What Is A Trailer?

A trailer is a look at the film that’s being advertised, their normally around 2 minutes long. Trailers are normally released a few months in advance of the films release but like teasers this may change depending on how big the film is, some films even have multiple trailers and sometimes multiple teasers. Unlike the mysterious teaser trailers, normal trailers tell the audience a lot more about the film, they usually include the main stars, a basic plot line and a couple of key scenes in the film to get people interested and wanting to see more. Trailers consist of selected shots from the film and since the purpose of a trailer is to attract an audience, the sections taken from the film and put into the trailer are usually drawn from the most exciting, funny, or best parts of the film without giving to much away. The scenes taken from the movie are not always in the order in which they appear in the film, a trailer has to intrigue and excite their audiences in less than two and a half minutes, the maximum length allowed by the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America). Each studio is allowed to exceed this time trailer time limit once a year, if they feel it is necessary for a particular film. Some trailers use "special shoot" footage, which is material that has been created specifically for advertising purposes and does not appear in the actual film. One of the biggest examples of this was used for Terminator 2; the trailer featured big special effects scenes that were never intended to be in the film.