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Trailers normally consist of a series of selected shots from the film being advertised. Since the purpose of the trailer is to attract an audience to the film, these excerpts are usually drawn from the most exciting, funny, or otherwise noteworthy parts of the film but in abbreviated form and without producing Spoilers . For this purpose the scenes are not necessarily in the order in which they appear in the film. A trailer has to achieve that in less than two and a half minutes, the maximum length allowed by theaters. Each studio or distributor is allowed to exceed this time limit once a year, if they feel it is necessary for a particular film. Some trailers use "special shoot" footage, which is material that has been created specifically for advertising purposes and does not appear in the actual film. The most notable film to use this technique was '''', whose trailer featured elaborate special effects scenes that were never intended to be in the film itself. One of the most famous "special shoot" trailers is that used for the 1960s thriller '' Psycho '' which featured director Alfred Hitchcock giving viewers a guided tour of the Bates Motel, eventually arriving at the infamous shower. At this point, the soft-spoken Hitchcock suddenly throws the shower curtain back to reveal Janet Leigh with a blood-curdling scream. The people who create trailers often begin their work while the movie is still being shot. Since the edited movie does not exist at this point, the trailer Editor s work from Rushes or Dailies . The trailer may be created at the agency while the movie itself is being cut together at the studio. Thus, the trailer may contain footage that is not in the final movie, or the trailer editor and the movie editor may use different Take s of a particular shot. Another common technique is including music on the trailer which does not appear on the movie's soundtrack. This is nearly always a requirement, as trailers and teasers are created long before the composer has even been hired for the film score -- sometimes as much as a year ahead of the movie's release date -- while composers are usually the last creative people to work on the film. Some trailers that incorporate material not in the movie are particularly coveted by collectors, especially trailers for classic films. For example, in a trailer for '' Casablanca '' the character Rick Blaine says "OK, you asked for it!" before shooting Major Strasser, an event that does not occur in the final film. PARTS OF A TRAILER Trailers tell the story of a movie in a highly condensed, maximally appealing fashion. In the decades since movie marketing has become a large industry, trailers have become highly polished pieces of advertising, able to present even poor movies in an attractive light. Some of the elements common to many trailers are listed below.
CREATION OF A TRAILER Studios may create trailers in-house or may "farm out" creation to one or more advertising agencies. Agencies that specialize in creating trailers are known as ''trailer houses.'' Depending on the amount of influence the filmmakers have with the studio, they may or may not be involved in the creation of the trailer for their film. Some choose to closely supervise the process, when possible. They usually don't get involved until a version of the trailer has been approved by the studio internally. The producers and editors of a trailer will be given material from the studio to work with, which may include the movie itself (if it has been edited together yet), rushes, and/or computer graphics shots (as they are created during the film editing process). The trailers that are seen in theaters have been through an extensive process of Revisions and approvals by a variety of studio marketing executives. The revision process often includes information from Market Research conducted at locations all around the country. Movie trailer editing benefits greatly from the use of a Non-linear Editing System . Most of prominent trailer cutting companies, Aspect Ratio, Trailer Park, and New Wave Media, have their editors work on Apple's Final Cut Pro. Beside creative and unique trailer creation, there are several experimental approaches to generate movie trailers automatically using artificial intelligence. University projects like SVP (University of Bremen, Germany) analyse the movie and try to create--- a trailer based on typical structures and rules of trailers. Trailers that want to have an MPAA rating must submit the trailer for their comments and official rating. This process may take days to weeks. In addition, the trailer must go through TASA certification to regulate sound volumes across theaters. COMMERCIAL CONSIDERATIONS Studios can usually ''attach'' a trailer to the Print of another of their films, so that the theater will show their trailer directly before the film. (Usually, Exhibitor s choose the other trailers that show before a given film.) To maximize the audience for certain trailers, studios often work to attach highly anticipated trailers to films that they expect will draw a large crowd. This practice can also affect when films are released. An extreme example of this is Miramax 's decision to delay the North American release of '' Hero '' by two years, mostly so that they could widely advertise the film before Quentin Tarantino 's '' Kill Bill ''. This advertising is especially valuable as it can be carefully targeted. Movies appealing to one age group or demographic will have trailers for films targeting that same group. Trailers have spread to other media as well. Trailers for Computer Game s have especially become popular. CRITICISM OF TRAILERS Movie marketing copy is often accused of being Cliché d. The creation of trailers has been honed over decades to a very precise art, and certain clichés are useful because in a very short space, they are the most efficient way to communicate a given idea. ''Record scratches'' that stop the music to deliver the punch-line to a joke are a very common feature of trailers, but they are continually used because they remain effective. Trailers are also criticized when they incorporate shots that do not exist in the actual movie. When the trailer is edited from rushes this is practically unavoidable. In extreme cases, scenes may have been shot that were later cut from the release version of the movie, but may still exist in the trailer. Usually these scenes are similar in tone or content to material that does exist in the movie. In other cases, trailers may use Stock Footage to convey, in shorthand, a concept that takes longer to explain (or is less visually dynamic) in the movie. In still other cases, shots or dialogue may be rearranged to create situations or exchanges that do not exist as such in the movie. Often this is done to mask a perceived shortcoming in the movie while maximizing the potential of the footage. How much to give away in a trailer is a controversial question. Filmmaker Robert Zemeckis argues that a trailer should tell everything about a film, since, he claims, audiences will not want to pay to see films unless they know exactly what they are paying for. This was especially evident in What Lies Beneath where Harrison Ford 's character reveals an affair to his wife. This trailer was widely criticized for revealing a major twist in the film. Many filmmakers disagree with Zemeckis and believe that a trailer should show no more than is needed to convince the audience to see a film. From a studio marketing perspective, the most interesting, funny, arresting parts of the movie should be in the trailer -- the theory being, showing only less interesting material will attract less of an audience. AWARDS FOR TRAILERS Every year there are two main events that give awards to outstanding movie trailers: The Key Art Awards , presented by the Hollywood Reporter , and The Golden Trailer Awards . While the Golden Trailer Awards allow only trailers to be entered in the competition, the Key Art Awards pick winners in all creative parts of movie advertising, from trailers and TV spots to posters and print ads. The yearly Key Art Awards ceremony is held at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. TRAILERS THAT BREAK FORM
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