What is the purpose of a teaser trailer?

The purpose of a teaser trailer is to give an audience a quick glimpse into the film, they usually last around 30 seconds. They are aimed at attracting an audience and generating hype around the film and to see the audiences reaction towards the film will be and from this they can determine the films success. They usually consist of jump cuts and quick edits between the film scenes, letting the audience see some of the action and story. The trailers are often shown during a commercial break on the TV as this means a lot of people will view it. The benefits of people discussing the film in advance is that, it generates interest around the film, it also attracts media attention as, magazines, websites newspapers etc. recognise people are interested in something and do features on this, to make them buy there product.

However, some teaser trailers do not contain material from the film as they are released well in advance and so often just show the film title and release date, an example of this is the 'Davinci Code'.

I also did some research into Horror teaser trailers as this is my chosen genre to base my coursework on.
As i viewed horror trailers, all that i watched stick to Toderov's theory, however some like "Orphan" left out an ending equilibrium - this makes people want to go and see it to find out the ending. Also the use of provocative language from the narrator e.g. "you'll never guess her secret" draws people in and makes them want to go and watch it.

The audience are in constant wait of something scary about to happen, however they don't know when this will happen and so this adds to the tension, and to the "scare" factor. People watch films in order to be scared. The action doesn't happen straight away - its delayed until around 1 minute into the trailer. Some of the main story line is established before the audience is "shocked". In sequels e.g. "S.Darko" and "Ghostbusters" the same piece of music is used so people can relate back to the original.

The trailers i watched lasted around 1 to 2 minutes.
In my opinion the more effective trailers did not use a voice over; they just have a recognisable song/tune played over the top of them. Although with the use of a voice over it can help people to understand the film a bit better. Words appearing across the screen also seemed to be an effective technique.

All of the trailers have quick edits, more towards the end to release the built up tension, the pace of the music also quickens and all edits are in time with the music, the music builds up to a crescendo at the end.