Trailer Research 1

Rowan Smith; 0121
Thomas Allison; 0051
Samantha Grant; 0081

Objective:

To identify the codes and conventions commonly used in teaser trailers which promote films within the genres of thriller and action.

Case Study:

Cloverfield (Matt Reeves, 2008)

Cloverfield’s whole viral marketing campaign was one of the most creative developments in the use of the internet and the power of social networking in film history. It seemed to use the philosophy ‘less is more’ and by this approach the blogs and fan pages were sent into overdrive.

They essentially managed to create an enigma that captured the minds of the public. This created a buzz which reverberated across the worldwide web in an unparalleled fashion. As such, the film gained huge amounts of below-the-line promotion through word of mouth and speculation on the identity of this destructive force.

The trailer used a short sequence from the film with a few points of ellipsis used to create the timeframe required for the trailer. This differed from many teaser trailers which often skip between different significant points within the film in a manner disassociated with the actual timeline of the film. Within the sequence used there was an establishment of setting particularly when the Statue of Liberty’s head rolled down the street and an establishment of characters to a certain degree though this was very vague. Using such a limited section of the film seemed to be part of the ‘less is more’ marketing strategy as the audience was only given one point of reference within the film from which to try and answer the plethora of questions it left behind. Not event the title of the film was put in the teaser trailer, in fact only the name of the producer J.J. Abrams and the release date were given.

The camera was hand held when filming Cloverfield which acts like a constant point-of-view shot thus allowing the audiences perspective to be more subjective and thus ‘realistic’. They also only used diegetic sound within the trailer which is again fairly atypical of teaser trailers but again it does add to the verisimilitude of the trailer.

The shots often became broken and out of focus in order to denote a state of panic and confusion. The trailer relied on this confusion transferring into the audience for the enigma to be enhanced. Further techniques were employed in order to create this state of panic and confusion for example, the camera was often uneven and in the scene where they were running down the stairs it appeared to go upside down at one point during a near rolling action. In addition to this frequent cuts were used throughout the trailer which gave it a fast paced feel.