Codes and Conventions of Trailers

Conventions of a Film Trailer

• Trailers attract the audience and make them want to see the film.
• A trailer gives away the genre, some genres are more obvious than others, but some films can have hidden genres and it can be difficult to work out which genre the film is part of.
• A trailer sells the storyline to the audience and gives them a feel of what the movie is like.
• A trailer shows the audience the main characters and what their roles in the film are, plus it can show what to expect from this character during the film.
• A trailer is put together with interesting clips from the movie that don't give too much away, but they normally give a hint of where a film is going, and allows the audience to keep guessing on what the end result of the set of clips the trailer shows them will be.
• The trailer show the beginning or just clips from the beginning that build up to a usually explosive ending.
• A trailer always shows the title of the film, as well as the date of release.
• There is sometimes a voice over from either a person in the film or a famous voice which is instantly recognisable.

Conventions of a Film Poster

• A film poster must be eye-catching, and be alerting, making people stop and view it.
• A film poster contains the name of the film, as well as the date of release.
• A film poster must be easy and quick to read.
• A film poster must have an image of something related to the film. This can be either a main character or well known actors who stars or costars, or a scene which shows the location or a set.
• It must attract the correct and chosen target audiences, decided upon in the planning process.
• Famous and instantly recognisable actors are normally located on the poster, to make people aware that this star is in the film, and pull in the star's fanbase.
• There is always a tagline located on the poster, which must be either a quote from the film - such as the 'Why so serious?' quote from the Batman series of films, or a slogan which has been deliberately chosen for the film during the planning process.
• A film poster will normally contain a billing block which showcases the main actors names' as well as the name of the director. Sometimes names of famous stars or well known directors can attarct the star's fanbase, and increase the overall audience reach and viewership of the film.

Conventions of a Film Magazine Front Cover

• The magazine's name is clearly shown on the top of the cover, usually located within the magazine's masthead, this always makes the title of the magazine obvious and normally the font used will make the name instantly recognisable, like the logo used in 'Total Film' and 'Empire' magazines.
• The image used on the front cover must be attractive and eye-catching to the target audience for the film, which was chosen in the planning process.
• Famous actors which star in the film will be shown prominently on the front cover, to attract the star's fan base into buying the magazine.
• The price, date, and bar code will located either on the front or back of the magazine. The bar code is on the product so that the customer can purchase the magazine from the retailer, and the price and date is purely for the information of the reader.
• Other conventions of a film magazine front cover can include the genre, captions, the name and/or logo of the production company and close ups of shots used in the film.