History of the Film Trailer

A film trailer/preview is an advertisement for an upcoming film, which will be shown in the cinema (though through recent advancements in technology, they are also shown on the television and the Internet as well).

• The first film trailer shown in a U.S. cinema was in November 1913; it was a short, promotional film for the music 'The Pleasure Seekers', produced by Nils Granlund.
• Until the late 1950s, most trailers were created by the National Screen Service.
• They showed certain important scenes from the specific film,
• Included large text outlining the plot.
• Most of the music in them was taken from studio music archives.
• They also included narration which was often in a Stentorian voice, which is a loud, booming voice, obviously utilized for the dramatic and memorable qualities.
• In the 1960's trailers dramatically changed:
• The arrival of 'New Hollywood' and techniques which were becoming increasingly popular in television lead to trailers with no text, and quick/fast paced montage editing.
• Andrew J. Kuehn, in 1964, used high contrast lighting, fast-paced editing and narration by James Earl Jones in his independently produced trailer for 'Night of the Iguana'.
• With the success of his format, he began producing trailers with Dan Davis; his partner.
• In 1968 Kuehn opened the company 'Kaleidoscope Films' to produce his own brand of film trailers.
• Throughout the next thirty years, 'Kaleidoscope Films' became a major player in the film industry.
• As Hollywood Blockbusters became more popular, the need for more extravagant and audience-pleasing trailers meant that other directors (such as Spielberg,) relied on the company to make trailers which were interesting, modern and which would attract their chosen market.
• Originally, trailers were only a small part of the cinema experience; they were much shorter than what we see today, and mainly consisted of title cards explaining narrative, and short clips of stock footage.
• Today's trailers are much longer, more elaborate and trailers and advertisements make up around the first twenty minutes of a cinema experience, showing how their importance in the film industry has now increased, calling for better, more effective trailers as well.
• I will take these changes into consideration when making my trailer, as to maximise effectiveness, I will have to apply modern trends to my trailer.

Project Brief - Film Trailer

The project brief I have chosen to complete for my Media Studies A2 Coursework is the following:

A promotional package for a new film, to include a teaser trailer, together with two of the following three options:

• A website homepage for the film;


• A film magazine front cover, featuring the film;


• A poster for the film.

The two options I have chosen to create are:

• A website homepage for the film;


• A poster for the film.

My work on this project will be presented in the digital form of this blog.