Paratexts In and around Fight Club

These trailers are also an example of ‘Paratexts’ which Gray(2010) describes as the hype, synergy, promos, and peripherals that surround a media text.  This would include all marketing materials that surround the text as well as fandom that is created on the text. So in the case of our case study ‘Fight Club’ the paratexts that surround this media text would be: Posters, Official Trailers, Fan Trailers, Clothing, Chat Show Interviews (e.g. Jonathan Ross) and any other fan fiction. This list may sound familiar, and that’s because many people may see Paratexts to be the same things as Cross Platform Media, and it can be argued that they’re right. However I believe Paratexts to be a sub branch of Cross Platform Media, as the majority of things that lie under ‘Paratexts’ are also part of cross platform media. But there is also some content that lies under Paratext that wouldn’t be, as Gray discusses; Paratexts are not simply add ons, spinoffs, and also-rans: they create texts, they manage them, and fill them with meaning.
Although the most famous Paratext from Fight Club is argued to be the posters, in the marketing side, the most important paratext is the trailer. This is due to it generally being the biggest and most high budget marketing tool that studios use to promote a film. They’re shown everywhere: On your television, in the cinema, even when you’re waiting for the tube –  so a lot of work goes into making a capturing trailer that will draw in the viewers to going to watch their film. A good trailer should grip the viewer within the first few seconds, In the opening shot of the Fight Club trailer we see the character of Tyler Durden asking “I want you to hit me as hard as you can” (Uhls, 1999) to the Narrator. The fact that Tyler is played by Brad Pitt, who is one of the biggest sex symbols in modern culture, would entice and confuse the audience as this is out of character/type from the usual eye candy roles that Pitt tends to portray. Immediately following this is the intercut text graphic which says ‘From the Director of Seven’. To people who had previously seen Seven (Fincher, 1995) this would signify to them that as Se7en was such a dark film and also starred Pitt, therefore this could be a film of a similar vein. The background in all of the intercut text graphics depicts a brain’s neural network in which the thought processes are initiated by the narrator’s fear impulse (Smith, 1999). I believe that this imagery of the brain’s network, could signify that this film is also to do with the mind, which is why the film’s genre is  often described as a Psychological Thriller. In addition, it could firstly be in reference to the narrator’s insomnia. which is something that is mentioned to the audience very early in the trailer. Secondly, it could be a subtle reference to the fact that the narrator and Tyler Durden actually share the same brain as they are actually the same person, which is revealed at the end of the film, but obviously is not shown in the trailer. Although to someone like me who studies the media on a day to day basis this trailer seems fascinating,gripping and enticing. It is clear to see that this was not the case amongst the general public which can be shown by firstly the negative comments about this trailer on youtube and secondly how it failed to bring in viewers to watch the film which can be seen by its box office figures.