Chick Flick Trailer Conventions Research

'Chick Flick' Film Trailers

1. 'Clueless' (1995)

• does not use the typical voice over to create the story - shows that the film is obviously more character and relationship driven rather than focussing on the storyline. The trailer generally fits the convention of other typical 'chick flick' films because of the immense and complicated dialogue and contrasts against other genres of films such as romcoms, where it mainly consists of one liner jokes, or in some romantic films, it is only montages of images without much speech (Blue Valentine). The majority of the trailer follows each scene for a number of seconds without cutting too much between different situations - this allows the audience to know that it is more about the characters and so they can develop more of a relationship with them which will encourage them to see the film. In this trailer, music is clearly very important as it sets a light and humorous mood to the film and so advertises that the film is clearly a 'feel good' film.  Th
• graphics - colourful, swirly, and very girly font to reflect the type of film. Uses the graphics for setting or simply to show the famous names of actors (they showcase the stars) in the film rather than add to the story like in the trailer for '10 Things I Hate About You', though it also conveys the main points of the film across e.g. 'its a jungle out there.' The final credits also advertise new music played in the film and this helps appeal to a larger audience as people who are interested in those musicians may want to go and see it solely to hear their new music.  The title is not displayed until the end and so keeps the audience watching until the very end before they can know what its actually called, and it also helps piece together the whole film to give the bigger picture. 
• The audience is clearly stated and targeted as a teenage girl audience, emphasised by the only teenage cast, quite young and girly jokes and the obvious plot line of interest in boys. This is developed into the characters' personalities, such as Cher's obvious obsession with fashion and the obvious competition between girls in the film, e.g. the line 'is big hair back?' used as an insult. The graphics used also obviously point towards a girl audience because of the swirly and quite immature font. 

2. 'Mean Girls' (2004)

• Compared to Clueless, this trailer is of a faster pace and cuts between a number of scenes rather than sticking with one or two longer pieces of dialogue. However, the dialogue is still very complicated and is present throughout the whole trailer but is edited together from different scenes so the whole story becomes condensed, giving the audience more of a feel of what they may be watching. The dialogue is also a lot more punchy compared to Clueless as it contains a lot more one-liner jokes, for example it immediately starts with the 'I'm from Michegan' joke. The editing is also used to give the audience a larger taste of the actual setting of the film as well as the characters, for example the fast cuts between the different cliques at the schools. It also allows the audience to view in depth the main 3 character in the 'Plastics' clique - this is done by introducing them by name and then offering small clips from other sections to show more of the character. This way the audience is more involved with the characters and so feels more drawn to see the film.
• The trailer also helps build a relationship between the audience and the characters through the voice over of Lindsay Lohan, allowing them to feel involved with the narrators emotions and experiences. The voice over, together with the frequent interchanges of music keeps a face paced mood to the trailer and the audience feels drawn in to keep up with the storyline. The music also helps identify the film for young people and as a comedy due to the random and quick changes between songs. 
• There is very little graphics throughout the trailer apart from the very beginning where it showcases Lindsay Lohan and at the end when the title is revealed. However, the pink writing obviously highlights the audience as teenage girls. Like in Clueless, the graphics work well with the majorly female cast and high school girl issues to target a particular audience of teenage girls and the complex dialogue and fast paced editing clearly outlines it as following a typical chick flick trailer.

3. 'Wild Child' (2008)

• This genre of this trailer is immediately sold by the typical American male voice over used in chick flick trailers like St Trinians and Material Girls and so identifies the target audience as the typical teenage girl chick flick audience. This also continues in the music choice within the trailer and so extends the vibe of a young and feel-good audience. The trailer also uses a number of sound effects to give a comic feel and so appeals to a wider audience of people who are more interested in the comic side of the film than the plot, e.g. when she is cleaning her face in the lacrosse scene. The trailer also consists of a number of one liner jokes which tend to be the selling points of the trailer for example, 'first it wasn't my fault and if this was America I would sue'
• The editing in this trailer follows a similar format as in Mean Girls with fast paced editing between different scenes and situations to condense the story into the trailer, making it less character driven than films like Clueless. By condensing the plot of the film, the audience becomes fully aware of what the film actually consists of and so draws them to watch it as they know exactly what they are about to watch. 

4. '10 Things I Hate About You' (1999)

• The voice over in this trailer is very similar to that of the one in Wild Child and in other typical chick flicks and so this helps target some of the chick flick audience of teenage girls. However, this trailer makes it less clear which audience it is targeting due to the constant use of graphics that do not follow the typical pink and girly font that is shown in Wild Child, Mean Girls and Clueless. The audience is also slightly lost due to the focus of characters. It is clear that there are a number of main characters within the film and this is very different to the rest of the other chick flick trailers I have studied where a more intimate relationship has been built up due to the voiceovers and focus on the main character. For example, the shots constantly follow Cher in the Clueless trailer, meaning that the audience tends to learn about her character and only her character, and this is similar to Poppy in Wild Child. The voiceover of Lindsay Lohan in Mean Girls allows the audience to build a relationship with Cady but in the 10 Things I Hate About You trailer, there seems to be too much going on to really follow a particular character, so the film becomes more plot driven. I think this causes the trailer to be weaker than the above trailers because it is hard for the audience to gain a liking to any of the characters and so they do not feel drawn to watch the film. 
• As a plot-driven film however, it means that it can appeal to more people as an audience. Although it is not publicised in the trailer, many older viewers of the trailer may notice the symmetry of the female character's names i.e. Katherine/Kat and Bianca to Shakespeare's 'The Taming of the Shrew' and so may be interested to see the film as an adaptation. Like both Mean Girls and Wild Child, the plot is condensed into the trailer which I think benefits the film as it allows people to gain more information on the film without having to go through the characters which the trailer fails to present.

Chick Flick Trailer Summary:

• establishes genre, mood and expectations generally through upbeat music, complicated characters that are thoroughly presented to the audience, uses very typical voice overs and graphics.
• I thought Wild Child or Mean Girls was the most successful as it clearly laid out the plotline for the audience but also clearly presented the role of Poppy/Cady and the love interest and so fulfilled a typical chick flick film. Wild Child also employed the American voice over, typically pink graphics and constant upbeat and changing music. 10 Things I Hate About You was the least successful as I felt there was too much going on for the audience to be drawn into it and build a relationship with the audience.
• the target audience for Wild Child and Mean Girls I think is younger, for example 13-18 girls whereas Clueless seems to be aimed more at 16-20+ as it focusses more on sex. I think 10 Things I Hate About You failed to establish a target audience as there was too much going on and too many conflicting characters in a short amount of time for the audience to understand.

W.H.