1. Q1 In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms
Amie Carpenter
and conventions of real media products?

2. MY TRAILER
The first conventions of any trailer would be the shot types. During the construction of mine, I used a
variety of shot types including: Close ups, medium shots and long establishing shots. I did this to
represent the idea and theme of my trailer.
I chose to include close ups as they are commonly used to show the emotion with the main characters in
many, if not all, horror trailers. For example, when I filmed close ups of my characters face, I always used
direct eye contact. This gave it a more personal and intimate feel. I think that my best shot type would be
close ups, with the help a good quality camera.
As my trailer was more of a thriller and horror, I shot several close ups and long establishing shots of
stereotypical images found in horrors, such as the cathedral and an image of Jesus Christ. These types
of images are usually associated with death. These helped to create the sinister, intimidating atmosphere.
I think these worked really well to show the genre of my trailer.
During my filming, I did have some trouble with my camera. Some of my shots were out of focus, but I
think these became my best shots in my trailer. I love the mysterious feel to them.
My main locations for my trailer was Gloucester Cathedral, Gloucester Docks, and my friends house. To
show my locations in my trailer, I used long shots. This allowed the gothic, mysterious feel to be more
apparent.
By using long shots of the cathedral, it showed the characters interest and connection with
mysterious, gothic things.

3. MY MAGAZINE
I have changed my magazine cover several times, and I am now happy with the outcome.
To follow the conventions of all magazines, I started off with a masthead. For my magazine, I
chose to use Total Film as I know it’s a recognizable and reliable brand therefore people will
already be drawn in. It also does my film some justice as it’s very unlikely that such a big
brand like Total Film would have a bad or unpopular film as its main cover line.
After this, I moved onto the main cover image. I decided to transform my model into a living
skeleton using makeup, then going on to editing it in Photoshop. It think that it works well
but goes against the normal conventions of all magazines by not having direct eye contact. I
chose a skeleton as it is associated with death and by using this kind of cover image, my
genre is clear. However, as a whole, I still think it works well and it creates a mysterious feel
to it.
Another convention would be the barcode. After looking at several magazines such as:
Empire and Total Film, I’ve noticed that the barcode is only ever in one of two places. Either
bottom right or just under the masthead on the right. I chose to put it at the bottom as it’s
important that it doesn’t disrupt my main cover image.

4. MY POSTER
I have a passion for all things Japanese and therefore had an interest in anime, plus, I wanted to
see
if it was possible to transfer cartoon characters into a lifelike medium. This has already been
successfully attempted before with the release of Death Note: the movie and I wanted to see if I
could recreate this to make it my own.
The main convention of all magazines, would be the main image. For me, I have chosen to use
my main character as my model as a precursor to the film. Like most, if not all, magazines, I
have used direct eye contact. This is to make it feel more personally directed towards the
audience. Also, with the positioning of my model, more onto the right side, I think this gives it a
more sinister effect. Through the background, I have tried to make my film genre of fantasy
horror more apparent through the use of colour. I think my choice of editing is effective
especially with my models eyes. By using heavy contrast, I have managed to darken the eyes
overall to the point where you can barely see her pupils. This makes you stare longer into her
eyes, creating a feel of uneasiness. I think this is helps to clearly show my genre as it reminds
me of ‘unearthly’ eyes. It makes me think of monsters with soulless eyes. The choice of colours
and overall appearance hopefully gives it a ghostly and enigmatic feel.
I chose to use Kanji, Japanese characters, on my poster as my trailer is based on an anime
which is originally in Japanese. This therefore, broadens my audience as it’s intriguing.