The Fascinating History of Movie Trailers
Movie trailers are iconic. In 2 minutes or less, a trailer must sell a movie that often hasn’t even finished the post production cycle. And if they fail, they risk a movie losing hundreds of millions of dollars. They can’t spoil the film, yet they need to entice audiences. They need to command attention, but they can never be corny. Frankly, they often need to be more exciting, thrilling, hilarious, touching, emotional, and artistic than even the movie they are advertising.
Yet these short masterpieces are mostly overlooked by audiences who take them for granted. Moreover, these trailers are often mocked for many of their innovative tricks. People laugh when they hear, “In a world…”; they roll their eyes when trailers cut to a black with a loud “BROUUMMM” sound effect; they parody trailers that use eerie covers of pop songs to (think of the cover of Radiohead’s “Creep” in the incredible Social Network trailer). And maybe these trends deserve to be ridiculed. But the thing is… these techniques work! These aren’t simply ‘cheap’ tricks – it took decades upon decades of trailers to create the very norms we deride now. We ought to appreciate that amazing work.
The first trailer premiered in 1913 and was true to its name – it “trailed” the movie instead of coming before. Nils Granlund, a publicist for Marcus Loew (the soon to be founder of MGM Studios), filmed a short promo for the Broadway show The Pleasure Seekers. The ad played with amazing success at the theater and Loew quickly took notice. Soon, all his productions had trailers made for them and Granlund was making trailers for huge stars like Charlie Chaplin. Thus began the marketing revolution of the movie trailer.
In 1919, everything changed when The National Screen Service (NSS) was founded. The NSS would quickly grow and become a movie trailer monopoly that would last nearly forty years. Their trailers were formulaic but very effective for their time. They made outrageous claims and boasted about their film’s use of all the latest technology. "The screen has never known a love story to compare with this!” cries out the trailer of Gone with the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939). The trailer for Frankenstein (James Whale, 1931) even warns that it could “shock women into an uncontrolled hysteria!” These trailers also featured montages of one-liners outlining the plot or dramatic entrances introducing the characters. Narration akin to the pitch of a laundry detergent salesman – “Meet blahblahblah, the lovable protagonist of the story” – would further clarify the plot. Finally, up to half the trailer could be dedicated to bragging about each film’s star studded cast of Oscar winners.
Of course, there were exceptions to the NSS model. Directors like Orson Welles were able to exhibit unheard of control over their films largely due to their personal success and fame. Take the trailer to Welles’ legendary debut, Citizen Kane (1941). It begins with Welles speaking as himself, introducing Kane and his cast of characters. Welles uses his popularity in radio to lure the audience in with a shot of a lone microphone. The narration begins, immediately establishing the mystery around his titular character– “I don’t know how to tell you about him … so many things to say.” Next, we see a mirage of the characters giving monologues about Kane. Some are bizarrely funny, some are hopelessly romantic, and some are chillingly dark - but all continue to build Kane’s intrigue. This trailer was incredibly innovative and modern for its time. Instead of attempting the “laundry detergent” method (“This is the best movie of the 40s!”), it sells the film on its story and artistic merit. And ultimately, this trailer would set up the next era of film and film trailers – the cinema of auteurs.
In 1955, the NSS was broken up in court for monopolizing the trailer industry in Hollywood. At the same time, the ‘theory of the auteur’ was growing in popularity. Featuring directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, François Truffaut, and Stanley Kubrick, this theory emphasized the director’s artistic style and control over everything. And just as movies began to emphasize artistic control, trailers did too. One of the most notable examples of this is the trailer for Dr Strangelove (1964). Kubrick worked with Pablo Ferro, a now iconic graphic designer who created some of the most innovative trailers of the 20th century, including trailers for The Thomas Crown Affair, Bullit, Beetlejuice, and Men In Black. This trailer is a quick, tense montage of awkward stills, surprising sounds, and beguiling questions handwritten by Ferro. Yet, somehow, these disjointed images weave together perfectly to represent both the dark themes and the quirky, hilarious tone of Dr. Strangelove. As Ferro himself describes it, “Every frame is perfect with the music and it tells you the whole story at the same time without saying a word or reading words aloud.”
But what heralded the trailer’s arrival in the modern era wasn’t the rise of auteurs – it was the blockbuster. By the 1970s, movies were making more money than ever before. As such, trailers were more important than ever. Studios flooded money into marketing campaigns that consisted of not just a single trailer, as before, but multiple teasers, a plethora of posters and ads, and at least three or four full length trailers. And with so much money invested, studios wanted to make sure that audiences were getting exactly what they were paying for. The most famous example of this is the trailer for Jaws (1975). In the span of 3 minutes and 21 seconds, the trailer goes through nearly the entire plot of the movie. We quickly move from the very first shark attack to the hiring of the shark hunter and eventually to the final battle on the boat. We are even treated to the film's most iconic line - “We’re gonna need a bigger boat” - halfway through the trailer.
These trailers are known for their spoilers and setpieces, but perhaps even more importantly, for their narration. It is impossible to discuss this era without mentioning Don LaFontaine and Percy Rodriguez. While their names are not well known, their lucious, deep voices are. These two men narrated some of the biggest trailers of the era: Jaws, The Exorcist (1973), Terminator (1984), Die Hard (1988), Home Alone (1990) and thousands more. They took the basic intonation that overlaid the NSS trailers and ran with it. Their inflections could ferry the viewer to the world of the film in seconds – from the dark underbelly of the Italian Mob to the sands of Tatooine. And while many of these trailers may feel tired now, they worked incredibly well. Jaws, Independence Day, and Star Wars were some of the biggest box office hits of their time. While “In a world…” may sound corny now, back then it was epic!
Now, we finally find ourselves back in the modern era of trailers. It's difficult to analyze the time we are living in, as trends are being set as we speak. However, in general, the trailers of our time seem to be a mix of the auteur and the blockbuster. They are often spoiler-phobic and express themes rather than a beat by beat summary of the plot. Studios still have some control, but with the explosive growth of the advertising industry, there are now more unique, stylized trailer houses than ever before.
What stands out to me most in the modern trailer is the deep focus and appreciation for sound editing. Hans Zimmer innovated with trailer audio for Inception (2010). This iconic trailer features powerful, booming drums, akin to beat drops in EDM, which emphasize every line, gun shot, and title card. He innovated again for The Dark Knight Rises (2012), which takes the exact opposite approach to the action trailer: slow, rising tension built with high piano notes and ominously whispered lines. Normally loud actions, like driving or punching, are instead muted, which adds an eerie, emotional effect to the trailer. Beautiful! Another great trailer is Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) which had some of the most creative sound editing I have ever seen. There are still Inception-esque beat drops, but they are woven into an incredible rhythmic orchestra full of car explosions, guns cocking, and fiery guitars.
Finally, Marvel has perhaps made the most innovative change with trailers with the post credit scene. Marvel films have become famous for this technique, which teases the next movie during the movie you are watching. The result is an eternal trailer where audiences are consistently hooked for upcoming features. And they accomplished this by simply returning the roots of what the “trailer” is. So what will come next in the history of the trailer? Maybe it will be something entirely new, or maybe it will be a creative take on something old. I can’t wait to find out.