2. 1910
In 1910 Cinema’s were very minimal, only usually
including one screen.
People would pay 5 cents and sit in the theatre as long
as they wanted. The films would play in a continuous
loop and you watch these as many times as you
desired.
Timetable
3. 1913
Considered year zero of the movie trailer. Nils Granlund
made the first promotional film for the Broadway play
“pleasure seekers”. This showed actual rehearsal
footage.
Col. William Selig adapted a print serial “The Adventures
of Kathleen” into a film version. This was however the
second print serial to be made. Each week there was a
new episode and then the story would be continued in
the Chicago Tribune. This was when the term Cliff-
hanger was introduced.
At this time trailers would be shown at he end of a film
and were usually created by theatres themselves.
Timetable
4. 1916
By 1916 the movie studios themselves began to officially
release trailers for upcoming films.
Despite this they were still pretty basic, including snippets
of film with some text overlaid such as the actors names
and name of the film. This was due to very little money
being in the business.
Timetable
5. 1919
The national screen service was started in 1919 by
Herman Robbins.
They opened up an office in New York that took movie
stills and added in titles, then sold these trailers directly to
theatres. Many studios happily signed deals to submit
their films to the NSS to be made into a trailer.
The NSS dominated the business from the 1920s to the
1960s creating a template style trailer with specific
stylistic patterns like screen wipes and fly in titles.
Timetable
6. 1927
The 1927 film “The Jazz Singer” was the first ever movie
trailer to use sound, causing a massive breakthrough in
the business which they used to entice their audiences.
The trailer also used direct address in it.
These creations successfully created a new template for
the industry and other future trailers that would be
made.
Timetable
7. 1940
It wasn’t until the 1940s when the National Screen
Service tightened its dominated on studio trailer
production.
Several innovations associated with classic Hollywood
films were also introduced including; the use of third
person narrative and tile that flipped up onto the screen
from below the frame.
Timetable
8. 1960
In 1960 Alfred Hitchcock directed the film “Psycho” and
was just as famous as the people starring in the film. He
didn’t want to make a trailer showing a load of clips that
might give the film away and not do it justice.
Therefore he created a six and a half minute trailer that
offered a personal tour of the bates motel and the
sinister looking house in the hill, complete with his gallows
humour style hints to the gruesome events to come in
the film.
This was a successful and unusual trailer due to Alfred
Hitchcock’s popularity and celebrity status.
Timetable
9. 1962
This was the time when Stanley Kubrick experimented
with fragmented cutting styles in the trailer for the film
“Lolita”.
This again created a new template for future trailers.
Timetable
10. 1964
“Gun fighters of casa Grande” was the first ever trailers
to feature the tones from Don LaFontaine, who later set
the standard for the trailer voiceovers and invented the
phrase “in a world…” This eventually kicked off evert
third trailer made after 1983.
This was the year that Kubrick also came back strong
with the trailer for “Dr Strangelove” which was said to be
one of he most bold and brazen pieces of film
advertising over made.
Timetable
11. 1967
“Bonnie and Clyde” was the first ever trailer to feature
an anti-hero as censorship became lenient.
Also in he film “ The Gradute” more emphasis was
placed on the music.
Timetable
12. As trailers developed, so did theatres, there was less demand for
advertisement in the form of movie posters and NSS began to lose their
importance. Movie studios and production companies gained control and
went on to evolve even more.
Timetable
Late 60s
13. One of the most significant moments in the movie industry distribution, this
was the release of Jaws in 1975. Millions of people watched the trailer
worldwide, $700,000 was spent on just TV advertisement alone. Jaws was
the first film to be released widely, this was a dangerous risk however they
managed to make back the money from the advertisement and their profit
margin increased to over 470 billion dollars. This strategy was named the
blockbuster this was all down to the excessive distribution of the movie
trailer.
Timetable
1975
