Trailer Analysis

Here is the film trailer for the film 'The Lion King', released by Disney in 1994. It was rated a PG. the target audience for this film would be ages 3-16, with a secondary audience being adults that either enjoy children's movies (animated films) or someone accompanying someone watching this film. This trailer starts with credits of Disney, who produced and distributed this film. This establishes the trailer and lets the audience know it will be a positive, uplifting film before they have even seen it because Disney has the reputation of releasing positive films.
The trailer itself begins with an establishing shot of a sunset, and then goes onto a variety of angles and shots of animals doing different things. The fast-paced shots keep the audience interested because they have to stay focused in order to keep up with what is happening. The facial expressions portrayed by the characters in the opening few scenes set the narrative for the rest of the trailer, because everyone is seemingly very happy and uplifting and this is shown by lots of smiles.
This trailer fits lots of codes and conventions of trailers made, because the trailer is slowly built up with lots of different shots, and similar paced non-diegetic sound. It contains a fairly simple, but engaging narrative.
In relation to short films, this trailer contains some suspense which keeps the audience engaged. This would be apparent in any effective film opening, film trailer, short film or documentary. Matching non-diegetic music pace with the pace of the shots is always something that is effective, The genre of this film is established through the narrative, because everything seems very positive, and the animation certainly lends itself to obviously being a film for children or young teenagers. The happy faces show in the shots is designed to be recognisable, and this gives pleasure to audience because a lot of the time someone will choose to watch a film for the simple familiarity of it. A number of smooth edits have been made to transition from one shot to another, and this done by fading from one scene to another.