The Inbetweeners

Deconstruction of the Trailer for Series Two

This trailer starts with an low angle long shot, showing young men in blue and red football bibs running about after the ball. This presents young people as sporty and energetic; this is suggested by the outfit that they are wearing. The camera then cuts to Simon who is concentrating on the ball. He then catches sight of somebody that he knows and his concentration has suddenly switched from the ball to a girl. This shows what low levels of concentration that young people have and that they are so easily distracted because as soon as Simon sees Carly, the girl he caught sight of, he forgets about the ball. Carly then waves at Simon, then the camera cuts to a close up shot of him with text next to him labelling him as "The Romantic", while he grins a goofy grin and waves really hard. This shows young people as fools who fall in love really hard, to the extent that they embarrass themselves. This point is emphasised when the ball hits Simon in the face and he falls to the ground, face caked in mud.

The scene then cuts to a classroom with two parents being revealed in an over the shoulder shot and we see Neil with his head stuck through a hole in a chair, the camera seems to be on a dolly and reveals a man sawing him out. The words "The Genius" then appear next to Neil. This is ironic as whatever he did must've been stupid to get him in that situation and presents young people as individuals who do things before they think. It reflects how young people do stupid things that they are advised not to do, undermining authority and usually ending up in trouble where they need others to help them.

The camera then cuts to another scene, with the camera at a lightly canted angle, where Jay walks down a corridor with the camera tracking him while he pulls over the top impressed faces at girls, trying to flirt with them. There are many short takes of this and the words "The Ladies Man" appear next to him. The camera then cuts to a close up of his back where a note is written saying "I have no penis" and then cuts to a medium close up of his face, where  he has a smile of contempt. His facial gestures represent the vulgarity of young people especially teenage boys as he is pleased with having of pulled demeaning facial gestures at girls. Also, it is mocking young people connoting that young people think that they are cool and that everybody is laughing with them when people are laughing at them. The fact that somebody put this note on his back also highlights the brutality in the world of young people as they take pleasure in embarrassing others. This brutality is emphasised as the camera pans down the stairs to Will who is giving out fliers, with everyone passing him by ignoring him as if he isn't there. Finally someone walks up and pulls down Will's trousers, with a few people laughing while he is ironically  labelled as "The Hero". The same cruelty in the prank that was pulled on Jay, is shown here emphasising the bad attitudes of most young people, who get their kicks from making others look stupid.

The trailer ends with a group close up the whole class posing for a class photo with the camera zooming in on the four main characters, with different expressions on their faces. Neil has a wide goofy smile, Will is sitting up straight with a look of pride, Simon is looking annoyed and Jay is looking at his mens' magazine. This is signifies that all young people are different, each with their own personality and hilarious traits that ultimately displays the comical personas of young people on a whole.

The Three Trailers

Trailer 3



The three trailers all are effective advertisements which successfully entise the viewer to watch the programme. Although they are all effective they all contain different elements that attract an audience in different ways. Trailers 2 & 3 contain the voice of the central character, Will, with him telling the audience what time, channel and day the programme is coming on. With this said unlike the other two trailers, trailer one has Will narrating the whole advertisement, explaining the character's story. This is because this is the first series so the advertisement needs to give the audience a little introduction to convince them to watch the programme. To add to the introduction, there are also clips from the series, giving us an introduction to the main characters and showing us funny events that are to come in later in the series, such as Simon throwing up and Neil doing weird dance moves. This is giving the audience a preview of what is to come, using key moments convincing them that the programme is worth watching.

This differs to the second series which contains no extra dialogue except Will telling us when the programme is coming on.This is probably because the programme has already built up a following with a large audience; all it needs to do now is to remind its usual viewers that the programme is back on. The score is a much slower and calmer, than the first series because it no longer needs to worry about attracting a new large audience as many people have already started watching from the first series. All the advert needs to do now is remind viewers that the programme is on and it reminds the viewers of the characters by showing them being humiliated with their stereotype next to their name The viewers now expect the series to be as funny as ever with more humiliating situations for them to laugh at..

By the time the last series trailer is released, the viewers can already identify the characters and are familiar with their personality but the advertisement still centres on some of them for a few seconds, displaying them doing something that would help us to identify their personality.In the advertisement, the characters are presented as if they are celebrities with the use of tilted camera angles and slow motion camera angles which reflects the fact that the characters and programme has become a popular topic in the media and in the lives of their viewers. The audience now expect the series to be epic and better than ever and the score helps excite the viewers, with its heavy bass and steady beat.

So, although these trailers have different purposes, they all revolve around the main characters. They are always presented in the same way with Will being posh and moral, Simon being romantic, Neil acting like a complete and utter idiot and Jay being the dirty girl crazy lad. We are constantly reminded of their characters and personalities with us always being able to identify the characters with the show.

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