CALL FOR PAPERS: ‘Selling Screens: The Culture and Design of Titles, Teasers and Trailers’

Co-editorial team: Dr Keith M. Johnston (University of East Anglia) and Daniel Hesford (Independent Scholar and Screenwriter)

The last decade has seen a significant growth of critical and practical interest in the study of the short-form promotional materials that surround films and TV shows, from title sequences and idents to teasers and trailers (Frames 2013; Davison 2013; Grainge 2011; Gray 2010; Johnston 2009). This has been matched by awareness within media and marketing industries that the traditional boundaries between ‘promotional materials’ and ‘entertainment content’ have become increasingly fluid. While media scholarship has examined the textual and paratextual status of promotional materials (often examined as a preview of coming attractions), these dynamic and ubiquitous features of screen life have yet to be fully accounted for as creative forms in their own right.

This special issue of Arts Marketing is driven by the journal’s desire to foreground cutting edge work, moving beyond conventional categorisation of marketing towards an interdisciplinary approach that considers the relationship between media technologies, society and the individual. This issue aims to draw together scholars from distinct disciplines and with different methodological approaches, to assess and challenge the current state of media studies-led approaches to screen-based marketing materials such as film, television and online titles, teasers and trailers.

The editors are particularly eager to include articles which combine academic work around definitions and categories for such materials, analysis of practitioner culture and professional practice within the promotional screen industries, and research into audiences and the circulation of promotional short-forms within new media marketing ecologies.

By opening out perspectives on the typologies, production, design, placement and function of these materials, the special issue aims to demonstrate the broader need for a methodologically-diverse approach to contemporary media studies research into screen marketing and branding.

Indicative topics could include:

• The changing role of the cross-media trailer
• Television brand identities as marketing materials
• Promotional cultures across film, television and other industries
• The relationship of ‘Second screen’ technology and marketing
• The title or end credit sequence as marketing / paratext
• Fan appropriation of titles, teasers and trailers for non-marketing use
• Gender practices in promotional spaces

Enquiries should be directed to keith.johnston@uea.ac.uk and danielhesford@gmail.com. To allow for a full peer-review process, completed articles (5-6,000 words) should be submitted by Friday 25th July 2014.

 

---

The Hardware and Software Behind ELMAR Is Paid for with AMA Dues Please Support ELMAR by joining the AMA or renewing your membership