Teaser Trailers

This teaser trailer does comply with some of the key conventions of movie trailers:

There are three intertitles which firstly present the producers name Michael Bay (which is a prodution value) and then presents the name of the Movie- "Nightmare on Elm Street". There is no voice over and as there is no other intertitles, a situation is not proposed to the audience and there are no rehtorical questions, therefore they are left to make their own minds up about what is happening, based on the clips of the movie shown. The last intertitle at the end of the trailer says "dont fall asleep" which we know has something to do with the plot of the film.

Although we know from the title that the movie is a horror, the beginning of the trailer could be mistaken for an Action film as the mis-en-scene presents an industrial, scrap yard sort of area, followed by a man being chased by cars.

There is no music accompanying this trailer however there is a sequence of constant sound effects with a few pauses to add moments of suspense. There is a creepy song sung by a child with a recoccuring tune and this leads to the build up of louder screaming, banging, smashing and shouting. As the woman wakes up and gasps for breath, the audience thinks that it has ended however after a black screen there is another "in your face" sort of shot with the same woman screaming.

We can gather from this trailer that the villian in the movie is a monster with metal claws. These claws are a reoccuring element as they appear from in the bath and are wrapped around somebodys arm. We also know he is burnt as the woman in this film says "im having a dream, about this man..and hes burnt". Fire is also a reoccuring element in this trailer.

Usually teaser trailers are much shorter than this one, typically ranging from 30-90seconds however there can be some exceptions.




This teaser trailer does comply with some of the key conventions of movie trailers:

There are two intertitles which present the name of the producer (which is again Michael Bay. This shows how popular he really is in the film industry.) and one which mentions that it is from the same director of Chain Saw Massacre. This means that if there are any big fans of the 4award winner film, they will want to see this due to the qualities they enjoyed in the other. The name of the film is displayed twice, once over a zooming out image of the "monsters' mask.' with the number 13 changing from white to red (as it is supersticiously unlucky.) It is then shown again at the end of the clip, floating on the right over an 'earthy' patch in the background.

There is dialogue throughout the teaser which acts as a sort of narrator although it comes from the actual movie. It proposes the problematic features of the plot and is an older sounding women. Her voice has an echo effect and it is creepy sounding.

We can immediately establish that the genre of this trailer is a horror as the sound at the beginning is very obvious. Although there is no soundtrack accompanying the trailer, there are constant effects which create a lot of tension. There are bird noises which sound more like an large, hunting bird rather than a small sweet whistling tune. This is followed by a black screen, low key lighting and a dark and strong mysterious blowing wind noise. There are sound effects throughout such as doors creaking, cars, bangs and breathing and there is one quiet screeching noise which runs throughout the trailer.
There is no real build up towards the end of the trailer but i like this as the sound keeps changing and the audience does not really know what is going to happen next.

Usually teaser trailers are much shorter than this one however again there are exceptions.



This teaser trailer does comply with some of the key conventions of movie trailers:

There is a voiceover throughout the teaser. It is a deep, authoritative males voice and it informs the audience that the movie is set at halloween. The speech is broken up into clauses with dialogue and visuals between each one. These visuals back up what the voiceover is saying for example we hear "Terror is just around the corner" and then see a clip of a young female standing next to a corner. The lights behind her go out, therefore the audience knows that something is lurking there.
There are no rehtorical questions, alliteration or other grammatical devices in this voiceover however what there is, is short and sweet and is effective in explaining the 'complication'.

One intertitle introduces the name of the movie in a contrasting white font compared to the black blackground. It is in upper case and the font is creepy looking as it has squared edges rather than round. The text falls back into the background and looks very effective.

There are no production values shown in the movie especially since the movie had not yet been shot as the trailer was a callout to try and get funding.

We do immediately know that this trailer is for a horror because not only does the name of the movie give it away, the music is eerie and different to that of an action or rom-com.
There is one tune throughout the beginning of the trailer which underlies the dialogue and sound effects. It is very high pitched and of a constant volume. It ceases at the sound of a knife and from there onwards it begins to build up. This begins with a bang, the laugh of a 'monster', a rising pitch which is played by string intruments and ends with a long, echoed scream.

The length of this teaser is also inbetween the average length of 30-90 seconds therefore it gives enough information and footage to leave the spectator wanting more without having seen too much or the resolution of the movie.