The Dark Knight Teaser Trailer...

The teaser trailer for The Dark Knight, almost the complete opposite of the teaser trailer for Inception, depends almost completely on the use of dialogue, as theres very little else to it. The trailer begins with a completely black shot, with nothing happening visually, but you can hear people speaking. It qucikly becomes clear that it's two men having a conversation. Without it giving much away about the film, you can gather that they're about a group of people, who we are led to belive are the bad guys as they've 'crossed the line', and have turned to someone out of 'desperation'. The focus of the conversation then switches the the 'someone' who was mentioned, with one of the men saying 'some men just want to watch the world burn' in relation to this man. From the conversation, we, the audience immediately get a sense that the film is about Good vs. Evil, with this 'someone' being the ringleader of the Evil side, and the men having the conversation being the Good side. From their voices, some people may be able to recognise who is talking, and therefore figure out qucikly what film the trailer is for. While the conversation is happening over the shot, streaks of blue light start to appear, and slowly become bigger and more frequent until at the end of the two mens conversation, the Batman symbol can be made out clearly. This is the point of the trailer where most viewers will click that the trailer is advertising the new Batman film. This is a technique which will put some people, such as those who dislike the Batman films, off watching it. However, it is mostly a clever move as there is a huge amount of people who love the Batman film and will be sold by the trailer the instant the emblem is revealed, but it also gives the trailer a chance to attract more people who aren't sold simply by the knowledge that it is a Batman film. After the two mens conversation, another voice begins to speak, saying that 'people will die', suggesting to the audience that it is now the villain of the film speaking, backed up by an evil laugh as he finsihes speaking. While the villain is speaking, the Batman emblem begins to wear away and crumble, as the blue lights become even bigger and brighter, almost engulfing the entire screen. As the evil laugh happens, a picture of the original joker flashes past the screen, revealing to the audience that the joker is infact the villain of the film. This will both intrigue new audiences, who want to know more, and excite those who are already aware of who the joker is and will be shocked and excited by the reveal that he is back. For the mise-en-scene of the teaser, it plays a suprisingly important role given that there is only one shot in the entire trailer. The emblem itself gives the audience alot of infromation about the film. The shot and the dialogue play in sync, so as we hear Batman speaking, the emblem begins to show and come through the darkness, showing the return of the Batman series. Also, the emblem crumbling as the Joker speaks shows that his plan is to destroy Batman, revealing the the audience without showing them anything that the film is going to be about Batman vs. The Joker. The music begins quietly during the first conversation, consisting of a low hum and regular drum beats which play in sync to the streaks of lights. The music begins properly as the first conversation ends and the joker starts talking, suddenly becoming a very fast paced piece of music, building a lot of tension and adding some excitement to the trailer. The music then dies down as the picture of the joker comes towards the screen, signifying the seriousness of the film.

Overall, this teaser trailer is just under one minute, which is just longer than the normal length of a teaser trailer, the trailer gives little other than the basic outline of the film away, yet its main selling point is the fact that it is the new Batman film, which in itself will attract huge audiences. It doesn't need to include lots of shots and information to attract new audiences, as the Batman franchise, similar to the Toy Story franchise is already popular world wide, so the teaser trailer has the luxury of being able to be extremely basic and simple, yet staying effective.