Codes and Conventions

Production Companies Logo

Dark Warner Bros Logo

• The production logo symbolises to the audience the budget of the film they are about to watch and clearly depicts who created it.
• Film logos may give an indication to the genre of the film, as they are sometimes changed to look like the chosen genre.
• If the production company is well known and liked, or have produced other successful films, people may want to watch other films produced by the same company, so including the logo on the trailer may encourage more people to watch the film.
• The warner bros logo is usually quite bold looking with bright, pigmented colours but they have changed the colour scheme and overall brightness of the logo to successfully relate to the genre of film to allow audiences to quickly identify and associate.

Warner Bros Logo





Certification from the British Board of Film Classification

Classification Badge for ages 12 and over

• The British Board of Film Classification determine the minimum age allowed to watch the certain films, determined by their content. This tells the viewers of the trailer and the target audience so they know if the film is suitable for them.

Introducing the cast and crew

• In film trailers the names of actors involved are usually included to entice potential audience members.
• It may also include the director, this is another way to entice the audience.

Different Paces

• It is common for a lot of film trailers to be fast paced in order to show as many clips of the film as possible in order to give an idea of the narrative. However, sometimes the trailer starts slow and gains a faster pace in order to build tension throughout and bring the trailer to a climax.

Length of Shots

• The length of shots varies considerably, from less than a second, to a few seconds, to a larger period of time. Although a few seconds doesn't seem long, in a film trailer, each second counts. If there is a shot that is intended to build up tension, for example in a thriller, you could have a shot of someone heavily breathing, this could last longer to build up the suspense. However, you could then have a shot of less than a second showing a scary figure. The effect of the shot length being short in a thriller is that, usually, these have the potential to make you jump, especially if it is before a long shot, when the audience aren't expecting it yet. Short shots usually shows mini clips of things that may be important to the plot, whereas longer shots may be there to give more information about the story line.