The trailer for The Perks of Being a Wallflower uses many narrative techniques typical of Hollywood romantic drama. Applying Propp's character theory, we have a clear protagonist or hero Charlie played by Logan Lerman who is a teenager with a past mentally illness record, he never stood out and was independent. Charlie friends Sam and Patrick played by Emma Watson and Ezra Miller are the heroine and the helper that help Charlie come out his shell and be more social with other people.These well known character types quickly help establish the romantic drama narrative and allow audiences to understand the main relationships within the two-minute running time of the trailer.
The film's narrative is clearly introduced in the trailer and follows Todorov's theory of equilibrium.Charlie finding what he want to do with his life and over coming his fear so socializing . The introduction of the bullying creates the disequilibrium - it showed us that he never stood out and didn't have many friends. The new equilibrium is not shown in the trailer - this is critical because even though a standard Hollywood romantic drama narrative would suggest that Sam and Charlie becone a couple in the end, the audience have to watch the whole film to enjoy this resolution.
The trailer is full of Barthes' enigma and action codes. These are designed to draw the audience in and encourage them to watch the whole film to resolve their questions. The major enigma codes the audience will ask would revolve around whether Charlie should ask Sam out. However, there are other enigma codes such as what happened Charlie in his child hood and Sam breaking up with a guy. Although action codes are less important in the genre of romantic drama, there are still plenty of dramatic scenes such as when Charlie punched a guy that bullied him. This suggests there will be moments of tension in the film and the only way to see what happen is to watch the whole movie.
