In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real media products?

Evaluation

Magazine Front Cover

When creating my magazine front cover I wanted to use Empire magazine, so I researched to use many codes and conventions to make my magazine front cover look as if it could be Empires next issue. I think my cover was successful because I used many conventions like having my cover lines to the right of the page and my main cover line on the right hand side. This is used because the eye naturally look left then right of a page, so the main cover line is the 1st text you see, so it is more memorable. Also the text has three different colors to make certain text stand out more than others as seen In the magazine covers above. Another convention I used was having a puff on the skyline to get the audience interested in the magazine. Lastly I have text overlaying the image so the text stands out more, but also for mine it gives the impression of being trapped. But i also challenged some of the conventions of empires magazine covers by not having my main image overlaying the title of the magazine, I did this because I wanted the name of the magazine to be clearer and stand out more when it was in the shops. I lastly placed the film title at the bottom left hand corner so the main image will stand out more, unlike the other magazines when they place the film title in the middle, which can distract your attention away from the main image.

Film Poster

My film poster uses many different conventions of the horror genre for my poster as scene above. A convention that I used for my poster is that I used a dark black background, which a generic convention which is used linked to the horror genre (as seen above). Another main convention that is used in most horror film poster is there is a scary mask or face some times including the murder weapon in the film. With all the posters including a face, the face is not really seen so it makes you want to watch the film to see what this face is. But with one of the poster above only a weapon is seen which makes the weapon seem more important than the characters. I have also used a white text so it contrasts against the dark background, which is also seen in the other horror posters. Lastly I have placed a billing block at the bottom of the page like with all the posters above, this is a generic item on a poster to show who is in the film, but also shows who help to produce and directed the film. But I also tried to challenge a few conventions for example I made my film title much larger and bolder, to make the film stand out from the rest of the films out at that time. I also placed a red drip of blood on my “L” which is not used in any horror films posters, this helps to reinforce that this film is from the horror genre. Lastly I placed my film title at the top of the page of that I left space for the “coming soon” which will finally be the real release date near the time of release.

Film trailerMy film trailer includes many conventions of many horror films, the first is having a production company logo right at the start, this is a generic item in any trailer anyway. At the start of the trailer I have a unusual scene with a long zoom tilt, this is at night with a close up of the moon when finally revealing our main characters. The moon and a night atmosphere is convention in many horror films, with the dark linking to scary and uncertainty, and the moon linking to werewolves and the full moon transitions. With the quick cuts in the trailer there many conventions including characters being tied up, and also being dragged on the floor from behind. All these examples I have seen in many different horror trailers I analyzed in the researched stages of my film project and tried to incorporate in the quick cuts. An example of this is a character being dragged from the film trailer of One missed call. Another convention I used which I have seen in many horror trailers is that there is a narrative being told by text, I used this convention because it is more effective but also if this trailer was shown in the cinemas the audience wouldn’t have to pay too much attention, unlike if we had a bunch of dialogue. I am glad there is text to tell the narrative because it makes the trailer feel more scary and creepy. Lastly one main convention I used was not to reveal the killer to make the audience more excited for our film. Also we right when the film trailer look to be finished we included a crash zoom of the masked killer, with creepy music to frighten the audience, which I think will work.

In the trailer we incorporated Todorov’s triangle into the narrative of our trailer, with the into for our trailer with the two cast members walking around the graveyard would be equilibrium, the disequilibrium of our trailer would be when the characters wake up. The rising action of our trailer will be when the quick cuts start, and finally have the climax when we have a crash zoom of the killer. Because we do not show the new state of equilibrium and makes you wonder what happened to our two main characters, I think Todorov’s theory worked well with our trailer.