Teaser Trailer Ideas

My first idea was to do a crime/action thriller based around the kidnapping of a man’s son, where the main protagonist must hunt down the men responsible through any leads he has to find the whereabouts of his son. The hero finds that the closer he gets to finding his son the more he realises the extent of the criminal underworld leading this operation. This movie would follow an everyday man and his transformation into an anti-hero, some of his methods may be unorthodox but his only concern is finding his son, no matter the cost.

My second idea was to do an action/adventure thriller film about a group of parkour ‘movers’ that transport items and money between gangs, things take a turn for the worst when a deal goes sour and the product they were meant to deliver gets stolen, both gangs blame the group and the hunt starts for them. The group must attempt to work together despite their differences to evade gang hit squads whilst at the same time trying to clear their name by finding out what really happened. This film would feature adrenaline rushing parkour style chase scenes through built up urban areas.

My third idea was to do a horror/action thriller based on a post apocalyptic Britain, were a zombie outbreak has spread and taken over civilisation as we know it. The plot of this story would follow a group of survivors that have set up their own camp and are trying to build a civilisation again, but danger lurks around every corner and as night time comes, these undead mutated beings flock in search of food. The film would also follow the strengthening and weakening of relationships within the group and how they work together to protect those closest to them.

My Ideal Target Audience

Here I have created a profile for who I think my target audience will be, what their interests are, how they look/dress and why they are into thriller films. In the picture above I have shown a group of casual dressing teenagers that appear to be into sports, I think that audiences that like to watch thrillers often enjoy the thrill they get from watching them, I therefore think that they enjoy other ways of thrilling themselves such as playing sports and like some elements of risk. Thriller films take these elements of risk and show a world in which taking risks and doing outrageous things leads to the main characters bettering themselves in some way, these main characters then project themselves onto the films target audience and makes them want to be just like they are by making the protagonist someone to aspire to, they are usually put into a very difficult position where the likely hood of success is very slim and the situation looks hopeless but they still manage to overcome their problems through perseverance, I believe that thriller films target audience may feel the same way about themselves, that they are never ready to give up and therefore see themselves in the protagonist which makes the audience relate to the film on a far more personal level.

My ideal target audience would be teenagers to young adults of ages 15-25, I believe that this demographic is an accurate range of target audience ages that are most likely to want to watch thriller films or be able to watch thriller films, many thriller films are given age rating certificates of 15+ due to the more mature content that tends to feature in many thriller films. I believe that more students want to watch thriller films as they are still learning and thriller films are usually far more complex and clever, stimulating the minds of its viewers which I believe students crave in the gaining of knowledge.


I believe that my target audience will expect to see many enigma codes throughout the teaser trailer, theses are used to make the audience question what is happening or going to happen in the trailer and is key when it comes to entriuging its target audience into wanting to find out more about the film. My target audience will expect to hear gripping audio which starts out slow but then builds up a faster pace as it reaches the climax of the trailer, the audience will expect the same effect to happen with the pace of editing. My target audience will expect to be told about the actors that feature in the main production as well as who the the company is that produced the film.

My Chosen Genre

For my teaser trailer I have decided to go with the thriller genre, I chose this genre of film because I think I enjoy thrillers the most and feel the most comfortable about what to do to make my teaser trailer a thriller. This will also help to keep me motivated throughout making my teaser trailer as thrillers sound the most exciting to make.  The fact that thriller films reach a far greater target audience through the use of many different subgenres also helped to sway me towards wanting to make one because of this vast variety of different films.

Thriller - The Anti-Hero

The anti-hero is normally a complex and misunderstood character. Often he/she is a character who refuses to conform to the traditional values of a hero. However, the anti-hero often follows a strict moral code, which they strive to uphold, in spite of their flaws. The anti-hero’s flaws help the target audience to better relate to him/her and mean that the movie increases in popularity.

Anti-heroes have been around for many years, films such as ‘On the water front’ (1954) and ‘Rebel without a cause’ (1950) have used anti-heroes to make their target audience better relate to the anti-hero and portray the character as someone to aspire to.

 Now a days anti-heroes are found all over the media, from TV shows such as ‘Dexter’, ‘heroes’ and ‘True Blood’ all the way up too big budget Hollywood blockbusters such as ‘Batman Begins’, ‘Batman the Dark Knight’ and ‘Taken’. Many Anti-heroes come from comic books, were readers can get a far deeper insight into the characters letting them connect on a personal level, most comic book readers want to know as much as they can about a hero, their past, why they do what they do and what they are likely to do next, this is great when it comes to advertising a movie because Anti-heroes have a huge fan base with some websites dedicated solely to the fictional characters.

Thriller Film Conventions and Target Audiences

Thriller films are usually watched by 16-25 year olds and are not usually bound to a specific gender, which is a great point for the thriller genre because it caters for a far larger target audience. There are so many different subgenres of thriller films that it makes it difficult to broadly state who their target audience is, however thriller films are usually watched by those that seek a complex, thrilling storyline that grips them from start to finish with many pitfalls that the characters seem to get themselves into but use their whit to save them, this genre of film is argued to be the more psychologically engaging genre because of all the many different thrillers that make you think about what the main character is going to do and how they are going to do it. The target audience never normally knows what the protagonist is going to do next which is usually where the thrill comes from in these movies. This is true in the movie ‘Inception’, throughout the entire story the film has its target audience on its toes, making them try to keep up with what is happening and how characters are going to overcome their problems in a very psychological dream world, the movie really makes you think and often leaves its audience confused at the end of it making it a very complex but clever film. I believe that it is this cleverness that makes its target audience so hooked on the thriller genre and that it works very well.

Thriller films are designed to keep their audience thrilled throughout the entire film, hence the name thriller; they mainly rely on suspense to achieve this and usually create the suspense through the use of a main antagonist, who is constantly causing problems for the hero. For example in the film ‘Batman the Dark Knight’ the Joker is constantly causing problems for Batman, the most thrilling scene from this movie where the joker plays a key role in causing problems for Batman is where the joker kidnaps Batsman’s girlfriend as well as the face of Gotham’s crime fighting force and straps them both to timed explosives at opposite sides of the city, making him have to choose between the love of his life and effectively the people of Gotham, this scene is so effective as we see Batman racing to save someone however we do not know who he has chosen to save until he saves them, there are many quick cross cuts between these 3 characters during his race to get to one of them which really helped to effectively raise a huge amount of tension during this scene. Making their target audience very worried for the people about to die and if Batman can get there in time to save them. Dramatic music is also used to heighten the tension in this film.

There is usually multiple plot lines happening all at once that have a direct influence upon one another, as tension rises more plotlines may open up usually when the situation becomes more dangerous and the pace in which the film flicks between these story lines speeds up. In the movie ‘Inception’ there are 3-4 different plot lines happening all at once in different stages of inception, so each character has his own quest of protecting the others from armed militia as they dive deeper into the subconscious of their targets mind.

Thriller films usually have elements of Action in them, having action in a thriller film helps to make the movie more interesting and therefore engages its target audience more thoroughly when it comes to building up the pace and tension of the movie. Action is usually used with a male hero or in many thriller films now a day’s male anti heroes, to whom the target audience has someone to be in awe of and to aspire too, the hero/anti-hero usually encounters a beautiful damsel in distress that needs the hero to save them, in the thriller genre the heroes usually have a more complex background to them and there is far more to know about the characters than in most other genre of film, this is a very effective strategy as it gets the audience intrigued and makes them want to find out why they might have a certain set of rules and ethics that they live by and why they do what they do. This point relates very well to the film ‘Taken’ were Liam Neeson’s character has his daughter kidnapped by slavers, they do not start out with a very strong relationship but by the end of the film we see the troubles he originally faced with his daughter disappear. His character is also quite the vigilante in the film however we agree that it is the right thing to do so that he can save his daughter, it is rather impressive that watching a film such as taken can make us condone murder that is effectively happening throughout the film.

The last key point of the thriller genre is that there are so many different subgenres of thriller that there is potentially something there for everyone, whether your target audience like romantic thrillers or crime and action thrillers there is always something there for them making the range of people that watch thrillers vast, this means that there is a lot of money in the thriller genre as it reaches a far greater target audience. This means that thriller also reaches niche audiences which is positive as it means there is potentially more creativity in this genre.

Action Movie Conventions and Target Audiences

Action movies are watched predominatly by men/teenagers of most ages, they rely on their target audience aspiring to be the hero in some way or another using a range of different methods, these methods mostly revolve around these alpha male main characters, having them do things that are next to impossible to do in real life to impress this target audience and make them want to watch more. I will use the 'James Bond' franchise for example, the James Bond movies have used a very smooth talking but deadly main character that is admired by its target audience from the very beginning to create their own James Bond legacy, creating a massive British fan base loyal to the film which basically garuntees the film will be watched by millions just because of the name of the film due to their previous work. many action movies want this same loyalty so make their movies as big budget and wild as possible to try and make their film the best film.

Most action films adhere to their own set list of conventions which affect the way in which they are presented to their target audience, there will always be a main hero or heroes (usually male) this is because action films are generally catered to a male target audience and having an alpha male main character gives the target audience a strong character to aspire to become.

Action movies are designed to give their target audience a world in which seemingly impossible goals are reached directly through the perseverance of the main character(s). This creation of an alternate world provides its target audience with an outlet in which their wildest dreams become real life and is the reason why the fan base of the action genre is so large. This is true for all of the ‘Mission Impossible’ series where the main character played by Tom Cruise is often if not always put into situations that look impossible to get out of.

During action movies there is a main goal or mission that needs to be accomplished or a trial that needs to be endured, the story will evolve around these goals with the many different problems and hurdles our hero/heroes face along the way. The main goal/mission will nearly always be a race against time were the hero/heroes only have a limited amount of time in which to complete their tasks, this basic but highly effective technique creates a very powerful element of suspense throughout, action movies use this technique to their advantage by making it look like the main character will not be able to complete their task in time, often making the situation look hopeless for the main character to then come in just in time to save the day. This technique keeps its target audience on the edge of their seats most of the time as this makes them never 100% certain on how the movie is going to end.

These tasks will usually be a race to save someone close to them or to save innocent civilians caught up in the situation the hero has put them in, making the hero feel personally responsible for their safety showing the audience that they are caring and therefore admirable. These tasks are also usually killing someone before they can do something terrible, like a terrorist trying to set off a nuclear warhead in the action movie ‘True lies’ were Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character has to stop the terrorist and disarm the bomb whilst he has he daughter as a hostage.

There are nearly always very emotional moments in action movies were we see the more vulnerable side of our hero/heroes just to make the characters more human and therefore believable, this is done through the use of many close ups throughout these scenes and is again another effective method of building a relationship between the main character and the audience which makes the audience more active in their viewing of the movie. This is evident in the action film ‘Rambo’ where the main character played by ‘Sylvester Stallone’ often remembers back to horrifying Vietnam battles that haunt him and are the reason why he cannot leave the jungles back to his home.

There is nearly always a love interest in action movies where we see the hero seduce someone of the opposite sex without any difficulty, this is used again to make the character seem more alpha and more admirable to the audience, someone to aspire to become which is the main point action movies rely on their target audience wanting.

These love interests can also be motivation for getting revenge, for example in the movie ‘The Fast and the Furious 4’ Vin Diesels character has the love of his life taken from him, murdered by a high ranking powerful gang member, his quest throughout the film is to kill him.

There is nearly always blood spilled, violence and explosions throughout action movies, the general public do not often get to see any violence in real life and seeing violence glorified in movies may help to show a part of the audiences self that they did not know, this also helps the audience to let out any frustration and rage they might be feeling so really involves the audience and makes them connect with the film. This is true in the film ‘The Expendables’ where one of the main mercenaries obliterates 20 men with an automatic shotgun to save his comrades, there is a lot of blood and gore and the violence is glorified as he is seen as saving their lives. Explosions are used to create some sort of adrenaline rush as we never see explosions in real life and they are seen to be very impressive and powerful, great when it comes to spicing up an action movie.

There will usually be car chases in action movies, these are usually used in the race against time aspect where the hero must get somewhere in next to no time, they are very effective in building massive amounts of tension especially in the movie ‘The Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift’ where the 2 main characters race downhill drifting on very thin roads at very high speeds that they could easily drive straight over the edge plummeting to their deaths.

The last point about action movies is that they are very fast paced usually throughout the entire movie or they start off slow to begin with then the speed picks up, this includes the pace of editing and helps to create this element of suspense and urgency when it comes to getting something done in a specific time frame.

Horror Film Conventions and Target Audiences

Horror movies are watched predominantly by those seeking some sort of thrill or adrenaline rush, horror movies are very good at making their audience fearful, scared or tense and although we as a target audience may not associate being scared by these movies as a good feeling, the rush and excitement we get from watching them is the feeling we crave and is what horror film directors strive to achieve. Horror films are usually watched by most age groups and are sometimes watched just so you can say you watched it, they can be seen as making you feel the alpha in some way if the film did not scare you but did scare your friends and hold some social prowess if the film has been reported to be gruesome. This is seen in a lot in social groups with movies such as 'Saw' were watching the movie with your friends is seen as some sort of initiation.

Most horror films adhere to a set list of conventions in how they are made and presented to their target audience. Horror films generally use dark lighting to raise tension, the dark is where most people feel least safe as they can not see any oncoming threats, its where they feel most vulnerable so the horror genre takes advantage of this and feeds off it. This method is very effectively used in the movie 'The Decent' were the main characters go pot holing with their group of friends only to become lost and trapped in a cave were they discover cannibalistic creatures that inhabit it, the only lighting in this whole movie is light from a small torch and the night vision on one of the cavers cameras, this really helps to build up a lot of tension and suspense throughout the film and is the main reason why this film was particularly scary.

There is always an agent of change that disrupts the main character(s) normality, usually the monster the film is based around that leads to the main character(s) quest to overcome this change usually by either fleeing or fighting the monster, the story lines of the horror genre usually evolve around the agent of change and what they/it are doing to have an effect on the main character(s). This technique is mainly used in the movie 'Jeepers Creepers 2' were the group of students is running from the creature throughout the entire film, they barricade themselves in their school bus thinking they are safe but the creature adapts and finds a way to break through so the main characters must then run to find a safer place with the creature following their every move picking them off one by one as they go along.

Horror films usually have their plots located in deserted or isolated locations to reinforce the loneliness and or helplessness of the heroes situation, knowing that there is no chance or very little chance of help helps the audience to empathise with the hero and thus feel fear and terror when the hero does, making this genre of film very effective and popular when it comes to projecting emotions onto the audience making horror films very interactive and creating a huge fan base for horror films. This is true for the film 'Alien' were the main characters encounter vicious killing aliens on their spaceship light years away from earth with next to no chance of help, this really helped to raise the films suspense.

There is usually some sort of monster fodder at the beginning of the film that has no direct impact on the storyline just to show the effects of the monster and what it is capable of/why we should fear it. we the audience usually know more about the agent of change before the main characters do making us worry for their safety as they are oblivious to the monster to begin with, this is another key technique the horror genre uses to make the audience empathise with the characters to make them engage more effectively with the film raising their interest to make the film as least passive as possible. Monster fodder is used in the film 'Jeepers Creepers' where the creeper kills 2 police men in their moving squad car at the beginning of the film and throws one of their heads onto the bonnet of the main characters car, this scene also uses symbolisation too help accelerate the fear of this scene as police officers are meant to be the ones to go to for protection but the creature kills them just as easily as everyone else telling the audience that there is nowhere safe to go.

Amongst the evolving of the main storyline there are usually some sort of sub plot that also evolves amongst the main characters where relationships become stronger or weaker, usually were the relationships become stronger we see the characters survive and were we see the relationships become weaker we see characters isolating themselves from the group were they are vulnerable to the monster and easily picked off, this evolvement of relationships and problems encountered by them is another effective tool the horror genre has in its arson to make its target audience relate to the characters through their emotions to make them more active in their viewing and therefore more interested in the film and concerned for the heroes safety as well as creating a need for the relationships to continue to grow. This is used in the film 'Dawn of the Dead' were Sarah Polley's character loses her husband to the zombie infection and seeks the comfort she lost in Jake Weber's character, this helped to make the audience feel sorry for her and want their relationship to grow, this also helps when it comes to building suspense as it means that the target audience wants these characters to survive and makes them very nervous when it looks like one of them might become infected.

In the horror genre the men are typically separated from the boys, the weaker (usually female characters) are normally the most vulnerable to the monster and are therefore usually the first ones to become victim to them, I believe this is done on purpose to make the hero the 'alpha' of the group, making them a more desirable character that the audience aspires to become. This is shown directly in the opening of the movie 'Zombie Land' were the main character talks about and shows the audience that keeping fit is key to survival as a fat man is running away from a zombie but becomes tired and gets eaten.

Terminator Salvation - Teaser Trailer Analysis

This MPAA frame is frequent in many teaser trailers posted on YouTube, this is because teaser trailers are generally released in America first as this is where all the big budget Hollywood movies come from, this frame notifies the public that anyone can watch this teaser trailer and is something to consider when making my own teaser trailer to make it look more realistic, I will however need to find a BBFC approval that is in lines with the age rating I want for my teaser trailer.

The camera tracks down a long winding road when we see the films first enigma code, a car that has crashed into a telephone pylon, this clever use of footage makes the audience ask themselves what has happened to make the car crash into the pylon and what has happened to the people driving the car.

The camera starts to flicker and you can hear the sound of static that gives the effect of something is messing with the picture; this is what gives the audience the first clue as to what film it is a sequel to as this is a classic calling card of the terminator franchise. We get very quick cuts of the Warner Bro’s Pictures Logo as well as the Halcyon Company Logo, the 2 makers of the movie.

This static effect continues but starts to become clearer similar to the sound of tuning a radio to the right frequency, we then start to hear a broadcast saying ‘it was coming’ along with the clip of tank treads crushing a skull, this is an effective short enigma code that makes the audience wonder what is coming and also makes them ask what do those treads belong to.

The broadcast appears to become clearer and we hear ‘I knew it was coming’ the same distorted edits are used throughout to give a post apocalyptic feel to the movie, making it seem like the broadcast is very low tech and almost desperate in terms of what they are able to work with,  as we hear the character say I knew it was coming we also are shown a clip of him hiding behind a wall with him looking at a white light, indicating that he is looking at what is coming, this is again a clever enigma code as it makes the audience want to see what ‘it’ is and is likely to make them want to watch the movie.

The character then ducks back behind his cover and the camera shot immediately cuts to a clip of a soldier being abducted by a huge robotic arm, the speed of this clip is a more subtle enigma code as it only lasts for 2 seconds and makes the audience wonder what just happened to that man and what the thing that took him was as we only see a small part of it because the rest of the building is in the way.

The static interference continues and we hear the voice say ‘But this is not the future my mother warned me about’ and we see a man running through a forest that appears to be lit and he is being shot at by something but again we do not see what that something is. This also adds to the questions the audience are asking themselves when they watch it about who or what is shooting at the man, who is the man, why is he being shot at and does he make it or not.

We see a helpless pilot stuck in some broken electricity pylons, the pilot is still alive as we see he/she moving and we can see someone in a trench coat walking towards them, this makes the audience wonder who the pilot is and who the man in the trench coat is, if the pilot is okay and what the man in the trench coat is going to do.

There is another voice over and this time there is an edit of the actors name who is speaking he then says ‘And in this future, I don’t know if we can win this war...war’ the static then comes in again to make the word ‘war’ repeat, this is edited very well as each time he says war an explosion goes off in front of the character on screen and when the explosions get closer to the character the screen goes static again as if it was damaged by the explosions. We are then told who plays the character on screen with another edit saying ‘Sam Worthington’.

The audience is then given some information about who is playing the main character as this is the fourth film and Christian Bale is new to the terminator franchise he is a very well known famous actor and is likely to make his fans want to watch this film. The audience are told this by him saying ‘This is John Connor’ and this clip coming up at the same time.

I think that this is again a very effective teaser trailer, this is the 4th film from the Terminator franchise and there has been a change in the main iconic actor of this film which caused some hysteria before the films release. I believe that this teaser helped to ease the films huge target audience into this change by introducing the 2 new faces of the terminator series through action scenes to grab the audiences attention without telling us anything about them other than that Christian Bale is now playing John Connor. I think that it was a fantastic teaser trailer that gripped its target audience and made any terminator fan want to watch this film through the use of the trailer showing glimpses of new machines unique from the last 3 films as well as what looks like some sort of machine concentration camp.

Independence Day - Teaser Trailer Analysis

The trailer starts with a famous American monument indicating where the plot of the story is set, with non diagetic military music being played over the top of the scene to reinforce what the audience already presume about who is speaking.

This is followed by the voice of a strong talking American man reinforcing the same plot, we then see that the men speaking are government (military) officials, which we presume because of the patriotic army music, military uniform and the patriotic monument. The most senior of the men is shown clearly by his higher posture which shows his dominance over the men.

They say they received a signal and describe its size to the person we see as in charge, as they describe the size the object there is a (slow zoom) close up of an image of it with sinister non-diagetic music being played over the top of it to tell the audience that it is something bad without factually telling the audience that, giving a lot of freedom for the audiences minds to wonder what exactly it is and make them want to keep watching the trailer too find out.

The higher ranking officer then asks if it could be a meteor to which the other men tell him ‘definitely not’ and that they know that because its slowing down, the men giving this evidence are portrayed to be experts in their field by the way they are dressed and how they speak, to which we are shown a confused and shocked expression on the generals face.

As the officer tells him its slowing down aerie non diagetic music starts to play over the top of the clip again and the ‘20^th Century Fox’ logo comes up, this tells the target audience that the movie is being made by a well respected company renowned for making big budget well made movies and helps to draw in a wider target audience. The date of the movie release is the same day that the actual independence day is on, this and the name of the movie may have been used to make the American people want to watch it as it makes it sound like the film has something to do with their history.

The camera then cuts to the statue of liberty, another famous American monument and it being shadowed by something we presume is the object that the government officials were talking about, we don’t directly see what it is because it is a teaser trailer and they want the audience to want to see the film so they can see what it is. The same shadowing of New York City, the White House and The Lincoln Monument is shown to give the audience an idea about the colossal size of the object.

There is a simple 2 second frame put in to give the audience slightly more information, telling them that the mass is carrying living things. confirming out audiences assumptions on what this thing could be.

A close up of the faces of horrified and shocked civilians are shown to make the audience want to see what they are looking at. Many people are panicking and running away screaming showing chaos in the streets through using the collision of a truck into a police van, the police are meant to be the ones preventing chaos but the police officer is just as horrified as the rest of the civilians. This tells the audience that whatever is coming should be feared and is very dangerous, this may portray the film as being scary in places.

The lighting changes from day to night and a sci-fi alien glow is shown on the people below, indicating that the ship is doing something but we cannot see what that is making the audience want to find out.

The audience are then shown the destruction that the aliens can cause as we see a colossal explosion happening throughout the city, this particular scene is very effective at giving us empathy for the civilians as we are shown a man in his car in utter shock and fear and are then almost given a point of view of what he is seeing as the wave of fire gets closer and closer. This shot is used to show just how helpless the civilians are. The explosion is throwing cars left right and centre which tells us that he is not safe in his car making us feel sorry for him and the other civilians that are about to die, this very short scene is used to make us empathise with the audience and make us want to see some sort of comeuppance for the aliens.

The audience are then shown a clip of the white house being destroyed by the alien ship; this is a very powerful clip as it represents the aliens striking at the heart of America, its president. We are then told the name of the film which is‘Independence Day’ and another flash effect is used to change the scene

I think that this was a very effective teaser trailer for its time, the film is relatively old as it was made in 1996 but made its teaser trailers work very effectively, making their desired target audience interested in wanting to watch the film. Independence day was a huge success raising $817,400,000 in its first year of release, these figures help to back up the importance of advertising a movie properly and as effectively as possible with the use of trailers and teaser trailers. The trailer uses many enigma codes to make its audience ask questions therefore making them more active in their viewing of the trailer as well as making them more interested in it. This trailer is a good example of how teaser trailers work to make their target audience interested in watching this movie.