Chapter 8. Structure and function in the generic staging of film trailers

This chapter discusses the generic structure of 12 comedy film trailers and explains how the promotional goals of trailers influence the way in which their generic staging is multimodally structured. Given that trailers are designed to sell and tell a story, it is argued that the specificity of these trailers’ generic structure lies in their dynamic interplay between narrative and promotional structures. The chapter proposes a model of analysis that emerges from the interdisciplinary intersection between multimodality, genre theory and film studies. The analysis draws upon and extends these theoretical frameworks by examining the interdependencies between semiotic modes in a distinct generic structure in which each functional stage achieves a specific communicative purpose.