Importance/Function of Trailers

Trailers are important in displaying to the audience a short montage of clips from the film, which persuade them to watch it and anticipate its arrival in cinemas. I feel these are similar to the function of adverts, which attempt to bribe the viewer into buying their product. They project a small amount of what the film is about and illustrate or emphasize a point. With each genre, trailers aim to achieve various things. For example, an Action film would typically show guns, violence, explosions etc. to engage the audience, however a Horror/Thriller would build up the atmosphere and tension, before cutting to leave the viewer with a cliff-hanger/open story. Before the preview is shown, a green screen showing the licensing and age rating appears; standard in the trailer conventions. They usually last for around 2 minutes, which companies focus on, to bring in everything they can regarding storyline and effect. Without trailers people wouldn't know about the film's plot (less aware when they are coming out), as they seem to give a small taster around the movie. In this manner, people would know what to expect when actually watching the whole film, and not bother wasting their time with something they don't like; almost giving the audience full control over what they view. This is a very effective way for the Director/Company in exhibiting the film, before its actual release, making a small snippet of money/recognition beforehand.