Film Trailers Comparison (By Decade)

To look at how film trailers have changed over the years I have chosen to look at 5 different films from different decades. I will watch all of these trailers and look out for any trends and changes that are made throughout the progression of the decades.

Here is a list of the trailers I have chosen and their respective decades:
(1960) - The Good The Bad And The Ugly - Youtube

• You can see within The Good The Bad And The Ugly film trailer that the clips used are a lot longer ans show a lot more content than the clips used within the newer trailers.
• You can also see that there is no voice-over used within The Good The Bad And The Ugly's film trailer, this is something that is used a lot within the newer trailers as well.

(1970) - Alien - Youtube

• You can within the Alien film trailer that the clips used are a lot shorter than those used within The Good The Bad And The Ugly's film trailer. This is more like the clips used within newer trailers.
• There is no voice over used in this film as well, this again is something that is used in the newer film trailers.
• There is no scenes within the trailer depicting the actors starring within the film.

(1980) - Back to The Future - Youtube

• Within the Back To The Future trailer there is a voice over describing what is going on in the film. This is not what most newer voice overs are like.

(1990) - The Shawshank Redemptions- Youtube
(2000) - Lord Of The Rings: Fellowship of The Ring - Youtube

After watching all five of these trailers I have concluded that apart from the obvious change in quality of film and effects that there are also significant other changes that have occurred over the decades. One of the most prevalent changes is from the Sixties to the Seventies. The Sixties trailer is well over 3 minutes in length and shows a large portion of clips from throughout the film. Whereas the Seventies trailer was a little under 2 minutes and only featured small clips from the film. This was most likely done to reduce the amount of film shown before people have seen it in the cinema first.

Another change is that throughout the decade it has become less common to show the actors who are starring within the film on the trailer, as you can see in The Good The Bad And The Ugly each of the actors starring in the film have their own freeze frame with a picture and their name. When compared to the Back to the Future trailer in which the actors are only shown at the very end for a few seconds, and the Alien trailer in which the actors names are not shown at all throughout the trailer.