1408 - Theatrical trailer analysis

When watching the 1408 theatrical trailer, I tried to look out for the generic conventions of a trailer. I wote bullet points while watching to try to get everything written down.
The trailer was 2 minutes 30 seconds long which shows it is a theatrical trailer as trailers are normally shorter.
good trailer but gave away the whole of the film

• Clear narrative
• Everything fits together well
• Effects went well
• Voiceover - helps with narrative
• Repetitive use of title
• Music effective and fits well
• Range of shots
• Range of settings
• Flashbacks
• Few inter-titles
• The camera shots told the story
• There was a fade to black between shots
• 'ghost' was the dead daughter

Trailer gave the film away
Although the trailer was good and detailed, I felt that it gave away a lot of the film and left little mystery to the audience. If the audience feel like they know what is going to happen in the film they will not be entrigued to watch the film themselves.

Clear narrative
The clear narrative is very effective as it makes the trailer less confusing, however I think the narrative was so clear as so much of the story was conveyed, therefore if less of the story had been told then the narrative may have been less clear.

Trailer runs smoothly
The trailer ran smoothly and everything fit together well, this shows that all shots were shown for a purpose and nothing was added in randomly creating confusion for the audience. The trailer fitting together well makes the audience more likely to want to watch the film as it is likely to be clear and easy to watch, compared to a film that jumps about and is confusing.

Special effects
The trailer uses many special effects that were added during editing. Adding special effects to a film is not always advised as they can look unrealistic and make the film look 'tacky' or lower budget, however the special effects in this trailer all looked very realistic and helped to develop the trailer. No special effects that were not needed were added and the trailer looked more successful and high quality because of this.

Voiceover
Voiceovers are often used within trailers to help with the narrative. This is uused here to do this, which is another reason why the narrative is so clear.

Repetitive use of title
The title is repeatedly shown and said in the trailer. This is shown in the number of the hotel room door, this is a repeated theme for the audience and therefore constantly reminds the audience of the significance of this number.

Few inter-titles
"based on story by Steven King" and names of two actors were the only intertitles. The lack of intertitles is effective in a theatrical trailer as there is so much going on that the pace could be ruined by constant inter-titles in the middle.

'Ghost' being dead daughter
This is an idea that is used often in many films. This has caused this idea to become very cliché and stereotypical which means many films may turn out the same.