Discursive Symbolism in A Semiotic Approach on the Joker Movie Trailer

Movie trailers are powerful marketing tool to influence audiences. Joker is the most famous villain character in the DC world. Data shows that the Joker movie trailer uploaded by movie-themed verified YouTube accounts has been watched more than 71 million times in four months. The trailer is discussed through a semiotic perspective to analyze discursive symbols in a film trailer. The result shows that there are three main connotative meanings for Joker: (1) a good person who loves his mother, (2) the formation of his identity, and (3) the transformation from a good person to a criminal.

The audience who has the information on who has the role of the Joker is rather controversial, yet agrees on it and follows the disappointment of Jared Letto as the former cast of the Joker.
From the look of things, people are rather divided on the new take on the character but seem to agree that Phoenix was a good casting pic for the character. Whether or not the film turns out any good or if there is even a point to it, however, is still up in the air. (Griffeth, 2018) The pre-research data shows that the Joker movie trailer (Phillips & Cooper, 2019) was shown in some movie-themed Even though the Joker is a villain in DC Universe, he still has a lot of fans around the world. VOLUME 19, NOMOR 1, Juni 2022: 121-138 The marketing literature about advertising effectiveness for films has primarily examined the effect of advertising budgets on the financial performance of the studio or movie. It indicates that advertising budget influences stock prices and successful movies are likely to be supported by higher budgets than poorly performing movies (Basuroy, Desai, & Talukdar, 2006, p. 294).
Movie trailers are powerful marketing tool in the film business, but they are rarely used as an object of research. Ruiz (2012Ruiz ( , p. 1876 argues, "Despite being one of the most successful marketing tools used to bring the public to the cinema, there are only a few researchers who have noticed its importance and studied it from an academic perspective". This argument is one of the main reasons researchers conduct semiotic studies on a film trailer.
A movie trailer is a content design, specifically designed to generate a positive consumer response regarding the emotional appeal, and made to captivate the movie audience so that they are attracted to come to the cinema.
The content and design of the trailer can therefore provide investors with critical information about the quality of the movie. Given that movies are hedonic products, the trailer needs to convey the hedonic aspects of the movie and generate positive consumer responses to the emotional appeals and interestingness of the trailer. (Karray & Debernitz, 2017, p. 370).
Mohan describes how a movie trailer is made to make viewers interested to see the movie.
It takes specialized skill to make the trailer in a way that connects with you and makes you anxious enough to watch the film to know more. The trailer-makers of Stree were successful in keeping that mystery intact. (Mohan in Bhatt, 2018) Mohan agrees with Ruiz, trailers are a marketing tool. This makes film trailer an interesting research topic, especially in the study of semiotics. This kind of study made a deconstruction on signs and symbols to see the meaning behind texts. Meanwhile, this study aims to describe the signs shown in the Joker movie trailer that are hidden behind denotative signs. Therefore, the researcher does not include denotative meaning in this trailer and does not describe the signs shown by the storyline.
Symbolic interactionism assumes that everything is virtual. All interactions between human individuals involve an exchange of symbols (Ahmadi, 2008, p. 302 One of the fields of study that is very relevant to be analyzed using the semiotic method is film because it is built from a sign system that works together to achieve the desired effect. Certainly, it is different from a static photographic image. The series of images in films tend to produce imaginations that are full of markers (Putra, 2021, p. 241).
After an explanation of the various signs, the next thing to do is to examine the meaning of the signifier in the advertisement. According to Charon, signs or symbols in advertisements, packaging and websites can be classified as social objects. Charon (2007, p. 48) defines, "Every object in a situation that an actor uses in that situation. The use of it has emerged socially. The usage is understood and can be applied to various situations." Meanwhile, there are four different meanings to understand symbols: (1) symbols as social objects, (2) meaningful symbols, (3) symbols used to represent and communicate, and (4) symbols that are intentionally used.
Discursive symbols are symbols that capture a method using reason or intellect so it is also called the symbol of reason. The discursive symbol contained a structure built by words according to the law of grammar and syntax. Ignorance of the law causes the sentence to lose meaning or cannot be understood, there is a blurring of meaning. The symbol provides insight and even directs the convention. Langer (in Littlejohn, Foss, & Oetzel, 2017, p. 102) mentions that symbols are every means by which we can make abstractions. Abstraction itself is the release of the form of its contents, namely the release of the same form of different content into the form of concepts.
Interpretation is a process of forming general ideas from a variety of concrete experiences. If the interpretation gives certain details in expressing objects, phenomena, or situations in more general contexts or terms, the terms will have more detail than the previous ones. Therefore, there may be an interaction between the marker, the sign, and the understanding of the viewer, which in turn will affect the viewer's interpretation of a movie trailer, where the signs create a separate interpretation for the viewers who watch it (Broden, 2002, p. 237). Kurniati (2016, p. 33) explains that the term non-verbal is usually used to describe all communication events, except spoken and written words. It can be said that non-verbal events and behavior are not truly non-verbal. The non-verbal field is an area that emphasizes the importance of phenomena that are empirical, factual, concrete, and without speech. It means that the non-verbal field is related to concrete, real objects, and can be proven through the human senses (Wibowo, 2013, p. 72). Table   1 shows the concretization of that thought.  Source: Berger in Gibraltar, 2014, p. 150 In addition, camera motion, image capture, and image capture size also have different interpretations as described in table 2, table 3, and table 4.
Everyone must have a favorite color. Usually the color affects the mood. Table  6 shows the description of the mood represented by the colors.
Moreover, Gibraltar (2014, p. 150) has an opinion that the language of colors represents different meanings of the colors. Every color has different characteristics that can both inspire and evoke emotions, such as (1) pink which is feminine, soft, soft, beautiful, and romantic; (2) red which is energetic, powerful, dynamic, active, and heat; (3) cream which is gentle, classic, exclusive, neutral, warm, and sweet; (4) orange which is carefree, popular, loud, bright, hot, and passionate; (5) pale yellow which is chirpy, sunny, warm, soft, pretty, and sweet; (6) light green which is fresh, happy, cheerful, and growth; (7) green which is classical, cool, worldly, exclusive, and quiet; (8) light blue which is calm, clean, cool, peaceful, gentle, and relaxed. Darmaprawira (in Gibraltar, 2014, p. 150) states that image color has several symbolic values in general. Red is the strongest color, the most attractive, and associated with blood, anger, courage, sex, danger, strength, masculinity, love, and happiness. Purplish red shows something noble, majestic, rich, proud (arrogant), and impressive. Purple is cold, negative, mood, easy to give up, and symbolizes sorrow.
Blue is cold, passive, quiet, peaceful, and enchanting color that draws us to solitude cools and creates distance. Moreover, blue symbolizes holiness, hope, and peace.
Green symbolizes contemplation, belief (religion), eternity, immaturity, growth, hope, rebirth, and fertility. The negative side of green is a color associated with disease, hatred, poison, and jealousy.
Yellow symbolizes enjoyment, agility, and intellect well explaining the nobility of love as well as a deep understanding of relationships between people. White means a positive, stimulating, bright, light, and simple character, also symbolizes purity, innocence, honesty, and purity. Gray is calm, polite, humble, and intelligent, and symbolizes doubt, neutral nature, and the mediator of conflict. Black symbolizes darkness and the absence of light and denotes dark forces, mystery, spoilage or error, and the night. In addition, black can also show a firm, formal, and solid structure. Semiotics does not attempt to describe the structure of the work; it is not a matter of recording structure, but rather producing a textual structure that can move (a structure that has moved from reader to reader throughout history). Textual analysis is not trying to find out what defines a text but how it spreads. (Barthes, 1981, p. 135) This research specifically observes signs and symbols throughout the trailer of The Joker movie. Zaimar (2017, p. 220) mentions that signs consist of an image, a word, an object, or even a certain type of practice and the meaning of signs depends on the relationships between the signifier.
Based on that statement, the researchers collected cut scenes in the trailer, as they contain words (verbal codes) and images (contains objects) as the source of our research data to be analyzed.
Film is a relevant field of study for semiotics. Sobur (2009, p. 59) states that films are composed of signs and include various sign systems that work together to achieve the desired effect. Films related to architectural signs, especially indexical, use more iconic signs, namely signs that describe something.
Indeed, the visual feature of the film is its similarity to the reality it shows. The dynamic images in films are icons of the reality they represent.  way of thinking about the relationship between the interviewer and the interviewed (Hydén, 2014, p. 796). Then, the interview is used to discuss the research findings as a part of the triangulation method.

FINDINGS
This research finds three major signs: (1) this trailer enlightened viewers about the relationship between the Joker and his mother; (2)   The second scene is rather complicated because it uses a two-part narrative style. The first sentence is "My mother always tells me to smile, and put on a happy face. She told me I had a purpose, to bring laughter and joy to the world." Then, the second narrative continues with the sentence "Is it just me, or is it getting crazier out there?" Those narratives are described in multiple scene cuts, as seen in figures 3, 4, 5, and 6. to bring laughter and joy to the world" as seen in figure 5. Fleck was writing down jokes and was also seen working as a clown holding a sign. This part also uses the same techniques as the first cut, using close-up and medium shots while maintaining both camera focus and lighting of the character. The last part of the scene (cut 3) continues the narrative "Is it just me or is it getting crazier out there?" It is a part when he got beaten while working as a clown, seemingly made fun of by some youngsters, then move to the cut where Fleck is facing backward sitting down in a locker room. The camera technique used is a medium shot, while zooming in on him as seen in figure 6. All cuts in the scene focused on the character.
The connotative sign in scene 2 can be found in the narrative sentences working side-by-side with the cuts shown in the trailer, with every word shown, and empowering the cuts. The dark nuance in this scene describes blue-ish dark instead of black, which signifies the absence of light while depicting passive and peaceful nuance (Darmaprawira, 2002, p. 73). All the cuts in this scene show the importance of the storytelling, by using the close-up and medium shots to signify intimacy and personal relationship (Sosrojudho, 2008, p. 73). Another indication is the object is always visible in the center of the screen at a larger scale than the surrounding objects.
The third scene is quite long and filled with a soundtrack "Smile" by Jimmy Durante (Agar, 2019) with an enormous amount of cuts, but no dialogue. The denotative sign in this scene can be observed through cuts when Fleck was bathing his mother and then dancing wither, as seen in figures 7 and 8. They use a medium shot, still in a dark environment focusing on both characters in both camera and lighting. Iman and Putra add some interesting points about this finding.
I like how this trailer shows us how close and personal Fleck's relationship was before he became the Joker. For me, it is a clear sign that he is a caring and loving person as we can see when he dances with his mother, and when he bathes her. (Iman, director, interview, September 8 th , 2019) For me, Fleck was seemingly an honest person, it's shown by both his facial expression and body gesture when he's spending time with his mother, therefore it's an honest close relationship as he is happily caring for his mother, not doing it under pressure at all" (Putra, a scriptwriter, interview, September 9 th , 2019)   Lyrically, "Smile" tells the listener to keep their head up high no matter how bad things get, because tomorrow could bring about better fortunes. In a twisted way, this message can be applied to Joker's Arthur Fleck, who becomes increasingly convinced the world is a crazy and bizarre place. Footage in the trailer shows Arthur is somewhat down on his luck; he's frequently beaten up by strangers and struggling as a stand-up comedian. In response, he transforms into the Joker, a character prominently known for his psychotic smile. As Arthur says, he used to think his life was a tragedy but realized it's a comedy. Dressing up as a killer clown may not be what Arthur's mom or Durante had in mind when they said to smile, but Arthur's trying to make sense of it all in his way. (Agar, 2019) The argument tells the whole story of the trailer, but in this scene, the lyrics  (Darmaprawira, 2002, p. 73) is shown by the lyric "Smile" which signifies a peaceful and empowering mood. The connotative sign in the scene that is dominated by the black and brown nuance in two of the scene cuts. According to Sobur (2009, p. 59), it depicts and signifies sadness and a broken heart. However, the last cut of the scene is bright white-dominant which signifies pureness, brightness, and a positive character (Gibraltar, 2014, p. 148). The camera techniques used in this scene always put the objects and characters in the center of the screen which signifies importance (Sosrojudho, 2008, p. 33). Moreover, the shots used are close-up which signifies intimacy, and medium shot which signifies personal relationship (Sosrojudho, 2008, p. 33). The camera movement used is a dollyin, which signifies focus or observation (Sosrojudho, 2008, p. 33).
The fifth scene has the same formula as the fourth scene with the same continuation of the same soundtrack and narration.
However this time, the words narrated by Arthur Fleck who said, "I used to think that my life is a tragedy. But now I realize, it's a comedy." The denotative sign can be observed in the fifth scene which begins with a black screen with the phrase "PUT ON" in white font color, at the center of the screen, as seen in figure 17. Later on, it showed Fleck wearing a red clown nose, walking towards a gate using a medium shot, focusing on Fleck's walking, and then it is cut to the next part. The second cut, as seen in figure 18, showed that Fleck was kneeling and forcing a smile on a child with both his index finger in his white shirt and brown coat while separated by an iron fence gate. This second cut uses a medium shot, focusing on the child being forced to smile by Fleck. The third cut begins with a black background, similar to the first cut, in two phrases "A HAPPY" and then "FACE" The cut focused on Fleck seemingly smiling on stage, as seen in figure 19. The camera technique used is a close-up. The last two cuts were narrated by Fleck. The two parts showed two completely different things. The first one showed Fleck in clown makeup was breaking a mirror with his face while narrating, "I used to think that my life was a tragedy," as seen Everyone knows who or what the Joker is, a crazy villain, wearing a clown suit doing evil stuff, but this trailer shows how he transcends from a day job comedic clown to a whole new identity, the last two scenes show us as viewers how Arthur Fleck becomes the Joker. (Iman, a director, interview, October 20 th , 2019) Well, this trailer showed us how normally a loving person can be a villain, this is not just a villain, the Joker is one of the greatest villain characters ever written in DC history, and this trailer showed his human side, a character study on becoming the Joker himself with his new identity. And his identity is shown by his makeup and purple suit. (Putra, a scriptwriter, interview, October 20 th , 2019) The connotative signs of this scene are dominated by bright white, signifying purity, brightness, and positive character (Darmaprawira, 2002, p. 73). The camera techniques used are the close-up shot which signifies intimacy and the medium shot which signifies personal relationship. They always put the objects and characters in the center of the screen which signifies importance in both character and object, such as a white font with VOLUME 19, NOMOR 1, Juni 2022: 121-138 black background (Sosrojudho, 2008, p. 33).
The camera movement used is the dolly-in which signifies focus or observation and cuts to describe relationships within separated cuts in the scene (Sosrojudho, 2008, p. 33).
The sixth scene, as the last scene is an outro, showed two separate cuts. The first one showed the title of the movie "JOKER" and the second one was a fade-in scene showing Arthur Fleck as the Joker wearing his famous suit. and nose. In addition, he has lime green as the color of his long hair, a dark green shirt, and a brown jacket. From a brown-ish wooden background, the camera fades out from a medium shot to black.
The connotative sign in this scene is indicated by the title of the movie, written in white with a black background, referring to the important part of the trailer. Sosrojudho (2008, p. 33) argues that objects in the middle of the screen indicate that they are important because they are supported by the lighting, camera focus, and the size of the objects. The objects include the title and the main character in the same format. It means that they have similar importance in this trailer. The dark nuance in this scene indicates power (Sobur, 2009, p. 33).

At the beginning of the trailer, Arthur
Fleck, the Joker's real name, says that his mother always tells him to smile and put Other denotative signs of his close relationship with his mother are shown in two scenes. The one is when he's bathing his mother, as seen in figure 7, and the other showed when he's dancing with his mother, as seen in figure 8. Those denotative signs show us that, connotatively the Joker, previously known as Arthur Fleck, is a good person that has a good intimate and personal relationship with his mother as he takes care of her. The myth behind all this is a well-known myth as if a person takes care of someone means that he has a good relationship with those whom he takes care of. With all those signs shown in the trailer, it can be concluded that the Joker is a good caring person who takes care of his mother.
The symbol in this movie trailer to depict the Joker's close relationship with his mother is the happy emotion shown in two scenes. The first scene is when Fleck The craziness of Gotham city turns Arthur Fleck into his dramatic persona, the so-called Joker. There are specifically two scenes that depict Gotham city's way to push Fleck lower, both scenes depict violence as he got beaten. The first one is when he dresses as a clown whilst working, and is then made fun of by a group of youngsters in an alleyway as seen in figure   6. The second one is when Fleck was on a train, laughing sarcastically-also then got beaten up by a group of men in suits as seen in figure 7. This scene that shows the madness of Gotham city is empowered by Thomas Wayne's narrative, "Gotham's lost its way." Both scenes share the same symbols. The violence is a crime and it shows that the city is very violent. Both scenes are then strengthened by Fleck's sentence when he said, "Is it just me, or is it getting crazier out there?" His words refer to the great violence that he suffers from, where connotative sign speaks of great violence that happens daily in a form of an unorderly city.
His clown makeup is a persona that he created as a mask for his new identity, as a personification of his sentence, "I used to think that my life was a tragedy, now I realize it's a comedy". From this, smiling is his identity, as he tried to smile before, but then sarcastically smiled when he became the Joker.
All signs described in this trailer are symbols. According to Charon (2007, p. 48) social objects, as symbols, are intentionally created and used to communicate and represent something to others and ourselves.
Besides, Charon and Vigilant (2008, p. 51) also argue that symbols are intentionally used to represent and communicate.
Symbols are not created as an ordinary denotative symbol, but a connotative discursive symbols. They are expressed sequentially and not spontaneously. In addition, the connotation is the tone of a text and how has been decorated (Barthes in Krampen, 1987, p. 80). In the final analysis, the signified of a connotative sign is the fragment of an ideology, and the signified, in turn, rhetoric, both going back to a real system via metalanguage even here no differences are made between communication and indications. Thus, anything which furnishes meaning becomes a sign, and any group of the sign becomes a system, although neither the existence of an intention to communicate, not of a complete sign inventory, nor a combination of rules or opposing features, is proven (Krampen, 1987, p. 59-88).

CONCLUSION
All the signs and symbols as social objects in this movie trailer are wellconstructed to depict three main points, as this is a single character study-based movie, that depicts the main character as a good caring person before turning into the culturally most famous villain character in the DC Universe known as the Joker. Secondly, his mother was the main reason for him being the good and evil in her absence. Lastly, this trailer also shows how his identity as The Joker is invented.
This trailer depicts his journey from good to evil in a short period, mainly caused by the absence of his mother and the madness of Gotham city. Scenes are well-arranged, using both verbal and non-verbal symbols such as facial expression, body language, and also narrative-style sentences.