Conventions in Trailers

Whilst analysing ‘Let The Right One In’, “Dinner for Schmucks’ and ‘The Haunting in Connecticut’ I saw links of shared conventions between the three:

In all three trailers, characters use one-liners or short range of sentances in order to create a mood (e.g. ‘Dinner for Schmucks’ used comedic lines to show the characters as strange and the fact it is of the comedy genre). This helps to show parts of the storyline and characters relationships without giving away the whole feature.
Music is influential to both genres I analysed, even though they contrasted. The horror genres were more tense and dramatic whereas comedy uses instruments and beats we expect to hear on a daily basis.
All the trailers ended with the film title so that the trailer ends with a cliffhanger before the title is released to the public. This is to make sure people remember it, in order to go see it.
Trailers use montages to show different points in the film and to increase the audiences curiosity of what it all means and what happens within the plot.


Voiceovers are used conventionally in teaser trailers however, both horror trailers have no voiceover whatsoever, in fact the one analyses that did include one was of the comedy genre, connoting that horror generally don’t have voiceovers.
This is the same with promoting cast and directors: comedy ‘Dinner for Schmucks’ highlighted key stars and used a cast list of popular people to help market the film which is completely opposite to horror films as there was hardly any/no star actors.
‘The Haunting in Connecticut’ was the only film that used words on the screen to portray a message that the film could not, showing that this convention isn’t popular but used.
Only the horror trailers use dramatic angles to show action and characters which reinforces the disorintation within the film which isn’t seen in Comedy films.