The history of film trailers

A trailer is an advertisement for a feature film that will be shown in the cinema in the future. The term "trailer" comes from them originally been shown at the end of a feature film screening at the cinema. However, this didn’t last long because viewers tended to leave the cinema after the films ended (during the credits), but the name “trailer” has stuck. Trailers are now shown before the film begins, and also are now commonly used on DVD and Blu-ray discs. 

In November 1913, Nils Granlund (advertising manager for the Marcus Loew theater chain) showed the first trailer. He produced a short promotional film for the musical The Pleasure Seekers, opening at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway. This is how trailers changed over the years: 

1950’s:
- Trailers were mostly created by National Screen Service (a company which controlled the distribution of theatrical advertising)
- Consisted of various key scenes from the film being advertised
- Large, descriptive text describing the story on screen
- Long trailers, often showed key scenes and revealed the story line

1960’s:
- Used narration to summarize the story
- Less text used on screen
- Often showed the end of the film to reveal an exciting effect

1970’s:
- Revealed less of the story, but still showed many key scenes
- Started to use mis-edited scenes which were often out of order

1980’s:
- No spoilers and creates a mystery about the ending
- Told very little about the film

Today:
Trailers nowadays consist of a series selected shots from the film. The purpose of the trailer is to attract an audience to the film, and the shots are normally from the most exciting, funny, or otherwise noteworthy parts of the film. However, trailers nowadays are in abbreviated form and don’t produce spoilers. The scenes therefore are not necessarily in the order in which they appear in the film, which can sometimes be very mis-leading about the actual film. This is because the marketing team that creates/promotes the teaser has alot more authority nowadays. Music is now often used, and the shots are often very short. There is also hardly any introduction to characters, which in past years was common. 

Film trailers are still shown in cinemas (but before the film now), and are also available on a range of mediums. For example, Youtube and mobile devices. In 2006 Time Magazine announced 'you' as their 'person of the year', meaning that consumers now are the most powerful people/ This links to the launch of Web 2.0, the next generation web where consumers become part of the web. This is important for trailers as viewers can now comment and share them online, which can largely influence the ratings of the trailers/films and viewers decisions to watch the actual film. 

A developing issue:
Some would argue that the trailers are now better than the film, as they build so much hype and excitement from the edited trailers. This sometimes means that viewers are disappointed when the actual film does not follow this trend/excitement. Lisa Kernan's quote "A unique form of narrative film exhibition, wherein promotional discourse and narrative pleasures are conjoined" supports this.