British Flim- Slumdog Millionaire

Which trailer conventions are present and what is their effect on the audience?

One of the conventions used in this trailer is the use of dialogue, the trailer starts off with “welcome to who wants to be a millionaire” this immediately introduces the audience into the main narrative of the film. Dialogue is used to give an understanding of the film so the audience can have some kind of idea about the film. Another convention is the use of text in the trailer which makes the audience read it and raise enigma for example “Jamal Malik is one question away from winning 20 million rupees. How did he do it?” this makes the audience want to know whether he wins the money or not.

In addition at the beginning of the trailer you can see the four institutions/Distributors (Fox Searchlight, Warner Bro pictures, Pathe pictures and FILM)   promoting this film to for popularity as different distributors have different target audience. Also “Winner people’s choice award Toronto international film festival” this makes the audience wonder what’s so good about this film, which will make them, watch the film because of the awards they won. Quotes from popular newspapers like ‘Chicago Sun Times, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, TIME’ persuades the audience to watch it because of the good reviews written by famous newspapers.

How does the trailer use media language (camera, mise-en-scene, editing, sound) to establish the film's genre?

Firstly the use of Non- diegetic sound builds tension; when the clock was ticking while he was answering questions, this creates tension as it makes the audience will they are the protagonist and waiting for a reply. And also the use of diegetic sound when the crowd start whistling and clapping showed the happy side of the film. Then the use of non diegetic sound at the end showed the romantic side of the film when the heroin and hero finally see each other. All these different types of sounds are used to establish the genre of the film to help the audience understand it.

Mise-en-scene is one of the key conventions used to represent the genre of the film. For example the use of colourful costume on the characters suggested the culture of the protagonist which some audience can relate to. Also most of the setting of the trailer was in a studio where the ‘who wants to be a millionaire?’ show is filmed. This indicates reality theme of this film.

Long takes were use to build up tension at the beginning and then the use of short takes were used to create suspense as slowing the climax was revealing. Editing was used to create certain effect and enhance the tension; transition and dissolve were used in the shots to create a flow to the trailer so the narrative can make sense to the audience.

Who is the target audience and how do you know?

The target audience for this film are Indians because almost all of the actors in the film are Indians therefore the audience can relate to them. They are more likely to belong in BC1C2D socio-economic group. In addition most of the target audience will be young couples aged from 19-26 as the story is about the young couple trying to find each other.

How effective do you think the trailer is in promoting the film? Why?

I think this trailer is quite effective as it didn’t give too much away, at the same time used key scenes from the film to make the audience want to watch the movie. It used sounds and editing to create certain tension and suspense to the trailer.