Media timeline for film trailers

People would pay 5 cents in movie theatres which would allow you to sit in for as long as you wanted. Since the show times were not precise, short films and cartoons would be shown as filler between showings. 1913 would mark the beginning of the film trailer era.

A man named Nils Granlund made a promotional short film for the Broadway play 'Pleasure Seekers' which was made up of rehearsal footage. Obviously the idea of showcasing adverts between films was a great idea for the theatre owners and as a result more and more theatre chains began adopting this idea.

'The Adventures of Kathlyn' would have each instillment end with a cliffhanger, placing a character in danger or in peril. Each segment would end with a title card or something similar, encouraging audiences to come next week in order to view the outcome of the scene. This was the first example of a film trailer, to promote the idea of watching the continuation of what the audience were shown.

Big directors such as Orson Welles attempted to change the way the audience perceives trailers by bringing about their own style to each one they made. This originated when Welles used his and mercury theatres combined popularity to promote their first feature in the form of this trailer for Citizen Kane (1941).

A new wave of big name directors continued to bring about a new wave of trailers, further expanding what can be possible within this medium of film.Alfred Hitchock was among these directors, he would have trailers famous for breaking away from the conventions by taking the audience on a tour of the set, as can be seen in this trailer for Psycho (1960).

Censorship laws began to weaken their grasp on film trailers, Anti-heroes such as Bonnie and Clyde could be shown in trailers of their own, once again changing the foundations of what became a modern trailer.

Around the time of the 1970s, films such as jaws began to change the ideas surrounding distribution strategies. This was the first successful film to see a wide release. The trailer had been shown a lot during the summer prior to its release, eventually being shown in over 675 theatres after just a month of being released. Universal had put in $700,000 into television advertisements and in its first week alone, the film had made $7 million back with a total box office of $470 million world wide. This amazing result would pave the way for most films to use this strategy and invest in the use of trailers for big box office returns. This also marked the era of "the voice of God" being incorporated into trailers narration.

Eventually trailers began to adopt the idea of fast paced, choppy edits. This was called the MTV cutting style and became increasingly more common and with it the trailer would continue to change into what it has become today. We now have various trailer types, from theatrical, teaser, international, TV spot, to red band and green-band. The idea of what a trailer should consist of constantly changes, allowing more creative freedom for film makers to promote their film.