-
Before advertisements were created, businesses used short advertisements as a form of trailer to create short films about products and/or services they were advertising.
-
In November 1913, the first time trailer was produced. The trailer was classified as a promotional trailer (a short advertisement) for the musical 'The Pleasure Seekers'.
-
Throughout the 1930s and 40s, the National Screen Service began to reduce the amount of information that was being shown within film trailers.
-
Towards the late 1950s, most film trailers were created by the National Screen Service. The trailers which were created by the NSS consisted of vital scenes of the film being advertised, accompanied by large typography which narrated the text. Voice overs were commonly carried out by stentorian voices.
-
Film trailers began to alter with less typography being encrypted within the media product. The use of editing became popular due to the arrival of 'new Hollywood'. Trailers began to become diverse in terms of not only showing scenes of the film, but also montages. Advertising also altered as trailers were not only showed in the cinema but on the television.
-
Towards the end of the 80s, many film companies were profiting a large amount of money from films. As years went by, the amount of profit film companies made from films increased, alongside the budgets for films being increased.
-
Today film trailers are continued to be shown in the cinema and on the television. However, due to the proliferation of digital technology, production companies now also advertise their media products online on media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter etc. This proliferation has also allowed for film trailers to expand on the content that is enticed within trailers i.e. CGI, special effects. A film trailer is the most predominant way for a film to be marketed.
