London to Brighton - Textual Analysis (48marks)

London to Brighton Trailer – Textual Analysis
(48marks)

Media Forms: how does the trailer use media language to establish the film’s genre?

From watching the trailer there are various aspects where you could gather the overall genre of the movie which is a mix of thriller and drama also classified as a hybrid genre. From the reviews, Times wrote ‘compelling drama’ and the film review wrote ‘brutally raw thriller’. Alongside these quotes, the music, setting and mise on scene creates an overall image of the genre of the film.

In my opinion, the music creates a great representation to what kind of genre this movie is. At the beginning in the first half of the trailer, the music is quite calm and soft played by a piano. This could represent the innocence of the young girl and all the troubles she has been through. This reflects the drama in the movie. The second half of the music is more upbeat and exciting which is a dominant aspect of a stereotypical value of a thriller movie.

The fast music is complemented by the fast editing and camera angles. This creates an intense mood for the audience and suggests that by viewing these scenes; surely something mysterious must occur in the climax of the movie to create a disequilibrium which revolves around the thriller characteristics of the fast pace cuts and music. In this part of the trailer, the scenes became slightly blurred which could connote that the narrative may create confusion and excitement for the audience which is another characteristic of a thriller.

In contrast, the first half had slow edits to relate to the slow music which again builds tension to some extent. As the calm music relates to the innocence of the girl, creates the audience to feel that something dramatic has happened and the young girl creates sympathy. The slow edits allow us to witness in detail what the young girl’s appearance and setting is in order to understand the drama involved with her. 

This moves onto the mise en scene of the whole movie. From the trailer you can gather that what you can see is placed in an urban run down area. This is represented through the homeless girl in the tube station and the graphitised toilets amongst other settings. From this you could connote that through the narrative it will be dark and gritty which coincides with the drama and thriller genre.

The clothing seems to be quite ‘normal’ or poor looking which relates to how the characters are and where they live. From an audience’s point of view, it makes us understand the themes of the characters and the general narrative of the movie. Both the woman and young girl are dressed scruffy to represent their desperate need for money creating the drama in the movie.

Media Representations: How is gender represented in the trailer?

In this movie, the main focus is on both the older and young girls who revolve around the main narrative. They seem powerless, desperate for money and lacking moral values.

Their powerlessness is shown through one specific scene in the trailer. This is when the man is shoving both of them into the car regardless of them screaming and resisting. They have no say or power to reject the man pushing them into the car. This proves the stereotypical view that men have a higher and more controlling role than women even though this movie is relatively modern.

The young girl specifically, seems to be quite innocent, what you would expect an 11 year old girl would be like. However, in the trailer, they show her dressed up in a red dress with red lipstick which seems to be quite sexually promiscuous and disturbing. In the modern days girls can be quite mature however this young girl is offering her body for sex in order get money. Women in this way seem to be very desperate and this is mainly how they are represented in this movie.

The men on the other hand seem to be the leaders, the ones with money, opportunities in life and accomplishments. Money is shown when the man in the cafe offers the young girl lots of money in order to do a certain job for him.

Another scene where the man showed great power and presence was when the old man was leading between the two women into his rich bedroom. The fact that the man was in the middle and in front of the women suggests that he has the power to control the women and how close they can get to him. Also the setting was in a very rich and beautiful room which represents the money he possesses alongside the power that comes with it.

Media Institutions: In what ways is the film London to Brighton a typical low budget British film?

There are many aspects to how you could classify this film through shots, settings, quality and actors. By analysing these aspects you could gather that this film is low budgeted.

Firstly, the settings all round through the trailer are set in London itself, you can tell this from the first scene which is the Sanyo buildings which is a trademark in London. This sets the appearance of the movie for the audience. Also a couple of other scenes like the graphitised toilets, rich traditional looking houses, and run down flats. These all represent London or Brighton in its pure state. The reason why this is important is that they all give an impression of a true low budget film. Generally, Hollywood movies are over glamorised and they are manmade sets however in this movie, it is all naturally set and recorded which makes it low budgeted as they don’t have to pay money to build sets.

The recording aspect leads onto another point that the producers may have lower quality equipment which may affect the viewing of the movie. In some ways in the beginning scene, it was quite blurry or hazy and wasn’t clearly viewed. You could connote this to be due to the equipment hand how expensive it is. Also, through the trailer, there wasn’t much hi tech effects which also suggest that that they may not have software to create visual effects for the audience.

Secondly, the actors used in this film are unknown and potentially cost less to hire which saves money. Sometimes they are easier and more professional to work with because they have the drive to make a stamp on the film and their success rather than money as many Hollywood actors focus on.

Overall, by creating a low budget film, they are allowed to take risks in the scenes they shoot and there are no consequences to lose anything if they are only starting off. All the factors above state why London to Brighton is a typical low budget film.

Media Audiences: In what ways does the trailer promote the film to its target audience?

From watching this trailer you could gather that the main target audience for this film is 16-34 of the C2DE socio-economic group. The reasons for this is due to the setting, the characters and the film overall.

In my opinion, the main ways the film promotes itself to its main target audience is through the various film reviews by different newspapers and film magazines such as the film review or the Scotsman. Alongside the reviews they use a rating system where 5 stars is the best possible rating. By selecting the reviews which gave a good opinion are shown through the trailer to promote to the audience that these media companies really enjoyed the movie so they would too.  

In conclusion, the trailer through scenes and settings also address to their target audience which creates an overall impact to how the audience feel about watching the movie after seeing the trailer.