actual movie

Hooton, C. (2017) We spoke to the people who make film trailers. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/film-trailers-editors-interview-create-teasers-tv-spots-a7531076.html. Accessed at: 12.10.21

Unlocking

Unlocking a film trailer is a new concept that came with the age of social media. It is when the audience is required to do something (usually related to the film) to see the film trailer

An example of this being Candyman's trailer. On the movies official page, to see
the video you have to allow access to your microphone and webcam and then say
Candyman's name five times. As you continue, bees swarm your face reflected on
the screen and then afterwards you get to see the video

Another example is the Goosebump's trailer, the official twitter had "dared" fans to
use #UnlockGoosebumps to unlock it.

The Hunger Games had created an entire online simulator with hidden
secrets and exclusive content for their fans to explore. This marketing
campaign proved to be a success as many of their audience was interested
in it. The game was on Facebook and used Flash, which means its
unfortunately no longer playable. It was described as being a "farmville-like
game" with fighting elements by a news article at the time

Betts, E. (2021) Say Candyman five times to unlock last trailer. Available at: https://www.thedigitalfix.com/candyman/unlock-final-trailer. Accessed at: 12.10.21

Driscoll, M. (2012). 'The Hunger Games' come to life (virtual life, that is). Available at: https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2012/0307/The-Hunger-Games-come-to-life-virtual-life-that-is. Accessed at: 01.11.21

Glazer, E. (2012) See What The Hunger Games Facebook Game Will Look Like. Available at: https://www.vulture.com/2012/03/hunger-games-facebook-game.html. Accessed at: 01.11.21

Havervold, K. (Year unknown) 10 Best Movie Marketing Campaigns Ever. Available at: https://www.goliath.com/movies/10-best-movie-marketing-campaigns-ever/. Accessed at: 01.11.21

Pitts, L. (2017) New Goosebumps Trailer Sneak Peek Released. Available at: https://comicbook.com/movies/news/new-goosebumps-trailer-released-127261/. Accessed at: 12.10.21

SuperDuperKellogg. (2021) SAY HIS NAME! | CandyMan Website Challenge & Trailer. [Online Video.] Availabe at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aalmn_XjE-Q. Accessed at: 01.11.21

The Evolution of Film Trailers Research

In 1910's, movie theatres only had one screen. The admission to enter was 5 cents and you could then sit in the theatre for as long as you wanted. There weren't set times for films yet and a feature length movie could play after a cartoon. Films would be on a continuous loop so audiences were able to watch the movies as many times as they wanted

The first trailer technically appeared at the end of The Adventures of Kathlyn, a serial that aired in 1912 and made by Col. William Selig. It was actually a cliffhanger of sorts at the end of every episode, inviting the audience to come watch the next episode to find out what happens next. The serial was the second serial ever made but was the first to implement a cliffhanger in it's episodes

The first actual film trailer was created by Nils Granlund, the advertising manager for Loew's theatres, in 1913 (considered to be Year Zero by most historians) for a musical called The Pleasure Seekers. The trailer was comprised of the rehearsal footage for the film and was shown after films in Loew's theatres. Marcus Loew was interested in Granlund's trailer and asked for him to make more advertisements like this. In 1914 Granlund was making trailers for Charlie Chaplin at one point

Eventually the NSS (National Screen Service) was created in 1919 by Herman
Robbins, stationed in New York. The NSS quickly held a monopoly over the trailer

market for four decades, until the 1960s. It made trailers with movie stills and titles.

They would then sell these to movie theatres despite not asking for permission from

the studios to make the trailer in the first place

Most of their trailers looked the same as they used the same template for all of
them. Two examples of NSS trailers are their Frankenstein and Casablanca trailer.
They both have voiceovers to narrate the story, one liners from the characters
in-between the music and fly in typography emphasising the shock or adventure
of the film. Casablanca uses screen wipes to transition from scene to scene and
Frankenstein fades into each other. It's clear to tell that these two trailers were
made by the same company

Before trailers had sound, trailers captured their audiences attention with text

describing the reasons to see the film and action and dancing scenes. An example

of this is The Live Wire (1926), showing many scenes with people doing stunts and

displaying words that emphasise how fun the movie is

In 1927 The Jazz Singer was released. It was the first movie with synchronised

speech and music, and they showed this in their trailer. The trailer itself is seven

minutes long and features a spoken introduction that lasts for 1 minute and 43

seconds, which was never heard for movies before. Throughout the video there's

also a voice over describing the scene and the characters. If anything the trailer is

almost filmed like a pitch to a producer with how the voice over narrator describes
everything and talks about the movie like how it is a movie

In the late 1939, the NSS signed a contract with Paramount Pictures. This contract

made the NSS in charge of producing and distributing most of Paramount's movie

posters and do other advertising materials. The contract sparked NSS making

deals with major studios and even independent filmmakers to make posters for their

films. A few examples of the studios they made deal with are: Loew's in 1942,

Warner Bros. in 1946 and 20th Century Fox in 1947 to name a few. The company at

one point dealt with 90% of the poster production and distribution in the US

Movie stars and directors had also popularised films more. An example of a popular

actor is Clara Bow, also known as the original 'It Girl'. Her role in most films was to

play a flapper (a bold new fashion style in that time) and was the influence for many

girls and young women to also become one. During 1928-1929 she was the most

popular actress

Alfred Hitchcock made the trailer for his own movie and in so created something the NSS could never make. The trailer for Psycho was purely a tour around the movie's setting with a narrator on screen while they also talked about where the murders would take place. The trailer was a masterful way to market the movie as the plot twist hid in plain sight. It was a dangerous way to market the movie but it worked partly because of how famous and recognisable he was

Dr Strangelove was a satirical political commentary but it wasn't marketed as such.

The director, Stanley Kubrick, didn't even tell the star actor George C. Scott that the

tone changes halfway in the production. Kubrick made the trailer himself like

Hitchcock did and the trailer had an extremely disjointed feel because of it, using

many fast cuts with a single word to ask a question to the audience. The questions

themselves were strange and most were unanswerable to the audience at the time.

It's almost difficult to describe and the trailer is definitely unique

In the 1970s cinemas were turning into multiplexes, featuring multiple screens. Prior to this movies would be screened in big theatres and then eventually move to smaller cities and towns over a few months. This was the same decade as the movie Jaws by Steven Spielberg was released, being the first blockbuster. This was the first movie to be released worldwide and was open simultaneously in 464 theatres in June 25th and 675 theatres by July, this was also the largest distribution of film at the time. Films after Jaws followed what it did, calling it the Wide release strategy

This film drastically changed how trailer films were marketed and some of the advertising is still used today. The trailer for Jaws was also different in that it relied heavily on the narrative of the film and spoiled almost all of it except the ending, all done in 3 minutes and 21 seconds. This created a phenomenon for movie trailers to become 'mini movies' in a way. Jaws had its own customised trailers and aired during the prime hours of TV. These trailers were constantly played to subtly trick the audience into thinking it was the only movie opening that weekend and to stick to the audience's head. This was later called the Blockbuster Strategy, when you spend a huge sum on advertising for a movie that's conceived to do well

Because of the rise of blockbusters and directors doing their own movie trailers, the NSS quickly became obsolete. The 90% grip they had on trailers in the US before had dramatically decreased in the 1980s. The company focused on making only movie posters again before being bought by Technicolor in the 2000s

Don LaFontaine is known as "the voice of God" for lending his voice to over 5000 movie trailers and thousands of TV commercials. His most common phrase in the beginning of trailers is "In a world..", to the point where it's been parodied by LaFontaine himself. MTV's cutting style had influenced movie trailers to be fast paced edits and it's influence is still present in action style trailers

In 1996 for a break for the Super Bowl, the Independence Day teaser had played. The first shot was of the White House exploding, shocking the audience. 20th Century Fox had paid $1.3 million to air it and it paid off as Independence Day is one of America's biggest blockbusters. This was the first 'Money Shot' and it changed how movies were marketed, as a single scene had made a movie iconic even to this day

The internet opened up new ways to release a film trailer. As YouTube became popular it became the norm to post film trailers on there. This also meant that TV spot trailers were slowly becoming less common as more and more people stopped using their TV in favour of streaming services. Marketing campaigns could be more elaborate (having countdowns and have promotions not even showing any film footage) and also interactive (some movies require the audience to 'unlock' it's film trailer, an example being Candyman requiring the audience to enable their audio and camera and chant the film's title five times). In 1999 Evelyn Brady-Watters and Monica Brady made the ever so popular Golden Trailer Awards. The GTA's were made to award movies for their innovative new concepts and talents. The awards have become as famous as the movies as themselves

As I'm only making a genre changing trailer this does not help me much, but it does tell that TV is slowly dying out in favour of streaming. I most likely won't make my trailer like a TV spot for this reason as well, as it's most likely the least seen kind of trailer. It is still interesting to know though

The maximum length a film trailer can be is 2 minutes and 30 seconds long, decided upon by the Motion Picture Association of America and a few other studios. This was done because trailers were still being played before movies in a cinema or theatre, if it was any longer the audience would still have to sit through it all. This limit also forced the businesses in charge of the trailer to actually think about what to include in all that time. National Association of Theater Owners said the limit should only be 2 minutes in 2013, but the maximum is still the same

I will keep the limit in mind while making my trailer and make sure all the scenes in it are concise and necessary. One complaint some audiences have recently is that trailers have become boring with how many unnecessary scenes there are to pad out the runtime, so in a way I think the limit is good

A notable film marketing campaign is for The Dark Knight (2008). 42 Entertainment is a company that makes alternate reality games (ARGs) and they made one for The Dark Knight. The story was an interactive mystery, the company made a fake newspaper for it called The Gotham Times and even a fake political campaign for one of the characters, while also having the audience use websites and various images to find out more about the story and possibly try to solve it. Another example is Cloverfield. Unlike The Dark Knight, the entire marketing campaign kept a lot of the story in the dark. While trailers were airing and the film wasn't available yet no one even knew what the film was about. This is exactly what hooked people into the movie oddly enough, the suspense and mystery played a key part in interesting people. It also helps that the trailer for it showed during the previews of the Transformers film

I think the interactivity movies can have is very interesting. I'll consider possibly making my trailer be a bit interactive in that I hint at the story in my trailer but never explicitly state what it is to keep the audience guessing. I may also subtly include a code of some sorts in it as well and make any of the audience that notice it research into what it could mean. It's an easy yet extremely interesting way in getting the audience engaged in a film

Bitesize. (Year unknown) Popular entertainment. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z2jm97h/revision/1. Accessed at: 13.10.21

DiStefano, D. (Year unknown) A Brief History of Film Trailers, or: Turns Out This Post Is Not About Peter Orner. Available at: https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/mqr/2015/07/a-brief-history-of-film-teasers-or-turns-out-this-post-is-not-about-peter-orner/. Accessed at: 12.10.21

Filmmaker IQ. (2014) The History of the Movie Trailer. [Online Video.] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oytYLm1OTcM Accessed at: 13.10.21

Grebey, J. (2019) 10 Killer Movie Marketing Campaigns. Available at: https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/10-killer-movie-marketing-campaigns/. Accessed at: 12.10.21

GTA. (Year unknown) About Us. Available at: https://goldentrailer.com/about-us/. Accessed at: 13.10.21

Havervold, K. (Year unknown) 10 Best Movie Marketing Campaigns Ever. Available at: https://www.goliath.com/movies/10-best-movie-marketing-campaigns-ever/. Accessed at: 12.10.21

Movieclips Classic Trailers. (2013) Casablanca (1942) Official Trailer - Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman Movie HD. [Online Video.] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkL9l7qovsE. Accessed at: 13.10.21

One Hundred Years of Cinema. (2016) 1927: The Jazz Singer - How The Movies Learnt To Talk. [Online Video.] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlAt2lcg5ZM

Original Film Art. (2016) The National Screen Service (NSS): A Dinosaur of Film Advertising. Available at: https://www.originalfilmart.co.uk/blogs/news/nss. Accessed at: 13.10.21

Patches, M. (2013) We’re Living in the Age of the Movie Trailer Money Shot. Available at: https://www.vulture.com/2013/07/brief-history-of-the-movie-trailer-money-shot.html Accessed by: 13.10.21

RoboJapan. (2008) Frankenstein (1931) Trailer. [Online Video.] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKyiXjyVsfw. Accessed at: 13.10.21

scarface584. (2007) Dr. Strangelove trailer. [Online Video.] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gXY3kuDvSU. Accessed at: 13.10.21

Schimkowitz, M. (Year unknown) An epic history of the movie trailer. Available at: www.hopesandfears.com/hopes/culture/film/214473-epic-history-movie-trailers-mad-max-independence-day. Accessed at: 12.10.21

tvdays. (Year unknown) LOST SILENT FILM TRAILERS. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OkLWeFdcQ4. [Online Video.] Accessed at: 12.10.21

Tyler McNamer. (2020) The Jazz Singer Official Trailer (1927). [Online Video.] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9v4DrYNNHlo

Daily Diary 12/10

Today I learned about movie trailers, the history and different types of them. I also had to do research on it and a film marketing campaign as well, writing how it'll help me do my genre changing trailer. I have to finish all of these by tomorrow, which I already have

I liked reading and learning about different film campaigns, I think it's interesting to read how creative and innovative the ways of just marketing a film can be. I don't watch films though and I will admit that none of the things I did for the music video or genre changing trailer sound interesting for me to actually want to pursue a career in

Overall though I think I did really good work today. This is the first time in awhile that I haven't felt stressed while doing work from self-directed study and I did a lot of work in a short time frame. I think I analysed everything I did today well and I feel confident about my work, I did two examples for most things when I only had to do one (even though the trailer forms comparison was an accident)

The only thing I can think of to improve is the highlighted text, I was asked to describe how my research would help me create a genre changing trailer and I wasn't really sure what to put at first. I had the same problem last time we had to do this for the music video as well

Daily Diary 13/10

I had to finish my research into the evolution of music trailers. I thought I finished it before but no I didn't. I have now though! I now have to complete my 5 minute video essay script by tomorrow before class (9am)

Everything I can write about I've pretty much already wrote yesterday, which is good. I definitely analysed the research well but there are a few paragraphs that were unnecessary (like the movie stars and trailer examples). This isn't really a bad thing though I'd prefer to be safe than sorry over work. I liked learning about and watching the trailers for Psycho and especially Dr Strangelove, they're both so different from anything I've ever seen and are really interesting

I'm still proud of my work and I hope this'll carry over to tomorrow, as this feeling doesn't usually last long and I'm not really confident in my editing skills in Premiere Pro

Draft Essay Script

First draft

Second draft

Peer Assessments

Script Rehearsal

rehearsal

00:00 / 00:32

audio

00:00 / 00:17

Video Essay Script (finished)

Organised Files

Importing Files

Video Essay

Thumbnail

Daily Diary 14/10

Today I had to record my script and make the video for it. The only homework I have left to complete is the media research for professional practice

I liked my script and thought it was well put together, I got complimented on it by the two people who did my peer assessment as well. Recording was fun ignoring me having to redo my first take as the audio peaked too much. However I think at this point I'm just never going to like editing here. Its not Premiere Pro itself, its that there's never enough time to actually make anything I'm proud of. I felt like I did really well on the theory work for this task but I knew the actual video itself wasn't going to be good, I knew I'd have to rush to finish it at the end and I'm still not even sure how I did it before the deadline. I'm not excited to edit the trailer itself because I know I'm not going to have any time to make something good

Bibliography