The history of film trailers began in the early 1900s, with Nils Granlund creating the first promotional trailer for a musical and the first trailer for a Charlie Chaplin film in 1914. Until the 1950s, the National Screen Service contracted with film companies to produce trailers. Early trailers contained clips, narration, and music to promote films. In the 1960s, as films and culture became more liberal, trailers changed in style to advertise different types of new films. Andrew J. Kuehn significantly changed trailer production with his 1964 trailer for "Night of the Iguana" and went on to produce over 1,000 trailers during his career at Kaleidoscope Films. Traditionally, film

1. The history of
the film trailer

2. Where did they start?
• The first promotional trailer was in fact for a musical and
it was produced by Nils Granlund. It raised awareness of
the musical to the experts and the public.
• Granlund also created the first trailer for a film in 1914,
which was produced for a Charlie Chaplin film.
• Until the late 1950’s film trailers were made by the
National Screen Service, they were contracted by the
film companies to create the trailers for upcoming films
and the company lasted until 80’s.
• The first few trailers contained short clips showing key
features of the film alongside narration, a big score
soundtrack and screens with text and a cast run.

3. When did trailers change?
• In the 60’s films started to change and so did trailers.
Culture became much freer, more liberal, which
meant films needed to be advertised differently.
• A new breed of films spawned new trailers with new
styles and ways.

4. Andrew J. Kuehn
• Andrew J. Kuhen was a very influential trailer
producer. He made significant change in the was
trailers were made in his 1964 trailer ‘Night of the
Inguana’. This was when Kaleidoscope Films were
created. For three decades they worked on
creating some of the biggest trailers for the biggest
films and film makers of the time, including many
Spielburg films, for example, Kuehn produced the
original trailer for ‘Et’.
• Kuehn was presented with the Cannes lifetime
achievement award and is credited with other 1000
trailers.

5. Format of trailers
• Trailers tend to follow the same pattern as a film.
• They have a beginning or introductory sequence,
followed by a problem, and then a solution.
• This shows the audience what the films are about,
however it has been argued that this format reveals the
whole story in a trailer.
• Some say trailers include the best bits from the film but
others say there is a lot to be desired in some trailers.
• Some trailers also include sequences that are not
included in the film. This is famously evident in Alfred
Hitchcock’s film ‘Psycho’ in which the whole trailer is shot
post-production and even included a different actress
for the main role.