Trailer (promotion)
[1][needs update] The trailer format has been adopted as a promotional tool for television shows, video games, books, and theatrical events/concerts.
As reported in a wire service story carried by the Lincoln, Nebraska Daily Star, the practice which Loew adopted was described as "an entirely new and unique stunt", and that "moving pictures of the rehearsals and other incidents connected with the production will be sent out in advance of the show, to be presented to the Loew's picture houses and will take the place of much of the bill board advertising".
[4] Later, exhibitors changed their practice so that trailers were only one part of the film program, which included cartoon shorts, newsreels, and serial adventure episodes.
[5][6][7] Until the late 1950s, trailers were mostly created by National Screen Service[4][8] and consisted of various key scenes from the film being advertised, often augmented with large, descriptive text describing the story, and an underscore generally pulled from studio music libraries.
Among the trend setters were Stanley Kubrick with his montage trailers for Lolita (1962), Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).
VHS tapes that contained trailers at the end usually reminded the viewer to "Stay tuned after the feature for more previews."
[citation needed] In summer 1993, the major movie studios started to make trailers available online with the Walt Disney Company providing promotions for Guilty as Sin, Life With Mikey and Super Mario Bros. available to Macintosh users via CompuServe and Columbia Pictures posting a trailer for In the Line of Fire available for download to AOL subscribers.
This has been explained as being a way to grab the viewer's attention quickly, so that they do not choose to skip the full trailer on streaming sites.
[14] In January 2014, the movie theater trade group National Association of Theatre Owners issued an industry guideline asking that film distributors supply trailers that run no longer than two minutes, which is 30 seconds shorter than the prior norm.
Some trailers use "special shoot" footage, which is material that has been created specifically for advertising purposes and does not appear in the actual film.
A trailer for the 2002 blockbuster Spider-Man had an entire action sequence especially constructed that involved escaping bank robbers in a helicopter getting caught in a giant web between the World Trade Center's two towers.
One of the most famous "special shoot" trailers is that used for the 1960s thriller Psycho, which featured director Alfred Hitchcock giving viewers a guided tour of the Bates Motel, eventually arriving at the infamous shower.
At this point, the soft-spoken Hitchcock suddenly throws the shower curtain back to reveal Vera Miles with a blood-curdling scream.
Since the title, "Psycho", instantly covers most of the screen, the switch went unnoticed by audiences for years until freeze-frame analysis clearly revealed that it was Vera Miles and not Janet Leigh in the shower during the trailer.
In the United States there are dozens of companies, many of which are in Los Angeles and New York City, that specialize in the creation of film trailers.
This could be an artistic choice, or because many times, trailer editors are given dailies, basically individual clips, instead of a cut of the whole film.
While the intention is not to be misleading, due to the nature of dailies being easily replaced, sometimes certain shots that are present in the trailer are nowhere to be seen in the final film.
[17] An American woman sued the makers of Drive because their film "failed to live up to its promo's promise",[18][19][20] although her lawsuit was dismissed.
[21][22] In August 2016, an American lawyer attempted to sue Suicide Squad for false advertising over lack of scenes including Joker.
In the decades since film marketing has become a large industry, trailers have become highly polished pieces of advertising, able to present even poor movies in an attractive light.
This last act often consists of a visual montage of powerful and emotional moments of the film and may also contain a cast run if there are noteworthy stars that could help sell the movie.
Due to the spike of short videos across social media, bumpers are intended to grab the viewer's attention quickly so they keep watching the whole trailer.
Many of the trailers for films like the Star Wars series reported as 'destroyed' were taken back out of the bin and sold by cinema staff.
While not initially prevalent in television, TV show trailers started as a common form of advertisement in the late 2000s.
The award was announced at the School Library Journal Leadership Summit on the Future of Reading on October 22, 2010, in Chicago.
[41] Cinematic book trailers have become standard marketing tools used by publishers to promote more commercial titles or novels with film potential.
The Film Informant also recognizes movie marketing media and held the first annual TFI Awards in early January 2012.
