Codes and Conventions of an Action Trailer

The Expendables 3 

The Expendables 3 - Theatrical Trailer from Finch on Vimeo.

There are many codes and conventions found in action films. This is because there are many things that make up a classic action film and the director/creator of the trailer wants to showcase as many of these things to action film fans to show to prove that they should see the film. They put in as many explosions, guns and adrenaline as they possibly can, therefore meaning that they get the audience to want to see the movie and giving the audience a taste for what is to come in the actual film.

The film itself has a rating of 12 where as the previous two films have been a 15, this is probably trying to increase the youth ratings of the film, but the fact that the rating has gone down could imply to fans of the trilogy that there is less action and violence than there was previously, therefore making them not want to go and see it. This is shown to be true by the fact that the 3rd movie made $206 million globally compared to $305 million (Expendables 2) and $274 million (Expendables). This has blamed on the lowering of the age rating but there is a Blu-Ray and DVD extended cut available which has been rated a 15.

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Sylvester-Stallone-Finally-Admits-Expendables-Made-Huge-Mistake-68375.html 

There is also a clear chain of events that the trailer and, most likely the film, follow the classic 3 part Hollywood narrative structure. There is a beginning middle and end. There is also a predictable change of events. This makes sure that the story is easy to follow so that there is more room for explosions and fighting.

Another convention that this trailer follows is that there is a romantic sub-plot. Sylvester Stallone's character is attracted to the girl that he sees beat someone up in a club (pictured). This is included to make sure that there is a "Damsel in Distress" or the "Princess" as said by Propp, this makes for a more dramatic story-line.
There are also lots of humorous one liners such as "How hard is it to kill 10 men?" which is ironic as then there are explosions and everyone knows that it will end up being very hard to kill 10 men. This means that there is not just explosion after explosion. Most of the one-liners could be classed as "Classic guy humor" which appeals to that audience.


There is also a lot of CGI effects such as the helicopter, this is another convention of an action film trailer. The use of CGI effects have made action films more spectacular and has increased the production value of the film.

There is also dramatic non-digetic music in the background. This adds tension and makes the whole trailer a lot more dramatic, this implies to the audience that there will be a lot of drama and loud noise. This is another convention of an action movie.

There is also Star marketing, naming all of the big stars that are going to be featured in the film, this is to lure fans of actors to watch the film. Also the audience could think that as there are lots of big Hollywood action star names that the movie is going to be good.


The title of the film isn't shown to the audience to keep them them guessing what the film is throughout the trailer. It also makes sure that it is one of the last things that the audience sees making it stick in their brain. In The Expendables III the title of the film isn't shown until 1.59 minutes leaving only a couple of clips after it.

Furthermore in the trailer the audience are shown a lot of different action sequences such as people jumping on to helicopters to buildings blowing up. This is because the director wants to showcase as much of the explosions and action as possible to entice action fans to see the film.

The music for the trailer is very upbeat and adrenaline filled. The fact that the song is a rock songs implies the audience that the target audience is not the people who also like rock music. The use of the upbeat song also add to the intense nature of the trailer.

The trailer is very faced paced this is probably due to the fact that the film is also. The film has lots of short shots edited together quickly in order to make the action sequence more extraordinary. This is an example of one of the many fight scenes in the film. It is edited in a very similar way to the trailer.
. The voice over of the trailer is that of the actors. This means that the audience get a better idea of the story-line and they get to hear some of the "one-liners" and get a better idea of who the characters are.

The information that the last frame of the trailer tells the audience the website, the hashtag and the directors, story-writers, directors and the social networking links for the movie. This is so that if the audience can know where to find the more information about the movie.

This trailer would most likely be shown before other action movies of the same or higher age rating as this would be the target audience. It would also probably be shown in advert breaks of TV shows such as Arrow or Empire as these are from some sort of action genre meaning that they would have the same audience, also as they are shown after 9 the trailer would be able to be shown as it isn't suitable for young audiences.


  

Movie Trailer History Part 2

Stanley Kubrick

Stanley Kubrick was an American film director and was pronounced as being "among the most important contributions to world cinema in the twentieth century." He was very controlling when it came to his films and he did everything which also meant that he created the trailers for his films. Two of the most notable to the film trailer history are that of his films, Dr Strangelove: Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb and The Shining. Over his long career he has won 40 awards and was nominated for 51 more awards. 

1964- 

Dr Strangelove: Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb was one of the first movie trailers to completely break all previous conventions of the film trailer. The sporadically pieced together footage and the random questions that are not intended to be answer in the film all went along with the weird humor that is featured in this film. The use of the text with the footage creates a funny and interesting trailer that was at the time and now really, the only one of it's time.

1980 -

The Shining is said to be of the most effective horror trailers ever with the slow creepy music and one stationary shot of the elevator doors with the writing scrolling slowly over the screen building tension. The blood then coming out of the doors and flooding the lobby makes people wonder what the film is about and what relevance this scene has to the film as it gives away none of the story line.

Don LaFontaine 

Don LaFontaine was an American voice actor who had nicknames of "Thunder Throat" and "The Voice of God" was most well known for creating the cliche "In a World..." which seems to start most film trailers.

In 1963 LaFontaine went into business with Floyd Peterson after they worked together on a radio show for a year. Their business produced advertising exclusively for the film industry. Whilst working on a project in 1964, LaFontaine had to fill in for a voice over artist that was sick, as they needed to have something to show to MGM. MGM then brought the trailer, starting LaFontaine's voice over career. After this he spent a long while as the head of Kaleidoscope Films Ltd. one of the first trailer production houses.

After full-filling his job there Don went on to making his own production company Don LaFontaine Associates. His first project as an independent producer was The Godfather Part II.

In 1978 LaFontaine joined  Paramount Pictures and was in chatge of their trailer department, this resulted in him becoming "The Voice of Paramount" voicing most of their film trailers. In 1980 Don was named Vice- President of Paramount but missed the production. This made him leave Paramount in 1981 and again going solo.

He made the move from New York to Los Angeles all of this resulted in him getting a call from an agent called Steve Tisherman who wanted LaFontaine to pursue voice overs with more enthusiasm this resulting in LaFontaine signing with Tisherman and now having his voice used in over 5000 trailers and being the most well know voice in Hollywood.

Lafontaine has also donr adverts for the likes of GEICO and Coca Cola and has even been the voice over for the Academy Awards and was the voice of NBC, CBS and many other TV channels.

LaFontaine's voice changed the way that films were first introdued to audiences as his voice made the story more dramatic, more tense and more appealing for the audiences to go and see, which is probably why he could be recording up to 35 voice overs a day and could have been counted as the busiest actors in Hollywood. Don passed away in 2008 due to pneumothorax (a collapsed lung) but has left behind a legacy that will not be forgotten.


Sources:
http://www.donlafontaine.com/Index.html?p=Bio.html&pt=
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_LaFontaine

History of the Film Trailer

Sources:

http://www.hopesandfears.com/hopes/culture/film/214473-epic-history-movie-trailers-mad-max-independence-day

http://filmmakeriq.com/2014/03/the-history-of-the-movie-trailer/

https://thedissolve.com/features/exposition/241-becoming-attractions-a-brief-history-of-film-trail/ 

What is the Purpose of the Film Trailer?

Film trailers must make us want to see films. If they don't do that there is no point. They must appeal to as wide as audience as possible but, at the same time make sure that they are keeping to the film and showcasing the film the best that they can. Film trailers were created in order to sell films.
Trailers must be around 2 minutes long, a rule enforced by cinemas. In this time they must make us want to see the film.

Teaser Trailers are becoming a new trend and are released before the actual trailer to make us more excited for the trailer and the trailer is used to make us anticipate and look forward to seeing the film.

The Fantastic Four Teaser Trailer

The Fantastic Four Official Trailer

In the Official Trailer there is more of a story-line and the audience gets a better idea of who the characters are, where as the teaser trailer has more suspense and more mystery as it's purpose is to entice the audience into watching the full length trailer.

Intertextuality

Intertextuality in music videos slideshare from ErinIsabel

Applying Goodwin's Theory

Terminology