Q1In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and  conventions of real media products?

•Thriller theatrical trailer•Film poster•Film magazine front cover

Thriller theatrical trailerI had to conduct some research before I could start planning and producing my thriller trailer so I began to look at existing film trailers on

YouTube to help me identify the conventions of a thriller trailer that I could develop and challenge them in my trailer. I started to do so textual research on 2 thriller trailers and one action trailer, to ensure that my research was impartial so that I could gain a broad

knowledge about the conventions used in a trailer, which I could challenge by finding out what aspects that I would be appropriate to benefit my own trailer. The films below are the trailer that I analysed:

The conventions I discovered from theses thriller trailers:• Ambiguous and complex plot• Use of dull lighting and dark colours • No particular evil characters highlighted but hints that there is a antagonist • Film title at the end• Uses the film producers, actors and director as a USP• No blood or death• Black outs• Montage of shots from various points in the film, edited together is used to

highlight the most dramatic, fast-paced aspects of the film shown in the middle of the trailer

• Narrative relates to Torodov and Levi Strauss:

Shows a two part structure out of the three – Equilibrium (balanced state) and disequilibrium (dilemma)

Some aspect of binary opposition shown e.g. Good/Evil, Youth/Elders, Chaos(end)/Peace(beginning)

• Ordinary clothing • Music gradually increases and becomes intense and dramatic

I was able to examine and compare the convention of this action trailer to the thriller trailers and gain a better knowledge to effective use the conventions in order to appeal to my target audience and avoid any possible issue that may affect my trailer.

The difference s I’ve noticed in this action trailer that are:

•Mid violence and fighting scenes•Clear and straight plot •Costumes are exaggerated an larger than life•The lighting is clear and bright

I used a few of these convention in my thriller trailer because some of them didn’t wasn’t suitable for my thriller trailer since didn't go well with my narrative and structure of e.g. Bright lighting, exaggerated costumes, using actors as a USP

Using the conventions in my trailer Once I finished analysing the trailer and conduct all other the research (audience and institution

research) and input them in my planning I was able to gather a clear idea for my trailer and began to apply the conventions towards my filmmaking

I applied the conventions to:• Create an ambiguous plot: I didn't want my trailer to be too complex because I feel that it can put off my target audience so I

decided to make a trailer have a linear narrative similar to ‘Super 8’ where I would also add a montage of shots from various points in the film, and edit them together to highlight the most dramatic of the film and show them in the middle of the trailer. I had to change my narrative and redraft my storyboard couple times to get the narrative and structure right because I want to ensure that the conventions would be fitted together adequately such as, I had two set of different music so I had to carefully edit my shot together to set the correct atmosphere (beginning – mellow and calm) and (middle and ending – gradually becomes intense). I use the narrative theories from Torodov and Levi Strauss to help me with the structure which is to show:

two part structure out of the three – Equilibrium (balanced state) and disequilibrium (dilemma) binary opposition e.g. Good/Evil, Light/Dark, Life/Death Planning section shows and explains why I changed my initial ideas in detail.

http://yunga2mediacoursework.blogspot.com/p/research-and-planning.html The construction shows what I have added and experiment in my trailer which lead to my final product http

://yunga2mediacoursework.blogspot.com/p/construction.html• The use of dull lighting and dark colours: I noticed in the thriller trailers that the lighting can impact the atmosphere and

mise-en-scene therefore I had to be careful to ensure that my trailer show a clear distinct difference between a horror and thriller so I decided to have a mixture of lighting to support me. I research and used the Twilight trailers as reference due to the fact it had an influence to my idea and I want use it to help me create a gloomy effect instead a sinister atmosphere so I only used a blackout once in my trailer which was the end to impulse the audience and used as a cliff-hanger which is a convention of thriller.

Twilight trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxjNDE2fMjI&feature=player_embedded• Characters and costumes: I didn’t want my trailer to include or create larger than life character like in action or horror films,

and made it more down to earth with an supernatural character (vampire) in my thriller to make interesting and attract my target audience because I found out that in my audience research that supernatural has become popular so I decide include it in my trailer. Also the thriller trailers that I analysed had ordinary clothing and I realised that thriller film are more focused on the plot than the costumes and special effect, so I made sure that the locations, actors, and props were realistic and reasonable.

The planning my of trailer http://www.slideshare.net/YouWouldThankMeLater/planning-my-theatrical-trailer-10578825?player=js

Film poster Before sketching my film poster I had to look at different existing film posters and analysis a particular poster that I would

want to use, which I feel that will attract my target audience effectively. Also it would help me identify the conventions that will help create an eye catching poster These are the film posters that I’ve looked at:

Looking at these poster I’ve already noticed that the typography and image is simple with colour co-

ordinated text which gave me an idea how to layout my text, image,

font, and the industrial information at the bottom.

I analysed the ‘Super 8’ poster to help me get a visual and verbal message where to position the conventions on my poster and I realise that arranging them correctly is crucial in order to put a point across to the audience effectively and efficiently as

possible, because there is a particular pattern shown on these posters and where the would place the text e.g. The industrial information: bottom ,the title: top or bottom never in the middle, image focus point: middle. Also the colour

schemes tends to be have a theme such as, darkness, purity, chaos, evil, which made me decide that I would be using red, white black and grey to convey a dark and ambiguous message.

The film poster conventions I discovered:• Film title has the biggest font size

• Image contains a few special effect and high quality photography• Industrial information has the smallest font size

• Taglines tends to be placed near the film title to attract the viewer• Either a close up or long shot of the image

• A particular colour scheme to convey a message e.g. Red, black, white: sinister, darkness, lust • Distribution and production company logo

After finding out these conventions I immediate started to sketch my the layout of poster and use it to design on Photoshop CS4 and I used ‘American Beauty’ as a reference to help me create and position the conventions.

My film posterThe title is

positioned in a vertical format so it is legible and readable

The production company above the film title to

give the company recognition

Tagline to attract the audiences attention and use it to notify them the release date of my film

Simple and effective colour scheme red, black and

white. The black express a dark

and mysterious element about the film

The white shows the opposite meaning to the

black which is innocence and purity of the character, thus is helps me create an

ambiguous message The red shows anger, lust

and danger that represent the character because is

her past is hidden that holds a menacing secret

I applied the conventions on my film poster and use ‘American Beauty’ to help arrange the components

The industrial information on the bottom right of poster because

I want the image to be main attention and try to make it

effective as possible by placing the industrial information to the side so it can appeal and

bring out the image to the audience successfully

The image also have the colour scheme to display a mysterious and dangerous message to the audience

The production and distribution company at the bottom left of my poster and the age certification on the right and the place them separately because I want to have a sense of balance on both sides of the poster to prevent the audience attention being pulled away from the image.

Film magazine front cover

I had to make sure that my understanding for a film magazine front cover was sufficient enough for me to produce my own front cover would have the same standard as the official Empire magazine, therefore I began to analyse the cover and discovering the typical convections and planning how I could lay them out.

I randomly selected the ‘Inception’ magazine issue to just find out the typical conventions of a front cover magazine so I could use them to apply it to my own work and realised that the magazine front cover uses many conventions to attract the target audience such as:

• Big bold letters• Exclamation marks• Bright colours• Colour schemes that represents the character and ties in with the genre e.g. Inception, red–

danger, power, black – authority• Many mid-shot and close up of the character that is use to attract the audience • Other cover lines to show what different exciting features that the magazine contains• Date and price is listed above the logo• strong use of typography to enhance the text and grab the audience attention• Bar code

Once I finished analysing the front cover I moved on and started to gather different magazine issues that ‘Empire’ has produce in the past years, so I could gather inspiration and use to it help me design my front cover in addition with the conventions that I found out during my analysis I decide to include a mix of different information from each ‘Empire’ issue and extract the effective and appealing magazine convention to use it and add in my front cover.

The conventions I extracted from the issues on the left hand side:

• ‘PLUS!’ cover line• The photography previews• Featured films• Interview information• Taglines• Price, date and slogan

I began to sketch my first magazine front cover and added all the different conventions I filter from the different magazine shown above, however I change because the image was similar to my film poster and sketch another image that would be more appropriate for the cover. (The link would explain more in depth why I redraft my front cover http://www.slideshare.net/YouWouldThankMeLater/planning-my-film-poster-and-magazine-cover-10592500?player=js)

My magazine front cover

Website is shown for audience that are interested to find out more information

The colour scheme helps bring out the genre of my film

and the cloudy support the mysterious effect

Slogan

Date and price

I’ve included all the conventions onto my front cover and use d the Will Smith the magazine issue that influence me to

design my magazine cover like this , which I feel that it helped create a

both effective verbal and visual message to the audience

Tagline use to appeal and tie in with the genre of the film

Previews and photographs use to attract the audience

Both protagonist and antagonist side by side (Vladimir Propp)

character types villain and hero

*Image is the main USP of the magazine

Glowing effect to make the text stand out

Exclusive feature helps impulse the viewer to buy the issue and used as a USP back up

Film features to show what other articles that the

magazine holds

Bar code typical convention of a magazine cover

I had to make sure that all of the other feature would affect the image so I carefully placed them around the cover where think which would be the effective place to position them in

Different font size to represent the

level of significance e.g. The film title =

main attraction