Me and Earl an The Dying Girl Trailer Analysis

The trailer first paints a picture that it is a “normal” guy who doesn't fit into a cliched group. The trailer looks like it works hard to also show that it isn't a cliched film for example a typical boy meets girl story where they fall in love, she gets cancer and dies. It shows that there all be laughs, tears and possibly anger at points with the male character. We are also reminded it isn't a stereotypical romance by strictly showing their friendship and not one kiss is shown. 

The non diegetic harp playing slowly at the beginning with the tempo building as both of the main characters are introduced. It then slows and becomes more dramatic when we learn that one of the main characters has cancer. The music gets happier to show there are lighter sides to the film and it isn’t all sad. The music becomes less important when they talk about making the movie for the girl which is the main story of the film and the different dramas involved. This shows that the story isn't just about the girl having cancer but the difficulties on the people around her and the challenges they will go to just to please their friend. The music continues to build tempo through the trailer to constantly remind the audience that this isn’t a typical heartbreaking sob story as it can keep the audience happy along with the main characters. In my trailer I will lower the music whenever the characters are speaking as it is less important to the story than the dialogue.

There aren’t many obvious fade to black transitions because there is little element of drama happening and they are trying to show the more uplifting, comic side of the story. The camera does a lot of panning and tracking to show the movement of the story. 

At the beginning when his mother tells him Rachael is dying, a lot of high angles are shown. This paints him as weaker as he is only trying to be her friend out of pity so it is done in a more comedy way. He explains to her that he is only there because his mum told him to go. 

From this trailer, I have chosen that I want my trailer to include more happy moments than sad moments to create a positive image about my film to the audience. I will show some elements of sadness but will try not to make that the main  focus. I will do this by showing the two friends going out and having fun creating good memories being happy. I will show minimal footage of her having cancer.