n.
1. A
short trailer used to advertise an upcoming film,
television program, video game or similar, usually released long in advance of the product, so as to "
tease" the audience. Unlike typical theatrical trailers, they’re usually very
short in length (between 30–60 seconds) and usually contain little, if any, actual footage from the film.
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 (notably Pixar films) have scenes made for use in the trailer only, while sometimes, it is merely a truncated version of a theatrical trailer. 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 today are increasingly focused on
internet downloading and the convention circuit.
See also, Teaser campaign.
Cloverfield, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the newer
Star Wars films, and The
Ring, are all examples of major motion picture events that used teaser trailers to gain
hype.
