This fortnight, Watching the Trailer is proud to present, Dr Leora Hadas, University of Nottingham, welcome Dr Hadas, thanks for contributing!
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On August 19th, 2013, J. J. Abrams and Bad Robot Productions sent a ripple of curiosity and rumour through the internet with the release of a minute-long video entitled “Stranger”. While the video was referred to as a trailer, it did not offer any hints as for what it was a trailer for – a new film, television show, or an existing Bad Robot project. It was only on September 9th, along with the release of a follow-up 1:45 minute video, that “Stranger” was revealed as a trailer for, of all things, a book – S., billed as “From J. J. Abrams, written by Doug Dorst”.
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On August 19th, 2013, J. J. Abrams and Bad Robot Productions sent a ripple of curiosity and rumour through the internet with the release of a minute-long video entitled “Stranger”. While the video was referred to as a trailer, it did not offer any hints as for what it was a trailer for – a new film, television show, or an existing Bad Robot project. It was only on September 9th, along with the release of a follow-up 1:45 minute video, that “Stranger” was revealed as a trailer for, of all things, a book – S., billed as “From J. J. Abrams, written by Doug Dorst”.
It would be difficult to call the S. trailers unusual, considering that, as this blog has previously discussed there is really no “usual” when it comes to book trailers. But they are unusually cryptic, which is as par course for Bad Robot and Abrams. In fact, as far as I am aware, the S. trailers were the first to use specifically the trailer, or trailer-like form (as opposed to something like an ARG or website) in advertising a media product without any indication of its medium. Coming as I do from the background of researching media authorship, I found it particularly interesting that
this came from J. J. Abrams, who continues to be renowned for his work in multiple media. I would, in fact, argue that part of the function of creating the trailers for S. was the establishment of Abrams’ author brand in the new medium of the book.
While traditional academic interest in authorship has located the auteur inside the text, looking for a creative signature as proceeding naturally from the conscious or unconscious fixations of the director or showrunner, industrial auteurism theory and my own research on promotional authorship point to the author figure as constructed paratextually and used as a means of promotion, marketing, and branding. J. J. Abrams is an excellent example of an author brand, a name attached to a set of established qualities, serving as a guide and guarantee to his audience and a sign of quality. As a celebrity creator, his creative signature is established outside of his film and television work via a slick publicity machine including social media, convention appearances, interviews, and a TED talk among other means. It is also significantly pointed out in the trailers and teasers of his work. The trailers for S. deploys a number of tropes that identify it with the “mystery box” style of storytelling presented by Abrams as his signature and fascination – see, for example, his talk at the 2007 TED conference.
Chief of those is the suggestion of a conspiracy, for example in the narration telling the viewer that “men are erased” and that “it’s all true, everything he wrote”, as well as in the evocation of a mysterious “they” who are “coming”. The appearance of suited men with flashlights implies those men as the classic Men in Black of conspiracy fiction, while the horror elements – the man with his mouth sewn shut, the traces of bloodied fingerprints – establish the association with the supernatural and with forbidden knowledge, all of which align S. with similar themes and storytelling style in Bad Robot productions Alias, Lost, and Fringe. The audience address of the narration, and the calling of attention to the medium suggest a connection with previous Abrams trailers for Super 8 and Cloverfield. Such recurring stylistic and thematic elements are highlighted not only to link the works of the author together, but to create an overall brand that exists beyond the oeuvre, into an overall philosophy and identity that Abrams continues to construct in non-specific publicity, such as his TED talk.
I would in fact suggest that the S. trailers have a further function regarding authorship. S. is Abrams’ first foray into literature – a medium that was, in effect, the birthplace of Romantic ideas of authorship. Romantic auteurism is a legitimating discourse, one which was utilized to create the idea of film, and later television, as an art form.2 In assuming the mantle of author in its more traditional literary sense, Abrams is taking something of a risk, particularly since he did not himself write S. “From J. J. Abrams, written by Doug Dorst” is a popular sell in spin-off or tie-in media; not so much in original literature. The trailers for S. act to establish the possibility of Abrams as a literary author. They adapt the tropes of the “mystery box” creative signature to the medium, and create a kind of alignment between the mysterious author character in the book itself, and Abrams himself as a mysterious author. The use of blank and scattered pages, the clicking of the typewriter, and a Plato quote to create the sense of mystery and horror, and the focus on the book as a physical “mystery box”, effectively speak to Abrams’ ability to work in the new medium and bring in his creative signature. The trailer thus serves a dual purpose. The presence of books, writing, and the mystery author in the trailer act to give the audience some clues regarding its themes and content, yet this choice of focus, which elements to reveal and which to obscure, also work to frame and mediate Abrams’ authorship.
The trailer’s final tagline, “the book is just the beginning”, invites audiences to make the link between S. and Abrams’ broader transmedia brand, reminding us that the S. trailers are not book trailers as such. The immediate media product advertised may be a book, yet the Abrams/Bad Robot connection brings the trailer in itself into its own space, as an act of showmanship and active blurring of boundaries between media. The studio and author are not simply advertising a product, but making a statement of their media omnipresence. In considering the book trailer as an evolving form, and the role of trailers in establishing promotional authorship, the S. trailers serve as an excellent milestone.
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1 “J. J. Abrams: The Mystery Box,” TED Talks video, 18:02, posted by “TED2007,” January 2008, http://www.ted.com/talks/j_j_abrams_mystery_box.html.
2 See Shyon Baumann, “Intellectualization and Art World Development: Film in the United States,” American Sociological Review 66(3) (2001), and Michael Z. Newman and Elana Levine, Legitimating Television: Media Convergence and Cultural Status (New York: Routledge, 2012).