RESEARCH: WHEN ARE TRAILERS SHOWN?

Most trailers are produced at the same time as the film is being edited. The timing of a trailer campaign is important: it must be shown far enough in advance to generate excitement about the film’s release, but not so early that people forget about the film before it even comes out.

• The trailers are designed to create a ‘buzz’ around the film. What do you think will be the main talking points from these trailers?
• Most of the film trailers on this site are due to be released in the UK over the spring and summer months. From the trailers you have seen, why do you think the distributors have chosen this time of year to release these films?

Toy Story 4

As this trailer is a sequel of the previous Toy Story movies, the buzz is created around the fan favourite character Woody. The main talking point about the trailer is the reintroduction of other famous characters Bo Peep and Buzz Lightyear. The music also contributes to the feel good summer movie, God Only Knows - Beach Boys. As the target audience are too young to watch the movie themselves, it is up to the parents to decided, and as the song is an old school summer song, it might resonate with the parents.

The film gives of a summer vibe, as shown in the picture above there is a fun fair and summer skies which offers a family friendly appeal to the movie. The movie was released during the 2019 Summer in June, which was the right time to release this movie because it has family holiday summer feel. Releasing the movie in summer time also allows the target audience to watch the movie. This is because during the winter and autumn months of the year in the UK, all children are in education, therefore there is less time to watch the film during those times. However, releasing the movie during the summer months when school isn't going on, means that all the children can watch the movie.

Yesterday

The trailer gives off a very summer vibe through showing the festivals and all the audiences in the festival having a great time. There was a concert on the beach and naturally the beach is associated with the sun and summer. Therefore, releasing the movie in the summer works well in correlation with the scenes appearing in the trailer.

It was easy to create a buzz around this movie as music produced and created by the Beatles is synonymous with the music culture in the UK and places abroad. However, rather than making it a generic movie about a band, it was unique and humorous having some random guy get famous from the music the Beatles created. The buzz was also created through the use of starpower. Big names like Ed Sheeran, Lily James, Himesh Patel and James Corden helped to create a buzz around the movie. This is because Ed Sheeran is very well connected with the UK music scene often topping the charts with his music.

The Brink

The Brink is a documentary following the life of Steve Bannon, who was former White House Chief Strategist and Senior Counselor to the president, during Donald Trump's spell as the president of the United States of America. Steve Bannon is a controversial character due to his right-wing political views, however, it can be relatable to audiences who are also right-wing. The film allows audiences to see 'behind the scenes' of the USA's political scene and fully understand how it can be very difficult to be a politician. The trailer perhaps doesn't create enough buzz for audiences. It doesn't challenge enough but instead it just observes over everything happening.