DRAMA TRAILER ANALYSIS: The Beach

The Beach:

Here I am going to analyse, step by step, the trailer The Beach, in order to gain a wider understanding of how films of the drama genre are portrayed through their trailers. I chose to look at The Beach due to the young characters exploring and discovering the world, discovering who they are which is the sort of plotline I wish to create - discovering yourself.
Here is the trailer:

Straight after the production companies being shown (0.04), a voiceover of the main character is introduced, as if he is talking directly to the audience using the personal pronoun 'you', telling them who he is 'my name is Richard' while a shot is shown of him filling his name onto an online document (0.07).

While the voiceover continues shots of him beginning to travel Bangkok (mentioned in voiceover) and other places are played; starting on a train 0.12, then a boat 0.14. Next there is a shot of Richard leaving what appears to be an airport across a busy road 0.16 before looking at a massive golden statue 0.18. I feel that these shots are to show that he is only just beginning his adventure/life and that the world is a huge place for people to explore and discover new things.

During the voiceover shots change to relate to certain words such as 'more beautiful' the shot changing to look at a beautiful woman and 'more dangerous' the shot changing to fire. After this there is a loud bang 0.35 and the backing music stops as well as the voiceover, this to bring the narrator back to reality or so we are first lead to believe.

The music and voice over stops as this is a crucial bit of dialogue as this is when the protagonist is told about the beach (which features the title of the film). Once he begins to explain the beach, soft music begins again while he thinks of his memories there and beautiful visuals appear while the dialogue continues before the main protagonists dialogue starts again showing grubby hotel room shots while the music again becomes more mysterious. The contrast in soft music to more mysterious as well as the changing from visually stunning shots, imply the contrasts of the protagonists life in appose to the life he could have by being at 'the beach'.

0.54 new music starts as a montage of shots are shown while Richard and his two newly found French friends go on their search for this wonderful beach island. Once they are on the island more stunning landscape shots are shown, showing views the beautiful place the film is about and drawing the audience in, as for me, it makes me want to find a paradise like this.

At 1.28 all dialogue stops while the backing music continues and snippets of their adventures on the island are shown: jumping of clips into the water, spearing fish. I especially like the visuals of the underwater shots looking up at them swimming, I think they are particularly beautiful shots.

At 1.45 the music stops abruptly and there is a flash of lightening and the sound of thunder, before dialogue of Richard explains to another character that the person who told them about the beach is dead. The sudden gloomy weather change, reflects the sudden shift in tone which is suddenly in the trailer. This is when 1.52 a shot of the man before his death appears, grabbing the protagonist by his colour talking to him aggressively and using the f-word - which is quite uncommon to use swearwords in trailers, showing that this film would possibly be targeted at a slightly older audience.

After this the tone has shifted and it becomes more confusing and less easy to follow the plotline, which I think is important to draw you in and not give too much away. The shots become quicker and busier such as a shot of leaves where you can only see slightly through them. The tone becomes more dangerous, as the protagonist is clearly having to hide from someone and showing shots of guns as well of shots of the protagonist 2.02 making traps in the jungle floor.

By this point there are just sounds of what you could only assume to hear in the jungle while shots of the protagonist holding or sleeping with a gun are shown, before the sound slowly but clearly begins to speed up clearly building towards something.

2.12 sudden gunshots are fired and there are lots of quick paced camera shots, showing people being shot down with the guns but not being able to see who are firing the shots. There are also more shots of the protagonist running and getting his French friends to be quite while they all hide - this is all while a fast paced drumming sound begins.

There isn't much dialogue in the last montage of fast paced shots except while the protagonist shouts 'I will not die today' before another shot of him running and jumping off a cliff.

This immediately makes the audience question 'does he die, or is that him just jumping off of the cliff into the water like earlier?' - This is a very important part of the trailer trying to draw the audience in and make them want to watch the film. The shot of him jumping slowly disappears while the title appears over the top, which I think is best to have last as its the last thing the audience remember, which is also the most vital.