A
teaser trailer, or
teaser is a short trailer used to advertise an upcoming movie, game or television series.
Teasers, unlike typical theatrical trailers, are usually very short in length (between 30–60 seconds) and usually contain little, if any, actual footage from the film. Sometimes, it is merely a truncated version of a
theatrical trailerTrailers or previews are film advertisements for feature films that will be exhibited in the future at a cinema, on whose screen they are shown. The term "trailer" comes from their having originally been shown at the end of a film program. That practice did not last long, because patrons tended to...
. They are usually released long in advance of the film they advertise.
A
teaser trailer, or
teaser is a short trailer used to advertise an upcoming movie, game or television series.
Teasers, unlike typical theatrical trailers, are usually very short in length (between 30–60 seconds) and usually contain little, if any, actual footage from the film. Sometimes, it is merely a truncated version of a
theatrical trailerTrailers or previews are film advertisements for feature films that will be exhibited in the future at a cinema, on whose screen they are shown. The term "trailer" comes from their having originally been shown at the end of a film program. That practice did not last long, because patrons tended to...
. They are usually released long in advance of the film they advertise. One of the reasons for the name "teaser" is because they are shown usually a long time (one or one and a half years) before the movie comes out, so as to "tease" the audience.
Teasers are also commonly used in advertising. The so-called teaser ad/campaign consists typically in (a series of) small, cryptic, challenging, advertisements which anticipate a large(r), full-blown campaign for a product launch or otherwise important event.
Teaser trailers are usually only made for big-budget and popularly themed movies. Their purpose is less to tell the audience about a movie's content than simply to let them know that the movie is coming up in the near future, and to add to the hype of the upcoming release. Teaser trailers are often made while the film is still in production or being edited and as a result they may feature scenes or alternate versions of scenes that are not in the finished film. Other ones (notable Pixar films) have scenes made for use in the trailer only. Teaser trailers today are increasingly focused on internet downloading and the convention circuit.
An early example of the teaser trailer was the one for the
Superman film by
Richard DonnerRichard Donner is an American film director, film producer, and comic book writer. The production company The Donners' Company is owned by Donner and his wife, producer Lauren Shuler Donner. After directing the horror film The Omen Donner became famous for the hailed creation of the first modern...
. The film was already nearly a year late; it was designed to re-invigorate interest in the release. The teaser for the
BatmanBatman is a 1989 superhero film based on the DC Comics character of the same name, directed by Tim Burton. The film stars Michael Keaton in the title role, as well as Jack Nicholson, Kim Basinger, Robert Wuhl and Jack Palance...
film starring
Michael KeatonMichael John Douglas , better known as Michael Keaton, is an American actor, well known for his early comedic roles in films such as Night Shift, Mr...
in 1989 was an emergency marketing move that successfully convinced angered
comic bookA comic book is a magazine made up of narrative artwork, often accompanied by dialog and often including brief descriptive prose...
fans that the film would respect the source material.
Recent examples of major motion picture events that used teaser trailers to gain hype are the
Lord of the RingsThe Lord of the Rings film trilogy consists of three live action fantasy epic films: The Fellowship of the Ring , The Two Towers and The Return of the King...
trilogy, the Disney/Pixar film
Cars, the newer
Star WarsStar Wars is an epic space opera franchise initially conceived by George Lucas. The first film in the franchise was originally released on May 25, 1977, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, spawning two immediate sequels, released at three-year intervals...
films and the
Spider-ManSpider-Man is a 2002 American superhero film based on the fictional Marvel Comics character Spider-Man. The first installment in the Spider-Man series, the film, directed by Sam Raimi and written by David Koepp, stars Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, and Willem Dafoe.The film begins with...
films.
The Da Vinci CodeThe Da Vinci Code is a 2006 film directed by Ron Howard, which is based on the bestselling 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. It was one of the most anticipated films of 2006, and was previewed at the opening night of the Cannes Film Festival on May 17, 2006...
teaser trailer was released before a single frame of the movie had been shot. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince's teaser trailer was released surprisingly late, but when it was pushed back from November 21, 2008 to July 17, 2009, the trailer was surprisingly early.
Some teasers have appeared over a year (or longer) prior to the movie's release date. (For example, a teaser for
The IncrediblesThe Incredibles is a 2004 computer-animated superhero film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. It was written and directed by Brad Bird, a former director and executive consultant of The Simpsons. It stars an ensemble cast including Holly Hunter, Craig T....
was attached to the May 2003 film
Finding NemoFinding Nemo is a American CGI animated film. It was written by Andrew Stanton, directed by Stanton and Lee Unkrich and produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios...
, a full 18 months before
The Incredibles was released, a teaser for
Ben 10 Alien Force the Movie was released during the premiere of Star Wars: The Clone Wars about 13 months early, and
The Princess and the Frog being shown on the internet since August 4, 2008, 14 months before the movie's premiere.)
A teaser for
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom MenaceStar Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace is a 1999 space opera film written and directed by George Lucas. It was the fourth film to be released in the Star Wars saga and the first in terms of internal chronology. It was also Lucas' first film as a director in 22 years, and only his fourth overall...
was attached to the film
The SiegeThe Siege is a 1998 Action-thriller-drama film about a fictional situation where terrorist cells have made several attacks on New York City. It was directed by Edward Zwick and stars Denzel Washington, Annette Bening, Tony Shalhoub, and Bruce Willis....
, and it was reported that many people had paid for admission to the film just to watch the trailer, and had walked out after the trailer had screened. The teaser trailer for
CloverfieldCloverfield is a American monster movie directed by Matt Reeves, produced by J. J. Abrams and written by Drew Goddard.Before the film's release Paramount Pictures carried out a viral marketing campaign to promote the film. The campaign included viral tie-ins similar to Lost Experience...
was first publicly shown attached to the film
TransformersTransformer may refer to:* Transformer, a device that transfers electrical energy from one circuit to another by magnetic coupling* Transformer , Lou Reed's 1972 rock album...
. At this point, nothing about the film was known, and the one-and-a-half-minute teaser did not include the movie title; only the producer's name,
J. J. AbramsJeffrey Jacob "J. J." Abrams is an American film and television producer, screenwriter, director, actor, composer, and founder of Bad Robot Productions...
and a release date, 1.18.08, were shown. A teaser trailer for another film directed by Abrams, the 11th
Star Trek movie was attached to
Cloverfield itself, depicting the starship
USS EnterpriseUSS Enterprise may refer to the following specific vessels:-United States of America:With respect to watercraft, the prefix term "USS" or "U.S.S." is only lawfully applied to and used for ships commissioned by and of the United States Navy...
being constructed on Earth.
Many
DVDDVD, also known as Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc,is an optical disc storage media format, and was founded in 1995. Its main uses are video and data storage...
versions of movies will have both their teaser and theatrical trailers. One of the more notable exceptions to this rule is
Spider-ManSpider-Man is a 2002 American superhero film based on the fictional Marvel Comics character Spider-Man. The first installment in the Spider-Man series, the film, directed by Sam Raimi and written by David Koepp, stars Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, and Willem Dafoe.The film begins with...
, whose teaser trailer featured a mini-movie plot of bank robbers escaping in a helicopter, getting caught from behind and propelled backward into what at first appears to be a net, then is shown to be a gigantic spider web spun between the two towers at the
World Trade CenterThe World Trade Center was a complex in Lower Manhattan in New York City whose seven buildings were destroyed in 2001 in the September 11 terrorist attacks...
. After the 9/11 attacks, the trailer and associated teaser poster (where the two towers appear in as a reflection in Spider-Man's eyepieces) were pulled from distribution in theaters and have never been released on DVD. Conducting a search on
YouTubeYouTube is a video sharing website on which users can upload and share videos. Three former PayPal employees created YouTube in February 2005. In November 2006, YouTube, LLC was bought by Google Inc. for $1.65 billion, and is now operated as a subsidiary of Google...
under "Spider-man Banned Trailer" will show the teaser trailer in its entirety.
Many teaser trailers are similar to TV spots, except that they appear in movie theatres.