What IS a film trailer?

A film trailer is marketing for feature films. Usually shown at the beginning of a film of a similar genre in the cinemas. But show also on television and at the beginning of DVDs. They advertise up coming film to attract the attention of their target audience, they are the usually quite short therefore go to the extremes of their genre for example. If the film was a comedy the editing would be fast paced as would the music to amplify the tone of the film but if it was a horror the editing would be slow and the shots be de saturated or dark. Film trailer have become increasingly popular searches online on websites like youtube and film companies are taking advantage of this by creating many trailers and other campaigns in an attempt to go viral . They generally follow the same pattern that a film does, they have a beginning or introductory sequence followed by a problem and then a solution. This shows the audience what the films are about.

The first trailer was shown in 1912 at Rye beach, New York at an amusement park. It was shown on a hung up white sheet, shown after ‘’The adventures of Kathlyn ‘’

In 1916, paramount became the first studio to officially release trailers, but only did it with their highest profile films.

The early trailers consisted of short clips showing the key features of the film alongside narration, a big score soundtrack and screens with text and a cast run.

Andrew J keuhn 

‘’ a trailer has but one goal: to draw audiences out of their houses and into a theater. To do that you have to set up a sense of urgency. In the process of arriving at that forced ace, we advanced the style of editing. We really pushed the envelope in terms of what audiences would accept ‘’