Gallery: The Gripping, Mind-Blowing, Thrilling Evolution of the Movie Trailer
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1 | Voice of Don God finds a new voice in Don LaFontaine, who narrates most of the big trailers of this period. (He will record more than 5,000 by the end of his 30-plus-year career.) Known for popularizing clichés like "In a world ..." and "At a time ... ," LaFontaine's stentorian, exaggerated narrations include long discourses on plot.
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2 | F/X Boom Beginning with '80s sci-fi—*Tron*, *Dune*, *Star Trek II*—CGI attacks. By the mid-'90s, studios want to entice audiences with the biggest and baddest effects. Director Roland Emmerich pitches *Independence Day* to Fox with a ready-made marketing campaign: The people want to see shots of iconic American structures being blown to bits.
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 3 | Bossy Studios Hollywood is churning out features with formulaic structures. The more of the story you give away, the better the trailer tests. Some of the bigger trailer companies install fiber lines between their offices and the studios'. Now execs can observe editing in real time—and steer editors toward their favorite formula: exposition, conflict, and a wham-bam cliff-hanger.
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4 | More Fast Cuts *Independence Day*'s trailer has 84 cuts in its two-and-a-half-minute running time. That's fairly modest for the period, thanks to a switch from linear editing to digital systems (like Avid or Final Cut).
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5 | On the Button Blockbusters cost a fortune, so studios amp up focus-group testing to meet audience expectations. That leads to the crowd-pleasing "button," the shot right after the final title card. It's often a throwaway joke or gag that signals the general tone of the movie.
