History Of Movie Trailers

History of movie trailers

What is a movie trailer?
A trailer or preview, is an advertisement for an up and coming feature film, it aims to attract viewers and persuade them to go and see the film.

The first movie trailers?
The term 'film trailer' originally comes from the fact that trailers were shown at the end of movies rather than at the beginning like nowadays. This practice was changed because viewers most often left the cinema at the end of a movie and didn't get a chance to see them. The first movie trailer was actually for a musical rather than a film. It was shown in a US theatre in 1913. It surprised everyone, newspapers called it "an entirely new and unique stunt"

The 1950's?
Until the late 1950's Movie Trailers were created and released by 'The National Screen Service'.  Videos were very basic as technology hadn't advanced as much yet. Basic features would often include:

• Key scenes from the film being advertised
• Descriptive text telling the viewer about the story line
• Text that was shown was extremely large 
• Most, but not all trailers had a voiceover describing the story line  

The 1960's?
The arrival of 'new hollywood' spurred the movie trailer industry to dramatically increase and change. Individuals became well known for their work within the industry among these were;
Stanley Kubrick for his famous montage trailers, in particular 'Lolita, Dr. Strangelove'
Typical features of a 1960 film trailer would be:

•  Textless
• Edited through montage
• Quick editing
• Very similar techniques used in TV

An individual well known for producing his own work rather than working with the national screen service was Andrew J. Kuehn. He created the trailer of 'The night of the iguana'. Famed for his taste in using stark,high contrast photography and bringing a new voice over to the industry (James Earl Jones). Andrew was so successful that he began one of the first independent film trailer studios, called Kaleidoscope Studios. 

Videos,DVDs and Bluerays?
A favored way of showing trailers is through videos,dvds and blueray. Viewers now most commonly see trailers at the beginning of a film they have purchased. It is  more cost-effective and easier to do than adding trailers to the beginning of films being screened. The only issue is that viewers can 'skip' the videos they do not wish to see at home.

The motion picture association?
The Motion picture association of america (MPAA) states that film trailers not exceed 2 minutes and 30 seconds in length, however each major studio is given one exception to this rule per year. Nowadays there are no time restrictions concerning Internet or home-video trailers.