'If I Stay' movie trailer narrative structure analysis for my media studies A2.

1. OPENING
The opening establishes the setting both visually and acoustically as being in
a small town: Portland, Oregon, USA. The trailer’s setting revolve around the
main characters home, school and music venues. The trailer introduces the
main character very briefly in the beginning and focusses primarily on the
secondary character: Adam, the love interest of the central protagonist.

2. BUILD UP: RELATIONSHIPS
The relationships are then established, mainly
between the central protagonist (Mia) and the love
interest (Adam). The relationships between her and
her parents are also established, revealing that they
have very different characters. Her parents being
very extroverted, meanwhile Mia being very
introverted, as shown in the screen grabs below. The
character of the ‘best friend’ is also established
when they’re not only shown sitting next to each
other at a family dinner but also talking at school
about the main characters love interest.

3. BUILD UP: CHARACTER
DEVELOPMENT
The main character, Mia, is then further developed via different shots
of her and her voice as the narrative: ‘Here I am, Mia, the girl who
thinks about the cello’ (1.15). This subsequently conforming to the
typical narrative structure of trailers. The secondary character, Adam,
is also further developed as he’s described as ‘already being
somebody’ (0.39)

4. PROBLEM
The problem or dilemma that is often conveyed in trailers that the
central protagonist has to overcome, in ‘If I Stay’ is a fatal car crash,
in which the central protagonist is involved in. In this car accident,
the central protagonists family are severely hospitalised, as is she.
However, Mia is shown to be having an out of body experience, in
which she can see and know everything that is going on with her
family and her own body and eventually has to decide between
staying or leaving. Which is ultimately the choice between life or
death.

5. EVENTS
During the trailer, it is revealed by the narrative, that if Mia wakes up,
the she’ll be ‘waking up an orphan, if she wakes up’ (1.40). This
provides as another obstacle the central protagonist must overcome.
More decisions are displayed by on screen text, addressing the
audience but from the perspective of the central protagonist: ‘If I
could change that moment’ (1.47), ‘If he waits for me’ (1.58), ‘If I
wake up’ (2.07).

6. RESOLUTION AND ENDING
The resolution and ending is left a mystery, as trailers are meant to
entice people to watch the full film. If the trailer revealed, essentially
a condensed version of the film, then nobody would watch it.
Revealing the ending of the film within the trailer would be
ineffective.