Trailer analysis

By Saffron Smith

The first image in the trailer is the distribution company. This indicates to the audience who has created the film, this might already catch their attention if they usually like the films the company makes. Showing this indicates that it is going to be a British film as it is not a typical HollyWood production company, identifying the genre straight away, that it is a low budget social realism film most likely.

The first image that we see in the trailer is a mid close up shot of four young men running through the street which makes the audience question how? and why? This is an enigma code (Barthes enigma code) as the audience don’t know what is happening and they have to work it out themselves, it is a mystery that draws the audience in it will make them want to watch the film to find out what they’re actually running from. There is non-diegetic dialogue saying “Choose life” “Choose a job” which still doesn’t give much away to the audience.

Another mid shot appears where the character is being hit by the car. The camera is situated within the car, which adds verisimilitude to the incident and makes it look as if the audience have ran him over themselves, which makes the scene more shocking to watch. By this stage the audience would have probably established that he is the main character as he is always the main focus in the shots and usually centre framed. Whilst he is running away from what is assumed to be a disruption he comes into contact with another disruption.

Another mid shot is used to introduce the first character, this shows that Renton is the main character as he is introduced first and is in most of the shots and is centre framed. We can tell by the makeup and his facial features that he isn’t exactly ‘normal’ his face is discoloured and he looks too happy to have been hit by a car. This shot creates a connection with the audience making them want to see what is wrong with him by watching the whole film.

This close up shot of a man and woman identifies this must be Rentons girlfriend. You can see that there is a clear connection between both of them as they’re looking directly into each other's eyes. However they both don’t look very happy, there is possible tension between the pair. This shot encourages the audience to watch the full length film to know what happens between them both.

All the other characters are then introduced in a similar way, all centre framed and the main point of the image. This shows these are the four main most important characters and all play key parts within the film. The numbers next to their names seem to show the importance of each character. They all clearly aren’t exactly the most ‘normal’ people as they all have unusual facial features. The audience is given a slight insight to all the characters which would hopefully make them want to find out more.

Both of these shots include violent behaviours which signifies that this will be a key feature within the film. Making it clear to the audience that violence will be used a lot throughout, which is expected in a social realism film. The shot with the gun is an enigma code as the audience don’t know who that character is and why they want to shoot him, leaving them with unanswered questions.

This image will confuse the audience as it is an unrealistic image that can’t possibly be real. It emphasises the use of drugs and it makes it clear that this is what the film is going to be based around. The use of drugs typically occurs a lot within social realism films, so it fits the stereotype well.

The title of the film ‘Trainspotting’ is shown at the end of the trailer this is so that the audience can become excited and get into the trailer, then putting the title at the end helps them remember it rather than if it was at the start then they watched the trailer they would probably forget.