Teasers and Trailers

There are several differences between teasers and other trailers. First of all teasers are shorter as they are usually only around 60 - 90 seconds long. They also have less information about the plot of the film because they are only supposed to hint at what is coming to the audience, to start getting them excited long before the film is released. They can be made before the movie is completely finished, and therefore sometimes feature hardly any actual footage from the film. Also because they are made before the film has been edited they sometimes contain footage that has been cut from the final film. They are released on average 6 - 8 months before the film is shown so they can begin to hype up it up.

Trailers, on the other hand,  feature mostly footage from the film because they are shown once the film has been finished. They are also longer, usually between 2 and 3 minutes, which could be double the length of the teaser. Also they usually give more of an outline of what the story is about because they need to give the audience something new so they continue to be excited. They come out around 2 months before the film is released and usually continue to be shown even when the film has opened at the cinema.

I think we can clearly see the difference between a teaser and a trailer in the videos below.



The video above is the teaser for the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead and the video below is the trailer. In the first one we learn very little of the plot of the film. For most of the trailer its looks like a disaster film and there are only hints towards the end that it is a zombie film, it never explicitly tells us. We learn nothing really of who the characters are, we see them but we get no names, roles or who the main protagonist is. Furthermore we don't even learn what the genre is for the first 30 seconds. The visuals and music are very calming and happy for the first part of the trailer, although there is a sense that something is wrong because they are in a closed mall. However after the breaking news story the genre becomes very apparent although we still learn nothing of the specific plot of the film. Finally the first one is 78 seconds long which is within the normal length for a teaser trailer.



We learn much more about the film from the trailer. The plot it outlined more; we know the film follows a group of people who have barricaded themselves in a mall after a zombie outbreak, so therefore the film also becomes more categorised because we know for sure it is a zombie film. In this trailer we are better able to identify who the main characters will be because they have more dialogue and screen time than in the teaser. Also we are told who the main protagonist is through close ups, reaction shots etc. and because we are told what happens to her in the beginning. This trailer is 2 minutes 32 seconds long which is within the normal length for a trailer and more than a minute longer than the teaser. However like the teaser we also don't learn the genre of the film until about 45 seconds in, but for the rest of the trailer it is very obvious.