The history of the movie trailer

The history of the movie trailer

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  THE HISTORY OFTHE MOVIE TRAILER  The first trailer was advertisements – these were shown between films in the theatre, this idea went well which led to the development of film trailers.  The National Screen Service (NSS) began in 1919, where they had a monopoly of the creation and distribution of all trailers – they had a specific template which all trailers followed, so the structure was the same on every one. This was the use of text, narration to ensure the plot is clear, music to set the tone of the film, and montage editing.  Before 1929, trailers did not use sound. They relied on title cards to show the narrative. This all changed when The Jazz Singer was produced in 1929.  There was a downfall of the NSS in the 1940s/50s and the received criticisms for taking over the industry. Due to this, people were able to change the structure of trailers and experiment with different techniques. There were some star directors who became known in this period, for example Hitchcock who directed the trailer of ‘Psycho’.  The 1960s was the most experimental stage for trailers in history.  In the 1990s, movies were becoming more and more expensive, meaning producers would become less and less experimental and would no longer take risks when creating trailers. They would learn the best was to sell their products and stick to that method.  Some trailers are criticesed for giving too much detail from the film away – ‘The Dissolve’ by Tasha Robinson was known as ‘the biggest spoiler’.  Trailers become one of the most popular entertainment methods .  Trailers now have teasers which precede the release of the trailer.