1. In what way does your media
product use, develop and challenge
forms and conventions of real
media products?
By Oliver Flitton

2. How have I used conventions in the
making of my media products?
When i was researching into other existing products on the market that where going to be
similar to my product i was sure to look at all of the conventions that made it fit in to the
genre and go along with what the audience wanted. I analysed opening sequences such as
Zak and Cody and Saved by the bell, with this i also looked at magazine cover and dvd
covers that ran along side the shows.
I looked at the four conventions being, camera work, mise en scene, editing and sound for
the audiovisual. For the covers I looked into different fonts, what colours worked well
together and what pictures where mostly shown on the front covers.
I used this to help me plan m products and see what was expected from the audience
when i was creating my products.

3. Conventions of a children's magazine
cover.
This front cover has conventions that I also found on many other products
like this. For example the use of bright colours stand out to children and
makes the magazine look fun and draws your eyes into it. Also the text
stands out and is very childish. The us of one large picture on the front
makes your look straight at the main character and her facial expression.
There is a lot of text on this front cover but it is evenly spread into small
groups, this is so that the child doesn't get overwhelmed by text and put off
by how much there is to read. These small teasers make the audience want
to read and find out more. The use of different colours also makes them
stand out.
In many ways my front cover is very conventional in terms of a large
colourful mast head to attract attention and retention of the correct
niche target audience. Also it is similar due to the fact there are many
different cover lines to lure in the target audience, most conventional
children's magazine covers will have this. The interactive feature of the
quiz is also highly conventional, the more interactive or unusual the
more likely it will appeal to the target audience, therefore more people
will buy the product. I used a plain background and although this is
unconventional it makes the colours stand out more so will catch the eye
of the small children. The route of the eye is also conventional as the first
thing you see is the masthead, the main image secondly and then finally
the coverlines.

4. Conventions of a children's DVD cover.
This DVD cover has lots of good conventions that create the target audience
to be both boys and girls. This is done by using unisex colouring, that aren't
specific to sex’s, for example pink is a girly colour. The way that the photo
has all of the main characters on, showing both male and female, is also a
good convention. The way that the title is in the same font as the title on the
opening sequence is great, this shows product continuity, relating the DVD
and TV series together. The text on this shows the title in a circle, giving the
effect the bell is ringing, and the two main words are bigger to stand out
from everything else.
School daze is similar to saved in the bell by using conventional colours, for
example my DVD cover uses unisex colours to appeal to both sexes. Also the
main image shows both boys and girls and all the of the main characters in
typical stereotypes, this is shown by costumes, props and facial expressions of
each character. The title is in big, bright text, this along with the small childish
pictures around each character is drawn out by the eye as there is a plain
background.

5. Mise en scene
I think that our choice of mise en scene was effective in
appealing to our target audience as it was relevant to our
product. It was conventional because the setting, props and
costumes were relevant and stereotypical to each
characters characteristics, for example the sporty character
was filmed in a sports field environment and other scenes
were inside the school to make it clear where the majority
of the show is set. Props and costume such as a football,
skate board, mirror and glasses represent the characters
well conatively. Also when each character was shown
separately they were shown acting stereotypically and in a
slightly different more specifically fitting setting to their
personality.
Sound.
In most other opening sequences i found it was very conventional to have words in the
theme tune as children could remember the words, sing along and relate to it. I have
challenged this convention by only have a tune because i believe that this focuses the
audience more on the characters, the theme tune is bubbly fun and childish like the
characters.

6. Camera work.
Conventionally we used minimal movement when filming so that the children can easily
focus on the part of the shot we intended. It tends to be easier to make a young audience
become part of the homogenous mass and go along with the preferred reading by doing
so. Midshots are used to show the movement and the costume the character is wearing
to create personal identity for the target audience and then for most of the characters
the little movement is zoom for a close up to show facial expression. Camera work such
as a pan is only used when necessary for example when AJ is running along playing
football.

7. Editing
I think that the editing overall was good as it was good and conventional, for example
we had different smooth transitions between each scenes such as page curls. Most
other shows use a lot of fades for transition however i chose to go against this
particular convention to make it more exciting and attract a more specific target
audience along with this the preferred reading is that the audience will think that the
characters are as alive and exciting. I chose to use freeze frames at the end of each
scene on a close up of each character to show facial expressions to bring out each
characters attributes as each character will appeal to a different area of the target
audience. To show each character as true individuals they each have their name in a
different colour, i think this will put across a good message to the young children that
although they are all so different they are happy and get along.