Phone Booth (2002)

Release Date: 18 April 2003
Genre: Mystery, Crime, Thriller
Certificate: 15

The trailer to the film Phone booth starts with an upbeat tempo music which is entertaining the audience. We have an establishing shot of New York City. The narrator is telling the audience facts about New York City:
12 million people
22 million phones
1 billion connections every day
When people hear facts they know they are true and so will assume that the story following will be true. Also because everyone has a mobile phone the audience can relate to the story on a personal level. The narrator is presenting something ordinary in an extrodinary situation this makes it seem more realistic.

A thriller film usually contains two main people the protagonist and the antagonist, in the phone booth these are played by Stu the main in the phone box and the man on the phone.

The music changes from an upbeat tempo to an eeire physcotic sound as soon as the narrator says "but today someones got his number" and Stu enters the phone booth. The change in music adds suspense which is a convention of crime fiction genre.
The close up of the telephone booth and phone ringing tells the audience that the whole story is based on the phonecall also the establishing shot of Stu in the phone booth tells us that he is being watched by the male who is speaking on the phone.
The close of up of Stu's face shows distress and he looks scared, this tells the audience that something bad is going to happen.

This crime thriller film has a mixture of violence, such as when the man gets shot in the road and action, when all the police cars start speeding in and the armed police surround the area, these are all conventions of this genre.

The red gun aim is focused on Stu's face which tells the audience that he is the target for the kill. It also adds suspense as it is in the gunmans view point and we can see the same thing as he can.
The man on the phone has a calm voice which can allow the audience to feel as though he might be a physco enjoying putting people in distress. I think the best part of this trailer is when the screen goes black and we hear a gunshot and straight after we see the people of NYC looking distressed in the street and we can feel the action happening around the phone booth.
The camera shots were they are looking around NYC adds a sense of mystery to the film because nobody knows were the gun man is hiding, this builds suspense as we want to know if he will be found.  The low angle shot of Stu in the phone box really emphasises his worry as hes looking around hastingly and has a scared look on his face and makes him look small.

The last few seconds of the trailer are really effective as there is a count up to 3, so the man on the phone says "1,2,3" and then we hear a scream. This builds tension as there are continusos flashbacks of the phone booth and the surrounding area, we dont know were the scream came from. The title at the end of the trailer ends in PHONE BOOTH with a ticking noise and the operator on the phone saying "If you'd like to make a call please hang up and try again", this leaves the audience with a sense of mystery as to what has happened to the phonecall and why has it suddenly hung up.

Overall I think this film trailer is really effective and has the conventions of a crime thriller as it focuses mainly on the criminal aspect but also contains violence and action.


Claudia Zeppetella