Teaser Trailer Timeline

Below I have created a timeline for general events and different shots of a teaser trailer. Whilst I have realised that teaser trailers vary largely in terms of the way in which they present their audience the narrative of the film, I made this timeline as a very rough guideline of what traditional teaser trailers follow.

Product Research - 'Quarantine'

'Quarantine' Teaser Trailer @ Yahoo! Video

Product Research - 'The Shining'

•  One of the first teaser trailers to appear, therefore hardly uses any conventions of the promos and is very simple in its approach.
• Non diegetic music sounds like a flock of angry bees as the piece reaches its highest in pitch when the blood comes crashing down into the room.
• Music begins slowly, becoming faster as time carries on. This creates a sense of urgency, in that the tension builds quickly, thus telling the audience almost straight away its film genre (convention of teaser trailers).
• Audience knows the film belongs to the horror genre because the blood acts as the flaw in the narrative - although setting is unsettling because of the non diegetic music (yet normal walls and furniture) to begin with, the blood changes all this by tainting both the furniture and white walls (symbol of innocence).
• Blood moves towards audience to create deeper sense of terror.

Product Research - 'Buried'

• Breathy phone conversation makes audience sympathise with the main character, as well as intriguing them further.
• 'I got hit on the head and I blacked out and that's the last thing I can remember' gives the audience background information on the plot without telling us why he's been 'buried' or who did this to him.
• Lack of both diegetic and non diegetic music at the beginning of the trailer creates a sense of realism for the world within the film, which further reiterates the protagonist's panic, however, the music which is used is urgent - screeching violins typical of horror genre.

Product Research - 'The Da Vinci Code'

The teaser trailer of 'The Da Vinci Code' was created before a single shot was taken for the film. This means that it relies heavily upon symbolism, diegetic or non diegetic music