Introduction
Paratexts are a component of producing a film’s development and marketing steps. Paratext phenomena prepare and allow for the reading and interpretation of films. Film paratexts act as a bridge between a film and its audience. These paratexts help shape the expectations and reputation of the film, which adds meaning to the consumption of a film. Traditional film paratexts range from promotions and advertising materials to reviews, but the cultural and digital shifts currently drive new iterations. Paratexts strongly influence film consumption; therefore, it calls for media literacy. This paper will focus on both the traditional and modern paratexts such as reviews, audio commentary, trailers, and their relevance to the production and consumption of films.
Trailers
Examination of movie trailers creates awareness of the film in the audience, which eases its marketing process. Trailers are short, and to capture the audience, they need to contain exaggerated extravagance and intriguing cinematic images. The audience will be sold to the movie only if the trailer aligns with their desires of what they expect from that specific film. The time restriction of the trailers triggers the audience to create an imaginary film out of the scenes shown to them, increasing their urge to see the actual movie. The film industry targets the young population because they dominate the cinema consumption market.
Demographics are the main method of segmentation used. Film advertisers use different ways of segmenting audiences to designate their target audiences. It would be imperative to gauge whether trailers are relevant based purely on demographics because, as indicated earlier, the only market targeted is that of young people below the age of twenty-five. It has been proven that different film genres have attracted various audiences in the past years. Consumers select a film based on their moods, meaning that some clients will choose a comedic film, while others will choose a serious movie.
For this reason, marketers should ensure to portray strong emotions by selecting parts that depict those emotions strongly. Previous studies indicate that consumers are interested in watching a serious film after a trailer in a positive mood. Alternatively, consumers are willing to watch a comedic film after watching the trailer in a negative mood.
There exists a relationship between the consumers’ movie genre preference and the expected value of entertainment of the films that have been advertised. As indicated earlier, demographics alone are not enough to use to segment movie trailers. Therefore, marketers have now focused their attention on the film genres to allow consumers to receive the most from their desired film. By incorporating market research, marketers have gained a clear understanding of the consumers and use the available resources to understand further how they can meet their specific needs. Consumers choose a specific film based on their preferred genre because they believe that the movie will satisfy their entertainment needs. Trailers are relevant in the production and consumption of films because they help marketers gather information regarding the kind of show that attracts the attention of the majority of consumers. Trailers provide consumers with a sneak peek of what is to come, helping them understand the film’s genre and plot.
Most people who watch films are invested in the plot and characters, while a few are invested in the plot and production, including its authorship. This audience will watch a film because a certain person is a director. It is important for these people to feel the personal influence and artistic vision of the directors and writers throughout the film. Others would prefer minimal influence, which will not affect the nature of the film. These different audiences will get all this information from watching the trailer and decide whether they will watch the entire film. Directors should cater to both types of audiences and emphasize this aspect of authorship in the movie trailer.
Trailers affect the consumption of a film because, through them, consumers can gauge the spectatorship of the movie and decide whether it is fulfilling their entertainment desires. Trailers entail the music that has been used in the film, and the consumers are also able to catch the narrative. The audience can gauge whether the film will engage their emotions and interests. The traditional model audience models responded to a film by treating listeners and viewers as groups. Spectatorship depicts that every movie develops a special relationship with every individual who has had its experience. Trailers allow the consumers to identify whether they connect to a certain film even before watching it entirely. Producers can see the acceptance of the film in the market. When many people watch the film after viewing the trailer, producers will know that it is acceptable in the market, and they will produce more of the same genre or those that target the consumers’ emotions.
Reviews
People make decisions all the time, and one such kind of decision is what content one would like to watch. The majority of adults read reviews before deciding on a film to watch. About twenty percent of these people highly depend on other people’s opinions regarding the movie they are planning on watching. Criticism is a crucial part of every kind of art, and the film expects it to give them value for their time. Nowadays, everybody is busy with different aspects of their lives, ranging from studies to work. Therefore, no one has the time to waste on a film that will not entertain them in the end. For this reason, movie reviews come in handy because a person will check a certain film’s ratings before deciding on whether to watch it or look for other types of films. Reviews are a consumer tool because they can make either hype a particular movie or discourage other people from watching a certain film.
The earliest movie review was written in the early 1900s for a film called The Optical Lantern and Cinematograph Journal. The second review was written in 1908 for the Bioscope film. These two examples depict that criticism is a revered and ancient form of art. By the 1930s, the media began making more film reviews. Initially, films did not have a designated section in the newspapers, and they would be fixed in a sports section or other sections of the paper. However, film reviews got more coverage with time, and more people became interested in reading them before watching them. For a long time, reviews were more about the ratings than the film. Readers began focusing more on the reviews with the evolving nature of the criticisms and compliments.
Reviews have great relevance in the production and consumption of films because, as indicated earlier, most people read the reviews before deciding whether to watch the clip. Reviews also assess the film’s branding and state whether it suits it because some films feature stars people either like or dislike. A film can sell greatly just because of the lead role. It is, however, important to understand that certain lead roles only go along with certain genres. Reviews help gauge all these, and they provide a good platform for the movie producers to track their performance on the released film. These reviews help them identify the strengths and weaknesses of the film and provide a basis for the future production of other films.
Some reviews are shallow, where people note whether they liked or disliked a certain film. Other reviews, however, provide an in-depth analysis of the film, and they spiral down to its authorship and how it influenced its nature. Some writers and producers allow too much of their influence to be felt in the film, and this might either be a good thing or a bad thing depending on the type of audience. Some people feel that a lot of personal influence will affect the nature of the film, and they will write a review to express their opinions. The producers can use these reviews to gauge whether their influence helped or ruined the film, which will help them make future production decisions.
Reviews also focus on the spectatorship of a film because the consumers focus even on the little details such as editing of certain parts, some shots, and the music used in the movie. The film’s plot might be good, but the consumers might feel that its editing was poor. Such issues might not cause a person not to watch the film, but they might ruin their experience. Reviews, therefore, help the marketers understand how the films give pleasure to the consumers, and they improve on the highlighted areas in their next productions.
Audio Commentary
An audio commentary refers to a bonus track that entails comments or a lecture of more than one speaker who discuss the film as it progresses. The commentary can include informative or entertaining information that most viewers would not be aware of regarding the film. Audio commentaries are usually sold as separate audio tracks on a DVD, and one DVD can carry several commentaries. This type of pretext is traditional because it is not as common today. There are two main types of audio commentaries, and these are partial and feature-length. Partial or scene-specific commentaries focus on selected scenes of the films, while feature-length films or screen-specific films focus on the entire film.
Audio commentaries began in the twentieth century and are there until today. Criterion Collection release of King Kong Film in 1984 featured the first audio commentary done by Ronald Haver. Commentaries have major relevance in the production and consumption of films because it helps the audience understand the story’s plot and realize some information they might have missed. Commentaries cannot be used to identify whether a film has been accepted well in the market because many people do not like listening to them because they are distracting.
Audio commentaries mostly focus on the authorship of a film. This aspect helps the audience understand the film well because they get to see what the author was thinking while writing or directing certain scenes of a film. Eurotrip has a commentary that features the directors and writers, and they explain their artistic vision, individual sensibility, and personal influence on the film. Some films have two commentaries, one from the audience that loves them and another from critics. Both might focus on the film’s authorship and how it positively and negatively affected the production.
Many audio commentaries do not interest the casual viewer, but some stand out, especially those with historical elements. Commentaries help the audience understand the film’s spectatorship because some emphasize certain shots, which are a point of interest. An example of this is when Judd Apatow orders the actors in Superbad not to swear because of his nine-year-old daughter in the film’s audio commentary. Actors began making fun of him, and Apatow left with his daughter before finishing the commentary. Apatow represents many people who would be interested in the film but fail to watch it because of certain aspects, such as the constant swearing of actors. For this reason, the producers will have to solve this issue by setting an age restriction in their next productions.
Conclusion
Trailers, reviews, and audio commentary are examples of paratexts that greatly influence the production and consumption of a film. In the above paratextual analysis, it is clear that reviews, trailers, and audio commentaries focus on different aspects of the film, such as authorship, spectatorship, and genre. Reviews and trailers were common in the past years and are still common today, and this is not the case for audio commentaries because most people do not listen to them nowadays. A good trailer will make people want to watch the film, positive reviews about a movie will attract more viewers, and positive and educative audio commentaries will increase the views of the film. The same case applies if the paratexts were negative, as they would lower the views of the film, and that is how these paratexts influence its consumption. Their relevance to the production of films is significant because producers use them to gauge whether a film was accepted in the market and use this information to make future production decisions.
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