Selling the “Star Beast” – 24th May 2019 @ Bangor University

This was probably my favourite paper to research and present though it took a little while to get to it. I initially wanted to focus on the sound and editing in the film but so much has already been written and said about that, by smarter people than I, that I wasn’t sure where to begin. I also received some invaluable feedback early on in the research process which set me off looking for something more novel to investigate, which led me to the trailers.

This was a significant departure for me both in terms of the topic I was working with, but also the direction the research took. I ended up doing a number of interviews to flesh out my understanding of the film marketing machine in the 70’s, and also to learn some more about the unique aspects of the Alien trailer campaign. I am deeply indebted to Hy Smith (former VP of Publicity at UA), Peter Frankfurt at Imaginary Forces, Jonathan Elias, John Klawitter and David Weitzner (former President of Worldwide marketing at 20th Century Fox) for their time and input.