Textual Analysis - Precious

Forms – What techniques does this trailer use to convey the narrative to the audience?
There is a lot of dialogue in the trailer. This diegetic sound shows the relationships between the characters and communicates to the audience what they will be like towards each other in the film. The dialogue between the characters conveys the narrative to the audience because it is the same dialogue that will be used in the film. However, there isn’t too much dialogue so there is still a sense of enigma.
The non-diegetic music in the trailer is parallel to the images. The music is about finally becoming happy after trying hard in life and the images show the protagonist leading a hard life. This leads the audience to believe that the film will be about her journey to becoming happy after having a miserable life.
Towards the end of the trailer, there is text that appears on the screen. “Life is hard”, “Life is short”, “Life is painful”, “Life is rich” and “Life is precious” all help to convey the narrative to the audience because it connotes that these are the themes that are going to appear throughout the film and that the protagonist will go through phases of believing each of them.
Representations – How is gender represented in this trailer?
The main gender represented in this trailer is female. The protagonist is female. She is a dominant representation of women as she is represented as being weak by suffering abuse from her mother rather than defending herself. However, she is shown to change into a more powerful character when she stands up for herself later on in the trailer. The audience can identify with the protagonist because of the change in her character.
The protagonist’s mother is an alternative representation of women. She is a strong and powerful character. This contrasts with the protagonist’s character and how she is represented. The opposition in representation foreshadows the relationship between the mother and daughter.
Although the teacher is an alternative representation of women like the mother, she is different to the mother because the mother is an aggressive character while the teacher is calm while being dominant.
Audiences – On the basis of this trailer, what target audience would be attracted to this film?
The genre of the non-diegetic music in the trailer is R & B. People who listen to R & B might be attracted to watch the trailer, and then be attracted to watch the film. Also, people who listen to that genre of music would realise that the trailer was targeted at them which would lead them to watch the film.
Most of the people represented in the trailer are black people. This would attract black people to watch the film because they will be able to identify with the characters in the film best. Also, the target audience for R & B music is black people, so, because of the non-diegetic sound as well as the representations, black people would be attracted to watch the film.
At the end of the trailer, the audience is told that the film was based on a novel called Push. People who have read the novel might be attracted to watch the film because they would already have expectations on what it will be like and would want to see if the film meets their expectations.