Compare and contrast the similarities/differences of the

and the of two films

Decide which trailer is more effective

Annabelle (2014)

What is a teaser trailer?

• A teaser campaign is an advertising campaign which typically consists of a series of small, cryptic, challenging advertisements that anticipate a larger, full-blown campaign for a product launch or otherwise important event. A teaser trailer for an upcoming film is usually released long in advance of the product, so as to "tease" the audience.

Wikipedia Definition

Annabelle Teaser Trailer• This trailer starts off by setting the scene, a typical American street in the

1970’s. This is illustrated by the costuming of the characters, with the female wearing a pale yellow dress, and also the props using in this scene; the children's mobile and the old fashioned dolls.

• From 0:30 onwards, the soundtrack dies down into more dark, quiet, serene music. This creates tension with the audience as there is a sudden change in atmosphere

• The protagonist and antagonists are shown in this clip which enables the audience to see the different actors used, and also allows them to create their own story plan from the offset.

• The end of the trailer finished with the doll on a rocking chair which suddenly stops. Suspense is left with the audience as it show the sheer power/extremity of the children's doll.

Annabelle Theatrical Trailer• The main theatrical trailer gives more context to the story; following on

from the past release of the teaser trailer. • The use of the children's doll create suspense as this prop is meant to be

seen as a toy, usually creating happiness to the people using it.• Music is reused in this trailer, which creates a scary atmosphere as it is

uplifting music during a disturbing scene. The generic children's lullaby also creates tension in the trailer as this is meant to soothe the child, but instead can scare the main protagonist

• Editing is much slower allowing more information to be understood by the audience. The use of the fade transitions creates suspense between the scenes as the audience are unaware of what is happening

• Action is interspersed with calm scenes creating added horror. This allows the story to be told more allowing the audience to get in touch with the movie, hopefully making them want to see it

Similarities and Differences• Both of the trailers introduce the antagonist and

protagonist. The theatrical trailer gives a much more detailed account of the protagonists story, allowing the audience to connect with the film.

• THE LESS INFORMATION ADDED TO A TEASER TRAILER, THE BETTER.

• Both trailers add production logos and directors but only the theatrical gives the release date. The lack of this information in the teaser trailer makes the film consumers talk more about the film, creating a wider discussion about it globally

• These trailers for Annabelle do not conform with the common conventions given to teaser/theatrical trailers. One came to a time of 2:26 and the other 2:34. Although this is said there is much more information added to the theatrical trailer.

• The teaser trailer seems to get to the action from the outset but the theatrical trailer builds up tension by giving you a much more in depth introduction to the central protagonist.

• There is much more faded editing transitions in the teaser trailer

Divergent (2014)

Divergent Teaser Trailer• This teaser trailer starts off with showing the main characters. This

immediately draws in the attention of the audience as they know the style of the film, action, based on the main characters.

• The use of colours in the opening picture creates diversity, and also creates an impact on the audience from the offset with the division of colours.

• The dialogue used creates an impact as it also tells the story in time with the editing transitions. During the film the audience can relate to these quotes which creates a higher audience turnout as there is much more discussion.

• There are many transitions in this trailer, mainly faded, which creates an atmosphere as the changes in scene are in time with the soundtrack of the trailer. This also allows lots of content to be passed on to the audience in such as short space of time.

• This trailer also shows the progression of the whole film, through the use of the colours. The scene at 0:11 is all grey; buildings and costuming which can connote the characters feelings. The colour grey can imply that this person is quite boring, lacks energy and is quite conservative, a lot like what we are seeing in the background.

• Later on in this trailer the speed and mise-en-scene change to quite bright colours such as red, and orange as background lighting which shows that this character can be changing, again showing the functioning of the movie. Black connotes danger, and secrets, which leaves the audience in suspense

• The end of this clip shows the character looking into the camera lens, which creates an interaction with the audience maybe as she is wanting them to feel her pain.

Divergent Theatrical Trailer• The main theatrical trailer gives more context to the story; following on

from the past release of the teaser trailer. The reason why this is done is to give the audience a wider knowledge of what the film is about.

• The same colour schemes are used in the trailer; grey at the beginning and more brighter colours towards the end. This again shows the development of the story and the characters.

• The protagonist and antagonist is shown to the audience in this trailer, which allows the audience to ‘choose’ sides ahead of the film release making more discussion happen about the film

• More action clips are used which show the genre of the film. This helps the audience to decide if they want to see the full film; creating more awareness.

• Editing techniques are the same as the theatrical trailer creating suspense between each interspersed scene.

Similarities and Differences• The first difference in these trailers is the clip and the speed of each of

these scenes. The teaser of 1:15 long and the official theatrical trailer is 2:31. This allows much more information to be given to the audience, which lets them have more details about the movie and what it is about.

• Editing techniques are the same in both of the trailers – they both use fade to black transitions between each scene. This allows the plot of the film to be told in a limited amount of time without giving away the full story.

• Some of the scenes used in the trailers are repeated which strengthens the audiences knowledge of the film. The added scenes give more context and information to what they already know.

• Both of the trailers show the release date of the film and the film title at the end which drives in what the film is called and doesn’t let the audience forget.

• I feel the trailer for Divergent is more effective than the trailer for Annabelle. The reasons why I think this are;

– The length of the trailers are significantly different, allowing more information to be added. Although this is said, the trailers for Annabelle are the same length, but both show different amounts of information regarding the film. This is from the editing cuts in transitions and the clips added to the trailer. More dialogue is used which adds to this reason.

– The amount of ‘action’ scenes are varied.