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

real media products?

Megan Finch

What are the main conventions of your media products?

I thought the best way to begin my evaluation would be to define conventional media products. Below I have listed the main conventions which I discovered when looking into movie magazine covers.

• A large and bold mast head: this is the main aspect audiences will expect to see when looking at a movie magazine, it will provide the film company with the popular recognition they need.

• An eye catching and central cover image: the cover image will be the main aspect and attracts the reader at first glance, usually starring the main character of the movie featured in the issue.

• The tagline and main story: the main story is always the largest text on the cover next to the mast head to address the article

• A barcode, a price and an issue: every magazine will have these three features, not matter what genre or target audience making it a huge convention.

MOVIE POSTER My movie poster was inspired by the ‘Memories of a Geisha’ poster which I immediately saw and thought would suit the target audience and genre I was aiming for. The main purpose of movie posters is to excite and give the audience this desperate anticipation for the movie’s release, there for I wanted a really dark and blunt tagline and eventually came up with ‘never trust a pretty girl with an ugly secret’. I think this was perfect, the trailer gives the audience this sense that the main character is mysterious, dark and hiding something and my poster is support this idea. I believe my movie poster supports rather than challenges media conventions when looking at movie posters, I have included the main features found on a movie magazine including my main movie title, the name of the star, the poster credits and release date. All of my text is in a white colour and the same font throughout, I wanted this to be very professional and sophisticated so stuck to a single theme rather unlike my magazine cover. I think the hair being blown over Molly’s eyes really gives across this drama or social realism genre which I want my audience to feel, it suggests that because she is hidden beneath her hair she is hiding away from something or someone yet her eyes are not completely hidden. I edited the photograph on Adobe Photoshop, using the brightness effect to make the image lighter, the spot healing tool to perfect the skin of my model and even using the burn and dodge tools to darken her lips but make the eyes brighter.

In certain ways I could say that my movie poster does challenge conventions of movie posters, whilst some posters are cluttered with images, backdrops and too much text I have kept my design simple and decided to use a white or grey background to keep the main focus fixed onto my model.

MOVIE MAGAZINE My magazine cover is my main product I believe which will

challenge the conventions of magazines. I decided to switch between taking inspiration from both Empire and Total Film which has worked very effectively to produce my final product. Whilst Total Film like to clutter their magazine covers with text and images, Empire seem to keep the designs very simple and both work just as well as each other. My image sits nicely in the centre of the page, with the mast head across the top and the film title below taken from the Empire magazine. I decided to put text up both the left and right columns of the page, after much consideration and advice I received feedback from individuals saying they preferred the magazine cover where a lot of the space is filled with inside stories. I have subverted conventions by using up as much space as possible, jam packing my cover with information and text of stories the audiences can find inside as I believe that the more I can appeal my magazine cover to customers, the more likely they are to pick it up and look inside.

My colour scheme remained red, black and yellow throughout simply because the three worked well together and looked professional. Seeing as the genre of my products has been drama, I has given me quite a wide variety of design and images I could work with which explains why I ended up picking a very natural and expressionless image for my cover photo.

MOVIE TRAILER The Plot The plot of my movie is about a young woman struggling to cope with life in today's society and how brutal

humanity can be for individuals. I tried to include Todorov’s theory of equilibrium in my trailer, we start with a calm atmosphere but as the trailer progresses we begin to understand how the character is depressed and hiding a darker secret.

Does it meet conventional film trailers? The target audience of my product is for ages eighteen to late twenties, where young people can relate to my

characters and plot and will be moved by it at the same time although I do believe this target audience could grow wider. The genre is a hybrid of both social realism and drama therefore may appeal to a mixture of audiences. There are different aspects of my trailer which could be classed as subverting or reinforcing conventional trailers, I’ve used a lot of quick shots and made a brave decision of the only sound being a soundtrack and having no narrative speech what so ever so I had to ensure the audience could still follow the plot. I was inspired to only use soundtrack by the ‘Somewhere’ trailer which I shall upload onto my blog in preparation for my audience feedback but I believe the effect worked well.

A variety of shot types were used during the production, I tried to include a mixture of medium shots, establishing shots and close ups to reinforce the genre of my trailer. The close ups were used to show the emotions and thoughts or feelings of my character, being a drama genre this is a very important process and a main feature in fitting into this genre. It was difficult to film these close shots as my camera didn’t have the best of focus which you would expect to see from a real movie.

Still over all, I am very pleased with my final media trailer, there are both aspects in it which challenge and support the conventions of a real product. If I were to do the course over again my main priority would be getting a professional camera to use throughout filming and also a tripod to steady my shots however I am very pleased with my development and outcome throughout the year.