Teaser video

What this is about

A teaser runs ahead of a launch, a premiere or an announcement and is built on absence: a sound, a silhouette, a date. It has to create a question, which means its content is defined by an exclusion list as much as by a shot list. Compared with the trailer, which represents a finished piece and shows its shape, the teaser usually exists before there is anything to represent — sometimes the product is not final, sometimes the film is still shooting. Production is short but secretive: a compact crew, a controlled location, non-disclosure agreements for everyone on set, and asset handling that keeps the material off shared drives.

The format determines scope, crew and timeline — before the first location has been scouted.

What runs differently here

In planning terms, that means:

• The plan starts with a written exclusion list: which detail, logo, silhouette or voice may not be identifiable in any frame
• Confidentiality is a production constraint — crew size, location choice and file handling all follow from the embargo, not from the budget
• Sound often carries more than picture, so the audio idea belongs in pre-production rather than being found in the mix
• If the teaser is cut from a bigger shoot, its setups get booked separately, because teaser framing hides what the main film reveals
• The release date is fixed by an announcement moment, so delivery has no room to slip behind the shoot

What the plan has to deliver

A production plan is useful to this role when it provides the following:

• A written list of what must stay unrecognisable, agreed with whoever owns the launch
• Signed confidentiality agreements for crew and any talent, plus a defined route for the files
• A separate shot list for teaser-specific framing, even when it shares a day with the main production

Common pitfalls

What most often goes wrong in practice:

• Hiding so much that nothing is memorable — a teaser without one concrete hook leaves no question behind, only confusion
• Shooting teaser frames as an afterthought at the end of a long day, when the crew is done and the light has gone
• Letting the file circulate before the embargo, which ends the campaign before it starts

With TillyGen

TillyGen plans the teaser from its exclusion list: what must stay hidden shapes the shot list, the crew size and the confidentiality steps in the schedule.

Change one constraint and the consequences travel through the whole plan: affected shots are flagged, the call sheet is regenerated, and nobody keeps working from yesterday's version.