2. History of Trailers
Trailers were first sold to theatres so that they could be shown to the audience at the end of a film. It would cost 5
cents to sit in the theatre for as long as you want and the films would play in a continuous loop therefore there were no
specific scheduled film times.
1913 would be what many historians consider year zero for the movie trailer. Nils Granlund, advertising manager of
Marcus Loew theatres, made a short promotional film called"Pleasure Seekers". The idea of showing ads between films
was a success for the audience and theatre owners.
1914 Chicago Man William Selig noticed that still images of a film published advertised in newspaper was extremely
popular and successful. Therefore he thought of the idea of creating a moving image to promote films. He created a 13
episode trailer called ‘The Adventure of Kathlyn’, a new part of the serial was shown in cinemas every week each
ending on a cliff-hanger. The trailer would play after the main film, hence the name ‘trailer’ as it trailed behind.
1960’s Many trailers stopped using texts and started to use montage trailers with faster editing due to the arrival of
“new Hollywood” methods that were becoming more noticed on TV. Stanley Kubrick made more modern trailers suing
the faster editing skills this included the film “Lolita” which won an award for its innovative techniques.
1980’s The National Screen Service shut down therefore trailers were then made by studios who made the films. Which
then made them become increasingly competitive.
2000’s In present day trailers are shown before the main movie starts to give the audience a glimpse of what the film is
about. It is still a very important advertising technique as it hooks the audience by showing fast paced cuts and editing.
3. Todorov’s Narrative Theory
Todorov suggests that in films it begins with an equilibrium showing that everything is in balance and there
are no issues or problems. Then during the film this will disrupted by a disequilibrium, an event cause an issue
throughout the film. Towards the end the heroic protagonist tries to restore order and then eventually the
situation is resolved.
Trailers follow the same pattern as at the start it would show a positive environment. There a problem within
the trailer will start to occur meaning that the characters/character will have a problem needing to be fixed.
Trailers usually use the most important and significant parts of the film therefore it would not show the
equilibrium being restored at the end as it would ruin the film for the audience. It is important that the trailers
shows the disruption of the equilibrium so that it can hook the audience to find out what happens.
Theories
Hypodermic needle theory
Trailers follow the hypodermic needle theory as the film makers are ‘injecting’ the audience with features of
the film. This means that the audience are gaining information about the movie therefore persuades them
into watching the film. Producers and directors pick out the best parts of the movie to be in the film therefore
in a way they are manipulating the audience to watch the film by including all the best features of the film
into less then 2 minutes.
4. Conventions of a trailer
• Voiceovers
• Main protagonists
• Titles
• Conversations (one-liners)
• Dramatic camera angles
• Director credits
• Music
• Film title shown at the end
• Trailer builds to a climax
• Montage
• Several versions for one film
• Usually have a teaser trailer before the real trailer
• Most important scenes in the movie shown in the trailer
5. Analysis of the trailer ‘Psycho’
The trailer to ‘Psycho’ is described as very unusual as the director himself, Alford Hitchcock, is the narrator
and speaking directly to the audience. It seems like he is having a conversation with the audience informing
them on what the film is about. The use of having Hitchcock star in his trailer is very effective as he is an
extremely well known director that has become an icon therefore people would listen to him. At the start of
the trailer a high angle shot is used to show the hotel and Hitchcock, he looks inferior compared to the hotel
as it has a lot of mystery and darkness to it. Then the camera pans down to from a low angle shot of
Hitchcock representing his dominance and control of the trailer.
The auteur theory is shown in this trailer due to the audience being able to hear the directors opinion and
story of the movie. He has directed the trailer showing features of the film and he does not finish most of
his sentences which hooks the audience and makes them want to find out more . He uses direct gaze which
acts like a bait and hook to the audience because it makes them feel like its personally aimed at them. In his
dialogue he mentions ‘by the way this picture has great significance’ whilst pointing at a picture, this makes
the audience ask interrogatives and want to find out more. He also describes the scenarios in the movie in a
very gruesome way which indicates that the movie is a horror.
As Hitchcock walks into Cabin 1 and walks to the bathroom door, the camera is behind the bed facing
Hitchcock. This shows indicates that something horrible took place in that bathroom and indicates to the
audience that there was possibly a murder. The end of the trailer features the iconic music and the victims
screen, it makes the audience jump as it is quite sudden therefore Hitchcock was building up to the end so it
can frighten the audience.
