So, I was watching some movie trailers last night. (Why do they call them trailers? (as in, trail along behind.) When they come before the movie? I am sure I am the last person on earth who does not know this, so could someone explain it to me?)
ANYWAY, I was watching this trailer, not paying much attention, when the announcer, in his best "IN A WORLD ...." voice, says, "Get ready for ............. THE VIOLENCE OF THE LAMBS".
Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha ha ha ha ha ha
Oh my dear God. So! I think I am going to start with a photo collage. I'm thinking a Barbie, from the Toys-R-Us catalog, being dismembered by a flock of Google Image sheep. And if that goes well, I'm definitely doing a shoebox diorama.
The weirdness, it never stops.
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2 comments:
For some reason, Blogger's not letting me post as bridgett....but, um, it's me.
I know why trailers are called trailers.
In the early day of film, when serial movies were popular, short clips of the next sequence were shown after the cliffhanger -- "Will Alice escape the Pasha's evil harem? (show brief scene of the dizzy madcap heroine going with one leg thrown over the wall, looking back at advancing guards.) Will Bob find true love with Rose? (show brief scene of Bob looking lovesick at a picture of a girl.) Find out in "The Game's Afoot"...." and then there'd be some blank film or teasers from other moview that ran while you put on your coat and you'd know to come back next week to see the movie.
Since movies were shown in a continuous loop and you could stay as long as you wanted and watch the movie as many times as you liked, the trailer was a means to encourage people to get up and leave or go to get snacks. Since the lights didn't go up, that was the signal to leave.
By the mid-1930s, the movie industry figured out that the ads would be more effective if they made audiences captive, predictably moving them in and out at set times. Theatres moved to a per-showing pricing (.05 to .10) and began to announce start times for films. They found they could increase revenue at the popcorn stand by extending the time before the movie started. All of those things led to the moving of the trailer to the front of the movie, along with the newsreel and cartoon. With the change-over to per-showing tickets, the signal to leave the theater was when the lights went up...not the running of the trailers.
Thanks for the info - very interesting!
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