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

Conventions of film trailers

Some of the conventions of film trailers are institutional logos, special effects and specific narrative structure e.g. equilibrium and disequilibrium. Institutional logos appear at the start of the trailer and last for up to 3-4 seconds each. During research of film trailer, the majority of trailers had two to three institutional logos. This has been conformed to in the ‘R3’ trailer to provide a clear framework to build the narrative of the film upon.

Conventions of Sci-fi film trailers

The codes and conventions of the classic and more recent sci-fi films have very distinct tropes. For example the reoccurring character types of sci-fi films are aliens, robots, artificial intelligence, mutants, and scientist. Real life examples include the film ‘Alien invaders’ where the extra-terrestrials mount an invasion against earth. More recent examples included ‘Ex-Machina’, ‘Chappie’, ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’. Some common settings of sci-fi films are in space or outer planets, spaceships, parallel universe, dystopian land, different dimension and futuristic settings. The codes and conventions of adventure films include a journey taken by a character, usually the protagonist who faces problems with great difficult and finds solutions. These films typically have a protagonist, villain and helper/mentor. Similar features have been implemented in the ‘R3’ trailer to make it a sci-fi adventure film.

Although such character types are not conformed to in the ‘R3’ sci-fi trailer, there are other important character types such as a strong female protagonist, a villainous antagonist and a mentor/helper. The trailer has challenged the conventional character types used for sci-fi films. However this change was deliberately pursed by a group decision on the basis of advocating a strong female lead that recent sci-fi adventure films had incorporated. This is because majority of the sci-fi films promote a strong male lead, but R3 is challenging this trend. Some examples of recent sci-fi adventure female lead include ‘Divergent’, ‘The Host’ and ‘Hunger Games’ series. All these films have had great success in promoting a defiant and independent female lead to the new and emerging market for teen sci-fi/adventure films. Therefore supporting this modern hybrid genre, the trailer rejects the list of conventional character types. Furthermore in doing so, challenged the genre stereotype of strong and heroic male protagonist with an equally impressive female lead. Another reason for revolting against this convention was due to the target audience of the trailer being teenagers to young adults.

Few of the conventional themes that run through the ‘typically’ defined sci-fi films are; new discovery, fear of the unknown, revenge, paranormal abilities, binary oppositions, realm out of stereotypes presented in society. Some of these generic themes have been followed in the R3 trailer, for example the protagonist has paranormal abilities that allow her to control time. There is also the strong theme of revenge that drives that narrative forward. The plot is focused around the protagonist’s wish to get revenge for her mother’s murder mystery. There are also hints of binary opposition about good versus evil that is suggested through the ominous and enigmatic character of the villain.

Frequently seen iconography of sci-fi films are high-tech gadgets, the use of CGI and special effects, weapons of mass destructions, laboratory, holographic images etc. Although not all these iconographies have been conformed to in the trailer, there is one

mainly used throughout the trailer to form the main part of the narrative. Since the film is centred around the concept of time travelling, special effects using the iMovie tools such as fast forward, slow motion, reverse effects, instant replay and time lapse have been used to suggest the time travelling ability of the protagonist. Other iconographies such as holographic images and high-tech gadgets are not used mainly due to the limitation of equipment and facilities to create the professional looking CGI and holographic images.

Some conventional narratives of the sci-fi films are:

The development of new technology or species and the consequences of it e.g. robots, and its possible threat to human life. These were often based on scientific principles and ideology. The sci-fi films often gave a social comment on the important issues in society.

Overcoming obstacles e.g. trying to save the world from an invasion. Another example is ‘Star Wars: Episode VI-Return of the Jedi-The rebels rescue Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt and battle the Empire whilst Jedi and Luke attempt to bring his father away from the Dark Side. An overlap of another narrative plot was the idea of the destruction of earth e.g. apocalypse scenario or virus epidemic etc.

Exploration of world’s concern (or interest) coming true e.g. Global Warming. These concerns play on the apphrensions towards the future and as a result makes the film attractive and familiar. An example of this could be ‘The Matrix’-The fight for the future begins when a computer hacker learns the world exists in an alternate reality and he is chosen as ‘The One’ who can save mankind in the war against the computers. This also overlaps with other narratives such as ‘overcoming obstacles’.

Another common narrative is the Alien invasions, these use the plot of extra-terrestrials invading earth with the tent to replace human life, or enslave it. Examples are ‘War of the Worlds’ and ‘Independence Day’. Similarly there are many sci-fi films when robots rebel against mankind. Example is ‘I, Robot’. From time to time there are narratives where human interference in extra-terrestrial life leads to revenge from the Alien invasion and the destruction of earth.

Although all of these were great narratives to provide the framework for the ‘R3’ trailer, the most popular narrative that was a combination of the sci-fi and adventure film genre was the ‘overcoming obstacles’ narrative. During the research stage, it was evident that the most popular narrative for sci-fi and adventure films was this. As a result, this narrative was developed further for the ‘R3’ film. The narrative of this film involves the protagonist overcoming the obstacle of controlling her supernatural powers and bringing to light the hidden secrets about her mother’s death. Although these obstacles may not seem quite big scale compared to the typical ‘saving the world from an invasion’ sci-fi narrative, some adventure film codes and conventions were combined to achieve a more relatable and exciting plot that would be interesting to the teen and young adult audience.

Conventions of film posters

The forms and conventions of film poster are film title, main image, tagline, billing block etc. All of these features have been conformed to in my film poster, which offers a more professional outcome on the final product. Likewise with any film poster, the forms and conventions of this have been conformed to in my media product. For example the ‘R3’ film poster includes a main image of the main protagonist with the necklace dangling down from her hand. Another convention more commonly seen in sci-fi film posters was the use of special effects. As a result in the ‘R3’ film poster, ‘Pixlr’ editing software such as the ‘Kaleidoscope’ and ‘Screen’ has been used.

Conventions of magazine covers.

Some of the forms and conventions of magazine covers are masthead, cover lines, bar code, issue date, price, main image etc. Similar to the film poster, almost all of the conventions were used in order to achieve the final professional look on the ‘R3’ magazine cover. One convention is that the main image of a film magazine cover is of the main actor of the film that is being promoted. For example of the Total film Martian magazine cover, Matt Damon was the main image. As a result, following this code the main image of the ‘R3’ magazine cover is a mid shot of the protagonist ‘Sophie’ holding the necklace and looking straight at the readers. In many of the sci-fi film magazine covers, all the characters in the front cover had a straightforward gaze. The same was applied to the main image and the effect of this was to make the front cover more inviting and ‘catch the readers eye’.

The masthead of most magazine covers fills the width of the cover. Some examples are the Empire, Total film and Vogue mastheads. I conformed to these conventions and made the ‘Supernova’ masthead big and wide to cover the top. This had the effect of making the masthead noticeable and it attracts reader’s attention. Other smaller details of the forms and conventions that were conformed were the price, issue date and barcode. Although small, these details were important in making the final product of the magazine cover look more professional. Other conventions include cover lines, an example of this in the ‘R3’ magazine cover is “Jennifer Lawrence…the new generation of strong sci-fi women” This cover line like the many others had been tailored specifically to attract more of the target audience of the film (teenagers and young adults) to read the magazine. The use of relatable topic and well-known celebrity would appeal to the target audience significantly more. In addition the cover line addresses a topic which female audiences would be interested in order to persuade the readers to purchase the magazine and read it. Furthermore in most of the cover lines there are hyperbolic words used to attract the readers. This was a generic convention found in all categories of magazines. For example in the ‘R3’ magazine cover alluring words such as “Exclusive, Secret, Newest, Special” have been used. Other conventions such as bold, underline and italics were also followed to draw more attention to the cover lines and increase the likely chance of the viewers being interested in buying it. As well as this a sky line above the magazine cover was added with names of famous sci-fi films such as “Divergent and Hunger Games” which target teenagers and young adults, which is consequently beneficial and effective for the magazine cover.

Another form and convention of a magazine cover is the slogan, the slogan on the ‘R3’ front cover is “The world’s most interesting magazine”. Similar to other magazine front covers, this slogan is near the masthead and therefore a continuum to the title “Supernova”. A more recent form and convention that is included in the ‘R3’ front cover

is the website address “supernovaonline.com”, by including this under the masthead, it gives the magazine seem like a legitimate magazine front cover.