Theatrical trailers are film advertisements for films that will be exhibited in the future at a cinema, on whose screen they are shown; they are commonly known as previews of coming attractions. The term "trailer" comes from their having originally been shown at the end of a film programme. Although that practice did not last long, due to patrons tending to leave the theater after the films proper were finished, the name has stuck. Trailers have since been shown before the film begins (or before the first film (a-film) in a double-bill programme begins). Jump to: navigation, search Film refers to the celluloid media on which movies are printed Film is a term that encompasses motion pictures as individual projects, as well as the field in general. ... Generally speaking, advertising is the paid promotion of goods, services, companies and ideas by an identified sponsor. ... The double feature was a motion picture industry phenomenon that brought an eventual end to the commercial viability of two-reel short subjects. ...

Trailers normally consist of a series of selected shots from the film being advertised. Since the purpose of the trailer is to attract an audience to the film being advertised, they usually draw from the most exciting, funny, or otherwise noteworthy parts of the film but in abbreviated form and without producing spoilers. Spoiler could refer to Plot spoiling: a document, review, or comment which discloses plot details of a book, play, or film. ...

Some trailers use "special shoot" footage, which is material that has been created specifically for advertising purposes and which does not appear in the actual film. The most notable film to use this technique was Terminator 2: Judgment Day, whose trailer featured elaborate special effects scenes that were never intended to be in the film itself. 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 the only scene from the movie included in the trailer—Janet Leigh's blood-curdling scream. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (commonly abbreviated T2) is a 1991 movie directed by James Cameron and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, and Robert Patrick. ... Jump to: navigation, search The 1960s in its most obvious sense refers to the decade between 1960 and 1969, but the expression has taken on a wider meaning over the past twenty years. ... The thriller is a genre of fiction in which tough, resourceful, but essentially ordinary heroes are pitted against villains determined to destroy them, their country, or the stability of the free world. ... Jump to: navigation, search This article is about the novel and the movies based on it. ... Jump to: navigation, search Alfred Hitchcock Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (August 13, 1899 – April 29, 1980) was a British-born American film director and producer, closely associated with the suspense thriller genre. ... Jump to: navigation, search Janet Leigh Janet Leigh (July 6, 1927 – October 3, 2004) born Jeanette Helen Morrison was an American actress. ...

The people who create trailers often begin their work while the movie is still being shot. Since the edited movie does not exist at this point, the trailer editors work from rushes. The trailer may be created at the agency while the movie itself is being cut together at the studio. Thus, the trailer may contain footage that is not in the final movie, or the trailer editor and the movie editor may use different takes of a particular shot. A film editor is a person who practices film editing by assembling separate takes into a coherent film. ... Rushes refers to the raw, unedited footage shot during the making of a motion picture. ... This article needs cleanup. ...

Some trailers that incorporate material that is not in the movie are particularly coveted by collectors, especially in the case of trailers for classic films. For example, in a trailer for Casablanca the character Rick Blaine says "OK, you asked for it!" before shooting Major Strasser, an event which does not occur in the final film. Casablanca is a 1942 movie set during World War II in the Vichy-controlled Moroccan city of Casablanca. ...

Parts of a trailer

Trailers tell the story of a movie in a highly condensed, maximally appealing fashion. In the decades since movie marketing has become a large industry, trailers have become highly polished pieces of advertising, able to present even poor movies in an attractive light. Some of the elements common to many trailers are listed below.

• 

  

  The red band trailer screen.
  A green band is an all-green graphic at the beginning of the trailer, usually reading "The following PREVIEW has been approved for ALL AUDIENCES by the Motion Picture Association of America," and sometimes including the movie's MPAA rating. This signifies that the trailer adheres to the standards for motion picture advertising outlined by the MPAA, which includes limitations on foul language and violent, sexual, or otherwise objectionable imagery. Trailers that do not adhere to these guidelines may be issued a red band, which reads "The following PREVIEW has been approved for RESTRICTED AUDIENCES by the Motion Picture Association of America," and may only be shown before an R-rated, NC-17-rated, or unrated movie. The MPAA also mandates that trailers not exceed two minutes and thirty seconds in length, and each major studio is given one exception to this rule per year.

• Usually studio logos are featured near the beginning of the trailer. Often there will be logos for both the production company and distributor of the film.

• Voice-over narration is used to briefly set up the premise of the movie and provide explanation when necessary, often using stock phrases such as In a world where.... Since the trailer is a highly condensed format, voice-over is a useful tool to enhance the audience's understanding of the plot. Some of the most well-known voice-over artists are Don LaFontaine, Andy Geller, Hal Douglas, George DelHoyo, and Ashton Smith.

• Music helps set the tone and mood of the trailer. Usually the music used in the trailer is not from the film itself (the film score may not have been composed yet). The music used in the trailer may be:
  • Music from the score of other movies
  • Popular or well-known music, often chosen for its tone, appropriateness of a lyric, or recognizability
  • "Library" music previously composed specifically to be used in advertising by an independent composer
  • Specially composed music, which may include knock-offs of recognizable (but expensive to license) songs

• A cast run is a list of the stars that appear in the movie. If the director or producer is well-known or has made other popular movies, they often are mentioned as well. Depending on the fame of the director or producer, they may be specifically named or merely identified in a format such as "from the [producer] of [famous movie], and the [director] of [other famous movie]]".

• Most trailers conclude with a billing block, which is a list of the principal cast and crew. It is the same list that appears on posters and print publicity materials, and is the same list that usually appears on-screen at the beginning of the movie.

Jump to: navigation, search Image File history File links Redbandr. ... Jump to: navigation, search Image File history File links Redbandr. ... The MPAA film rating system is a system used in the United States and instituted by the Motion Picture Association of America to rate a movie based on its content. ... Jump to: navigation, search A logotype, commonly known as a logo, is the graphic element of a trademark or brand, which is set in a special typeface/font, or arranged in a particular, but legible, way. ... Jump to: navigation, search Production company refers to a company responsible for the physical production of a motion picture. ... A voice-over is a narration that is played on top of a video segment, usually with the audio for that segment muted or lowered. ... Jump to: navigation, search A stock phrase is a spoken phrase which has little or no actual meaning of its own; it carries meaning only through custom or context. ... A voice actor (or voice artist) is a person who provides voices for computer and video games, puppet shows, amusement rides, audio dramas, dubbed foreign language films, stop motion, and animation works (including cartoons, animated feature films, animated shorts), and radio and television commercials. ... Don LaFontaine (born in Duluth, Minnesota on August 26, 1940) is a famous voice-over actor. ... Hal Douglas is a voice actor who has lent his deep voice to many movie trailers and television commercials. ... Wikibooks Wikiversity has more about this subject: School of Music Look up Music on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Wikisource, as part of the 1911 Encyclopedia Wikiproject, has original text related to this article: Music MusicNovatory: the science of music encyclopedia The Virginia Tech Multimedia Music Distionary, with definitions, pronunciations, examples... Authors set a tone in literature by conveying an emotion or emotions through words. ... Jump to: navigation, search A film score is the background music in a film, generally specially written for the film and often used to heighten emotions provoked by the imagery on the screen or by the dialogue. ... A movie star is a celebrity who is well known for his or her starring, or leading, roles in motion pictures. ... Jump to: navigation, search The film director, on the right, gives last minute direction to the cast and crew, whilst filming a costume drama on location in London. ... Jump to: navigation, search A film producer oversees the making of movies. ... Billing is a film term denoting the amount and order in which film credits information is presented in advertising and on the film itself. ... Jump to: navigation, search Actors in period costume sharing a joke whilst waiting between takes during location filming. ... Jump to: navigation, search It has been suggested that filming production roles be merged into this article or section. ...

Creation of a trailer

Studios may create trailers in-house or may "farm out" creation to one or more advertising agencies. Agencies that specialize in creating trailers are known as trailer houses. Depending on the amount of influence the filmmakers have with the studio, they may or may not be involved in the creation of the trailer for their film. Many choose to closely supervise the process, when possible.

The producers and editors of a trailer will be given material from the studio to work with, which may include the movie itself (if it has been edited together yet), rushes, and/or computer graphics shots (as they are created during the film editing process).

The trailers that are seen in theaters have been through an extensive process of revisions and approvals by a variety of studio marketing executives. The revision process often includes information from market research conducted at locations all around the country. Generally, a version is a checkpoint at which a particular thing or idea varies from its previous state or condition. ... Jump to: navigation, search Research is the search for and retrieval of existing, discovery or creation of new information or knowledge for a specific purpose. ...

Commercial considerations

Studios can usually attach a trailer to the print of another of their films, so that the theater will show their trailer directly before the film. (Usually, exhibitors choose the other trailers that show before a given film.) To maximize the audience for certain trailers, studios often work to attach highly-anticipated trailers to films that they expect will draw a large crowd.

This practice can also affect when films are released. An extreme example of this is Miramax's decision to delay the North American release of Hero by two years, mostly so that they could widely advertise the film before Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill. Miramax is a Big Ten film distribution and production company. ... Hero (Chinese: 英雄; pinyin: ) is a film first released in China on October 24, 2002. ... Jump to: navigation, search Quentin Tarantino, playing Mr. ... Jump to: navigation, search Kill Bill is the fourth feature film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, and stars Uma Thurman. ...

This can also affect film sales. In the lead-up to the release of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, fans of the franchise would buy tickets to see films that would have the thetrical tralier before the feature presentation, yet would leave before the presentation begun. Film poster for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace is a 1999 film by George Lucas starring Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, and Jake Lloyd. ...

This advertising is especially valuable as it can be carefully targeted. Movies appealing to one age group or demographic will have trailers for films targeting that same group.

Trailers have spread to other media as well. Trailers for computer games have especially become popular. A computer game is a game composed of a computer-controlled virtual universe that players interact with in order to achieve a defined goal or set of goals. ...

Criticism of trailers

"In a world..."

Movie marketing copy is often accused of being cliché. The creation of trailers has been honed over decades to a very precise art, and certain clichés are useful because in a very short space, they are the most efficient way to communicate a given idea. Record scratches that stop the music to deliver the punch-line to a joke are a very common feature of trailers, but they are continually used because they remain effective. Jump to: navigation, search A cliché (from French cliché, onomatopoeia for stereotype) originally was a printing term for a semi-permanently assembled piece of type which could easily be inserted into the document being printed. ...

Trailers are also criticized when they incorporate shots that do not exist in the actual movie. When the trailer is edited from rushes this is practically unavoidable. In extreme cases, scenes may have been shot that were later cut from the release version of the movie, but may still exist in the trailer. Usually these scenes are similar in tone or content to material that does exist in the movie.

In other cases, trailers may use stock footage to convey, in shorthand, a concept that takes longer to explain (or is less visually dynamic) in the movie. In still other cases, shots or dialogue may be rearranged to create situations or exchanges that do not exist as such in the movie. Often this is done to mask a perceived shortcoming in the movie while maximizing the potential of the footage. Jump to: navigation, search Stock footage, also termed archive footage, and file footage is a film either in the public domain or available for a set fee that can thus be put into any other film. ...

How much to give away in a trailer is a controversial question. Filmmaker Robert Zemeckis argues that a trailer should tell everything about a film, since, he claims, audiences will not want to pay to see films unless they know exactly what they are paying for. Many filmmakers disagree and believe that a trailer should show no more than is needed to convince the audience to see a film. From a studio marketing perspective, the most interesting, funny, arresting parts of the movie should be in the trailer—the theory being, showing only less interesting material will attract less of an audience. Director Robert Zemeckis Robert Zemeckis (born May 14, 1952) is an American movie director, producer and writer. ...

Notable trailers

• Adaptation

• American Beauty

• Black Hawk Down

• Gone in 60 Seconds

• Independence Day

• Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

• The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

• The Pink Panther (1964)

• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Trailers that break form

• The Comedian trailer satirizes voice-over clichés.

Comedian

• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trailer satirizes many of the most common features of movie trailers.

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

• The Minus Man trailer is a "special shoot" that features no actual movie footage. It consists of two unnamed characters discussing the movie.

The Minus Man

• The Strange Days trailer consists of Lenny Nero (the main character played by Ralph Fiennes) speaking directly to the audience, advertising his "business", which is the selling of experiences, and memorably dubbing himself "the Santa Claus of the subconscious".

Strange Days

• The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind trailer and Resident Evil: Apocalypse teaser trailer are constructed to initially appear to be commercials for products instead of movie advertisements.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Resident Evil: Apocalypse

Jump to: navigation, search Satire is a literary technique of writing or art which exposes the follies of its subject (for example, individuals, organizations, or states) to ridicule, often as an intended means of provoking or preventing change. ... Jump to: navigation, search The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is a science-fiction movie based on the book of the same name by Douglas Adams. ... Jump to: navigation, search Satire is a literary technique of writing or art which exposes the follies of its subject (for example, individuals, organizations, or states) to ridicule, often as an intended means of provoking or preventing change. ... The Minus Man is a movie that opened October 8, 1999. ... Strange Days is an album released by The Doors at the end of 1967. ... Jump to: navigation, search Ralph Fiennes in Spider Ralph Nathaniel Fiennes (pronounced Raif Nathaniel Fines, born December 22, 1962) is an Oscar nominated English actor. ... Jump to: navigation, search A common portrayal of Santa Claus. ... Subconscious may refer to: that which is subliminal to consciousness the underlying consciousness see subconsciousness. ... Jump to: navigation, search Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a 2004 romance/science fiction film from Focus Features that explores the nature of memory and love. ... Resident Evil: Apocalypse is the sequel to the 2002 film Resident Evil from Screen Gems, written by Paul W. S. Anderson and directed by Alexander Witt. ...

See also

• Teaser trailer

A teaser trailer is a truncated version of a theatrical trailer intended to entice the audience about an upcoming movie and to begin hype on major films. ...

External links

• The IMDb "Movie Trailers" website
• The Golden Trailer Awards
• Trailers on Quicktime.com

• Trailers on Movie-list.com
• Movie Trailer Codes