1894 – Thomas Edison develops motion picture camera and projector
1897 – Hand etched slides used for on-screen advertising
– First filmed advertisement: Admiral Cigarettes
1904 – Lubin Co. makes commercially produced advertising slide
1909 – Development of feature film and star-system elicits specialized film ads
1912 -“What Happened to Mary” (1912) receives first (text-only) trailer
1915 – Development of the animated herald, “scene” trailer
1916 – Paramount announces official trailer policy
1919 – National Screen Service opens in New York
1920’s – National Screen begins 40+ year monopoly of trailer production/distribution.
1924 – “Unit Men” system of trailer production begins
– Trailer formula devised: graphic copy, titles, scenes and cast runs
1933 – Invention of Optical Printer
1930’s – Hosted, special shoot trailers proliferate
1940’s – Golden age of trailers: “Citizen Kane”; “Maltese Falcon”; “Grapes of Wrath”
1946 – Post WWII ticket sales decline begins
1948-53 – Consent Decrees force Studios to sell exhibitors
-Hitchcock hosts extraordinary trailers
1950’s – Exhaustion of National Screen formula
1955 – Saul Bass develops key art concept
1960 – Studio bosses relocate to New York; Madison Avenue influences film advertising
1963 – Pablo Ferro creates first contemporary trailer: “Dr. Strangelove”
1964 – Andrew Kuehn re-invents art and business of trailermaking. “Night of the Iguana”
– Editing houses now making trailers
1970 – Studio bosses return to Los Angeles
1972 – Birth of the blockbuster; TV advertising expands
1975 – “Jaws” blockbuster success underlines trailer’s importance
1979 – Movie advertising market research applied to “Apocalypse Now”
1988 – Era of non-linear digital editing begins
1994 – Internet era begins; Video Gaming emerges as major client for trailers
1990’s – Editors become stars of the trailer industry
1998 – Release of online and “mobile” trailers changes style (appearance, editing, emphasis).
2000 – Consumption of trailers shifts from theatrical, singular and collective experience to personal, repeated and home experience. Temporal relation to film marketed likewise transformed.
2004 – New 3-D era changes (slows pace of) trailer editing style given viewing constraints.
2011 – Simultaneous release of films theatrically and to home audiences makes DVD release trailer obsolete.