- Editing
The speed of clips in the teaser trailer last from 1 to 2 seconds, while the theatrical trailer has clips lasting from 2 to 3 seconds. This makes the transitioning of clips in the teaser trailer faster and more intense, probably to help conceal more of the narrative from the audience, to create a larger depth of suspense and tension. The theatrical trailer; however, is trying to reveal more of the narrative to the audience, while at the same time trying to create the same atmosphere its teaser version upholds.
The use of text titles in the theatrical trailer helps uncover more of the narrative to the audience, to help them understand the whole purpose of the film clearer. The teaser trailer; however, doesn’t use any text titles, due to how it’s simply trying to create a fast paced atmosphere only revealing small hints about the narrative. This leaves audiences on a bigger cliff hanger then the theatrical trailer, leaving the audience to think for them selves, what the film could possibly be about.
- Sound
The theatrical trailer has a larger use of dialogue then the teaser, due to how it’s revealing more information on the narrative of the film to the audience, so that they’ll be able to distinguish it as a horror zombie film. There’s hardly any dialogue in the teaser trailer, creating a darker and more tension fuelled atmosphere, which emphasises and concentrates more on the action in the trailer.
The use of non-diegetic music in both the teaser and theatrical trailer are used in the same similar way to establish and emphasise a change in the atmosphere, which helps show both the trailers to conform to Todorov’s theory. For the teaser trailer, it uses a calm and gentle slow paced tone of non-diegetic music at the beginning, to create equilibrium in that atmosphere. It’s only half way through the trailer that the music changes to a faster paced, ambient tone of non-diegetic music, which breaks the calm atmosphere creating disequilibrium. The theatrical trailer does exactly the same but does it from an earlier point at the beginning, creating a more longer dark atmosphere, which shows more of the horror the film has to offer to audiences.
Overall, the use of non-diegetic music helps shows the teaser and theatrical trailer to conform to the conventional ideas of a horror trailer, due to how they normally place audiences in a calm sense of state at first then gradually break away into a dark and chaotic atmosphere. The trailer then ends, leaving audiences on cliff-hanger, making them want to see the film to find out how the disequilibrium is resolved.
- Location/scenery
The teaser trailer immediately gives away that the film is based on a shopping centre, due to a long camera angle shot of it at the beginning, which is placed directly in the centre of the screen, to suggest the shopping centre having a major importance in the story. It could be suggested that the shopping centre is the group of characters’ safe haven from the mysterious crisis happening around them. The theatrical trailer, however, doesn’t showcase the shopping centre like the teaser but showcases other locations, which finally lead up to the shopping centre being revealed. This has probably been done to help show a larger prospective of the narrative of the film but due to this, it decreases the suspense and tension the trailer has compared to the teaser, due the location of the film being less mysterious.
- Characters
Both trailers showcase characters in a different way from one and another, to help establish their value and importance to viewers. For the teaser trailer, it showcases a number of characters but never establishes who the main character is, making all the characters have the same level of authority and value. This has probably been done to convey more of the narrative and to focus more on the disequilibrium, to help create a larger feeling of suspense and tension, which will be the selling point of the film. The theatrical trailer; however, actually establishes a main character (who’s a heroin), focusing more on the characters to probably reveal more of the narrative to the audience.
Conclusion
Overall, the teaser trailer of ‘Dawn of the Dead’ is much shorter and faster then the theatrical one, only revealing a small amount of narrative while concentrating on building an atmosphere full of suspense, tension and mystery, so that audiences will be made interested, wanting to watch the film. The theatrical trailer tries to do this, while also revealing more of the narrative but as more of the story is shown, the less suspenseful the theatrical trailer becomes compared to the teaser.
