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The Boat That Rocked Educational Resource

This section:

  • introduces students to the purposes of producing a trailer for a film and how trailers create awareness of a film's release.
  • asks students to analyse the teaser trailer for The Boat That Rocked and raises issues about narrative image and how a trailer creates awareness of the content of the film.
  • asks students to consider the importance of sound in a trailer from the point of view of both the spoken word and also music.
  • asks students to analyse the main trailer for The Boat That Rocked and compare it to their teaser trailer analysis.

A trailer for any film exists to grab your interest! You might see it in the cinema, online or on television.

THE TEASER TRAILER

The Teaser Trailer tells you some basic information about the film, which will:

  • Make you aware that the film will be opening in the future
  • Make you aware of who is in the film
  • Make you aware of the genre of the film
  • Give you an idea of the story of the film

The teaser trailer gives you ideas and also awareness about the film.

Awareness:

  • When will the film open?
  • What type of film is it?
  • Who is in it? What other films that you have either seen or heard of feature these stars?

 

Ideas:

  • From the trailer, what do you think the story of "The Boat That Rocked" will be about?
  • In what ways is narrative conflict shown in the trailer? What will be the conflicts in the film?
  • How are you introduced to the various characters?
  • Does the trailer give you some ideas about the themes of the film?
  • List all of the short sequences that you are shown in the trailer. Why do you think each of these has been chosen and what information does each give us about the story?

 

The Teaser Trailer and Sound

As well as what we see in a trailer it is also important to consider what we hear.

We can split this into two parts - the music and the spoken word.

Firstly consider the music that you hear. What ideas does it conjure up for you? In what ways does it help place the film within both a genre and also within a certain period?

In considering what is actually said in the trailer, look at the transcript. What information does the voice over give you and what ideas to the words spoken by the actors give you?

open transcript
Read Transcript

 

THE MAIN TRAILER

After the teaser trailer has been running in cinemas for a few months, the distributor will then release a full trailer which will be longer and aso will give more information about the film.

The teaser trailer for The Boat That Rocked (which you have already looked at) was 39 seconds long. The full trailer, which you are about to look at is one minute  thirty seconds long and is thus able to give much more of an idea about the film.

However, there must be a synergy, or relationship between the two trailers. Having given audiences an idea about the film in the teaser trailer, the full trailer should then take this idea and develop it further.

Before starting this task, look back at the work that you carried out on the teaser trailer and the conclusions that you cam to regarding what you think the film will be about.

This idea should form the basis of your investigations on the full trailer.

  • Watch the full trailer at least once and write down what images/scenes you are shown in the trailer.
  • Compare this with the list of scenes that you write down for the teaser trailer. What new images or scenes have been added? How many of the scenes from the teaser trailer have been kept in the full trailer?
  • How do the new scenes/ images relate to those that were in the teaser trailer? What do they add to our understanding of what the film will be about?
  • What new information are we given in the full trailer?
  • The full trailer also uses a voice over. Look at the transcription of the voice over and compare it with the voice over for the teaser trailer. What are the similarities and differences? What information is given in the new trailer which was not in the teaser trailer?
  • Both trailers end with the same shot. Why do you think this is?
  • Why is a word such as "terrorised" used in the full trailer voice over?

open transcript
Read Transcript