First Film Trailer:
The first trailer ever was created for the film the 'great train robbery'. The film was created in 1903 and it lasted for twelve minutes, and because of this some people argue that it was not a trailer, but it was a short film, as even in the early trailers twelve minutes is very long, as trailers are just used to entice the audience, not to tell them the whole story. It was a milestone in film making as it used many different techniques such as cross cutting, different camera movements, and it followed on from 'Life of an American fireman', which was a short film released in 1903. The film was considered s one of the first narrative films, as there was a narrative and a story throughout the film, and this is a convention of films, and this short film is also were many conventions for short films and trailers come from, such as they used different camera angles e.g. single shots, and different camera angles are used in all films and trailers, and trailers are also done to create an emotional response from the audience and at the end of this film; the leader of the outlaws shoots at the audience, and this scared the audience to the point were some of the audience ran out of the theatre.
'Life on an American fireman' was a short film created in 1903, and it was one of th earliest American narrative films created, and it was also used to inspire 'great train robbery'. It used cross cutting which was also used in 'great train robbery', and like that film it was considered as being revolutionary as this is what inspired other films, and changed the face of films.


The next trailer I researched and it is the next recorded trailer was made in late 1912 or early 1913 for a television serial called 'The adventures of Kathlyn', this was the first thing recognised as a trailer, as previously cinemas had showed trailers since 1910 but they were not used for advertisements, they were used after a film was shown to bore the people in the cinema into leaving; and therefore getting the cinema ready for the next showing. The trailer was a preview for the next episode and it was a trailer with a cliffhanger, what is a convention of most film trailers now, and it ended saying 'will Kathlyn escape the lion's den', this was a major event for films, and studios began to take notice of this, after not realising the potential in trailers when there were shown in cinemas to move along the customers.

'The adventures of Kathlyn' was a television serial released in late 1912, early 1913, and it featured thirteen episodes, and was the first serial or film to create a trailer. This was revolutionary at the time, but it was also revolutionary in that the main protagonist was a female, and starred Kathlyn Williams as the heroine. This was unusual because at this time women were still seen as second class behind men, and this was quite controversial as it went against the stereotype of televison serials in that time; of having a strong, muscly man as the main protagonist, and him protecting the vulnerable woman. As televison serials are supposed to reflect our society back to us, it is seen as quite modern and could also have influenced some people into thinking that women can be protagonists, and it doesn't always have to be the male protecting the woman, I think this television serial is quite revolutionary in that it was the first trailer, but it also can be seen as being pro-feminism.

In 1913 the first trailer to be shown in a cinema, was a trailer for a musical/film called 'The Pleasure seekers', and it was produced by an American Broadway producer called Nils Granlund, although this was shown just before the film in the cinema, but nowadays a convention is to advertise the film in a trailer a few weeks before the film comes out to get the audience interested in the film. This short promotional trailer was a massive event in film advertisement, as after this trailer was shown in cinema Paramount Studios began looking into making trailers to advertise their films, but they only ever advertised particular, major motion pictures, but in late 1919 began to advertise all their films. Nils Granlund was a pioneer of trailers and because of him studios began to make trailers, and trailers have developed and advanced so much over the years, that the first trailers barely look like trailers.

The trailers for 'The Pleasure Seekers' and 'The adventures of Kathlyn', pioneered trailers, and if these trailers weren't created; film trailers could be very different to what they're now.

This is the film 'life of an American fireman', the first film with a narrative structure.