A trailer is a wheeled vehicle that can’t move without being pulled by another larger moving object, such as a truck or car. It’s also a piece of film or video that is designed to attract viewer attention and promote the featured film or project. A trailer is often used to preview a movie and may be shown before or after the main feature film in a cinema or movie theater.
When it comes to making a trailer, the first step is gathering the necessary footage material. Once the film clips are selected and digitized, a variety of editing software is used to create the final product. Sound effects and music are added to the trailer to enhance its visual appeal, and the finished product is often mixed in stereophonic sound.
The earliest trailers were created in 1913, when Nils Granlund spliced rehearsal footage of the Broadway play The Pleasure Seekers into a mini promotional montage that trailed after films at Marcus Loew theaters. The resulting success of this method of advertising led to the formation of a trailer industry, and today it is a large and highly specialized field with companies and editors dedicated to the task and vast websites maintained to catalog and categorize movie trailers.
Besides promoting movies, trailers are widely used in the entertainment and marketing industries for TV shows, commercials and other projects. They are sometimes called previews or film clips, and some are even used to advertise specific trucks or car models.
There are a variety of types of trailers, including double-drop, flatbed and dump. A double-drop trailer is the most common, and it is capable of hauling a wide range of cargo such as building materials and agricultural products. A flatbed trailer is usually constructed from steel or aluminum, and it features an elongated platform that sits closer to the ground than other types of trailers. This type of trailer is also known as a low-bed or low-boy trailer.
Movie trailers are perhaps the most well-known type of trailer, and they are often seen on TV screens in addition to being presented before the feature film at a cinema or movie theater. These trailers can be as long as 2 1/2 minutes or as short as a one-minute teaser. A teaser trailer is similar to a preview but is shortened by about 30-60 seconds and is typically used to generate interest in a full-length feature film trailer.