Finola Kerrigan's 'Film Marketing' response

I will use an extract from Finola Kerrigan's 'Film Marketing' to inform my knowledge of trailers and what makes a trailer effective.

Kerrigan says that "trailers are used in order to provide the potential consumer with a taste of the film". This shows me that our trailer shouldn't give too much of the film away, such as key plot moments or spoilers, but still have enough substances to reveal enough about the film to attract potential viewers. She later says "trailers must at once "withhold the fullness of the cinema event" while achieving a "sense of heightened presence" - this supports my early idea of what should be included in a trailer.

Kerrigan also mentions the fact that "the contemporary era sees the trailer lose some of its dominance as film is promoted through such a wide number of methods". I think this is key in understanding our coursework as we also have to produce a poster and magazine cover which should match the standard of our trailer.

Kerrigan discusses stereotypes of trailer, as she says "conventions of film trailers are established in the mind of the film consumer and moving too far from these conventions can involve significant commercial risk". I interpret this to mean that trailers of certain genres should have certain features, for example horror trailers should be low lighting and action trailers should be full of fast takes. I would argue that trailers should conform to conventions of their genre, but also be unique enough to leave a lasting impact on the viewer.

Overall, I found Kerrigan's 'Film Marketing' to be very helpful in deciphering my ideas about trailers, and it has developed the original ideas that I have.