The sound texture of the trailer. Case study of the film «Jaws»

Abstract

This article, the result of a broader investigation into film promotion, attempts to carry out an analysis from the point of view of sound (both music and voice) of the official trailer (or film preview) produced for the promotion and dissemination of the American feature film Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975). The choice of this trailer responds to the turning point that it introduced from a creative point of view with the visual absence in the trailer of the main character (or protagonist of the work) and to the social and cultural impact that the film had within the framework of New Hollywood. This cinematographic preview does not present a conglomeration of significant and striking scenes from the film it promotes, as advertising products of the time tended to do, but it introduces a new way of hearing cinematographically as a valid alternative way of seeing and, of course, of listening to the audiovisual work. This new cinematic way of listening where music and image are perceived by the audience as a narrative and aesthetic unit with an enormous sensory and emotional impact. The success of the official trailer for Jaws is based precisely on the fact that it manages to advertise and promote the film not with its visual special effects, but with a careful handling of its soundtrack as a whole (music, sound spaces and voice). Therefore, the sound texture of the trailer is what promotes and invites potential viewers to go to the cinema, buy a ticket, and watch the advertised feature film.