Pushing the Boundaries of Film Trailers: A Quantitative Analysis of a Multimodal Genre

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Pushing the Boundaries

of Film Trailers

A Quantitative Analysis of a Multimodal Genre

Sabine Elisabeth Snapper

24-6-2017

Supervisor: Dhr. Dr. C.J. Forceville Second reader: Dhr. Dr. T. Poell

University of Amsterdam, Research Master Media Studies

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1. Introduction

1.1 The Trailer as Research Object

Every time audiences enters a cinema and view their desired film, they are also confronted with other films in the form of film posters in the hall before entering the screening room, and film trailers that are screened before the film they paid for. Furthermore, the film they intend to see was probably first introduced to them by a film trailer they saw before. Film trailers are a powerful advertising strategy in promoting a film. They are mesmerizing pictorial displays which hope to motivate audiences in watching their accompanying full film. The film trailer is an important advertising opportunity to show the film’s potential audiences why they should see it. Most current trailers have a duration of around two minutes, which means that the material used in the trailer should be carefully selected and presented. Studies on the films promoted in these trailers are readily available, but this is not the case for the actual film trailers. Going to the cinema, watching a film on your couch at home, these are two uses of leisure time that are not overlooked. Yet the attention attributed to the promotion of these films via film trailers by scholars is marginally. “It is important to distinguish between the activities of consuming films and the activities of talking about them” (Jancovich 2000, 31). Film trailers offer interesting study possibilities concerning their relation to their audiences. It is a form of advertising that could be seen as a genre in itself. Charlotte Sun Jensen sees this apparent blind spot within academia as a consequence thinking of the trailer “as a prior epitext (Genette 1997) – that is, an advertisement for the film,” while there are unique aesthetics at work within the trailers setting them apart from films (2014, 105). This thesis is not driven by the idea of filling this apparent gap but addresses a single aspect of the film trailer as media object, namely, how it is structured. The careful considerations by the editors of the film trailers are motivated by a single purpose, the purpose of promoting and selling a film. To be able to say something about how audiences perceive and make use of film trailers, a closer look at the structure of these trailers is necessary. Claims about audiences and the reception of film trailers will not be made, this thesis focusses on forming a basis notion of the structure of film trailers, more specifically of the science-fiction and drama genre.

There are many ways to approach the subject of film trailers. They can be related to audience expectations, evoked emotions, and audience readings. The interest of this thesis is focussed on how the film trailers are speaking to their audiences. The way a trailer can speak

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6 to its audience is mainly driven by its structure. As will be argued this structure can be divided into two relevant contributions: genre and multimodality. The film trailer tends to carry genre elements over from the film; however, it will be argued that the film trailer itself poses interesting genre traits that are worth investigating. The multimodal approach (see section 1.2) will be used in analysing a total of fifty trailers, 25 from the drama genre and 25 from the science-fiction genre. Two different genres were chosen to analyse common traits but also noticeable differences between them.

1.2 A Multimodal Approach

“Multimodality, in its most fundamental sense, is the coexistence of more than one semiotic mode within a given context” (Gibbons 2014, 8). Complete mono-modality does not exist; even a purely verbal text such as this one has visual dimensions such as font choice, size, bold face etc. Since the term multimodal is based on multiple modes a clear definition of this is needed before anything else in regards to the film trailers can be discussed. The different modes as distinguished by Charles Forceville are “(1) pictorial signs; (2) written signs; (3) spoken signs; (4) gestures; (5) sounds; (6) music; (7) smells; (8) tastes; (9) touch” (Forceville 2009, 23). When thinking of for example pictorial signs a variety of examples come to mind, like photographs, moving images, but also smileys or more basic pictorial signs like exit signs in public and commercial areas. These different modes are described in their broadest sense; it is not unreasonable to ask whether these categories can be further defined. But then this would be a subdivision within the modes described by Forceville. When every scholar were to add its own modes to the already existing list, this would possibly become an endless one. This thesis will make use of the following modes when analysing the selection of film trailers: pictorial mode, written mode, spoken mode, sound and music. The modes gestures, smells, taste and touch will be excluded for the reason that the latter three do not apply to film trailers and the mode of gesture is hard to define when it is shown through the acting which is visual and thus a pictorial sign. These five different modes will for the analysis be further subdivided. This is however, not an attempt to broaden the amount of modes, but a choice made to enhance the results from the analysis of film trailers. The categories are merely a subdivision within the modes themselves to further clarify what type of contents can be ascribed to a certain mode. For example, if only the pictorial mode would be analysed, this would prove too limiting in a scoring system, whereas several elements pertaining to the pictorial mode will be able to offer more data and thus yield more possible conclusions. A total of thirteen elements are used to analyse the trailers. The choice of these elements was based upon key elements as witnessed in

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7 several film trailers and based on common knowledge of film trailers. These thirteen elements can be brought under the five different modes as follows:

Modes Elements

1. Pictorial mode: Image, Logo and Black Screen

2. Written mode: Written diegetic materials, Title, Announcement, Name and Approved Message

3. Spoken mode: Dialogue and Voice-over 4. Sound: Diegetic sounds

5. Music: Music score and Silence

Ruth Page defines a mode “as a system of choices used to communicate meaning” (2010, 6). This idea that every mode selected is based on a desired communication and thus is consistent with the sole purpose of film trailers: informing the audience of the existence of the film and an advertisement why they should it.

1.3 Overview of Contents

The trailer as an advertisement is a valid perception, but as these trailers will demonstrate, there are elements that make the trailer unique as a genre, as a multimodality object and as a research object. This introduction offers some first steps into the exciting field of the film trailer. This field is not as extensively researched as could be. A plausible reason for this may be that the film trailer is locked in a grey area where several fields of study intersect. In chapter 2 a literature review will be offered to further explore what has already been done with research related to the film trailer. This research will be divided into four different approaches. The trailer as paratext will introduce the work of Gerard Genette to the film trailer and how it exemplifies the relation between film and trailer. This will be followed by an overview of narrative in trailers. By repurposing the materials from the film, a new narrative is formed. This narrative tends to be highly open-ended and has the purpose of raising questions and evoking curiosity. Promotion and audience is another aspect that needs to be explored, because the trailer is inherently promotional and tries to influence audiences. Closely related to this is the rhetorical role of the trailer.

In chapter 3 approaches to genre will be introduced. This provides the foundation on which in chapter four different trailer types will be discussed. The work of Rick Altman is the basis of this chapter and both his works, “A Semantic/Syntactic Approach to Genre” and Film/Genre, will be discussed. Every theory or approach is accompanied by some measure of criticism, some of these criticisms will be explored in order to show the versatility of Altman’s

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8 approach. Another relevant discussion is that of genre-mixing. Trailers take over genre traits from their films and are therefore also subject to genre-mixing. Janet Staiger’s article on how the idea of genre purity is a false notion plays a central role in this discussion.

Chapter 4 will build on the previous chapter, and by analysing a variety of film trailer types it will be demonstrated how the film trailer can be seen as a genre on its own. The selection of trailers discussed is both a combination of well-known types and interesting ones that should also be considered: the theatrical trailer, the teaser trailer, a television advertisement for a programmed film, the fan-made trailer and the ‘fake’ trailer. All of these show both semantic and syntactic elements. When applying the approach of Altman (1999) onto film trailers, it is clear that Altman never looked further than film itself. Most notable of the film trailer is its use of credits in the form of written non-diegetic texts, a semantic element. This use of credits is not commonly used in films during the progress of the plot, but only restricted to the title sequence at the beginning of the film and the credits at the end. Whereas in film trailers a variety of credits can be found throughout the trailer used as selling points.

Chapter 5 presents the multimodal approach adopted. The corpus of fifty film trailers, consisting on the one hand of drama and on the other hand of science-fiction trailers, will be analysed with respect to their multimodality. These two genres appear very different, not only in the way the narrative usually develops but also in the possible way this will be presented in the film trailer itself. The idea that these genres speak to different audiences, is however, not one of the reasons to choose such diverse genres. It is exactly this diversity that is more compelling to research, rather than two genres that are more closely related, such as for instance the science-fiction and the action genre. The multimodal approach has been already discussed in this chapter. The analysis will focus on five modes comprising thirteen elements. Each of the modes and how they are used in the analysis will be further explained, followed by a discussion of the results separately.

Finally, in chapter 6 some concluding thoughts will be offered. As stated before, to be able to say something about how audiences perceive and make use of film trailers, a closer look at the structure of these trailers is necessary. The results of both science-fiction and drama will be compared in order to say something about the trailer more generally. Most of the findings, presented in chapter 5 and 6, will be translated into different charts to showcase the results. This means that some of the results will not be discussed in this thesis. To make it possible for other researchers to make use of these results if desired, they will all be included in the appendix.

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2. Literature Review

Film trailers are the most effective promotional medium for the motion picture

industry and are most influential on consumer expectations. (Finsterwalder et al 2012, 590)

2. 1 Introduction

Film trailers are nowadays an incredible marketing strategy for promoting films. Film trailers offer a unique preview of a film, “they can be seen to reframe their original fiction film narratives into a (window) shoppers’ world” (Kernan 2004, 6). Where a film poster most often shows the film’s main characters posing and not revealing anything of the story itself, film trailers are in a way quoting from the films (Kernan 2004, 6). Even though film trailers can be seen as quotations of their related films, this does not mean that the film trailer is representing its source correctly. In order to sell the film to the audience, the film trailer tends to play with the chronology of the film’s narrative, and by doing this creates a narrative of its own. In what follows the film trailer will be discussed from various angles, highlighting the complexity of this media object. One of the possible ways to look at the film trailer is to perceive it as a paratext. A focus on narrative is another possible angle when it comes to the relation between film and the film trailer. The role of the film trailer as promotional is something that cannot be overlooked, as this is the primary reason for creating a trailer. Lastly, there is also a rhetorical aspect of the trailer that is worth mentioning.

2. 2 Trailer as Paratext

The relation between the film and the trailer is an interesting one. Film trailers can be seen as paratexts (Kernan 2004, 7; Grainge and Johnson 2015, 4-6; Jensen 2014; Maier 2009; Gray 2010). Though this term was initially applied to literature, it is also highly applicable to other media texts. A “text is rarely presented in an unadorned state, unreinforced and unaccompanied by a certain number of verbal or other productions” (Genette 1997, 1). For Gerard Genette the text he speaks of is the very text of a book, its’ written content. This written content is, however, accompanied by various other elements, such as the cover, title page, contents etc. All of these components together are considered the book itself. Each of these components or paratexts has a different function, but they are always accompanying productions of a text.

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10 This use of paratexts is also useful when discussing the relation between film and film trailer. In the case of film and film trailer, the paratexts refers to the film trailer and the primary text is the film. The paratext, film trailer, surrounds and extends the primary text, film, in order to present it, “to ensure the texts’ presence in the world” (Genette 1997, 1). The promotion of the text, makes the text itself viable and ensures future productions of other texts. “Paratexts condition our entrance to texts, telling us what to expect, and setting the terms of our ‘faith’ in subsequent transubstantiation” (Gray 2010, 25). The film trailer is not the sole paratext of a film. Other examples would be film posters, and also merchandise such as mugs or bags with film characters or citations on them. All these different paratexts work together to promote the visibility of the text itself. Nowadays it is common to find several film trailers of one film, and all of them are different, addressing different audiences. Some may share materials of the film, but position them in a different context or link them to different scenes. When these different film trailers are taken together, a more comprehensive image of the film becomes clear.

The paratext itself can be further divided into the peritext and the epitext. The peritext is a type of paratext that exists within the text, for example the title on the cover of the book or the name of the author printed on one of the first pages. This epitext exists outside the text and the film trailer can be considered an example of this. One of the types of epitext that Genette discusses, is the publisher’s epitext which is characterized by marketing and promotional functions (1997, 347). Following this definition, the film trailer, being made for marketing and promotional purposes, is a publisher’s epitext. Marketing and promotion suggests that the film trailer is a preliminary introduction to the film. This introduction of the film with the use of a film trailer can be done in different ways. The use of narrative plays an important role in this.

2.3 Narrative in Trailers

Films often have various trailers that are released, each showcasing different elements of the film, hoping to speak to different audiences, specifically when referring to the presented order of the images as opposed to their place in the film narrative. The scenes and shots used from the film are, when implemented in the trailer, transformed into a new narrative. When scenes are combined, certain story developments can be suggested to the audience. The new narrative constructed in the paratext can be reduced to the cause-effect chain of events with a beginning, middle and end. “Narrative is a perceptual activity that organizes data into a special pattern which represents and explains experience” (Branigan 1992, 3). The structure in which these events are presented can be boiled down to five stages as described by Tzvetan Todorov:

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11 1. A state of equilibrium at the outset

2. A disruption of the equilibrium by some action 3. A recognition that there has been a disruption 4. An attempt to repair the disruption

5. A reinstatement of the initial equilibrium (Cited in Branigan 1992, 4).

This narrative structure or the more elaborate one by Vladimir Propp is always present in a story. It is noteworthy that “not all narratives have closure, or even narrative closure” (Carroll 2007, 2). Perhaps it could even be considered to be a trait of film trailers to altogether lack closure of some sort.

To make this more concrete the trailer of Nocturnal Animals (2016)1 will serve as an example. From the film trailer there are various elements that can be taken to form some sort of story. The main protagonist seems to be Susan (Amy Adams). This can be deduced because she is the first person shown and there is a high focus on her. A friend expresses concern about her state, she does not sleep well. A different scene shows Susan in what appears to be a therapy session. She mentions her ex-husband (Jake Gyllenhaal), a person of whose existence the therapist is unaware. Her ex-husband has written a book and dedicated it to her. Though she does not mention any details, she does mention that she did something horrible to him. In the rest of the trailer her ex and various other characters are introduced and they all speak of regretting something and about “getting justice done”. The final words are: “Nobody gets away with what you did. Nobody.” When viewing this trailer, it becomes clear that Susan has done something to her ex-husband and recently started to think about him again. This might be linked to the book she received from him, which he dedicated to her. The constant referrals to something terrible she did and how to get justice explains her state of mind. This information provided does not seem as much, but is does raise questions about what happened and how this will all be resolved. Using the five stages described by Todorov, the disruption of the equilibrium and its recognition are highlighted, but they are not resolved in the trailer. The lack of resolve in this film trailer (and many others), makes clear that narrative closure is not a desired outcome in a trailer. The audience is left with an open ending, an ending that can only be resolved by viewing the film in the cinema.

Though this example of Nocturnal Animals is brief, it does showcase some of the tendencies of film trailers. A more in-depth analysis of narrative in the film trailer is interesting and would certainly be complementary for this thesis. It would be interesting to see in what

1_{This trailer is part of the film trailer corpus used for analysing the drama trailers. A more extensive overview}

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12 extent the five stages as described by Todorov are present in a trailer, and how film trailers make use of a different narrative structure, a more open-ended one, as shown in the trailer of Nocturnal Animals.

As mentioned, the trailer of Nocturnal Animals raises more questions than it provides answers. This directly contradicts an often mentioned supposedly negative trait of the film trailer. It has been often stated by audiences that when a film trailer is viewed, the viewer has all the essential information to reconstruct the narrative of the film2. Key moments are shown in film trailers, but connections to other scenes can be made in the film trailer which are not made in the film itself and imply a different outcome or feeling than in the film itself. Lisa Kernan uses a scene featuring Meg Ryan in You’ve Got Mail (1998) to demonstrate how a trailer makes connections that are not made in the film. The scene depicts how Meg Ryan falls on her bed. In the film this is used as a gesture of sadness and frustration, while in the trailer it appears to be a swoon (Kernan 2004, 11). This directly opposes the view taken by Julie Bain who takes the position that “trailers boil down the essence of a film” (2011, 63), she implies that by watching the trailer, there is no need to see the film since ‘everything’ it is known how it all will play out. True enough, not all film trailers succeed in a correct image of the film while at the same time leaving some relevant details for the screening itself. But considering how film trailers are meant to entice the audience in viewing the film, a fine balance between creating desire and sharing information is key. Bain further claims that because of this film trailers are a useful way to teach students the build-up of films. However, as is shown with the example of

Nocturnal Animals there is no reinstatement of the initial equilibrium in the trailer, and it

therefore lacks the kind of build-up that can be found in films. “Trailers construct a narrative time-space that differs from (and creates desire for) the fictive world of the film itself” (Kernan 2004, 10). It is exactly these different chronologies in film and their trailer that make for an interesting, tense relationship.

2.4 Promotion and Audience

Though trailers present a narrative, even if they do this in their own way and moving away from the original film text, they are always made with a commercial purpose. The economic aspect is therefore a connecting research field to that of media studies with regards to the film trailer. An example of this would be an article by Elliott and Simmons, who aim “to estimate the

2_{Arguments can be made that this feeling of a complete narrative within a film trailer can be linked to certain}

genres. For example, the comedy genre suffers more frequently of this complaint than for instance the thriller genre, as based on personal experience and personal debates about film trailers more generally.

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13 multiple determinants of film advertising expenditures in four important media, namely television, press, outdoor and radio, in the UK” (2011, 4461). It is precisely this commercial purpose that drives the unique aesthetic of the trailer. Film trailers are closely related to television commercials and the music video (Jensen 2014, 106). They all sell a certain product, be it a film or an artist, the main difference being that a film only shares parts of the film with its audience where television commercials will not hold back any information. These trailers can be found in television commercial breaks, in cinemas before the main film, online, and even as advertisements on applications. These “trailers are often sought out, circulated, dissected and appropriated by fans, all processes facilitated by digitalization” (Tryon cited in Grainge and Johnson 2015, 149).

The assembled images in the trailer of a combined time of one to two and a half minutes are forming the basis of the assumptions about the film made by the audience (Finsterwalder et al 2012, 592). The trailer, which appeared widespread in the 1910s, has undergone quite a few changes compared to the trailer today. Especially when it comes to the type of content provided and the amount of it (Staiger 1990, 7). Trailers are no longer a few scenes to entice the audience: they now contain a narrative of their own. Finsterwalder et al. reviewed consumers’ expectations after they viewed a trailer to better understand the workings and effects of trailers. “A trailer, cut well, will have a flowing motion to it, a sense that everything plays off everything else and will propel the viewer through the experience of the film” (Garrett 2012, 90). A different study (Jensen 2014) demonstrates how highlighting the genre of the film is prioritized over narrative chronology. The ‘feeling’ of the trailer seems more relevant than the actual narrative. In this case the intensification of emotions in the trailer plays with the audience (Jensen 2014, 109). Thomas Kim Hixson (2005) and Devlin, Chambers and Callison make a similar point: mood targeting plays a significant role in the construction of trailers (2011, 583). These and various other studies work with the perspective of the audience. The used approach concerning the position of the audience of the trailer, is the one used by Kernan. Her project “of reading trailers to discern who the film industry thinks it is addressing within trailer texts is designed to invite a more critical approach to spectatorship itself” (2004, 3 original emphasis). Rather than assuming how the audience perceives a trailer, Kernan adopts the position of the film industry. The film industry creates a film and its accompanying film trailer with a certain audience in mind, whether this is the actual audience that feels like being addressed is of no concern in this approach. This thesis is concerned with the structure of film trailers, more specifically in the genres of drama and science-fiction. The focus on the structure

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14 does not allow for audience interpretation and is thus in line with the industry and their idea of the intended audience.

2.5 The Rhetorical Role of the Trailer

Essentially, any montage creates assumptions about audience associations. But when a montage structure is created for the purpose of persuasion, these associations can be categorized as enthymemes, and fall within the domain of rhetoric. (Kernan 2004, 42 original emphasis)

Rhetoric is an important part of a film trailer. Basing herself on Staiger (1990) Kernan constructs three principal rhetorical sources of appeal: genres, stories and stars. “Most successful trailers usually tend to invoke an interaction of the three” (2004, 42). Wildfeuer and Pollaroli (in press) make use of rhetoric in their article focusing on the multimodal argumentative structure in film trailers, specifically the trailer of Gravity (2013). They make the claim that film trailers advance arguments in order sell to a film too the audience as worthy to watch (forthcoming, 5). Film trailers provide a call to action such as: “You should watch movie X in the theatre” (Wildfeuer and Pollaroli forthcoming, 5 original emphasis). Part of their argument is that film trailers make use of enthymemes, “rhetorical syllogisms in which either the premise(s) or the conclusion is left to be completed by the audience that has the task of ‘filling in the blanks’ of an argument with contextual information” (Wildfeuer and Pollaroli forthcoming, 6). This idea that the audience needs to fill in the blanks strengthens earlier made observations with the help of the Nocturnal Animals trailer. Their findings show that the sequence of events portrayed in the trailer may differ from the narrative structure in the film, but still give sufficient information about the diegesis and its units (forthcoming, 15). Furthermore, because of the “communicative and complex nature, the interpretation of movie trailers is a complex operation that requires active inferential work by the recipients” (Wildfeuer and Pollaroli forthcoming, 31). The audience plays a key role in the functioning of the film trailer. Questions posed by the trailer, either directly or by use of gaps in the story, creates a certain idea of the film and with that hopes in how these posed problems may resolve.

2.6 Conclusion

The overview provided here shows that there are a variety of approaches when it comes to film trailers. Not only the content of trailers is open to interpretation: the way they are perceived is also different. The film trailer is a paratext, constructs a new narrative, raises more questions

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15 than it gives answers, needs to balance providing information with triggering curiosity and all of this in order to attract an audience for the cinema. Furthermore, trailers are open to interpretation, their primary essence is offering an initial step into a narrative not yet explored, and thus the consumer can construct his/her own presumed narrative of the film. As stated before, the line between offering too much information and intrigue and too little is very thin. Instead of entering viewing trailers as set in stone and final, they are open to interpretation. There unique aesthetics allows them to be classified as a genre on its own. Before that step can be made, a closer look at the concept of genre itself is necessary.

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3. Genre

3.1 Introduction

The film trailer is a promotional device. Its sole reason of existence is to sell a certain audience the desire to see the film. As discussed in chapter 2, this is done by raising questions without providing answers. The trailer is a paratext of the film, it ensures the film’s presence in the world (Genette 1997, 1). It is however problematic that film trailers are seen as exclusively promotional devices (Jensen 2014, 105). This apparent blind spot within academia can be seen as a consequence thinking of the trailer as an advertisement for the film, while there are unique aesthetics at work within the trailers, setting them apart from films (Jensen 2014, 105). Here will be argued that the trailer constitutes a separate genre, with its own structure and aesthetics. To discuss film trailers as a genre on its own, a closer look at genre theory and genre criticism is required. As will become clear, there are different approaches to genre. It is important to realize that “genres do not consist only of films: they consist also, and equally, of specific systems of expectation and hypothesis that spectators bring with them to the cinema and that interact with films themselves during the course of the viewing process” (Neale 2000a, 158).

How then do genres influence the viewing process? “Genres are cultural categories that surpass the boundaries of media texts and operate within industry, audience, and cultural practices as well” (Mittell 2001, 3). More closely related to the film itself, “genre is understood to construct a movie’s ‘narrative image’, which is communicated by industry to industry before a movie’s release” (Lobato and Ryan 2011, 3). There are many types of genres, and most films draw upon several genres. This makes it difficult to clearly define a genre and how that genre is different from others. It is exactly this debate that Rick Altman addresses in “A Semantic/Syntactic Approach to Film Genre.” By combining the semantic and syntactic approach he hopes to create a more complete method of how to analyse films and their accompanying genres. He later edited this approach to also include a pragmatic angle, this resulted in the inclusion of institutions and audiences and to demonstrate that there is not a singular way to view genres (Altman 1999). In film theory a renewed interest in genre can be seen around 2000. Various authors (Altman 1984/1999; Neale 2000a/2000b; Mittell 2011) return to genre and the questions of including and excluding. The increased interest shown around the 2000s and the various authors who saw the need for further clarification of genre

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17 and its possible interpretations of labelling will be the starting point for introducing genre theory and genre criticism.

3.2 A Semantic/Syntactic Approach to Genre

In his article “A Semantic/Syntactic Approach to Film Genre” Altman discusses conflicting approaches to genre to showcase why a more extensive approach is necessary. Seemingly simple questions as ‘what is genre?’ and ‘what films belong to a certain genre?’ tend to be difficult ones. “What appears as hesitation in the terminology of a single critic will turn into a clear contradiction when studies by two or more critics are compared” (Altman 1984, 6). He signals three contradictions within genre studies.

Firstly, when establishing a corpus of a genre two possible lists can be made. The first is an inclusive list that uses a tautological definition of genre. Altman gives the examples of the Western, being a film that takes place in the American West, and the musical as a film with diegetic music. This use of genre labelling can be described as stating the obvious. After all, tautology is “the saying of the same thing twice over in different words, generally considered to be a fault of style” per the Oxford Dictionary. The second way in which a corpus of a genre can be grouped is the compilation of an exclusive list, where a select group of films is used to represent a genre (Altman 1984, 6-7). The films that are found on such a list are elevated to a status of superiority. In these cases, other films that share only some features with these elevated, prototypical genre films, would not be included since they do not tick all the correct boxes, so to speak. An example might clarify both ways of classifying a film. Blade Runner (1982) is a classic science-fiction film in the sense that it encompasses weird science, is futuristic, includes robots etc. Many fans but also probably critics will see this as one of the films that seems to tick every aspect that should be considered when discussing the genre of the science-fiction film. It therefore can be included into the exclusive list as mentioned by Altman. However, it can as easily be included in the tautological or inclusive science-fiction list. For this list the only requirement to fit in would be presence of science in a futuristic world. The workings of these inclusive lists make it possible for films to be found in more than one list. The film Blade Runner is action-packed and therefore would also fit nicely in an action genre list of the inclusive variety, while also having a place in the inclusive science-fiction list.

The second contradiction that Altman sees within genre studies has to do “with the relative status of theory and history in genre studies” (Altman 1984, 7). Both linguistics and literary semiotics are discussed by Altman, and from this a second semiotics spawned. Problematic with the semiotic approach is that it treats genres as neutral constructs. It therefore

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18 does not reflect on how Hollywood uses genres “to short-circuit the normal interpretative process” (Altman1984, 8). Genres are not neutral, they are structured in such a way as to draw a certain audience, as is done with the help of trailers which tend to highlight that genre.

As long as Hollywood genres are conceived as Platonic categories, existing outside the flow of time, it will be impossible to reconcile genre theory, structure, and genre history, which has concentrated on chronicling the development, deployment, and disappearance of this same structure. (Altman 1984, 8 original emphasis)

It seems that the problem within theory and history within genre studies has to do with set paradigms, which could work together, but are too head-strong to see the value of this combination.

The third and final contradiction in genre studies, according to Altman, is that there are two different views on the relationship between the film industry and the audience. The ritual approach gives authorship to the spectators, “with the studios simply serving”, while the ideological approach sees Hollywood manipulating audiences (Altman 1984, 9). Closely connected to these three separate views are the semantic and the syntactic approach. The semantic approach prefers “generic definitions which depend on a list of common traits, attitudes, characters, shots, locations, and the like” (Altman 1984, 10). By contrast, the syntactic approach prefers “definitions which play up instead certain constitutive relationships between undesignated and variable placeholders” (Altman 1984, 10). The distinction between the two is clear: one focusses on building blocks, while the other highlights the narrative structure. Recalling the earlier example of the science-fiction film Blade Runner, the building blocks would be robots, futuristic technology, science and dystopian events, whereas the structure would be more concerned with the narrative steps made by the doings of Deckard (Harrison Ford).

The proposition of Altman is to combine semantics with syntactics, which would allow for a completer understanding of genre and all of its components. After all, both of these categories are highly interwoven with each other. “To insist on one of these approaches to the exclusion of the other is to turn a blind eye on the necessarily dual nature of any generic corpus” (Altman 1984, 12 original emphasis). He connects this to the way genres arise and are given form: “either a relatively stable set of semantic givens is developed through syntactic experimentation into a coherent and durable syntax, or an already existing syntax adopts a new set of semantic elements” (Altman 1984, 12). Although this combination of semantics and syntactic does allow for a complete representation of genres, Altman later recognizes that this

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19 approach does lack a relevant element. More specifically this is the addition of pragmatics, which will be discussed in the following segment.

3.3 A Semantic/Syntactic/Pragmatic Approach to Gen re

In Film/Genre Altman mentions the uneasiness he found himself with after writing “A Semantic/Syntactic Approach to Film Genre”. Though he offers a new way to discuss and work with genre and its labelling in his article, it is not a complete approach by his own account:

The semantic/syntactic approach may serve analytical purposes admirably, offering a satisfying descriptive vocabulary useful for interpreting individual texts and relating them to existing generic groupings. When it comes to a broader theoretical and historical understanding, however, such a defence definitely falls short. (1999, 207)

So how does this approach fall short? One of the questions Altman poses himself in his book is that of how the line between semantic and syntactic is defined and why his earlier focus was solely on the materials and the structures into which texts are arranged (1984, 15).

Assuming stable recognition of semantic and syntactic factors across an unstable population, I underemphasized the fact that genres look different to different audiences, and that disparate viewers may perceive quite disparate semantic and syntactic elements in the same film. (Altman 1999, 207)

In the book published some fifteen years after the article, he addresses this lack in his original approach. The addition of pragmatics to the approach needs to further enhance and strengthen the approach formulated in 1984. In the semantic/syntactic approach the idea of genre and how it is given form is rather black and white. It is only with his addition of pragmatics that genre enables analysis as a more cultural object which is subject to change and does not enjoy a singular division of stances.

So, what does this pragmatics entail? “Instead of utilizing a single master language, as most previous genre theoreticians would have it, a genre may appropriately be considered multi-coded” (Altman 1999, 208). This multi-coding is connected to the fact that even though semantic and syntactic factors make meaning, it is necessary to analyse them according to how they are used (Altman 1999, 210). Each user may have a different position and thus has a different interpretation of the genre. “Pragmatic analysis treats reading as a more complex process involving not only hegemonic complicity across user groups but also a feedback system

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20 connecting user groups” (Altman 1999, 211). Genres are now treated as “a site of struggle and co-operation among multiple users” (Altman 1999, 211).

Though this idea of multi-coding makes genre a more open site for debate, it is not always perceived as such. For Mark Jancovich Altman treats different approaches to genre “neutrally as if all were in some sense equal” (2000, 24). This problematic position taken by Altman comes from the lack of attention given to the “ways in which film audiences themselves can become involved in policing the boundaries of film genres” (Jancovich 2000, 25). He takes the example of horror film fans to show three different struggles in genre distinctions. The first is not directly related to horror but has to do with the distinction between Hollywood films which tend to have genres, and art-cinema where labelling is as vague as possible. Secondly, fans of different genres tend to debate whether or not certain films can be classified as belonging to one or to another genre. Jancovich mentions the struggle between science-fiction and horror fans. To emphasize the seriousness of their science-fiction, genre fans try to disassociate themselves from the horror which they believe gives them negative associations. An example given by Jancovich is the film Alien (1979), which tends to be labelled as both science-fiction and as horror. Science-fiction fans can be found debating the true science-fiction-nature of the film, seeing how it also could be seen as a slasher movie in outer space and thus try to exclude it from their canon (Jancovich 2000, 26-7). The third struggle is one over “intrageneric conflicts between fans of a particular genre” (Jancovich 2000, 28-9). In this case, some fans embrace certain films or authors within a genre, while other fans of that same genre seek to disassociate themselves with these works.

The three different struggles inside the fan base of film genres is something that should not be overlooked easily. While Jancovich poses this as something not aligned with the work of Altman, Jancovich rephrases exactly Altman’s point about the importance of pragmatics. In his article Jancovich explores in more depth than Altman did the possibilities but also the limitations, of struggles that take place in the fandom of genres. However, Altman states: “Only by shifting attention from reception practices alone to the broader – and conflicting – usage patterns of all users can we escape the residual tyranny of the text-king” (1999, 213). The focus of Altman’s book has been on exploring alternative views of genres and uses of these genres. Even though he does not explore the possibilities of fans in the way Jancovich would like to see, Altman does acknowledge the possibilities of researching this and certainly does not diminish them as Jancovich implies.

Genres should always be seen as a process: “they are not the permanent product of a singular origin, but the temporary by-product of an ongoing process” (Altman 1999, 54). Both

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21 semantics and syntactics of a certain genre are open to change and development. Furthermore, “genres are cultural categories that surpass the boundaries of media texts and operate within industry, audience, and cultural practices as well” (Mittell 2001, 3). Genre is not an intrinsic property of texts, claims Jason Mittell. For him there is “a crucial difference between conceiving of genre as a textual category and treating it as a component of a text, a distinction most genre studies elide” (2001, 5 original emphasis).

A category primarily links discrete elements together under a label for cultural convenience. Although the members of a given category may all possess some inherent trait that binds them together, there is nothing intrinsic about the category itself. (Mittell 2001, 5)

This strongly connects to the similar point Altman makes with regards to the use of pragmatics when talking about genres. It is only when intertextual relations between multiple texts are connected that a genre may emerge, and thus result in a common category (Mittell 2001, 6). For Mittell there are common grounds between his thinking and the work of Altman. He does see, however, a conflict he himself hopes to resolve: “Despite Altman’s foregrounding of cultural processes, textual structure still remains central to his approach, making it difficult to provide an account of how genre categories operate outside the bounds of the text” (Mittell 2001, 10). Mittell makes a call to “explore the material ways in which genres are culturally defined, interpreted and evaluated” (Mittell 2001, 9). These genres need to be examined as to see how the work as conceptual frameworks. Furthermore, media texts should be situated within larger contexts of understanding (Mittell 2001, 16). The aim of Mittell is not to make broad assertions about the genre, but instead to better understand “how genres work within specific stances and how they fit into larger systems of cultural power” (2001, 16). In his approach, he pays special attention to the definition, interpretation, and evaluation of genres. But again, these are all part of the pragmatic element of Altman’s approach.

3.4 The Mixing of Genres

The industry itself is seen as highly influential in the process of genre and perception. “Contradictory and conflicting conceptions of genre definition and of generic classification of individual films” are something that can be found throughout the entire process from producing a film to the consumption of it (Jancovich 2000, 31). An interesting example Altman gives is that of Cocktail (1988) and the audience research documents he acquired. “Instead of testing the film as made, the marketeers reconceptualised the film, turning it into four separate but

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22 concurrent films, each featuring a distinctive plot corresponding to a recognizable genre” (Altman 1999, 133). These four plots, useful for marketing purposes are: a love story, making it big in the big city, conflict between love and success, and the mentor/mentee relationship. Each of these plots speaks to a difference audience, as is further exploited by different television commercials for the film (Altman 1999, 137). Since there are (sometimes) multiple genres interwoven into one film, they are not necessarily always picked up by audiences. This in turn reconnects with Altman’s notion of multiple codes within one text suited for multiple audiences. This example of Cocktail recalls the views of Janet Staiger, who works out two theses that are concerned with genres. The first “is that films produced in Hollywood in the past forty years or so are persistently instances of genre mixing” (2003 185). The second “is that genre studies has been handicapped by its failure to sort out just exactly what critics are doing when they think about ‘genre’” (Staiger 2003, 185). The latter is connected to the already discussed work of Altman (1984/1999) which names this reason as one of his motivations to rethink the syntactic and semantic approaches to genre. The argument that Staiger presents in her article is that Hollywood films have never been ‘pure’, by which she means easily arranged into categories (2003, 185). She makes the distinction between Fordian Hollywood and post-Fordian Hollywood. The Fordian Hollywood (pre-1970s) is characterized by having two plots, they hinge on and affect each other (Staiger 2003, 190-1). She demonstrates how producers and audience knew the films belonged to several categories, but did not seem to care. “Instead the lack of purity broadened the film’s appeal in terms both of the likely audiences who might enjoy the movie and of the film’s originality” (Staiger 2003, 195). This purity hypothesis is however in place to establish a difference for the post-Fordian Hollywood era (post-1970s). “Fordian Hollywood genre texts appear to be suddenly transforming in the 1970s or hybridizing in the 1990s because the generic definitions were “fixed”by critics in the 1960s using critical methods that sought coherence and purity” (Staiger 2003, 190). This idea of hybridization is however not the case according to Staiger, after all, it is something that has always been a part of films (Staiger 2003, 195).

Claims like: “The mixing of genres is a cultural process enacted by industry personnel, often in response to audience viewing practices” (Mittell 2001, 7) and “They frequently hybridize and overlap” (Neale 2000b, 3) are focussed on post-Fordian Hollywood films. However, as demonstrated by various examples used in Staiger’s article, the use of mixing genres has always been the case. This is also highlighted in the corpus used for the analysis of this thesis. Three trailers were part of both the science-fiction and the drama corpus. The use of

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23 genres in a film is highlighted in the trailers that promote them. By using specific characteristics of genres, a certain audience can be appealed to.

3.5 Conclusion

The aim of this overview was not to select the best way to approach genre, but to see what aspects need to be considered when speaking of genre, especially when attempting to see the film trailer as a genre with conventionsof its own. The work of Altman remains untilthis day relevant and highly applicable when discussing genres and film. An element that cannot be found in his work is the trailer as a genre on its own. He does discuss it, with the example of Cocktail, but always in relation to the film. In the following chapter the argument will be made that the semantic/syntactic/pragmatic approach is also applicable to the film trailer, even though this also comes with some adaptations of the approach. The pragmatic element of the approach will not be prominently presented; the semantic and syntactic dimension are more easily attributed to the trailers.

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4. Film Trailer as Genre

4.1 Introduction

The film trailer tends to be defined by its marketing properties or by its categorization as a paratext of the film. When the trailer is fan-made or even fake, there tend to be key elements present that are the very nature of the film trailer. The film trailer is a media text that by appropriating audio-visual material from a film creates a new narrative, as previously discussed in chapter 2. This newly formed narrative does show similarities to the original source, but as was demonstrated in chapter 2 with the help of the trailer of the film Nocturnal Animals (2016), questions are raised that are not answered. There are clear structures and strategies at work in the way the film trailer is constructed. This chapter will argue that the film trailer as genre has its own semantic and syntactic characteristics, building on the work done by Altman (1984, 1999). Although the main analysis of this research is concerned with theatrical trailers, this would be a limiting decision. As with any other genre, there are varieties within the overall category, and by exploring the different film trailers available, these differences and similarities will be explored.

4.2 Different Types of Film Trailer

How would the genre of the film trailer be characterised? According to Charlotte Sun Jensen the film trailer is related to other “macro-genres such as the TV commercial and the music video” (2014, 106). The reasonshe groups these different media together is the fact that their duration is short, “and its multimodal communication form that can be seen as a result of its tension between being an audio-visual product, which offers the viewer an aesthetic experience and contains a directly pragmatic purpose at the same time” (Jensen 2014, 113). This is certainly the case, but television commercials and music videos do not hold back information, they do everything to sell their product. The film trailer, by contrast, is providing questions in such a way that the audience desires an answer only the full film viewed in the cinema can offer. Therefore, the music video and television commercial will not be discussed in this chapter. The focus here will be on a variety of trailer types which are the following: teaser trailers, theatrical trailers, fan-made, advertorials for programmed films on television channels and even ‘fake’ trailers, aptly named for they refer to fictive films that are not intended to be produced. Even thoughthese different types of trailer all have one thing in common, namely advertising a film,

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25 there are huge differences between them. In the following section, each of these will be discussed with examples in order to demonstrate the semantic and syntactic elements at work. The pragmatic element of the approach will not be presented; this would need a different research and approach to the materials chosen.

4.2.1 Theatrical Trailer

The first type of trailer that will be discussed in this chapter it the classical theatrical trailer. As will become clear, the main tendencies of this type of trailer is to introduces protagonists, establish certain relations between them and hint at possible narrative developments. To demonstrate this, the example of Gone Girl (2014) will be used. On the official website of the film the teaser trailer, theatrical trailer and six television commercials can be found (Foxmovies). The teaser trailer, being released first, offers the audience an initial introduction into the diegetic world of Gone Girl. This teaser resembles the structures as discussed in the following segment focussing on the teaser trailer. Where the teaser of Gone Girl leaves many relations between shots open for debate, the theatrical trailer is more precise in how the offered images should be interpreted.

The theatrical trailer will first be described to form a clear image for the reader what the trailer offers in forms of information. It is, however, not only the images of the film that play a significant role in the trailer, the lack of images in the form of a black screen is also frequently used. The trailer starts with a green screen and a text stating that this is an approved preview for appropriated audiences. This image is followed by logos from firms that were part of the production of the film. The spoken words that are connected to the first image refer to Nick Miller (Ben Affleck) who has been accused of murdering his wife. The next image shows Nick being interviewed, the diegetic source of the question asked. The following images show the relation between Nick and his missing wife Amy (Rosamund Pike), accompanied by a voice-over of Amy. The continuing defence of Nick in his innocence of her murder is voice-overshadowed by other characters who question this: him smiling next to a picture of her (see figure 4.1), his ignorance of her having friends, his unawareness of her blood type. This is strengthened by Amy who states in a voice-over: “I will practice to believe my husband loves me. But I could be wrong.” The evidence against Nick is piling on: a letter written by Amy titled “Clue One”, her buying a gun and fearing for her life. This flow of images continues to seemingly provide evidence of Nick being a ‘bad guy’. The strong image of Amy floating in water, dead, is the final image before the title of the film is shown. The title itself is shown with in the background a river, suggesting that Amy can be found there (see figures 4.2 and 4.3).

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Figure 4.1. Nick Miller (Ben Affleck) smiling alongside a photograph of his missing wife Amy, while being photographed by

press. His smile could be seen as an indicator of him being guilty. (Gone Girl, 1.28)

Figure 4.2. Amy floating in water, slowly moving out of the image into the darkness. (Gone Girl, 2.20)

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27 Though it may seem the trailer gives away a lot of information concerning the film plot, it does not indicate how this might develop. The accusation of Nick is from the start the focus and the images that follow contradict his claimed innocence. His relationship with his wife Amy is portrayed as abusive, with her being trapped. It is not indicated whether he murdered her, or if she will be found. Audiences who have seen the film, will know that this focus on Nick as a murderer is indeed the starting point of the film, but this perspective is slowly put in a different light because of some plot developments. “Images are often subtly, or not so subtly, composed or changed in order to conceal or enhance certain elements” (Machin 2007, 45). Even though Machin refers here to for instance the use of photoshopping on photographs, this is also applicable to film trailers. Specifically, the use of the image of Amy floating in a river (figure 4.2) makes a strong suggestion to the audience that she is indeed murdered by her seemingly guilty husband. As revealed in the film, the actual use of this shot is to hint at a possible event, not referring to actual facts in the diegetic world of Gone Girl. The use of the black screen also hints at ‘enhancing certain elements’. Though the black screen takes away some of the pace of the trailer, by doing this it emphasizes each image that follows a black screen. A frequent use of the black screen builds a tension and hints at the importance of the images in the overall given narrative.

An element that is also commonly found in trailers is the use of written non-diegetic texts. In the trailer of Gone Girl this ‘lack’ of written text is compensated by the use of voice-over of Amy who reads out her own diary discussing her abusive relationship with Nick. In this case the voice-over takes over the role of non-diegetic sentences purposefully placed to motivate and underscore certain shots or scenes. As will be discussed in chapter 5, the use of written non-diegetic texts introduces the audiences to the director, actors and title. Furthermore, texts are used to add to the narrative. In the case of A Monster Calls (2016) the following use of this can be found: “This Fall” “Something Wild” “Will Save You”. Another common feature, is the use of credits at the end of a trailer. These often repeat the production company, director, actors and information about the upcoming release.

The example of Gone Girl demonstrates the variety of elements at work within the presenting of the associated film. As with a full feature film, Gone Girl highlights the protagonists and by doing that it also introduces the related genre. Both of these are semantic elements. Clear syntactic elements are the establishing of a plot structure, even though this might not be consistent with the actual film, and the introduction of relationships between characters. In films the use of non-diegetic written texts is minimal, whereas in the trailer this is a highly relevant element. The use of such texts is part of the argumentative and rhetorical

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28 structure of the trailer (Wildfeuer and Pollaroli forthcoming, 30). When attempting to classify this according to the semantic/synthetic/pragmatic approach it proves difficult. It is at the same time a common trait, labelling as semantic, but it can also be part of the narrative structure, a syntactic classification. However, Altman never discussed this type of use in films, seeing how they are not used to create meaning during a film. This use of credits is not commonly used in films during the progress of the plot, but only restricted to the title sequence at the beginning of the film and the credits at the end. Whereas in film trailers a variety of credits can be found throughout the trailer used as selling points. Credits are important manifestations and will here be classified as semantic elements. This type of credits is not only prominent in film trailers; it is also a common feature of other advertisements. Other examples would be perfume commercials and their use of title to name the product, or closer related to the film, a film poster.

4.2.2 Teaser Trailer

The teaser trailer is the briefest type of trailer that currently can be found in the media. Whereas the theatrical trailer introduces the film more generally, with various protagonists and hints at possible narrative developments, the teaser does completely the opposite. The recently released Ghost in the Shell (2017) has five teaser trailers that were released prior to the screening of the film in cinemas. Each of these teasers shows a glimpse of the film without any story related context or further information. Though there were several teaser trailers released, the focus here will be on the first two and they will be briefly described. It must be added however, that each of these five teaser trailers provides the audience with a new piece of information concerning the film and its protagonists, but always without any further context and open for speculation as to its interpretation.

For instance, teaser trailer #1, as titled by Paramount Pictures themselves, provides an introduction to the re-appropriated world of Kôkaku Kidôtai (Ghost in the Shell 1995). Originally the narrative was introduced to the audience in the form of an anime. This renewed science-fiction story portrays the immensely shifting boundaries between human and technology, and is introduced through this first teaser trailer. The very first shot of this trailer shows the viewer a luminescent triangle, briefly flashing on the screen. The following images show us a geisha, dressed in red and gold, from behind walking slowly forward (figure 4.4). The sparsely decorated hallway and the luminous floor create a focus on the geisha. The following shot, however brief, is a close-up of the geisha’s face (figure 4.5). Though a human shape is visible, the figure is in fact an android. The image scrambles and the title of the film Ghost in a Shell briefly appears in a disrupted manner. In its entirety, this teaser trailer is 10.

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Figure 4.4 The shot shows a seemingly normal geisha from the back, highlighted by the luminous floor and dark walls.

(Ghost in the Shell, 0.01)

Figure 4.5 A medium close-up of the geisha’s face. This shot reveals the android nature of the geisha. (Ghost in the Shell,

0.05)

Figure 4.6 Protagonist Major sitting on her bed, unplugging some sort of charging device from the back of her neck. (Ghost in the Shell, 0.02)

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30 seconds long, with the images from the film coming down to roughly 6 seconds and the luminescent triangle and film title taking up the other seconds.

Teaser trailer #2 is again no longer than 10 seconds. The luminous triangle is again used in the very beginning of the teaser trailer. What then follows is a singular shot of the main protagonist Major (Scarlet Johansson). This shot portrays Major sitting on what appears a luminescent bed (figure 4.6). Her actions are limited to detaching some sort of powering device, connected to the back of her neck, and placing it next to her. The teaser trailer is concluded with again the scrambled images and pixels of the title briefly flashing on the screen. In both of the trailers a different element of the film is centralized. The first introduces the genre through focussing on the android geisha, the second teaser introduces the main protagonist to the audience, but reveal her as blurring the boundaries between human and android. When these teaser trailers are taken together it becomes clear that the film plays with the blurring lines between human and technology, and thus establishes the genre of the film as being science-fiction.

The use of the teaser trailer is not solely the domain of cinema. It is also a common practice to remind television audiences of series that are making their return to the television screen for a new season or for completely new series such as Westworld. The teaser trailer of Westworld, with a duration of 30 seconds shows a stream of shots depicting various protagonists and locations. These different shots are connected to each other by various questions directed at Dolores, one of the main protagonists, concerning her reality. This series like Ghost in the Shell, is concerned with the ever-changing relations between technology and humanity as is implied by the shots of humans and of human created skeletons suggesting some type of androids.

The chosen examples of Ghost in the Shell are exceptionally short for teaser trailers. Other teasers tend to extend their duration to some 45-60 seconds. The structure however does not diverge from what was shown in the examples of Ghost in the Shell. An example of Deadpool (2016) shows a man sitting in a dark room in a chair, which is lit when the mystery man claps his hands, revealing that Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) himself is narrating the trailer and announcing the film he is featured in (figure 4.7). Again, a protagonist is introduced without any further context. These types of trailers, that do not feature actual film material “function as in medias res paratexts, narrative segments that come from within the diegesis of the film even if they may not feature within the final movie itself” (Grainge and Johnson 2015, 149).

As becomes clear from the examples above, teaser trailers are intended to entice the audience and together with other released teasers they build anticipation and are there to intrigue

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31 the audience. Teaser trailers are inherently short, literally teasing the audience. It should be noted that some theatrical trailers tend also to be named teaser, as a way of first introduction of the film; these, however, show more narratively motivated material from the film, and for that reason they are in this research not classified as teaser trailers. The central function of the teaser trailer to intrigue the audience is closely linked to the sparse images provided. A semantic element that has not directly to do with visible content is the brief duration of the teaser trailer. In the first trailer the emphasis was on the androids playing a certain part in the film’s narrative, the second introduced the heroine as someone closely related to the shifting lines between technology and humanity, seeing how she was ‘charging’ herself. Both of these can be seen as semantic elements. Introducing the android is directly linked to the actual genre science-fiction and its connected semantics, the introduction of the main protagonist as a key semantic element of the trailer itself. Both the first and last images of the teaser trailer depicting logos and the film title are inherent to the structure of the teaser trailer and therefore are classified as credits belonging to the semantic element.

Figure 4.7 Deadpool, after revealing himself to be the narrator of this teaser trailer. This sequence takes place in the

diegetic world of the film Deadpool, but is not material to be found in the actual film. (0.31)

4.2.3 Television Advertisement for a Programmed Film

Trailers are not an exclusive marketing strategy for films to be released in cinemas. As already shown in the section concerning teaser trailers, they are also used on television to remind or introduce audiences to returning or new television shows. Television channels also utilize trailers in the form of advertisements to highlight a programmed film later that week. An interesting example of a television channel self-advertising a film is that of Dutch channel NET5. This television channel characterizes itself as a female-oriented channel with returning series such as Grey’s Anatomy, Chicago Fire, Code Black, The Good Wife, How to Get Away