Published: February 7, 2022 | Last Updated: July 2, 2024
A movie trailer is the “marketing reel” for a film. It uses footage from the movie to tell a story that sells the audience the idea of the film. However, many types exist – from the teaser to the TV spot to the featurette, each serving a different purpose.
If you work in film editing or movie marketing, you must know the various trailers and their purpose by heart.
The Purpose of Movie Trailers in General
Movie trailers are among the most important parts of a film’s marketing campaign. They can get audiences excited about a property they are excited about, build up a mystery slowly revealed over multiple campaigns, or tell the whole story in a minute and a half instead of an hour and a half.
Since the average film takes 301 days to be released after post-production begins, a film’s marketing campaign usually lasts a year. Throughout the campaign, multiple trailers are released.
Here are the most common trailer types:
The Theatrical Trailer
The theatrical trailer often tells the entire feature film story in around two to three minutes.
The standard trailer introduces the characters, premise, and complications of the narrative story arc in a three-act structure.
Standard trailers often use voice-over narration and montage to splice together the storytelling so that the quick cuts and jumping around still make sense to audiences. Learn more about continuity editing in film here.
Sometimes, more trailers are produced to keep the audience interested; sometimes, movie companies produce different trailers for different countries.
The Teaser Trailer
A teaser trailer is like the trailer to a trailer that teases the concept of the movie without giving away the major plot elements. This is the audience’s first impression of what a film will look or feel like, and it is important to set the tone and feel of the movie.
Teaser trailers can be 30 to 90 seconds long and can be released as early as a year before the film’s release. They are often reserved for the biggest and most anticipated blockbusters to help drum up even more excitement.
Even commercials sometimes have teaser trailers these days. Here is the teaser trailer for the Lay’s commercial for the Super Bowl LVI 2022:
The Standalone Teaser Trailer
The teaser trailer is often the first piece of marketing that shows actual footage from the movie. However, this isn’t always true. Many teaser trailers are made to introduce a movie concept without using any footage from the movie itself.
Some animated sequels, for instance, feature a main character from the movie in a skit animated solely to promote the upcoming film.
Some examples of this include the teaser trailers for the Ice Age and Despicable Me franchises:
This isn’t limited to animated movies, though, as live-action movies sometimes use the same trick to expand the universe (and marketing campaign) around an upcoming movie. Fx the Weyland 2023 TED Talk for the 2012 Alien prequel Prometheus:
TV spot movie trailers
TV spot trailers are shortened versions of the standard trailer meant to be played in a short-format venue on cable TV, as a YouTube video ad, or as an ad on a streaming service.
They are usually between 30 and 60 seconds long and are usually timed to be released right before and right after a film is set to be released.
Often, you’ll see several TV spot trailers produced to keep the hype alive up to a premiere.
Clip Movie Trailers
A clip trailer promotes the film by using an edited scene from the film that stands alone with limited context.
These are usually released at conferences like Comic-Con or in special press pushes where an actor or director (if big enough) will do interviews to promote the film and share the clip with the media.
Featurette movie trailers
A featurette trailer is another marketing trailer shared with the media before a film’s release.
Featurettes show behind-the-scenes footage of making a film and use cast and crew interviews to share their experience of making the film in a documentary-style format.
Previously reserved for DVD special features, featurette trailers today are often shared directly online or with the media before a film’s release or as part of a press push right after the film is released.
Streaming services have lately made it commonplace to share these clips as part of the film’s page on the service so viewers can watch more about the movie after they finish watching.
New Platforms equals new types of Trailers.
Since the success of YouTube and streaming video online, most people see movie trailers on social media before seeing them in theaters. This factors into a movie’s release plan and marketing campaign.
Previously, movie trailers were only released before the opening credits of other movies. This was historically the best place to air movie trailers because most trailers are best received in the theater.
However, now that fewer viewers go to the movies and more stay home and subscribe to streaming services, streamers often promote new shows or movies before their hit shows to drum up hype.
Netflix, for example, features an autoplay trailer when a viewer hovers over any title on the service. This automatically plays either a custom teaser or standard trailer for the title in question or a clip trailer featuring a key scene from the movie.
It would be interesting to see which type of trailer performs the best on Netflix based on their data, but in my opinion, a teaser trailer that gives just enough to make you want to find out what happens next is the ideal way to get me to click.
Summing Up
Movie trailers come in various forms, including teasers, theatrical trailers, and TV spots.
Teasers provide a glimpse into the movie to generate buzz, while theatrical trailers offer a more comprehensive look at the film to attract audiences. TV spots are shorter versions of trailers used for television advertising.
Trailers play a key role in marketing by building anticipation, engaging audiences (for example, when they share a trailer on social media platforms), and ultimately driving ticket sales for the film.
Up Next: What is a Trailer House?
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