#37 Radio Trailer Research

For my media film I had to create a way to advertise the film that I have created. One way that I could do this is would be through trailers on the radio. For my radio trailer to be successful and achieve what it was meant to it was important that I looked at other radio trailers for similar films and genres. I looked at two radio trailers online, Insidious and Paranormal Activity 3, and found it very hard to find radio trailers on the internet, and the trailers I found were very limited. I then looked at a few TV radio trailers, to get further knowledge to help create my own trailer.

I found that most horror trailer appear to be very similar. The trailers usually last around 30-40 seconds, and feature a very deep male voice as a narrator, usually someone who is not a character in the film, as this creates a fear of the unknown. Key information is also included as this is important to inform the audience of the details about the film, such as; the release date, the age rating, if the film is on DVD or in cinemas. Additionally, like posters, the trailers sometime also include other films made by the same people, 'from the makers of'. Extracts from the actual film are also used, these are cleverly constructed to tell the story but not reveal all to the audience, it creates a desire for the audience to find out more, by seeing the film. All of the trailer is usually constructed with conventional horror music in the background. A slogan is also used to make you remember about the film, for example with Insidious the slogan was 'it's not the house that's haunted'.

Whilst researching radio trailers I created a mind map of my findings:

These are the two trailers that I looked at: