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Johnston, Keith M. 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1989-8549 and Balzar, Jesse
(2024)
Forecasting the future feature: How film industry hierarchies shaped trailer discourse, 1919-1959.
Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television.
ISSN 0143-9685
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Abstract
The coming attraction film trailer has successfully maintained its prominent role within film promotion for over a hundred years. This article explores the shifting historical status of the trailer within the film industry and how industry trade press reported on its development and widespread adoption. Across this period these publications worked to delineate the discursive borders within which trailer debate occurred: from attacks on the trailer’s usefulness to related claims of accuracy and fidelity. Exploring the creation of this discourse challenges the idea that the increasingly negative tone around the film trailer in the 21st century is a uniquely modern phenomenon. The article argues that these initial industry strategies need to be understood in relation to key cultural and industrial concerns around commerce and artistry, critical cultural gatekeeping, and broader interests in forecasting. By focusing on a largely overlooked element of the classical Hollywood system, we demonstrate how trailers existed in a disputed space within that system: a crucial promotional tool but also a creatively potent film text.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Art, Media and American Studies |
| UEA Research Groups: | Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Comics Studies Research Group Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Film, Television and Media Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > British Cinema & Television |
| Related URLs: | |
| Depositing User: | LivePure Connector |
| Date Deposited: | 25 Oct 2023 02:24 |
| Last Modified: | 24 Jan 2024 01:34 |
| URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/93461 |
| DOI: | 10.1080/01439685.2023.2296229 |
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