Case Study 1: 'Sixteen' (Brown, 2013)

Here is the trailer for the film Sixteen (2013) by Robert Brown

This trailer has uses different conventions as part of the marketing campaign for the trailer:

- The trailer highlights some of the key moments within the film (e.g. the trailer opens with a scene of  an old pensioner being stabbed by a younger person under a bridge)
- The use of dark colours create a type of thriller atmosphere that relays to the audience what type of genre this film is (e.g. the use of scene filmed at night or at dusk)
- This also showcases the film's stars in the first few seconds of the trailer (e.g. shows the characters of Jumah and his friend witnessing the stabbing)
- The trailer ends with a short clip of Jumah staring into the camera
- During the trailer the characters have different conversations with each other (e.g. when Jumah and Laura are talking to the headmaster at his school, when Jumah is having an argument with Laura)
- During the trailer they have a quote from the BFI saying that "A beautifully realised and moving take on the British Urban Thriller"- the use of this also helps to convey that this film is a thriller.
- The use of shaky camera movements creates the sense that the audience are actually experiencing the events in the trailer, which gives it a sense of personalisation to the audience.
- The soundtrack played in the background, for the most part of the trailer, for some scenes there really isn't any soundtrack, only the dialogue of the individual clip which gives it that sense of a thriller appeal.

The target audience for this trailer is people who enjoy films that have a sense  of realism and that in this society that many people can relate to this certain type of situation.

The distributor has targeted this audience by making the trailer dark and gritty to give it a sense of realism, which the target audience can feel.