Movies and TV shows are often the subjects of intense publicity campaigns. Lisa Kernan has suggested that publicity materials (trailers specifically), “have proven to be an effective means for the film industry to encapsulate and promote the particular type of experience a given film will provide” (365). This type of experience can be based on genre, on archetype/myth, or on some other category or association.
In Assignment #5, you will construct your own analysis of the publicity campaign for a particular film, considering questions like: What “type of experience” is being offered in the materials you see? How does the advertising use familiar, genre-based, or myth-based cues to tell the audience what to expect? What are the central appeals that are made and how (using specific analysis) do you see each text making them? Do the advertising or peripheral texts ‘package’ or distort the movie or tv show in order to attract viewers?
In this assignment, for the first time, you will be bringing together your own analysis of primary texts of your own selection (“I say”) and one critical source from Signs of Life (“they say”). Your essay should be argumentative, and thesis-driven. It should focus around a clear point, making claims about evidence from your primary text in light of the ideas offered by your conversation partner (secondary source).
Primary Sources:
For this paper, your primary source will be a trailer from a specific movie’s publicity campaign.
You must select a minimum of one trailer to use as a primary source.
If you choose, you may select an additional 1-2 sources. You could analyze more than one trailer (do they play to different audiences? What gets left in/out?), compare trailers for a film and its sequel (how does the assumption of what is familiar to the audience shift?), or select a set of related publicity materials (other sources could include packaging of the DVD, poster, or any other movie-related tie-ins.)
You must supply a list of the primary sources you are using along with all drafts of the paper.
Secondary Sources:
For secondary sources, you must cite (as in, refer directly to or quote from) one or two articles from this list as they are related to your analysis. Remember, these articles are here to allow YOU to use them to support your argument. Put yourself into conversation with these authors and let their ideas develop yours, but emphasize your own thesis and argument.
Lisa Kernan, “Trailer Rhetoric” (365-74, handout)—movie trailers as genre-based
Michael Agresta, “How the Western was Lost—and Why it Matters” (358-363)
Christine Folch, “Why the West Loves Sci-Fi and Fantasy: A Cultural Explanation” (311-325)
Your essay should include:
An introduction that provides background context for your primary text(s) and concludes with a statement of your main thesis/claim about what you think the publicity campaign seems to be trying to accomplish.
Multiple paragraphs that divide, focus, and organize the information you have gathered about the primary texts for your reader. These paragraphs should each be tied to the main thesis using a topic sentence and should be organized in such a way that they move from the simplest to the most complex. Refer to ideas from the secondary sources as they relate to the ideas you are trying to develop.
A conclusion that attempts to answer the “so what?” question, placing the argument or the ideas from your analysis back in a wider cultural context.
The most successful papers will include an insightful thesis that offers an interesting, complex idea about the primary text, detailed and clear analysis of various components of the primary text, a clear integration of and response to the secondary text and a title. They will be clearly organized, formatted correctly, and free of sentence-level errors.
Length: 3-4 pages
Formatting: 12-point font, 1-inch margins, MLA style heading at the top left of the first page that includes your name, your instructor’s name, the course, and the assignment.
Michael Agresta, “How the Western was Lost—and Why it Matters” :
