A History of Film Trailers

Dates	What the trailers were like
1950s	Duration: Trailers in this decade were extremely long They revealed almost the whole plot to the audience The words which came up on the screen attempted to shock and entice the audience to make them want to go and see the film, these included words such as: terrifying! Close your eyes! Never before seen!
1960s	They still used bold words which come up on the screen, accept they concentrated on other factors such as: Emphasising the importance of the famous actors names Using mostly narration to give a summary of the plot Sometimes they showed the ending of the movie so that the shock of what happens will entice the audience to want to see what happened before hand to discover how the characters ended up in the situation.
1970s	Duration: They were still very long, but they had been cut down They had also reduced the amount of the plot which was shown but spoilers were still revealed The scenes were often out of order
1980s	The editing pace was much faster Not a lot of the story was revealed through the trailer No spoilers were included so that the ending was mysterious and shocking Started to include catchy- taglines
1991 onwards	Usually the whole plot is kept a secret and there is a series of random clips rapidly edited together with popular rock/pop music overlaid.    The trailers look more exhilarating than the film itself as all the best parts in the film are shown to encourage people to go and see it

From researching the history of film trailers I have learnt that as they have become more popular over the years they've had to change as the audience expectations changed. The aspects which have changed are: 

• how much of the plot is revealed- Years ago when they first started they almost revealed everything leaving the audience with little to anticipate, where as now they hardly give any away to leave the audience dazzled so that in their confusion they will want to see more. 
• The duration- they used to be a relatively long but now they use a faster pace of editing. 
• The names of actors are still included as if they're well established this will encourage audiences to go and see the film.  

This information will assist me in improving my trailer as I'm now aware of what modern audiences expect and enjoy. For example I know that I have to include a fast pace of editing, the scenes have to be out of order otherwise it will just look like a snippet from the film and I can't reveal much of the plot because it won't encourage audiences to want to see more of it.