About Film Trailers

• A film trailer is an insight into the genre and plot of the film, to create a buzz around the film and to gather the interest of the target audience.
• Trailers can often be seen on television and in the cinema before films of a similar genre or audience are shown, before it is to be released - again to create a buzz around the film. 
• Genre conventions are key elements in trailers. For the horror genre, dull colours and the sense of mystery within the trailers (such as the concealment of the villain) are typical of the genre. Black is a colour often used as it connotations include darkness, fear and the unknown. As for sound, eerie music and perhaps screaming is often used rather than narration of the story which would be more common in a genre such as a romance. The trailers for horror films generally do not reveal the full plot of the film, so as to get the audience excited to know what the film is about and entice them to watch it.
• By looking at trailers from various horror films, many do follow the conventions of concealment of the villain, such as 'The Hills Have Eyes' (2006) which only shows flashes of the mutants, and only body parts such as hands. It is also noticable that a key convention of horror is to have a 'damsel in distress' where a stereotypically weak woman becomes the victim in need of saving. 
• The difference between a teaser and a full trailer is that a teaser tends to give a lot less away, the complete narrative of the film is very unclear as it jumps from scene to scene very quickly. Also they tend to last up to a minute, whereas full trailers can last up for 4 minutes. So full trailers give you a more clearer picture of what is going to happen.