The Ethos of Film Trailers Quantified

Common arguments amongst moviegoers often reference not only the narratives of the films themselves, but also the creative forces behind their production. “I like Nolan’s Batman,” one might argue, “but Burton’s adaptation was a joke.” This often applies to decision-making in film consumption; if an individual is on the fence about seeing a film in theaters of waiting to rent it, they might consider the auteur behind its creation. If one friend invites another to watch The Grand Budapest Hotel in theaters, an argument in its favor may often be, “it’s from Wes Anderson; we need to see it.” Whether or not this argument is a solid one is not the question, but rather the pervasiveness of this sort of reasoning. Whether the reason is because of arguments such as these, or simply to give credit where credit is due, there is hardly a film trailer today that does not proudly display the directorial and authorial individuals involved in the work. Furthermore, many trailers also let the audience know immediately that the work is “based on a true story,” or “based on the best-selling novel,” even if this is only very loosely the case. It might not occur to the average consumer to stop and think why this is done, but it does draw into question the use of this tactic, since production companies do not use it consistently across the board. For example, one film trailer might proudly show that Benedict Cumberbatch plays one of the lead roles, while another boasts that Steven Spielberg directed the film. This begs the question: What purpose does this serve? And how effective are the trailers in achieving that purpose? In this paper, the effectiveness of this rhetorical tactic will be evaluated. First, previous research on ethos and visual rhetoric will be explored, including contemporary applications of these tools. Three research questions will then be posed, and ultimately explored through the use of a Solomon Four-Group experimental design using attitudinal measures. Results will be analyzed using a Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA test run through IBM SPSS Statistics Package 23.