Purpose of a Film TrailerCallum Carmichael

• The first trailer shown was in a U.S film theatre in November 1913 when Nils Granlund produced a

promotional film for the musical ‘The Pleasure Seekers’ which was described as ‘an entirely new and unique

stunt’ and was thus adapted from this moment to promote the films being released by studios.

• The purpose of a film trailer is to market and advertise a preview of a new film. This is usually done by highlighting the main and most

exciting parts within the film that is being previewed through the trailer to gain a wider target audience.

• A film trailer is marketed through the cinema, television and internet due to the mass availability of promotion within the internet. This trailer has to achieve gaining an audience interest under the two and a half minutes given to them. As this trailer is used to promote and advertise essentially the product (the movie itself) it must be exciting, gripping or outstanding

to catch the audience attention against the rest of the trailers and make the audience want to view this film when released.

• Furthermore, the film trailers purpose is also to inform an audience upon what type of film they are going to be watching. This is shown through the main characters, location, and music to suggest a genre of the movie in which to gain the right target audience to go and watch the movie within the cinema. The trailers purpose can

also been viewed as a unique selling point by making it stand out from competitor movies and add to the

marketing campaign of the film.

• Finally, the purpose of a film trailer is to leave the viewer in anticipation of the movie trailer they just watched, to

become excited and urged to view the movie when released. This is important purpose because the

distributers must make sure the film trailers purpose is to intrigue the audience without giving away too much

information about the plot as to give away the story itself.