In what ways does your media product use,

develop or challenge forms and conventions of real

media products?

Trailer

Research behind the genre Before I started to make my trailer I began to look into the different genres that there was. Some of the ones that I found and were interested in were: Horror, Comedy, Romance and Thriller. I liked these mainly because it was something that I was interested in. I then started to look at trailers from these genres, I fond that ones from thriller and horror would be hard to recreate. One of the main reasons was because of the lighting, in these genres there is normally dark which with the camera that I was using it would be hard to still see the characters in there. I also thought it would be hard to think of a story line that people would find scary. I found that some horror films were intended to be scary but many found them funny. This is something that I didn’t want to happen, I wanted the audience to know the genre that they were watching. I then started to look into Romance. I liked this genre because there was many different story lines to be thought of and because it is a genre that I watch I could see aspects of it and make sure that there are those in the trailer. Once I had decided on the genre that I was going to make I then looked into some of the films that fell into the genre. In particular I looked at PS I love you, The Vow, Time travellers Wife. When watching their trailers I looked for things that were similar in them such as the music, camera angles, colour and texts that they used and what were in common. I also looked at the audience that watched them, for example gender, age etc. This was I had to keep my audience in mind at all time when I was making the trailer, I did not want to aim for one age group and then make something that would not appeal to them.

CharactersWhen I was looking at Romance films they tended to have two main characters, being a boy and a girl. The boy always seemed to be someone that would attract the have all the girls on the film but also attract the female audience (who are the main group). The main boy also seemed to be confident and ‘sure’ of himself, but always was softer inside. This tends to be the typical convention of the romance. When I started to look for someone to act as the main character I chose Ben because I wanted to challenge the conventions a bit and I think that Ben does this. He is not the ‘typical’ boy that would play the main role

as he has a different look at style, however this style is the style and look that many of my audience (16-25) has or likes. I also think that by

not having the typical dark, muscly tall brown haired man also could attract more Men into watching my film. This is because it will give something that they can relate to and see that other men can get the girl to!

I think that by not having the typical conventional male character could work as a positive because it will be something different to what they see and not what they expect to see in this genre. On the other this could put some off as they might want to see the typical romantic film.

CharactersAfter looking at the main character of the male I then looked to the female character. As the main group is female that watch Romance films I needed to make sure that this character was someone that

they could relate to. I found that many of the female audience watched the film because they could relate to the main female, or they knew someone like the person. The main female was ether nice or someone that everyone hated who then changed at the end of the film. Because of

my story line needed someone that liked the main character as this fitted better into my story.

A conventional main character for this would be someone who is tall, slim, blonde and at times a bit dipsy. However because I was going again the conventions with my main male character I thought that I would carry this on with the female character. That is why I picked Chloe as she is not the typical girl that are in most of the romance films. However she is someone that the female audience can relate to, or know someone like her. I think that because of this it does go along with some of the conventions of the typical female role in a romance film.

ShotsWhen I started to look at romance trailer and the films I saw that many of the shots were two person shots. This would fit into the feel of the movie, such as the film is about them so the audience will want to see the connection and feel between them. This

is why it is important that there are lots of two person shots. However because it would be boring with the same two person shotthe use different versions of this. For example a close up (the top picture) this is good when looking at the reactions from the characters. When making my film trailer I did not put that many two person shots in there, this was because the majority of the trailer Ben was bullying Chloe. This means that it would look weird if they were near each other without him being mean to him. However I did but a two person shot of them towards the end of the clip when she had changed. This could be

seen that to some extent I went along with the conventions of the real media text. Because within the trailers I found that despite there being a lot of two people shots in the film there is not that many in the trailer. This shows that I have gone with the conventions of the real media. On the other hand I could have put more in to show the genre more.

Sound/Music Many of the trailers that I looked at start with start with a sad love son that picks up towards the middle of the trailer. The one trailer that I looked at in particular which I liked this soundtrack to was Dear John. The song was Snow Patrol set fire to the third bar, I liked this one because it starts of slow and shows the genre of the film. It then begins to pick

to a faster beat as the story gets into more depth. When I started to look for a song to go with my trailer I thought of songs that are similar to this one (in the pace of the song) and also ones that fitted in with the story line. The song that I chose was Kelly Clarkson What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. I chose this one after narrowing it down to three possible songs

and then putting a poll up. I like this one because even though it has the same beat throughout it starts off slower then in the middle it speeds up. This again is to go along with the story line as that speeds up. The music also goes along with the camera shots, for example when there is a strong beat the shot changes. It slows down at then end of the trailer, the same way that the real trailers . This to goes for the feel and mood of the trailer. This shows that the music that I choose goes with the conventions of the real media. This is because it has same similar speeds and sounds as the real media trailers.

Sound/musicWhen I look at the trailers I found that most of them started with speech from the characters from the trailer or start with the 30 second of song and then have speech in there. After this there might be some of a song and then it has the characters speaking over the song. There is also parts where the is speech which is not from the characters but a voice. For example on the PS I Love you trailer the man says “This Christmas he gave her the gift …….. Of a life

without him…….. Academy ward winners…….” This part is telling the audience what the film is about and the people that are staring in it. However in mine I decided not to have the characters speaking over the shots, I did this

because I wanted the audience to see the trailer in a new and different way by trying to understand the trailer through the texts and the words of the song. For this reason I see that this not going along with the conventions of the real media products and begins to challenge them. The way that the trailer are viewed normally with speech so people know what the are expecting. People are able to tell what genre my trailer is but they have to really watch it and they can see what the film means to them.

Font and textBecause I knew that I was not going to have any voices my trailer I knew that I would have to use text to help show what the story is about. I looked at a few trailers that has text on them and saw a few key points. On them I saw that there was a few words on each slide, this was to keep it simple into the feel of the genre. They also had

simple font this is because they feel of romance would not go with this genre. For example with horror the font seems to be sharp edges and bold, if I had then the audience would be confused into what the genre. The trailers also had soft, normally white, colours. This is to help with the relaxed atmosphere that romantic films try to give out. Because of this I

choose to follow the style of the font that was on The Vow. This was because it went with the look and feel of my trailer. Because of this it goes along with the conventions that are shown in the real products. However in many of the trailers that I have seen they did not have text going

going throughout telling the story. This type of text tends to be seen with the type of genre such as horror, because of this it challenges the conventions from the real media products. This is because of the way in which I have used the texts and have placed them into my trailer despite the colour and font following a past real media trailer.

Editing and transitions When I was looking at romance film trailers I saw that many of them had a fading from one shot to another. This was done so that it was soft and slow to go into the feel of the film, I also saw that as the film got into more depth and the story line became more the fading

This means that it would help not only help show the genre of the film but also the transitions fit well into the shots and the music. When editing the clips I faded the clips slowly into black and then to the next scene. I also did a similar style of fade with the writing, which again follows the conventions of the real media

become faster. There was also a range of fades used, for example some shots went into black whilst others went into the next scene. This was done but doing it fast and having them, in a way, over lapping. Also the shots at the start of the trailer were long compared to the ones at the end of the trailer, this was again done to go into the mood of the trailer and the pace of the song. When I started to edit my trailer I wanted to go along with these conventions that are seen in real media because I saw that these transitions, along with the sound, helped to show the audience why type of genre it was.

Magazine Cover

ResearchSimilar to my film trailer before I started to make my magazine cover I looked into different magazine covers. I began

to look at a range of different ways to get an understanding of the best layout, different style of what font works best and where it looks best. I also looked at the pictures and how the person was positioned so that they stood out. When looking I found that there was one big picture normally in the centre of the picture. I also saw that the two big text tended to be the name of the magazine and the title of the story. Another thing that I noticed was that there was a similar

colour scheme going throughout, this carried from the colour of the background to the colour of the font and the magazine name.

I also saw that there are aspects in one magazine that there are in many of them. One of the magazine covers that I have saw that I liked was the ‘Total Film’ cover to the left, because of this I based some parts of my magazine cover and always kept looking at it when I was making my cover.

Photo’sWhen looking at this magazine cover I saw that the colours that he was wearing were very similar to the colour scheme of the magazine, I saw that this was common through most of the magazines that I looked at. Another common convention of the magazine cover was that the people in the picture were looking at the camera. This helped the audience have

a better connection and understanding of the characters within the film trailer. Unlike the main Total Film magazine I had two people in my magazine cover, this was because they were the two main people in my story. Even though the is not similar to the picture in the magazine that I am looking at there are other magazines that

have more than one person on the cover. After taking a few I chose this picture because it shows the genre of the trailer whilst also trying to show a relation between the audience and the people in the picture. The picture shown in my cover does go along with some of the typical pictures on real media magazine covers. However it also challenges because of the colour of the clothes, this is because it romance tends to be more bright and colourful.

LayoutWhen looking at the different magazine covers I saw that they all seemed to follow the same layout. For example the name of the magazine was always going along the top, in the one that I looked out it was in a white colour which followed the same colour as the background. However I did something that went against this as I had it a black colour, this was because I wanted the name to stand out more against the background. Despite this I still hadsome of the name rubbed out, this was because I wanted to keep the picture in the centre without having the name covering up. Another typical layout on many of the magazine covers was that the main cover story is located over the top of the picture. Again I liked this and had it on my magazine cover, because I thought that by having it in the centre it will be one of the first things that the audience will see what they look at the magazine. The layout also tends to have stories that are included within the magazine going down the sides, this means that the audience can see them but it does not take the focus away from the picture or the main story cover.

When making my magazine cover I tend to keep and go along with the traditional layout of other magazines. This was because I liked the layout and it worked in relation to what I had to put on my cover. I also thought that my having a typical layout it would be attracted to not only my target audience but also most people who like to read film magazines. This means that they may see the article read it and want to read it.

Text/FontFor the main text of the title article the magazine I looked at had the same font with the second name bigger than the first and had two different colours. This was because could then fit in the same width underneath each other, however on mine the width did not look right and I liked how it was in the same shape as a pyramid. I kept the two different colours, this was so that it could contrast against each other. I chose the same white as the real media text because this is the colour that I had used in my other media products so wanted them all to link together. I then had the second colour in red, this was to represent the word love, even though sometimes the colour may be linked with horror I think that with the white it shows that the genre is love.

The next font that was on the magazine cover was the side stories on there, most of the ones that I looked at I saw that the text was simple and easy to read. They had the top work in a different colour and font to the rest of the text, this is to see it as a way of a sun-title. They had colours that linked in with the rest of the magazine cover. I followed some of these traditions when making my media cover, for example I had two different colours (red and black) that linked in with the colour scheme of the magazine cover. I also had it all reading down

on the one side, this was to follow the traditional look, it also looks more professional once it has been laid out with the straight lines.

Film Poster

ResearchI started to look at different posters to try and see what they all had in common and what was

different in some of them. The main ones that I looked at I made sure that they fitted into with the genre that my trailer was, this is was because it would be something that lots of people would see. Because of this if I had a poster that looked like a horror it would attract that audience and they would expect to see a horror when they see the film. When looking at them I saw a number of different things for example I saw that majority of them had two people in them, this help to show the audience that it was a romance. Also the two people in the picture are very close and show a close bond between the two people. I also saw that the title was the biggest writing and in a different colour, this then made it stand out

better against the paler background that they tend to have. The poster I liked the most was the Juno one. This was because I liked that the picture was not the typical romance film poster.

Layout When making my film poster I tried to keep to the most of the way that it was laid out, however changed something's around so that it looked different and a bit different. I liked the Juno poster because it is not like the traditional romance poster because the couple are not stood together. Due to the story line I did not want them to be stood together because it would give away if the couple got together in the end. This goes away from the traditional from of real media but works for the film type I am doing. I also put the names of the actors above their head because I wanted it to look different and saw that this was not on many of the posters that I have looked at.

I tried to keep the layout and content of the poster simple, this was because I wanted the main picture to stand out the most. I thought that if I had other things going on, such as colourful background or people between the two main characters. This in a way goes against some of the traditional poster for romance films, the majority of the time I found that the simple layout is linked to the horror genre. However because of the picture, colour and text I think that it is still seen to be a romance genre.

PictureI liked the way that the boy was stood because it showed to the audience a bit

about his character without him having to do anything. I found that most of the posters of the romance had at least one person looking at the camera. wanted this to be done with the male character, with a mixture of the Juno male pose, because of the eye contact I think that it draws the audience in whilst still showing some of the personality character. Majority of the time it is the female who looks in the camera, however I went against this traditional look which I wanted as the story line may not be the traditional which fits in with the forms of media.

The girl picture is also similar to the Juno poster, which goes with the forms

of some of the real media text. I also think that the expression on the girl is not typical of a traditional media poster. When researching into posters I found that many of the girls were looking at the camera whilst the boy was behind them or next to them with a sad expression. However in mine I made the female do this expression, this shows that roles were reversed. This is not the traditional look of the poster, but it works within mine because my trailer, to a degree, does not have the traditional looks and aspects of romance films.

Text/FontWhen looking at different posters I saw that there was not one particular font or style that was used, they used ones that fir into the feelof the movie. For example, P.S. I love you is a soft swirly writing compared to Juno which is bold and sharp this is because P.S. I love you is more about love and soft whilst Juno has a hint

of humour in there. With my film is has a mixture of the bullying with the love, this means that it wouldn’t look right if bullied and love were in the some font of writing. The font that I have used is the one I used on the trailer, this was because I wanted all the media products to link in together so by having the same font it does this. I think that by having the writing in two different fonts it works well for my trailer however it is not something traditionally seen on posters.

The colours that I have picked also do not go with some of the real media posters, however again it works in relation to my poster. I think the colour of the word bullied fits into the feeling of the word whilst love is seen as softer so the colour would have to be softer.