I found some great examples of teaser trailers used to create a buzz for upcoming feature films. After watching a variety of different trailers I tried to identify what made them so successful.
Batman (1989)
After the producer, Jon Peters, read in the Wall Street Journal that comic book fans were disappointed with the casting of Michael Keaton, he quickly rushed to release the trailer in the hope that it would switch attitudes towards the film. Although the trailer was a rushed attempt at saving the film, the quick collection of scenes without music actually created enormous anticipation and created that all important 'buzz'. The strong use of fast pace editing and dialogue proved to be extremely effective.
This trailer in particular was very significant within the marketing campaign for this film. They released the trailer a full year ahead of the film's release, before shooting a single frame of the movie. That's why it was so significant, they managed to construct and present a very good teaser trailer, without showing a single shot from the film itself. The trailer features crevices with hidden and mysterious symbols which is later revealed to come together to form an image of Da Vinci's most famous painting, the Mona Lisa.
The trailer for this film was beyond successful, they attached the teaser to the film 'Meet Joe Black' in November 199, and it was reported that many people had in fact paid for admission to the film just so that they could watch the trailer, some even walked out after the trailer had been screened. To stop fans from leaving before the movie was over, some cinemas played the teaser an additional time after the film finished. The second teaser trailer for the film was shown with the film 'Wing Commander' in March 1999, and again there were people paying admission just to watch the second trailer. The second teaser was released on the film's official website which resulted in the servers becoming overloaded.
This teaser trailer was very successful even though it only really showed around 10-15 seconds of footage from the film. It doesn't give too much narrative away and ends perfectly with a shot of the protagonist's daughter watching the rocket launch- which never made it to the final film. The use of a voiceover also proved to be very effective too as it added a very 'theatrical' feel. The teaser concludes with the words 'one year from now' in white font on a black background, making it a very bold statement.
The Social Network (2010)
The teaser trailer for this film was very unique, and it worked. Unlike other teasers, it only shows the face of one character, and that comes right at the end. The teaser is 1 minute 11 seconds and consists of a black screen and words written in white, bold, block capitals; ('PUNK', 'GENIUS', 'PROPHET', 'TRAITOR', 'BILLIONAIRE'). After that, the quote "You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies" is shown on the screen. Throughout the teaser a voiceover is used with various dialogue from the film and then right at the end a pixelated image of Mark Zuckerburg's character is zoomed out.
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