Radio Trailer Research

Radio trailer conventions

• Facts – A radio trailer needs to contain facts and statistics to make it informative and provide knowledge for the audience. These facts should convince the audience to want to watch the film as the information given should make the film sound interesting. We have met this convention as throughout our films radio trailer the audience is given information about the film and its release
• Voiceover – A voiceover is important and evident in most radio trailers. The reason for this is that the voiceover guides the listener through what is being portrayed. The voiceover also explains what the film is about, gives a professional feel to the trailer, informs and entertains the audience and sets the mood for the film.
• Music – music in a radio trailer is used to set a steady pace a sets the atmosphere for the audience. However it is vital to ensure that the voiceover of the trailer can still be clearly heard over the music. For our film we have used music we have also used within our film. This links the trailer and the film directly.
• Length – A radio trailer should last around 30 – 40 seconds long. This is the suitable amount of time for a film trailer as it is long enough to engage the audience and include all of the necessary information the audience needs (release date etc.) 
• Sound effects – Sound effects are used to interest the audience, create the wanted atmosphere and indicates to the listener what they should expect from the film. This is seen in our radio trailer as we have use many sound effect from our film. This includes multiple sound effects and also multiple lines of dialogue. This as aid above indicates to the audience what they should expect and sets the atmosphere we wanted.

There are other conventions that are not essential to a radio trailer but is they are met the quality of the trailer increases, such as

• The trailer should be formal
• The release date of the film should be clearly stated
• The trailer should intrigue its target audience
• The trailer should include more than one person speaking.

When creating our film we tried to meet as many of these conventions as possible. We did this by using dialogue from the film as well as the voiceover to have more than one person speaking. We also kept the release date to the end of the trailer where many of the sound effects we have used have finished to make sure that the date can be clearly heard.

Below is an example of a successful film radio trailer -