A film trailer is a preview of a new film, it is a marketing product. It's main purpose is to advertise the film, usually by highlighting the best bit's of the film in the trailer, so more of the target audience want to see the film. Film trailers are mainly shown in cinemas and on the television; but as more and more people become involved with online media, the internet is also another place where film trailers can be seen.

The first trailer was produced in the U.S by Nils Granlund in 1913. He produced a short promotional film for the musical 'The Pleasure Seekers.' Granlund then went on to produce a trailer for an upcoming motion picture in 1914, using a slide technique to promote a film featuring Charlie Chaplin.

Up until the late 1950s, trailers were mostly created by National Screen Service and consisted of various key scenes from the film being advertised. They were often complimented with large, descriptive text describing the story. Most trailers had some form of narration and those that did featured men with 'booming' voices.

In the early 1960s, film trailes began to develop. Hollywood was involved a lot in the progress of trailers, they became textless, with fast-pace editing; similarly to the way most film trailers are like today. And in this new century technology has been fastly improving, so now special effects and music play key parts in film trailers.

My favourite film trailers need to grab my attention and have me hooked so I don’t want to look away. They must leave me questioning what the film is about and not give away too many clues. A good example would be ‘Seven Pounds,’ the trailer manages to leave cliff-hangers and leave me wondering what the film is about while not giving too much away. I think this is quite a hard balance to achieve; many trailers give away too much about the film thus leaving many people uninterested in the film. Another favourite of mine would be ‘This is England’ as it reflects real life gripping those who can familiarise with the era and those who would like to find out what those times were like. It doesn’t give too much away, but you can tell there will be a good storyline running through the film; consequently making you want to see the film.