DY I N G YO U N G

TRAILER DECONSTRUCTION

GENRE

The genre of the film, melodrama, is suggested through the hospital setting (top image), emotions of the characters (middle image) and the costumes (bottom image). The setting, emotionality and costumes all help to establish what the genre is as they are normally things associated with the melodrama genre and have a “sad” feel to them. The soundtrack, which is a sad instrumental piece, also helps to establish the genre as piano instrumentals are often designed to generate emotion. I particularly like the ways Dying Young has established the genre and would consider using something similar in my trailer as it is very effective.

NARRATIVE

The trailer tells a heartbreaking story of how a man who is terminally ill and then falls in love with his nurse. It follows the emotional and romantic side of dealing with the terminal illness and the relationship between the two. There is little focus on other characters and we only see the protagonist’s father at one point; otherwise the trailer focuses entirely on the relationship between the two. The narrative flows well and addresses crucial points in the plot and this is something I will bare in mind when producing my trailer as I liked this a lot.

CHARACTERS

There are two prominent protagonists in the trailer: Victor Geddes and Hilary O’Neil. The trailer focuses on these two characters for the majority of the trailer and their relationship with each other. Personally, I did not like that they focused only on 2 characters as I believe that introducing a variety of smaller characters helps to familiarise the audience with who is starring in the film. In my trailer I am likely to include more than 2 characters as I would like to portray the thoughts and opinions of other characters rather than just the main protagonist.

Victor Geddes

Hilary O’Neil

SETTING

The various settings used within the trailer are fairly natural and realistic which emphasises the message that any person can be struck with this illness. On the other hand, Victor lives in a mansion and it is full of stereotypical connotations of a wealthy persons house such as fountains, large dining rooms and tall rooms - I particularly liked this setting. The couple move away to a seaside resort and this once again shows the ordinary life that they are trying to live. The trailer features a lot of establishing shots so that the audience is familiar with the setting and I think this is effective and I am likely to do something similar in my own trailer.

TARGET AUDIENCE

• The target audience of the trailer is likely to be young adults – adults because the film features predominantly older characters and the lack of teenagers and children suggests that perhaps this film is not aimed at that age group. Since my trailer is aimed at teenagers, I will do something similar and have a lot of teenage characters in the trailer so that the film appeals to them.

SOUNDTRACK

• The soundtrack features an instrumental piano piece accompanied by strings which suggests that this film is going to be of a sad genre because the music is very melancholic. I liked the music choice and will include something similar in my own since I believe it helps to establish the genre and to raise emotions.

• There is only one piece of music used for the soundtrack so I will do something similar since I believe that having one simple soundtrack is better than having a lot as the trailer can become disorganised and the narrative doesn’t flow as well.

SHOT TYPES/ANGLES & EDITING

As mentioned in previous slides, the trailer uses a variety of shot types and angles such as close ups, establishing shots, older the shoulder shots and pan shots. I believe that using a variety is very effective as it lets the audience see a variety of aspects and emotions of the characters. I am likely to include several types of shot types in my trailer in order to do this. The editing in the trailer mainly consists of quick cuts which helps to quicken the pace of the trailer. They rarely use dissolves which is conventional of melodrama genre, however, so I am unsure whether I will do this too since I believe dissolves are a smooth, better transition.

DIALOGUE

• The trailer includes a lot of dialogue from various parts of the film so that the audience can get an idea of what the film will be about through seeing various scenes. I aim to do this in my trailer since I liked it and it is a common convention of trailers.• The trailer also had several sound bridges, i.e.

where dialogue was going over different clips like a voiceover. I liked this as I thought it was effective and made the editing look more professional so I aim to do something similar in my own trailer.

CREDITS AND TITLES

The logo of the institution responsible for producing the film is shown at the beginning of the trailer. This is a common convention in trailers and is something that I am likely to use in my own trailer. Titles are only used in the trailer to show who is starring and the name of the film. I do not like how they only include titles for the actors and title of the film as I believe that having titles which provide information such as critics opinions and phrases which help to describe the plot are more effective. The trailer also includes credits at the end which is again a common convention of trailers so I am likely to use this in my own trailer.