Film Trailers Have Got Worse Over Time?

Trailers have got worse over time?

Film trailers have definitely changed over time, but have they got worse? In the early days of film advertising, trailers used short clips from different key points in the film, as well as shots of all the famous actors in the film to entice the audience. This gave away none of the actual film's storyline and yet still succeeded in pulling the audience in. This is something that many feel that film trailers have lost now – trailers now give away most of the storyline in an attempt to get potential audience members to the cinema to watch their latest film.

Whilst there is a big difference in films now and the original film trailers, there is also a big difference between films in the present and films from the 60s, as well as films from the 60s and the original film trailers from the 1920s. This is mainly because the style of film changed, which in turn changed film trailers. 'Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb’ is a good 60s film trailer to compare to original concept of a film trailer. A series of fast shots with text flashes onto the screen with a voice over saying the words – all questions about the film - with a quick series of shots from the actual film is all that the audience sees. The trailer asks more questions than it answers, which I think is a better way to get the audience interested in the film than trailers today.

Even though 'Psycho' is made in the same time as 'Dr Strangelove', the two trailers are very different – although they both leave the audience with more questions than answers. In ‘Psycho’, no actual scenes from the film are shown. Instead we are given a tour of the motel and house in which it is set by Alfred Hitchcock himself. At the time, Hitchcock was a celebrity in his own right – therefore people would go and see his new film, purely because it was a Hitchcock film. This is a perfect example of how the mere mention of some stars in the film can bring out the crowds, into a cinema, without even seeing the trailer. On the other hand, although modern trailers do include a ‘star run’ in trailers, too much of the story is given away, something which ‘Psycho’ does not.

In many people’s eyes – mine included – modern day film trailers give the audience the entire plot of the film. This could possibly be because the audience has changed and we now feel that we need to know what happens in the film so that there are no surprises, pleasant or otherwise. An example if this is the 2010 rom-com ‘Life As We Know It’. This trailer gives away the whole plot of the story through a combination of voice over’s and text in the trailer, leaving viewers with the sense that they had already seen the film. Even though this is the general consensus between a lot of critics and general audience, producers and marketing teams are continuously producing trailers which do exactly that, whilst also relying on the celebrities to give them their audience.

In response to the original question, I feel that yes, film trailers have gotten worse over time. The audience has gone from going to the cinema to see a film full of suspense as they have no idea what the film will be about – they have a unique cinema experience – to discovering that you have already seen the majority of the film in the trailer, leaving many movie goers disappointed.