Research - Girl on the Train Trailer Analysis

Throughout the trailer for 'The Girl on the Train' there are various thriller conventions. This is most evident in the media language. Mise En Scene consists of dark/dull colours with high contrast (which help establish the serious/gritty nature of the film) and a variety of locations (E.g. a house in the countryside, the main character's living room, the inside of a train, a street, woods and a dark tunnel) that possibly give hints to the film's plot. The actors' performances are also portrayed to be serious and very dramatic, since the majority of the dialogue is a discussion /interrogation about a girl's death as well as other suspicious events which add to the film's mystery. The voiceover is especially dramatic due to the fact that on a number of occasions during the trailer it is synced perfectly with a scene (E.g. When the line "I saw her from the train" is spoken, it is immediately followed by a scene of a train going past). The editing involves a series of fast cuts which are synced with the slow piano notes of the soundtrack at the beginning of the trailer and later on to the exaggerated 'boom' sound effects, which is a common trope for thrillers because it causes the audience to get excited. There are also what appears to be flashbacks at the start, which suggest that the film's narrative is non-linear.

Camerawork involves a large amount of establishing shots (of both the locations and the characters), pans and tracking shots. These are used to help build the film's world/setting in a limited amount of time since the trailer is only 2 minutes and 28 seconds long. Closeups of the characters' faces are used to emphasise their emotions and body language, in the case of 'The Girl on the Train' the majority of the characters' facial expressions/body language indicate that they are scared, worried and tense. This makes the audience empathise with them and want to know the cause of the characters' (the main character Rachel in particular) distress (plus this ties in with representation, in which there seems to be more female characters than male). This is a similar instance with the soundtrack, while the music starts off slow and calm (albeit a little eerie) towards the end it gets louder and grows in intensity.