Structure and conventions of a film trailer

Every film trailer has a typical structure: An opening, a build up, a problem and a series of events.
As a class we discussed the different conventions of a typical film trailer and composed a list based on this:

• Should show the highlights of the film - either the important, dramatic or funny scenes.
• There should be a general overview of the film without giving too much away.
• The characters should be introduced alongside the names of the actors/actresses who play them.
• Montage editing - lots of different clips from the film, not necessarily in order.
• Male voiceover/narrative.
• There should be music from the soundtrack/the main theme tune.
• The main setting should be established.
• There should be a parting shot/cliffhanger at the end (especially so in slasher or horror film trailers).
• Credits.
• Titles.

We also discussed how films and film trailers are multimodal and how their features include:

• Written text on screen (such as names of directors, producers and actors, as well as the title of the film).
• Spoken language
• Moving images
• Sound effects (dependent on the genre of the film).
• Music (could be an original score or tracks which have already been released by artists/bands)