Movies

A teaser trailer is a short trailer intended to entice the audience about an upcoming movie and to begin hype on major films. Sometimes it is merely a truncated version of a theatrical trailer, but this is most often not the case.

Teaser trailers, unlike the typical theatrical trailer, are usually very short in length, usually under 30 seconds. The purpose of the teaser trailer is not to show a bunch of out-of-context clips in order to give the audience an understanding about the movie's plot or theme, but rather to let them know that the movie is coming up in the near future, and to add to the hype of the upcoming movie event. Teaser trailers are often made while the film is still in production or being edited and as a result they may feature scenes or alternate versions of scenes that are not in the finished film. Teaser trailers today are increasingly focused on internet downloading and the convention circuit.

Teaser trailers are usually only made for big-budget and popularly themed movies. Recent examples of major motion picture events that used teaser trailers to gain hype are the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the new Star Wars films and the Spider-Man films. The Da Vinci Code teaser trailer was released before a single frame of the movie had been shot. An early example of the teaser trailer was the one for the Superman film by Richard Donner when as the film was already nearly a year late was designed to re-invigorate interest in the release. The teaser for the Batman film starring Michael Keaton in 1989 was an emergency marketing move that successfully convinced angered comic book fans that the film would respect the source material.

Teaser trailers are usually shown among other movie previews, and appear months before the longer and more detailed theatrical trailer does. Some teasers have been known to appear as long as nine months to a year prior to the movie's final release date (for example, the first teaser trailer for the Pixar film The Incredibles was attached to the May 2003 Pixar film Finding Nemo, a full 18 months before The Incredibles was even released). They are usually regarded as a bonus to cinema goers. However, in the case of the teaser trailer for The Phantom Menace that was attached to the film The Siege, it was reported that a large number of people had paid to see the film just to watch the trailer, and then walked out after the trailer had screened [1].

Most DVD versions of these movies will have both their teaser and theatrical trailers in their bonus sections.

Teaser trailers are very similar to, but not the same as, TV spots.

External links

• Movie Trailers from Clevver - All the latest trailers.
• Teaser trailers from Ultimate DVD - source of teaser trailers.
• Teaser and trailer from MovieMaze.de
• Example trailer "God's Companion" (7Mb)
• & Example teaser for same movie "God's Companion" (400Kb)