Trailer Analysis - Legend

Representation: Class and Status as well as conventions.

As expected this trailer does stick to a few common conventions such as dim lighting and poor locations in Britain but it also stands out by going against them, showing the positives of British life such as the closeness of family.


Firstly, the trailer opens going straight into giving away the plot of the film, unlike other trailers, by showing us a night club filled with cigarette smoke which tells us this is any time before the 21st century and based on their clothes and lighting,sets this in the late 1950's, early 1960's. This shot really gives us an idea of how upper class people spent their free time and money in Britain compared with today and how it isn't so different.This represents the wealthy as being snobby and highly important separating themselves from the paupers and working class people.

The Trailer introduces the production company after the showing a glimpse of one of the main characters played by a famous actor, who is possibly more well known by the public than the company so he is used to grab the audiences attention as British films commonly don't have very well known production companies. furthermore they are not very important to the narrative and so don't take up more than 4 seconds of screen time.


The aerial view, establishing shot we are presented with uses with it low key, natural lighting to give the audience an idea of where the film is set, which is urban, and by the image composition, specifically the smoke stacks, it tell us that it is set in the mid 1900's. The smog covered sky and red mist in the distance makes it clear that the film takes place in a working class area of Britain which is further reinforced by the chimneys for the factories. Since the geographical layout no longer exists I can only assume it has been computer generated which would have been expensive to produce and this challenges the convention of British films being low budget.







Following the conventions this trailer reveals the names of its main cast members and their roles in this historical British drama but it does so in a distinctive way, setting itself apart from other trailers. The Legend trailer does this by its way of revealing that the two main characters are played by the same actor and divides the reveal into two separate shots. This is both comedic and intriguing to the audience as it hasn't really been done before and it makes them want to see how the film turns out, specifically if both character roles are played equally as well.














The close up of the spinning roulette table shows the common convention of gambling and blood money in British Film Drams ,which makes the audience think of addiction and crime. This represents that the higher your status the more flexible you will be when spending disposable income instead of saving it or spending it on something useful and long lasting. The drink you can see in the bottom left corner of the shot is alcohol which is a common link to gambling.

Furthermore, this medium, long shot presents the convention of the police always having some sort of prescence in British Film Dramas as the crime rates of the areas the films are set in are usually drastically higher than other wealthier areas. Also, police are commonly represnted as the bad guys in this genre of film always causing more problems for the working, lower class.  This shot occur immeadiately after the police metion going after the Krays and a mid shot of one of the Kray brothers beating up members of another gang of criminals. The Non diegetic music is up beat and energetic to match up with what is happening on screen and the beats of the song are at one point synchronous with the punches the brother throws to make them stand out more and seem more powerful.

Throughout the film trailer the Kray twins are represented each in their own way. Reggie Kray represented as more of an emotionally stable person who just wants to look after his family, whereas Ronnie Kray is reprsented as being a lot more needlessly violent and psychotic, attacking people and going on rants that have nothing to do with the situations they get into, as seen in the bar scene.