The Girl on the Train Trailer Analysis

How does “The girl on the train” use the formalistic conventions of film trailer effectively?

The trailer showed the distributors of the film Universal in the opening of the film, this is a formalist convention and is typically done because certain target audiences may enjoy particular films produced by certain film distributors – this could see an increase in sales for the particular film and increase the net growth. Also, it could give indication of how the film will be.



Also, the music in the background being Kanye West – Heartless may have some link to the overall idea of the film and give connotations that that the film may have a heartless presence running through the entire film or that it may have a surprising ending of some sort etc – this could raise potential film goers suspicions and encourage them to watch the film.



Moreover, the inter-titles that appear “At 4:36” “A woman disappeared” were effectively used as they almost create a sense of worry and panic and makes the watchers very puzzled to find out what exactly happened and more about the film – we want to know what exactly what happened and we can only achieve this by watch the film and finding out.



I also believe the mise-en-scene was effectively used as it added to the tension and curiosity it intended to build within the trailer – for example, the crime scene used in the forest to show that someone had died was effective because we have all the more reason to add to our questioning of what happened in the actual film.