WHAT MAKES AN EFFECTIVE TEASER TRAILER?By Nilima, Fatma, Leanne

THE NOTEBOOK

The slow music connotes a happy, mellow relationship, as this sets the tone of the equilibrium. We are going to use a similar technique to introduce our characters and setting, and to establish our romance genre. The voice-over tells us the story of the two characters before they meet and then he stops, which then leaves us to figure out the story for our own, a technique we intend to employ.

THE NOTEBOOK:

SOUND:

EDITING:

Editing in the Notebook is predominantly soft transitions, as cross dissolves are used. Editing in ‘The Notebook’ is effective as it creates a mood for the trailer that works well with lingering shots of our two protagonists. The solely romantic narrative of this trailer precludes hard, fast cuts. We have looked at this critically and decided to use a more fast paced editing to show the youthful atmosphere and lighter emotions. As our narrative is also about friendship not just romance.

Towards the end of the trailer the scenes change with the use of fast pace editing to create excitement by seeing flashes of the important or interesting scenes. The enigma is created so we don’t know what’s going to happen in the end in ‘The Notebook’, this engages the audience into wanting to watch the whole film at the cinema which is what we want.

ENIGMA:

NARRATIVE:The narrative within ‘The Notebook’ that is depicted in the trailer can be described as enigmatic as it’s evident that there are two narratives being told. However, the narrative is no different to conventional romance films as it can be applied simply to Todorov, the disruption being Allie moving away and the pair breaking up.

There is also the additional element of forbidden love. The trailer is very engaging, but ultimately very revealing of the plot only leaving the enigma of “who does she choose?”

How have we used this narrative as inspiration?

Although the narrative of ‘The Notebook’ is predictable, this is a convention of Romance films and still it’s considered a popular genre.

We want a simple conventional love story of a friendship developing into a romance. Elements of the narrative we have taken from ‘The Note Book’ are the ideas of a teen relationship and also the trailer being a romantic drama rather than a comedy. We wanted teen actors because that was our audience and we wanted them to be able to relate with the story and characters.

THE NOTEBOOK:

LOVE ROSIE

LOVE ROSIE:

SOUND:

- The non-diegetic music is a Indie type of music and this reflects the party-youth lifestyle as teenagers. We tend incorporated this into our trailer because we want to show the youthful lifestyle of teenagers as this is our target audience.

- This is effective because the music makes the audience feel like we know how she is feeling and want her to resolve her issues, this has influenced us to use this because the audience can see the characters life.

EDITING:

- We have taken inspiration from this use of editing and want to include flashbacks. The audience is allowed to build an attachment to the characters, creating an enigma and therefore want to find out the whole story.

- The constant interception of text titles suits the teenage target audience as they use colloquial language such as “Best Friends Forever”. We will be using this as an inspiration for our own trailer to show the link between the characters and show some narrative of the film without giving too much away.

- The rest of the trailer features various hard cuts rather than soft transitions, this is coupled with a faster pace as the trailer progresses. Fast paced editing is what we would like to incorporate into our trailer to reflect the lives of teenagers.

NARRATIVE:

• Equilibrium: Majority of Romance films can be applied to Todorov’s narrative theory. ‘Love Rosie’ begins with Alex and Rosie just as ‘best friends’, therefore incorporating one of the reoccurring issues that are constantly raised in romantic comedies, can men and women be friends without any intimacy.

• We have used this for our own trailer to question the audience if they think that two opposite sides of the sex can be JUST best friends without falling in love.

• Disruption: In ‘Love, Rosie’, a lot of the story is revealed, leaving little room for enigmas therefore making the trailer unsuccessful as there is no suspense. In our trailer, we want to create enigma but still leave enough of the narrative to communicate genre, story, conventions and character.

• New Equilibrium: The trailer doesn’t directly tell us the ending, but Romance films typically have the characters falling in love.

• The ending is predictable as this narrative has been conveyed in several romantic comedies and there is always the same outcome, conforming to the audience expectations and wants.

• The audience wants to see them come back together, we relish at a happy ending in romantic comedies, and anything else would be subverting the conventions of the genre.

LOVE ROSIE:

LOVE ROSIE:

ENGAGE THE AUDIENCE:

The target audience, of young females may be engaged by the stereotypically attractive characters. However, we wanted to challenge this and use ‘regular’ teenagers, we want to reflect a realistic perception of young adults/ teenagers.

We was also engaged with the conventional teenager activities they were doing, e.g. partying, drinking, etc. However, the trailer lacked enigma as a lot of what happens in the story was revealed, leaving no room for mystery for the audience.

We want to create more mystery surrounding our plot, not revealing the whole story, otherwise the audience is less likely to be intrigued to watch it at the cinema because the narrative is obvious.

FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS

FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS:

TITLE AND TEXT:

EDITING:

- The title is bold and clear using a san-serif font. Differs from the typical feminine font used in Romance films due to the genre which also has a mix of comedy.

- Throughout these trailers we see texts which get us thinking about the film creating extra enigma, similar to ‘Love, Rosie’, this is something we have taken inspiration from and incorporated it into our storyboard.

- There is a focus on the comedic language through the use of shot- reverse – shot in the trailer. The fast paced editing is used to mirror the witty humour and non-seriousness of the film, this makes the trailer effective and engaging.

- Softer transitions come in towards the end as they realise they’re falling in love. The use of editing is effective become it changes with the pace of the narrative and characters, therefore meaning is created through editing to intrigue the audiences.

- We would like to follow a similar formula, start off fast paced to reflect the equilibrium -normal lives of teenagers and then slow down as the disruption of relationships fall into place.

FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS:

CHARACTER:

• The male character is tall, slim and attractive with dirty blonde hair, who is represented as charming, witty and charismatic. The trailer is effective because of the use of Stars such as, Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis attracting their fans to watch it.

• The female character comes off 'clingy’, she is represented as an 'Damsel in Distress' and 'emotionally damaged’. She is represented as an stereotypical female who is sensitive, wants 'true love', e.g. "being swept up her feet by the love of her life”, such as Propp’s ‘princess’ character.

• The characters in ‘Friends with Benefits’ can used for ‘personal relationships’ according to the uses gratification theory. -“using the media for emotional and other interaction, e.g substituting soap operas for family life”. The relationship depicted between the characters are supposed to be stereotypically a young mans dream according to Hollywood films. The audience may also use the text for ‘diversion’ – to escape everyday problems.

NARRATIVE:

The convention of friendship turning into a romance is common in romantic comedies, however, this film tries to subvert conventions. The protagonists are not only friends during the equilibrium but also friends ‘with benefits’ using each other for sex. The disruption being that they are falling in love with each other. In terms of narrative, the audience is not given the complete story, unlike ‘Love Rosie’ and of the narrative is left to unravel when watching the film.

FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS:

DEAR JOHN:

NARRATIVE:

CHARACTER:

• The usual conventions are depicted: Tall, attractive, built - topless to show his masculinity. He jumps into the water to ‘rescue’ her bag, he is shown as Propp’s hero character convention.

• Attractive, blonde hair, blue eyes female character portrayed as a ‘Damsel in Distress’ who needs saving. Wearing white blouse with minimal make-up which connotes innocence.

• We’re also introduced to quite enigmatic characters - John is compassionate and loving but also hostile and fragmented due to his anger issues and complicated relationship with his father.

• The trailer is successful in terms of narrative because it creates suspense for the film, creates mystery and creates sympathy for the characters.

• Finding true love is the enduring theme of romantic films and usually the inevitable happy ending. The key is to create enough enigma to keep the audience entertained and interested. In Dear John, will he die at war? If so, will the girl move on?

DEAR JOHN:

SOUND:

- This trailer uses typical conventions for a romantic movie - it uses a guitar and this is slow-paced connoting love. It sounds heroic and this is to show how the male character is being a hero when he jumps into the water to save her bag.

- This is effective for females who love having a protective male figure who comes to their rescue.

- When they start spending some time together, the non-diegetic music starts colliding with the ambience sound of the ocean and it sounds harmonious and peaceful; this represents them getting to know each other and soon falling for each other. This is effective for the audience because we can see the clear romance about to grow between the both.

EDITING:

- The trailer uses lots of soft transitions such as dissolves/fades to black and white rather than hard cuts when moving between shots to conform to the genre of romance and subvert the conventions of war drama/ action. - The soft and delicate tone sets up the beginning of the film, creating a romantic atmosphere. The audience know what type of film this is through the use of editing, a slow, romantic perhaps tragic drama.

- The pace of the trailer starts off slow but increases as the trailer progresses, this is juxtaposed with the fade transitions, leaving this blank white and black spaces to create suspense over the fate of the couple.

- Editing is also used to go back and forth between the two protagonists, the audience is drawn into the relationship, and sympathy is created as it seems they’re being pulled further apart.

DEAR JOHN:

In the trailer, the last clip we see is of John on a plane. This makes us wonder whether or not he’ll survive and what will happen in their relationship as it is left on a cliff-hanger.

Cliff-hangers are another way to excite the audience and create enigma as this leaves us wondering and guessing what will happen in the rest of the film and makes us want to watch more.

Also, there is a voice-over quoting: ‘A lot can happen in 12 months’ but what? This makes us want to watch the film in-order to find out what exactly changes and how this affects the characters.

ENGAGEMENT/EXCITEMENT/ENIGMA: