1. Evaluation
In what way does your media products use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

2. What is genre?
• Genre is a style or category that is used in order to label media products and
texts in order to give the audience an idea of what to expect with the media
product they are watching.There is many different conventions associated
with different genres, so when audiences see for example a horror they
would automatically associate it with frightening.

3. ProblemsWith Genre
• Neale “Its difficult to make clear cut distinctions between one genre and
another: genres overlap, and there are ‘mixed genres’ such as comedy
thrillers.”
• This basically means that there is no one set genre on some films, films
contain hybrid genres which is a collection of different genre’s.
• My trailer represents two different genres which is aThriller/Action, as this is
the most common type of genre associated with a gangster film.

4. Conventions of a thriller film
The main characters found with in a thriller are people such as
convicts, criminals, spies, police, heroes etc.There is usually some sort of binary opposition
(Strauss) with in a thriller for example men vs women, good vs evil.The main themes associated
with a thriller are things such as terrorism, suspense, thrills, chase, supernatural events, mind
games.All these themes work well in making the audience on edge and giving them the thrill they
expect.The sort of iconography seen with in thrillers consists of cars, weapons, urban settings, dark
settings, dramatic music, low lighting, fast paced editing.These functions are all used in order to
build up the tension of the audience.The intention of the thriller genre is to transmit certain
feelings through to the audience, mains one being;
excitement, anticipation, anxiety, uncertainty, suspense, tension.Todorov theory of narrative
structure relates well to thrillers as most thrillers begin with a status quo, then the status quo is
disrupted by some sort of event, which brings about a disequilibrium, the problems are then
solved, then ends with an equilibrium. I have followed this theory with in my trailer and my film as
this is the typical convention of a gangster narrative.

5. Conventions Of An Action Film
Action films usually include themes such as Big city’s, car chases, massive
destruction, hi-tech, killings, cat and mouse chase.The props used with
actions would consist of guns, fast cars, fire, smoke, blood, gore. Action genre
is meant to inspire feelings of excitement, exhilaration, anticipation, interest.
These conventions with in the action genre are the things that draw the
audience in and keep them on edge during the film. My trailer consists of gun
shots, and fighting which represents this genre well.

6. Use/Development Of A Convention
• My film follows the theme of a gangster film strongly as I have reviewed
other gangster film trailers and tried to copy the conventions and
incorporate them in to my trailer. For example with in the film Gangster
Squad (2013) the gangsters look in a specific way for example smartly
dressed with blazers, shirts, and use props such as guns and cigar’s.
Watching these gangster films in ordered me to gain knowledge on the
styles, themes, of what the audience will expect when watching my trailer.

9. Conventions of Film Magazine
• The position of mastheads with in normal film magazines is horizontally in the top left of the
magazine or centred.This is because people usually read top left to bottom right so the top left
is the most practical way of catching the viewers eye. An example of this would be Empire
magazine.
• Magazines usually commit to between 1-3 fonts on the front cover as if there is too many it
starts to look unprofessional and messy. Normally the colour of the font will contrast with the
cover image in order to make it visible, for example black on white.The font sizes vary from a
larger font for the title or mast head to smaller fonts for the sub stories etc.
• The cover image normally consists of one of the actors from which ever film is being reviewed. It
is usually a mid/close-up shot of the actor, and he/she would normally be making eye contact
with the camera in order to attract the audience to read.The clothing worn by the actor will
match the themes of the film or it may be a freeze frame from the film.
• On the front of the magazine, you would normally see subtitles advertising what stories are
going to be shown inside the magazine.These are placed on the front in order to convince the
reader to read on into the magazine.

12. Conventions of Film Poster’s
• Film posters are usually bright intriguing and eye catching in order to draw
the audiences eye to it and make them want to watch the film.The title of
the film is usually displayed in a big font matching the themes of the film.
Common conventions of film posters are, displaying the genre, displaying
quotes from respectable magazines and news articles. Key information is
usually placed around the poster for example, date of release, actors
involved, production companies involved, directors etc. All the points above
are key conventions of film posters.

14. Use/Development Of A Convention
• I wanted the genres of my trailer represented well through quick shots.
After watching many action trailers such as Man of Steel, Expendables, I
noticed that the use of whip pan is used quite a lot, in order to follow bullets
from a gun and to keep the pace of the film/trailer fast. I decided to
incorporate this into my trailer as I wanted it to be exciting and thrilling for
the audience.

15. Use/Development Of A Convention
• At the end of my trailer I have used the title heading of ‘Gangster Squad’.
The title slowly changes scale in order to give the illusion of it fading
back, and then it fades to black. I have used this convention in order to give
the audience time to think, consider what they watched and piece together
what they think the film might be about.This is common with in many
films, where the film ends with a title heading. For example with in the 2014
release trailer of Godzilla, at the end it fades into the emblem and title of
Godzilla which matches the theme and sets the mood for the ending.

16. Challenge Of Conventions
• One convention that is usually seen with in gangster films is the typical Hero
vsVillain, which are normally Gangsters vs Police (Strauss). With In my
trailer there is no sense of good and bad as the story is two evil families who
are fighting for respect and pride. I think this makes the trailer more
interesting because there is no sense of good and bad, and this means that
anything could go wrong for both families.This enables the audience to be
further more drawn in to the narrative as it more interesting.

17. Challenge Of Conventions
• In most film trailers especially gangster ones, the audience usually
experiences some kind of verbal exchange of communication between two
characters or narrated over the top. I decided not to use this as I felt the
dramatic music that I used over the top of the trailer, set the mood well and
kept the audience on edge. I felt that if I incorporated speech then the mood
would have been lost and the audience would lose interest.

18. Use/Development Of Conventions
• Another use of a popular convention with in gangster trailers is film noire
and colour correction. Film noire basically beans the use of blacks and
whites, and increase in contrast in order to make the film more dark and
eerie. I used this with in my trailer because I wanted the characters to be
represented as obscure and scary characters that the audience should be
scared of. I also used colour corrections such as levels in order to change the
different levels of lighting with in each clip and make it brighter on action
scenes and darker on establishing scenes.

19. Use/Development Of Conventions
• Another convention of a real media trailer that I used with in my trailer is the
use of non-diegetic music synchronised with the transitioning of the
clips, for example, on the bass drum of a song the clips would either change
brightness, scale, or transition.This effect is used to increase the
dramatization of the trailer and make it more tense. It is used commonly
with in most film trailers for example, with in Liam Neesons:TakenTrailer.

20. Poster – Use and Development Of Forms And
Conventions
• I believe that I have used and developed conventions of a real media product for
my film poster.The design of my poster was mostly based aroundThe Godfather
poster. I felt the poster was trying to attract the same type of target audience as
me and it fits the gangster theme well. I used the same type of layout with in my
poster, where the character is placed to the right and the text is placed to the left.
The poster for the godfather uses similar colour schemes to me with the
red/burgundies, black and whites. I felt these colours work well as the colours all
contrast and the red represents danger and violence so it furthermore draws the
audience in. However I have developed my poster to look more modernistic and
have included more text in order to fill the blanks and make the poster look more
full.

23. Magazine Cover – Use/Development Of a
Convention
• On my magazine front cover I made sure the actor was looking straight at
the front of the camera in order to catch the audiences eyes. I noticed this is
a common convention with in pretty much all magazines. Also another
common convention, is advertising other stories or films on the front cover. I
have done this in order to make my magazine look more full and attract the
audience to not only the main film but the other sub stories too. I think if the
first front page is very interesting then it will incline the audience to read on.
I have used big bold letters for my masthead as this is more appealing and
outstanding to the audience and will draw their attention a lot easier.