What is a Teaser Trailer?

A teaser trailer is a variation on a film trailer used to advertise an upcoming film, video game or television program. This form of trailer is named 'teaser' as they are usually of very short length, ranging from 30 seconds to 1 minute 30 seconds.

- The Twilight Saga; Breaking Dawn is an example of extreme length. Due to the books and the films worldwide popularity, this trailer over exaggerates the term 'teaser', pushed the boundaries of time and released a 16 second clip to their audience. This short amount of time is not a threat to the films promotion as it includes known characters and focuses on one specific aspect of the Saga.

  

Teaser trailers commonly show very little actual footage from the film. Such companies like Pixar Animation tend to release teaser trailers made up of scenes created just for advertisement purposes. This technique is regular and is used to portray the upcoming films genre, certificate etc. Trailers like this are also likely to have the characters directly address the camera, interacting with the audience, e.g. possibly asking them a question, the process of breaking down the fourth wall and enticing the audience further.

- Arthur Christmas is a popular type of teaser, introducing the main character, an idea of what the film storyline may be about but not focusing on giving away the plot, this advert includes humour and is a 'mini feel good' film in itself.

- "Green With Envy" - The Muppet's Movie is another example of a trailer that uses direct address towards the camera engaging the audience, however is an example of a teaser that disguises the actual product as another film. The beginning of this trailer advertises a different story, then coming to the conclusion that it is a Muppet's film, then leaving the audience unaware of the story, although it includes some actual footage and some context, and wanting to see more, another technique of teasing your audience.

Whilst the film is in the production stage or being edited, the teaser trailers are often made and released containing footage from the film. However, doing this, producers find a way to disguise the context of the film and hide the story, thus upholding the term 'teaser'.

- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo shows this technique. It includes a large amount of footage from the upcoming movie however due to random placement and repetition of clips and images the teaser trailer is out of context. This is not a risk for the film as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a worldwide best seller, as is also mentioned in the following trailer. No speech or narrative is used in this teaser trailer either, just a soundtrack to which the clips and images are cut to a beat, editing of the visual text and sound is used to enlighten the audience of the genre.

Discarding the idea of repetition and random placement of footage; like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, or disguising your product for another film before introducing it mid-trailer; like The Muppet's, or creating a whole knew length of footage to create an advertisement; similar to Sony Pictures Animation's Arthur Christmas, another form of teaser trailer has recently been introduced to the industry.


Using no footage and no context of the film, not including any of the films characters. Instead the teaser trailer contains the audience's reactions to watching the previews themselves and having the sound of the movie edited in so that the audience of the teaser trailer can experience a slight indication of what the film may include.

- The Human Centipede II teaser trailer consists of no actual footage, the audience's reactions are filmed and condenseed to form the trailer, quotes edited into the trailer reflect the films 'deprived' nature, lasting just over 1 minute, The Human Centipede II states "Has horror gone too far" as well as mentioning its release has been banned from Britain, scenes have been cut in the USA and the only place in the world to allow its full sequence to be "unleashed" is in Australia.