Codes and conventions overview of trailers

Social media 

A way of connecting and engaging with the audience in their everyday life is through social media especially twitter with the inclusion of a specific hash tag or @ address. This is an important tool as the word of mouth can build up more of an audience for the film and build up interest by 'sharing' or if the film gets enough users talking about the film it will 'trend' on twitter where every single user can see what people are saying about the film. It can gain interest from millions of users. 

How does social media promotion appeal to the audience?
As the figures show in the image below, 89% of 18-29 year old's use social media, this is a huge platform to reach alot of people very quickly, it appeals to the audience as it is an easy way to watch a trailer without breaking sweat as it is at a touch of a screen.
So when producing my film I will make a twitter account for my production to appeal to my audience.

Also at the end of the trailer there will be instructions about what hash tag to tweet under and the Facebook page.

            Production

• Trailers begin in almost every time with the production information, institution and age restrictions, the company logos can instantly make a viewer decide if they want to view the film or not. This can even mean a decision on whether they will enjoy the trailer/film before even watching it, this is because big companies often have higher budgets and usually higher quality productions so audiences once they see who made it will make up their mind whether it will be good or not. Reputations are massive in the film industry and production companies such as Universal and 20th Century fox have built huge ones with their worldwide audiences and can ultimately be a deciding factor in someone going to watch a film. So the success of a film usually relies on the reputation of the creators. 

Production logos are a huge indication to the audience about the genre of the film. For example a Warner bros film is not associated with a horror film, but family films such as Harry Potter and Loony Tunes.Production logos will adapt to the genre of the film as well as for example in each Harry Potter film the Warner bro's logo reflected the situation in the film. This appeals to the audience as if the films production is recognisably affluent then they will want to see the film as alot of money has gone into it to make it worth watching.  High concept films will have a very well known storyline,it can be based around a past historical event like the titanic and they will have a very high budget as they know there audience inside out.

• Film Title

The film title is in every trailer and almost every time at the end so that if the audience are captivated by what they see they will remember the name of the film.

The font and colour of the title are a huge clue into the genre of the film as horror films usually are dark and the title is ominously contrast to that, whereas light hearted comedy's usually have bright colours complimented with friendly font. 

The font appeals to the audience of that specific genre lover, as when they recognise the font genre signifier's they will automatically want to watch the film.

At the start of the trailer the age rating given by the British board of film classification will determine the audience that can watch the film and also determine what time of day the trailer can be shown and to what extent is shown on the TV, such as the censored, shorter version before the watershed.

Before the Title of the film trailer the official classification is shown 

Characters

The audience need to connect to the main character as they are more likely to watch the film, for example, a young teenage female main character is more likely to attract the same audience.

Also if the characters are famous then the audience know they like their work, therefore giving an extra incentive to watch the film. benefiting the films income. Sex appeal is one of the main factors in the characters popularity and the one of the main lures for the audience,if the actors are attractive then the opposite sex are more likely to go and watch the film to keep up there social representation as 'lads' or 'straight girls'. For example the hit film 'friends with benefits' connected with the audience as the characters represented the modern relationships of many people in the 21st century aswell as this narrative connection the actors were extremely attractive which made the box office figures tremendously high. As a film about sex with attractive actors such as Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis will be a hit in the cinema. The film trailer plays on the sexual attractiveness aspect of the film continuously to appeal to the audience of young men and women and lure them in.

Sound

The music or voice overs are essential in film trailers as it shows the genre of the film, the speed and the budget as the film producers might ask a specific artist or music producer to produce a piece of music for the film as the producers cant use just any song as copyright laws infringe it so if a producer wants a certain song they have to contact the artist themselves to buy the song if the artist feels like their song is being used in a correct way e.g. not harming their reputation or if they pay the artist to sing a completely new song or re make a song they will have to pay alot of money, showing the audience the quality of the film production, the bigger the artist the bigger the budget essentially. Just like Baz Lurhmann's The Great Gatsby had Jay Z produce the soundtrack which included new music from the recognisably voices of Beyonce, Lana Dely Rey and many more stars which automatically shows the negotiated audience that expense and excellence has been intricated into this film.
 The voice over can create tension in the trailer it can either be an external voice or extracted voices from the dialogue in the film. An effective convention of a trailer is when dialogue from a scene is played over continual scenes, creating visual and audio interaction, intriguing the audience. 

Names of cast and directors/producers

Famous actors, directors, producers and recommendations will be included in a trailer for the audience to guess the style of film and more than likely it will inspire them to want to watch the film, if it was made by a producer they like previous films that they made. For example if Steven Spielberg directed a Sc-Fi film, his reputation would guarantee big box office numbers. 

The BBFC

The British board of film classification certifies each UK film with an age rating that is usually shown at the end of the film trailer. If the film is awarded a U or PG then the audience is mainly aimed at children which means that anyone can go and watch it as the content is very mild and child friendly. Conversely if the age rating is 15 younger children won't be lead on thinking they can watch the film or if their scared of the trailer they are safe knowing that their friends aren't going to persuade them to watch it. 

An age rating can also deter or entice a member of the audience to see the film as the age rating signifies the content of the film eg. an 18 contains sexual scenes, horrific violence and swearing, drug use etc. So this age rating will appeal to some and deter some.