Gallery: The Gripping, Mind-Blowing, Thrilling Evolution of the Movie Trailer
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1 | Director as Star Trailers reflect the new director-auteurs' idiosyncratic styles. Not only is this trailer distinctly Kubrickian—it was cut by his title-sequence designer, Pablo Ferro—it literally captures the director: Flashes of Kubrick's mug are embedded subliminally. Other landmark directors of the time, like Alfred Hitchcock and Woody Allen, appear in their trailers as well.
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2 | Fast Cuts Ferro jumps light-years ahead of his colleagues with 220 shots in just 97 seconds—about six times faster than other edits of the era. Nondigital linear editing is constraining: Trailers have to be assembled by taping together select bits of 35-mm film or copying from one videotape to another. Cutting this manic, xylophone-punctuated masterpiece was insanely labor-intensive.
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3 | Close-Ups By 1963, more than 90 percent of US households have a TV. It's an obvious place to advertise movies—and the new TV ads influence theatrical trailers. Widescreen vistas don't look as good on smaller screens, so tighter, more condensed shots begin to appear.
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4 | Stars Dim The star system crumbles as actors demand independence from studios. Here, their names don't appear until after the midway point—and only in easy-to-miss staccato bursts. Hepburn would not have been pleased.
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 5 | No More Monopoly Competition weakens the National Screen Service's grip. Studios and individuals are now responsible for making and distributing their own trailers. Ferro emerges as one of the trailer auteurs of the day.
