In a world…where movie trailers didn’t exist… Hard to imagine, right?
Love them or hate them, movie trailers are an integral part of the movie going experience — but that wasn’t always the case. The smart folks over at FilmmakerIQ.com have tracked the evolution of “coming attractions” from silent film splices through the Golden Age of Hollywood, to the wild and experimental 60s to the Blockbuster era.
They’ve created an informative and entertaining video, “The History of the Movie Trailer” and have also posted a chronology (with photos and video clips) on their blog.
Some highlights:
- 1913 was considered “year zero” for movie trailers.
- Movie trailers were initially produced by movie theaters rather than movie studios
- The term trailer came from the fact that the coming attractions usually played at the end of the film (thus, the trailer)
- The first trailer for the first sound film was “The Jazz Singer”
Check out the video below and then watch the trailers for films such as “Citizen Kane,” “Lolita,” “The Graduate” and “Jaws” here.
The History of the Movie Trailer from FilmmakerIQ.com on Vimeo.
(h/t NoFilmSchool)
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