Key conventions of movie trailers include showing key moments out of chronological order to avoid revealing the plot, displaying the title at the end, and showing popular actors and directors early to attract audiences. Trailers also use voiceovers, text, and music to convey genre and style without fully explaining the story. The history of trailers began around 1913 with short clips added to play bills and newspaper serializations to promote films and encourage viewership. Trailers have evolved over time along with changes in filmmaking and culture.

1. The history and
conventions of
movie trailers

2. Key Conventions of Film Trailers
• Key moments from the film shown unchronological so the plot is not revealed
• The title is not usually revealed till the end of the trailer
• The name of people starring in the film are shown early on in the trailer to attract a fan base
• Sometimes the names of the director/producer are included helping the audience recognise previous
successful films
• Many mainstream films will use a powerful voice-over that draws attention to key point in the film
• On screen text gives important information, including stars, director, title, release date
• Music is essential in trailers as it can suggest genre, style and plot of the film

3. Film production logos
These feature at the beginning of a trailer. This can help the companies
reputation and may make people more interested in seeing the film if they
recognise the logo, and have enjoyed one of their previous films. It also gives
the audience an insight to what type of film it may be, for example seeing the
DreamWorks logo may lead people to believe it is a high quality (due to a larger
budget) family film.

4. Characters
If popular or well known actors feature in the film they are usually shown in the trailer.
This is to attract viewers who will recognise the actor/actress and that might be an
incentive to go and watch the film.
Also revealing parts of a characters story or personality in a trailer intrigues and
therefore attracts audiences to the film.

5. An age certificate
This provides a guideline to the target audience age. But any film that is released in the
UK has to have an age certificate, and the age certificate is usually shown near the end
of the trailer.

6. More modern conventions.
Using social media to promote the film has become increasingly popular. For example the use of
hashtags. This is an easy way of the audience finding out more information about the film, while
also promoting it, making more people aware of the film and generating a larger audience.
For example in the trailer for the conjuring, there is a twitter hashtag on the screen at the end
of the trailer.
A release date is essential to
inform viewers when the film will
be available to watch.
This is not an aspect that would
have featured in the earliest film
trailers.

7. The history of film trailers
Andrew J. Kuehn ‘’A trailer has but one goal, to get people out of their homes and into
the theatres.’’
1913 would be the suggested year for the origin of movie trailers. Nils Granlund, was an
advertising manager for a theatre in New York. He produced a short clip that contained
footage from show rehearsals, promoting a Broadway play.
Around the same time Col. William Selig noticed the popularity of series in newspapers.
He approached a newspaper and the result was a 13 episode series entitled ‘’The
adventures of Kathleen’’. More like a comic strip, leaving a cliff hanger each week, keep
the audience returning.

8. Cultural Change
There was a change in both films and therefore their trailers in the 60s. This was a
time where people felt more free and were more liberal, so this caused the type of
films being created to differ from that of previous ones. There were new styles being
used in trailers, which resulted in them being viewed as unconventional
Previously before the existence of trailers there were just posters and
advertisements that were used to draw in an audience. This reveals to extent of
change the film industry and therefore trailers also have changed dramatically over
time.