Question 1In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms

and conventions of real media products?

By Ryo Jordan Panis

Finished Products

Film Poster Film magazine Front Cover

Real Media Products(influences, current trends, case studies)

(Film Poster)

Here are posters that helped influence me when creating my film poster for my film trailer. Each poster are about the same genre which is Urban Drama, although ‘Boyz n The Hood’ is an American urban drama film. These posters are set in London which is the most common area to film a urban drama film as society is based around urban drama as there are gangs, crimes, murders etc. Some urban drama films have their main image of a young black male, this could be because they associate young black males to be in gangs, crimes, murders etc. This is a common stereotype that all young black males are associated with these things but other races are part of this.

Current Trends (Film Poster)

Here are a few still images of scenes in some urban drama films. In every image they have young black people aged around 15-20 years old which is a common trend in urban drama films e.g. kidult hood. This could be because young black people are stereotyped as being involved with drugs, sex, crime, murder and violence. Whereas most urban drama films don’t use any other ethnicity because they think that they wouldn't’t be involved in these stuff.

So I conformed conventions of having my film poster feature young black people as well by being influenced by urban drama films such as: Bullet Boy and Boys In Da Hood. This is because I thought that following this convention of having a young black male as my main image of my film poster would follow current trends of urban drama films where they associate their main image to be young black male.

Another convention I conformed was thatI use dark and grey lighting and color by being influenced by Bullet Boy poster magazine, where the main image has a chiaroscuro shade of the black male which could mean danger, mystery or death. So by conforming this convention I was able to make my film poster dark with some bright lighting, which made my poster look gloomy, grey and show danger.

I also conformed how most urban drama films use standard urban font e.g. graffiti. So by doing this I basically added in a graffiti font which contrasted with the title ‘Trapped’ which made the title look scruffy, dark and bold. Therefore by following this convention I was able to see the difference of a readers imagination and that it would suit and attract to customers more.

Current Trends (Film Poster)

DARK LIGHTING (CHIAROSCURO)

YOUNG BLACK PEOPLE (STEREOTYPES)

GRAFFITI STANDARD FONT (TEXT)

Case Studies (Film Poster)

During our production of producing a urban drama film trailer I watched a case study of a urban drama film called ‘Bullet Boy’ which is a popular urban drama film featuring ‘Ashley Walters’ who is known for acting in most urban drama films. Bullet Boy showed what young black males go through in their urban area, in which they face everyday. Also they show how young black males are stereotyped for these type of things rather than other races.

So by watching this case study i was influenced and that I conformed and subverted some of the conventions into my film poster.

I conform the stereotype of having young black males on my film poster where they are accused of these things such as: drugs, sex, murder, crime and violence. I have the protagonist character along with the second protagonist character as my main image of my film poster which follows the convention of Bullet Boy. This gave more meaning to my film poster which could make the audience want to watch the trailer.

In addition I also conformed the convention of having a social realist tagline for my film trailer which is positioned under the title of the film ‘Trapped’, having this convention would give more meaning to the film trailer and poster because it would make the audience feel as if this urban drama film is real or they could question themselves about what could happen in the trailer.

Real Media Products(influences, current trends, case studies)

Here 3 front cover magazines that helped influenced me when creating my front cover magazine referring to conforming and subverting from conventions of real media products. I followed the convention of having sell lines on top of the main image so that the sell lines can be easily seen and so that it would look more professional. I conformed this convention by taking it from the vibe and the source magazine which both have sell lines either around the main image or on top of it but not covering the whole main image.

I subverted from one of the conventions of having a masthead behind the main image by having a bold, capital masthead at the top of the magazine in front of the image, this is because the image taken had space at the top for me to put the masthead so I put the masthead in front of the main image.

Another convention I conformed was including other features such as: button, barcode, blackberry barcode, date and issue and tagline. This shows that I have followed some conventions of real media products.

(Front Cover Film Magazine)

Current Trends (Front Cover Film Magazine)

There are a lot of current trends for front cover film magazines which follow the same conventions and my front cover film magazine follows some of them.

The current trends which I applied to my front cover film magazine was having house style colours being grey, white and black which contrasted with the main sell line and masthead as they’re a urban drama film magazine. Using house style colours made it look consistent as it looks like a urban drama magazine.

Another trend I conformed was having different sell lines in different font sizes which gave the sell line and magazine more meaning and to make readers be aware of what it is. This made my front cover look more bold and eye-catching as readers can see it clearer.

In addition I subverted from having a banner on my front cover magazine because I thought it was not needed and that since my magazine is new, then I it would not need a banner to sell itself but just to be known.

Although I conformed a convention of having other features put onto my front cover magazine which are barcode, blackberry barcode, date and issue and tagline for the magazine.